4 Easy Tips to Help You Make the Sale
Posted by Steve Hochman on Wed. Mar. 18th, 2015
The hardest section of your sales funnel is, without a doubt, the transition from prospect to client.
As people move from total stranger to lead to prospect, you know you’re going to lose a lot of them. Your boot camp won’t be right for everyone and that’s OK. And the ones you do get are easy because these stages don’t take much effort or commitment on their part. Essentially, those first stages are all the easy sections of your marketing funnel; it’s the transition from prospect to client that's so difficult.
It’s not impersonal marketing anymore. It isn't anonymous fire and forget. No, when you’re converting a prospect into a customer it’s all about in-person, face to face interaction.
You may have read about this stage of the process before, and that’s because it's complicated. If you want detailed instruction about how to consistently make sales, step by step, there's lots of content out there for you to check out.
But today’s post is a short, detailed list of the four most important tips and ticks to remember when you’re transforming a prospect into a client. Keep these guidelines in mind throughout your entire interaction with your prospect and you’ll have a much easier time converting them into a client.
#1: Guarantee Results
No qualifying, no pussyfooting, and no half-truths. Don’t say they could get results or they might get results or, “it depends on how hard you work.”
No.
You guarantee they will get the results they want. Give them a reasonable timeframe, tell them exactly how their body is going to look and feel, and promise it to them.
Does that make you nervous? Why? Don’t you believe in your services?
If you can’t be absolutely sure you have the ability to provide results for a client then you’ve got a problem. It’s not about how hard they are willing to work it’s about how well you are able to motivate them. And it isn’t about the foods they choose to eat, it’s about how you are going to teach them to stick to a good diet. Put the responsibility onto yourself.
That is what they’re paying you for, after all, to be their accountability system. And you are an FBBC owner, so we already know you’re one of the best trainers out there.
So use your skills, have confidence in your skills, and guarantee your results.
#2: Sell the Benefits, Not the Service
Imagine you are Mrs. Jones. You’re 20lbs. overweight, you are sitting on the coach eating a bag of chips, and a commercial for a Fit Body Boot Camp location has just popped onto the T.V.
Now you're watching a bunch of people working really hard, sweating, panting, struggling, and the commercial tells you all about how hard the FBBC workouts are. Do you think, as you wipe your greasy potato chip finger on your sweat pants and reach for your soda, that you are going to care one single bit about FBBC? Heck no! You’re going to turn the channel just so you don’t have to think about how miserable it is to workout.
Now, imagine the commercial you see tells you all about how incredible it feels to be fit, how amazing it is to wake up in the morning full of energy and vivacity, how wonderful it is to have a flat stomach and toned arms. Now would you (remember, you’re Mrs. Jones) be interested in boot camp? Yes! I definitely think so.
OK, if that elaborate example was a bit much for you, here’s all you need to know: Sell the results, not the workouts!
No one cares about your TRX or your battle ropes, your plush floors or your sliders— all they need to know before they buy is that in four to six weeks they’re going to drop 15 pounds and feel great.
When you’re selling, emphasize the incredible results, talk about how amazing they’ll be, and then guarantee them absolutely. It’s a winning combination.
#3: Always Make an Offer
It’s a tragedy for you to work so hard and diligently, moving your prospect through every step of your sales funnel, getting them primed and ready for the sale, but never actually making any offer. Implying the sale is just about the worst mistake you can make.
Always… ALWAYS make an offer. Ask for the sale and you’ll get it.
It’s easy to assume they will buy if they want to. They know you’re going to ask them to buy at the end of your consultation or at the end of their short-term challenge so you might think you don’t need to bring it up. Sure, you’ll check in with them, see how everything is going, but if you don’t make a direct offer the odds will be massively stacked against you.
Don’t rely on the prospect to volunteer her money.
Even if they had every intention of signing up with your boot camp they are still highly susceptible to indecision, fear, worry, doubt— all of these debilitating emotions can get in the way. Most people need that extra push, a bit of encouragement, to pull the trigger on a big purchase.
#4: Give Value
Don’t be stingy. Don’t refuse to give anything away for free— at least not when it comes to sales consultations. You need these prospects to get to know, like and trust you as quickly as possible. And what’s one of the fastest ways to get someone to like you? Free stuff!
But it’s more than our primal love of FREE. By offering, without any expectation, say, a free workout, tour, or nutritional consultation, you are positioning yourself on the receiving end of the Reciprocity Rule.
The Reciprocity Rule says that when we get something we feel obligated to give something in return. We are pressured by a societal obligation to restore balance. In other words, your free offering will help encourage your prospects to buy because they’ll feel they owe it to you. You’ve been so nice and given them so much already that the least they can do is try your boot camp and find out if it’s right for them.
Sales is less of a skill and more of a methodology. Rehearse a system that works, and recreate good outcomes by adopting strategies that reliably make sales. But whatever you do, keep these four rules in mind when selling fitness and you’ll definitely see improved results.
Posted in Closing and Sales Techniques, Selling Personal Training by |
