In this topic, we focus on sales strategies and how these are used to attract clients. You will learn:
- How to initiate contact with potential clients
- The sales process
- How to effectively close a sale.
Terminology and vocabulary reference guide
As an allied health professional, you need to be familiar with terms associated with basic exercise principles and use the terms correctly (and confidently) with clients, your colleagues, and other allied health professionals. You will be introduced to many terms and definitions. Add any unfamiliar terms to your own vocabulary reference guide.
Activities
There are several practical activities in the topic and an end of topic automated quiz. These are not part of your assessment but will provide practical experience that will help you in your work and help you prepare for your formal assessment.
Initial contact from a prospective client can come in many forms such as email, face to face in the gym or even stopping for a quick chat in the lounge area at the gym. The telephone is often the primary way a client will get in contact for the first time, when this occurs, use this opportunity to make a lasting impression, therefore, ensure you always professionally answer the phone. Remember, you are not only selling your service, but you are selling yourself too, this means enabling clients to feel comfortable with you, you are approachable, well-mannered and trustworthy with their business. The following table is a guide for telephone use that explains what behaviours you can display when using the telephone that may give off a positive or negative impression.
| A positive impression | A negative impression |
|---|---|
| It is important to always answer the phone promptly to avoid appearing too busy for an enquiry. | Do not answer the phone if you are with another client. Ensure you have a voicemail enabled so the client can leave a message. Make sure to respond to the voicemail as soon as you are available and free. |
| Physically smile while talking, believe it or not, a smile on your face during a call can be heard on the other end by the client and reflects positively when serving the customer. | It is considered rude to eat, drink, smoke or chew gum when talking to a client in person, and it is not much different when doing these things on the phone. They can be heard through the conversation and can be visualised by the client which can be very distracting when they are making an enquiry. |
| Always be polite. Use your manners, introduce yourself on the phone, thank them for their call, and do not make them feel rushed to get off by speaking at a comfortable pace. Make sure their enquiry is attended to. | The tone of your voice must never sound tired, unhappy, or bored. They will need to feel your positive and enthusiastic energy over the telephone just as much as they would when you are with them in person. |
| Have a pen and paper ready in case you need to note any information down. This will show you make a habit of being organised and prepared for them and their enquiry. | Do not use slang words and casual expressions as they may be misinterpreted and seen as unprofessional. These must be avoided with any communications but even more so on the telephone, as this is often their first impression of you. Avoid overly technical jargon in an effort to not lose the client before you gain their trust and understanding. |
| Having a professional voicemail is important to allow the client to leave a message, their return number and enquiry. Your voicemail message should be professional, informative, clear and helpful. The client should easily identify what business they have called with the message explaining that you are currently busy training clients, and will contact them back within a certain amount of time. Make sure you keep that promise and call them. |
Stay focused on the purpose of their call, do not give them irrelevant or inaccurate information and answer all their questions so they are well informed before entering the gym. |
| Be prepared with a diary in case they are making a booking with you, that way you can see your availability and lock them in at a time that is suitable to both parties. | Avoid sounding flustered and having to walk away from the telephone to collect what you need to take their details. |
Typically, in a gym, the sale process can be categorised into 5 simple steps.
Qualify the enquiry
This means to make sure the client is willing and able to go ahead with a training session with you. Qualifying the enquiry can occur from the first initial contact the client has with you.
Some examples of some pre-qualifying questions could be:
Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
- How did you hear about me?
- Do you currently workout?
- Where do you workout?
- What are you trying to achieve by working out?
- Do you have any medical conditions that might prevent you from working out?
- My clients currently pay $60 per session, does that work for you?
Book the client in
Once the prospective client qualifies, the next objective is to schedule a free introductory consultation. Discuss how long the booking will be for and what the introductory consultation includes. Be clear as often clients may confuse this and expect to have a free work out at this booking. Check your availability in your calendar/diary and see if the client would like to commit to a time for their introductory consultation.
