So I recently became a member of Massage Envy – and now I’m addicted.

I want to tell you a little about them because there’s opportunity for you to cross promote your fitness services if you have a Massage Envy (or other established massage therapy service) in your area.

I finally got off my butt a couple months ago and started working out seriously again. But at age 45, my body doesn’t respond the way it used to.

Muscles get more sore and recovery takes longer. That’s what prompted me to sign up with Massage Envy.

You’ve probably heard of them – they have almost 700 franchised locations in 43 states – and they appear to be a well-run organization (although because it’s a franchise, there’s going to be some dogs).

I just had another massage this morning and discovered from my therapist that the location I use here in Raleigh employs 30 therapists who are all kept busy.

So their client base must be fairly substantial – which means potential opportunity for you.

Here’s how I suggest you attack this:

First of all, they have a problem (at least my location does). There is no relationship with me being developed by the owner. My relationship is with my therapist…who is AWESOME. If she told me tomorrow that she was off to start her own massage biz, I’d go with her. That’s not good for Massage Envy, but that’s not my problem.

That problem could easily be solved through…yes, you guessed it…effective internal marketing.

A simple LETTER from the owner (not an email, not a text, not a phone call…a PERSONAL letter) thanking me for joining and introducing him/herself to me, telling me her STORY (e.g. why she got into massage, about her family, dogs, whatever) so as to BOND with me, would go a LONG, LONG way.

And, if she were to include a nice gift that tangibly demonstrates her appreciation for my membership, that would serve to further cement the bond. Why? Because it sets up one of Cialdini’s influence triggers: RECIPROCITY (from the great, must read marketing book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion).

Okay, now that you understand the problem, here’s the solution:

Approach the owner of your local Massage Envy with a template of the letter I just described above ALREADY WRITTEN.

Discuss the problem with him/her from a position of authority (you are a marketing expert by comparison, I assure you).

Show her the letter, which of course, would include a great gift from you.

The gift to her Massage Envy clients could be one of those $100 plastic gift cards that can be used towards the purchase of your services, or it could include a nice looking gift certificate instead of the card.

Tell her that you are willing to do this because there is great synergy between your services. But also make this critical point…

PEOPLE WHO EXERCISE REGULARLY WILL GET MORE MASSAGES!

Particularly old farts like me who get sore easily and feel like we need a nap after working out.

Then comes the icing on the cake…

Let her know that you would be willing to do the same for her by promoting her services to your clients.

It’s a very clear, easy to understand cross-promotion where you both win, her clients win, and your clients win.

There you have it!

Two more things…

- Massage Envy does a nice job of presenting their brand as upscale, so you will want the letter you write to be “professional” looking. I suggest you grab their logo image off their site and put it at the top of the letter, which you should print on nice looking stationery (I like the resume paper). You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

- Get the Massage Envy owner to pay for the printing and mailing, you just supply the plastic cards (or have her print gift certificates). Remember, she NEEDS to be communicating to her clients to develop relationship – to put a “fence around her herd.”

Be a consistent fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

P.S. Have you requested your no-obligation VIP Info Pack yet? If not, do so now before your area is taken by one of your competitors. You can get it here.

We’re celebrating our Independence Day (July 4th) here in the US this weekend, so lots of festivities and little work for us right now.

But I did want to break away and share a NEW video with you we just posted:

Freedom and Independence are BIG values in our book over here.

And I’m honored we’ve been able to play a role in helping so many folks experience much MORE of it in both their business and personal lives.

This is a really cool video that speaks to both those themes.

VIP Membership is Now Open

We’ve now reopened VIP Membership for a limited time and info-packs are flying out the door.

If you haven’t requested yours yet, then fill out the form here and we’ll get yours out in the mail to you today.

This is THE place where all the top fitness business owners come to grow.

Whether you’re a studio/facility owner, Crossfit affiliate, boot camp, or Gym… this is where it’s at for PROVEN systems and tools that put you on the profit path.

