Fitness clubs run on memberships. It’s all about getting new members in your doors, while keeping existing ones satisfied and coming back month after month. While much of your staff contributes to the latter, a sales team is the main point of contact for new members. The difference between having a good sales team and a great sales team can make or break a fitness club.  

As with any pursuit of greatness, creating a top-notch fitness club sales team requires patience, practice, and passion. It starts with creating a system for sales within your fitness club, then giving your sales team proper training on that system. After, you can go a step deeper by developing certain skills and strategies for selling. Finally, providing continuous coaching ensures that your sales team avoids burnout and is always growing and improving their tactics.  

Provide Proper Training

A good foundation is essential to building a powerhouse sales team that can stand up to any challenge that comes its way. Whether your top salesperson leaves for another job, your fitness club’s pricing structure changes, or your sales quota skyrockets, a sound selling system is the guiding light that keeps everyone focused and headed toward the same goal.  

Ensure that every member of your sales team is equipped for the job by taking time to properly train them before pushing them out of the nest and onto the phones. As part of their training, think through typical conversations and sticking points that your team will come across with prospects. Provide a sales script that can serve as a framework or point of reference for conversations, but also give clear instruction on how to handle common occurrences like price objections and tough inquiries. Teach team members how to appropriately conduct a needs analysis and nurture an interested lead into the buying process. Create a shadowing program that pairs new salespeople with experienced team members whom they can learn from.    

By giving your team the time and tools they need to succeed from the outset, you’ll empower them to feel confident in their skills and thrive in their roles in the long run.    

Stress These Skills and Strategies

The first goal of any salesperson is to foster a powerful conversation. Once they’ve formed a connection and established trust with a prospect, it’s much easier to make the sale and get them signed on as a member. Make sure each member of your sales team masters these five skills and strategies.    

1. Listen first, talk later.

Deemphasize your fitness club and its offerings and instead focus on the customer by talking less and listening more. Once a member opens up about what they want, you’ll begin to understand what their needs are beyond just a place to work out.  With that information, you can sell to their emotions, which is far more effective.  

2. Don’t always stick to the script.

A prospective member will see right through an overly scripted call. Instead of reading talking points at rapid fire, think of your sales script as a guide or roadmap. Let the conversation flow naturally, and if you find yourself getting stuck or lost down the line, you can always refer to the script to get back on track.  

3. Embrace the sound of silence.

Resist the all-to-common urge to fill every second of silence. Give prospects time to process what you’ve told them. Often, they’ll fill in silences with more information about themselves that will aid your understanding and help you make the sale.  

4. Keep it simple.

One of the worst things you can do is confuse a prospect. If it seems like it’s going to be difficult or require extra work to become a member of your fitness club, your chances of making the sale decrease greatly. Use plain language as often as possible, and stress ease over complexity.

5. Make it mean something.

Ask open-ended questions and follow-up questions that encourage members to tell you a story about themselves and speak openly. Leave your prospects with the sense that you truly care about them and their needs—and even better, that you understand them.

Give Individualized Coaching

Once your sales team is set up with the basics, nurture their growth with regular coaching. Set up a cadence of short sessions that dive deeper into tactics, strategies, and skills for selling. Focus on just one area to improve upon, then tactically practice that particular skill or strategy through role play or mock phone calls. Make sure coaching sessions include an action-oriented process that salespeople can replicate and enact moving forward.  

Creating an outstanding sales team is an ongoing process that requires continuous attention and numerous tools. Having a club management software like Club Automation to simplify your sales team’s processes and organize prospects can elevate your sales team beyond what you thought possible. Ready to outrival even the best sales teams with Club Automation? Book a demo.