Perform an introductory consultation
When your prospective client shows up for the free booked introductory consultation, make sure you are ready, clean and presentable, greet them professionally with a smile and prepared with appropriate paperwork. Guide your client to an open area where you can sit down and perform the introductory consultation, such as the gym's lounge, avoid areas such as a private office as it might make the client feel a little uneasy and intimidated. The idea during this booking is to break the ice with your client, using this time to have small talk to help build trust and rapport to then enable the pitch about personal training services that you would recommend. The following points explain how to perform an effective small talk conversation.
How to effectively conduct small talk before you start selling your services
- Avoid getting straight to the paperwork, instead, establish rapport with the clients first with the use of the warm and welcoming conversation. Get to know your client, ask about their hobbies, work, and family, what they enjoy and how they are. Aside from building trust, this can also enable you to understand their training needs.
- A little preparation and a touch of confidence are all you need to make the introductory conversation less nerve-racking. Read your notes made from your initial conversation on the phone from your pre-qualifying questions to help you prepare. Keep small chat to a minimum, you do not want to stray off the purpose of the meeting.
- One rule of thumb when speaking with your clients is to never talk about other client's personal lives or habits. Filling out paperwork is a dull activity so try to liven it up by showing some personality.
- Finally, a classic mistake made during the interview with a personal trainer is to talk too much and give too much information. Remember, although you have the knowledge of what is best recommended for your client, they only need to know what they need to do to meet their goals. Aim to follow the 80/20 rule of active listening, spending 80% of the time listening and 20% of the time talking, using open-ended questions to navigate the conversation.
Start Selling
How do you then go from small talk to the consultation, to then start selling? Now that you have gained your prospective client's details through the introductory consultation, you will be more aware of what they are striving to achieve in the gym, their objectives, lifestyle patterns, availability, personal commitments and even their work/life pressures. This is the ideal moment to start selling your services to them and explain how you are able to help them achieve their goals. When selling your services tailor what you offer to satisfy their needs. e.g., there is no point telling them how good you are at training people that compete in marathons when the clients desired goals are to lose weight.
A common error that most exercise professionals make when they start selling their services is that they lose focus on what they are selling and steer towards explaining their services features rather than the benefits.
Let us look closer at the differences between the two.
Features are product/service characteristics that deliver benefits; we buy products for their benefits.
Features may include: exercise testing, instruction, programming and planning, nutritional guidance, personal support, safe exercise, effective exercise, exercise adherence, results, clarity of purpose and progress, personal attention and empathy, entertainment.
Benefits may include: physical changes (clothes fitting, being able to play a sport again, less pain, less fatigue), psychological changes (feelings of happiness, control, satisfaction, awareness, reduction in frustration and boredom.)
Handling objections
Objections are a challenge that can arise when making a sale from time to time. You have already told them how much your services cost, you have identified their needs and wants and found a solution to these, so where is the problem? Is it not as simple as signing on the dotted line? Unfortunately, not always. The best way to tackle any objections is to listen to what they are trying to tell you, they may be shy in being forthcoming, they may be blunt with how they feel, this can be both confronting and tricky to handle, particularly when you are new to the industry. Listen to your client, decipher what they are trying to tell you and be prepared with an appropriate, not overly pushy, response that remains focused on meeting the client’s needs. As they notoriously say.. “No excuses!” Nothing should compromise the clients from reaching their desired results.
Closing the sale
Closing the sale is straightforward, all that is needed is to ask a closed-ended question, such as, “Would you like to get started by securing your first training session?” Many people are afraid to ask, thinking that would be too pushy, or believe that the prospect should tell you that they are ready to buy. Do not forget to thank the client for their time and perhaps for selecting your services, being mindful they could have picked any other trainer but there was something in you that shone to them, they are paying for your time, a thank you never goes down badly.
In this topic, we sales strategies and how these are used to attract clients. You have learnt:
- How to initiate contact with potential clients
- The sales process
- How to effectively close a sale