Click here to request a VIP Info-Pack and get all the details on this program

To your success,
Sean

P.S. You know once upon a time, on July 4th in 1776 a group of gentlemen signed a letter, sent it off to the King of England,  and CLAIMED the freedom and independence that they decided was rightfully theirs.

And that’s how America was born.

What are YOU waiting for in “making the decision” to claim YOUR freedom and independence?

This past weekend we held our first annual VIP Spring Training event.  We invited all of our VIP’s to come together for a weekend of networking, workshops and top notch information.

The event was attended by over 80 of our top VIP clients and was a huge success.

As I wandered through the weekend listening to everyone talk and network with each other, it became apparent to me that one of the underlying struggles with many of our business owners is staffing.

Finding and retaining great quality people.

Coincidentally, later that weekend as I was waiting for the 6 inch nail to be taken out of my tire (yes, that’s the second one in 6 months – I think Orlando has a tire company conspiracy where they lay nails down on the road – but that’s another story), I came across an article in June 2011 issue of Inc. Magazine entitled “Core Values – The crucial element in well-run companies?  Leaders who know what they believe in”.

It’s an excellent article and one I highly recommend reading.

The main focus of the article is the importance of establishing core values and living by them – not only yourself, but the staff you surround yourself with.

It’s always important to consider the character of people you bring into your culture…some will fit, some won’t.  Your mission is to create an environment that allows those that do fit your culture and do choose to work with you succeed.

One of the first lessons we go through with any of our NPE clients is to establish your core values, mission and vision.

It’s the foundation of your business.

It’s what drives you – and should as a result, drive those that you surround yourself with.

Core values are the underlying factors to building a strong business base – not only in what you believe, but what you instill in your staff.

The article highlights a company I know you all are familiar with – TRX.  TRX’s founder, Randy Hetrick spent 14 years in the Navy SEALS.  To say he doesn’t have a strong core value of fitness and physical wellbeing would be an understatement.

He has built a company on the foundation of this fitness core value….as he says “A fit soldier is a happy soldier.”  Employees at TRX cycle, run, they are triathletes, they run the gamut of all fitness spectrums and believe in a culture of fitness.

What matters to the business is that employees be in the best shape possible.  Hetrick believes that folks at their physical best will deliver their best.   Business hours are flexible, the priority is health and wellbeing – not to say the work doesn’t get done, you’ll find many lights burning in the evenings and on the weekends.

Think you’re going to find someone lacking a core value of fitness working at TRX?

Probably not.

Think these folks stay around?

Absolutely.

It’s important that you establish this culture of values and shared beliefs.  This is how ultimately you will find the best people and keep them for life.

So, how do you do this?  First and foremost, as we do with all NPE clients, you must establish your own core values and mission.

What’s most important to you?

What is it that you want to instill in your clients and staff?

This is the foundation of your business – and it makes perfect sense that if you’re establishing these core values – they should also be the foundation of all employees that you bring on board.

Second, you must lead by example. One of my favorite Dick Chilton quotes is “Leadership is earned…not given”.   Folks are coming to work for you not because they are lucky to come work for you, but because they have chosen to come work for you.

If you keep this mindset in place and establish an environment where the goal of your business is to create productive, fulfilled employees, then you will have a culture that is like no other.

As a result, employees will give you their best – they will pull together in the best of times – and in the worst of times.    You will have earned the right to call yourself a leader and developed a community that works together and stays together.

Finally!

The U.S. Postal Service has finally made it simple, quick and CHEAP for small local businesses like your fitness business to do cost-effective, geo-targeted “farming” with direct mail postcards.

It’s called Every Door Direct Mail Retail, and it’s a legitimate breakthrough for fitness businesses.

From USPS.com:

“Every Door Direct Mail Retail allows small volume mailers to use the Simplified Addressing format for saturation standard flats mailed from a local post office. Saturation mail is delivered to every address on a carrier route. Every Door Direct Mail Retail enables you to reach your customers via saturation mail with NO mailing lists, permits or permit fees.”

Select your local area

Choose your carrier routes

I’ve been researching it for 3 weeks before writing this post because I wanted to make sure it is what I think it is. The USPS website explaining their new Every Door Direct Mail service leaves much to be desired. It’s more confusing than it is helpful…at first.

But I reached out to some direct mail companies like SonicPrint.com to get clarification and help understanding the USPS definition of “commercial flats”.

Here’s what SonicPrint says on their EDDM FAQ page:

What is Every Door Direct Mail?
Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a new program by the USPS that allows retail businesses to mail at 14.2 cents per postcard. Not only can you mail postcards, but you can also mail catalogs, brochures, samples, or anything else. You can mail anything as long as it meets “commercial flat” size requirements.

What size does a commercial flat need to be?
A commercial flat is at least 6.25″x11″ or larger size which means you have plenty of room to get your message to your customer. This is over 3 times the size of a 4″x6″ postcard and costs 9 cents less!

From Eric: The reduced cost and simplified process are both significant, and when combined with the fact that you can now mail a full sheet (8.5X11″) postcard (or larger) at this saturation mail rate, to ONLY the carrier routes your choose…is FREAKIN’ HUGE!

Who can I mail to?
With Every Door Direct Mail you can mail to all homes and businesses in a mailing route. Each zip code is comprised of many different routes. Each of these routes contain approximately 300-600 homes and businesses.

Where do I find the routes?
The post office has created a new website called Simplified Mailing Process located at http://smp.usps.gov. This website allows you to geo-target your area by zip code, city, or address and then you can map out the carrier routes that you want to mail to. Best of all this website will automatically generate the paperwork necessary to give to the USPS mail clerk.

Can I target the homes that I want to deliver to?
You can omit businesses from your mailing, however one of the core requirements of EDDM is that you have to mail to all homes in the route. You do have the opportunity to exclude certain addresses, such as competitors, customers, or people you know that do not wish to receive your marketing messages. You can exclude the addresses via the facing slip in the provided paperwork.

What if I want to exclude business addresses?
While the smp.usps.gov will let you choose only residential routes, it is important to change your endorsement to “Local Residential Customer” on your postcard. This way, the carrier will know you want to omit businesses from your mailing.

What is the minimum or maximum we can mail?
If you are mailing through Every Door Direct Mail “Retail” you can mail as little as 200 pieces and as many as 5000 in one day. If you need to mail more, please contact us and we will assist you.

Can I print the cards on my home printer?
We don’t recommend that you try to print these on your home printer because the paper stock required is too thick. Additionally the cost of toner is very expensive, and the quality will not be the same as if it was printed by a commercial printing company. We are offering discounted print rates to help customers take advantage of this new program.

Will you prepare the mailings for me?
If you want to prepare your own EDDM mail, we will walk you through the process and assist you in preparing mailing for free. Although it is not technically difficult, there are some guidelines that should be followed in order for your mail to be accepted by the post office. For a more turnkey approach, we will prepare your entire mailing and paperwork for a small cost of 3 cents per card. We will ship the prepared mail to you with all of the necessary paperwork. All you have to do is bring the cards, paperwork and your postage check to your local post office.

This is not an endorsement of SonicPrint. I have not used them myself, so I can’t attest to their value. However I will tell you they have been very helpful and are one of the few printers/direct mail companies I could find who are up to speed on the new EDDM service. I’d say it would be worth your time to give them a call if you have questions.

The “Target Farming” Fitness Marketing Strategy

We know that the single most important success criterion with direct mail is…the list…the “who” you are sending your direct mail to.

But the steep learning curve and high cost has generally made response lists a bridge too far for most fitness businesses marketing to their local community.

That’s why we have historically defaulted to compiled lists from providers like InfoUSA.com. And they’ve been more than adequate, generating very positive results for most.

But what I love about this new Every Door Direct Mail service is the ability it gives you to mail very small quantities (or very large, if you choose) to the exact carrier routes you want surrounding your fitness business location and/or surrounding the homes of your existing clients. And to do that at half the cost of regular first class postcard postage…with 300%+ more space to tell and sell.

This is a BIG deal.

Consider this ultra-targeted, scientific fitness marketing strategy:

1. Go through your database and plot the location (home address) of your existing clients on a local map.

2. You will most likely find some “clustering” of clients. Now you know the best locations to start your EDDM marketing.

3. See if you’ve got testimonials and pictures of at least a couple of your existing clients that live in one of those “clusters.” If not, get ‘em.

4. TARGET your marketing message at the people living in those clusters, using their NEIGHBORS’ (your existing clients) testimonials as proof you deliver results.

5. Lather, rinse, repeat.

At the incredibly low postage cost of just 14.2 cents (and no mailing list cost) to mail an 8.5X11″ huge postcard, you’re getting an incredible marketing bang for your buck. You can even do an 11X17″ mailer folded over to 8.5X11″ for even more selling space…for the same 14.2 cents. AWESOME!

Look, you may be in love with the internet for local lead generation (and you should definitely be working that channel), but do NOT make the mistake of neglecting direct mail. Particularly now when the USPS has finally made it so cheap and easy for local fitness marketing.

Summary and Links:

- 14.2 cent postcard marketing
- Choose only the carrier routes you want delivered (powerful geo-targeting)
- Oversized selling space on huge postcards
- Mail as few as 250 pieces to as many as 5,000 a day (awesome flexibility to TEST)
- No mailing lists to buy or rent (NOT a problem when marketing with postcards, no personalization necessary)
- Mail into high probability “clusters” of homes (and target with a strong message to market match by leveraging client testimonials who live in those clusters)
- Handle it all with a few clicks of the mouse (try not to get frustrated at first with the USPS interface, it’ll be worth the effort to plow ahead despite their initially non user-friendly instructions – reach out to SonicPrint if you need help)
- No saturation mailing permit required

USPS Every Door Direct Mail Retail Description and Instructions

SonicPrint EDDM FAQ and Contact Info

SonicPrint How To Get Started With EDDM

Deliver Magazine free subscription

Be a consistent fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

P.S. I want to give a public shout out to VIP Jeff Tomaszewski of OVERLOAD Fitness who delivered the best, most valuable fitness marketing presentation I’ve ever seen at our VIP event that just concluded in Orlando. We’ll be re-opening VIP enrollment shortly, so be ready. You absolutely do not want to miss the opportunity to surround yourself with million dollar fitness business owners like Jeff. To all current VIPS: watch Jeff’s presentation again and again when we release it to you on video. It is PURE GOLD!

Tony Horton from P90X reveals their fitness marketing strategy

This in-depth, meaty article is brand new. It just came out last week.

When I first read it, I was blown away by how much detailed, insider info Tony Horton reveals.

This is definitely a MUST-READ for any fitness business owner.

A direct quote from the article:

“P90X fans swear by the workout, a mix of jumping, yoga, martial arts and strength training that, in fact, isn’t all that revolutionary. But the secret of P90X’s success is the marketing…”

Yes, it’s ALWAYS about the marketing, and wait’ll you get a load of everything Tony has to say.

I want to “drip” this on you incrementally in order to make a few VITAL points (reinforcing everything Sean, Camelia and I have been teaching you guys). So don’t jump ahead to the entire article just yet.

POINT #1

“P90X fans swear by the workout, a mix of jumping, yoga, martial arts and strength training that, in fact, isn’t all that revolutionary.”

“ISN’T ALL THAT REVOLUTIONARY”

Of course not. The innovation is not so much in the fitness protocol – it’s in the MARKETING of the fitness protocol.

You don’t need to invent some revolutionary new training system/protocol to have huge success. It’s about how you package and position what you already know works. That’s the secret to differentiation.

POINT #2

Another direct quote from the full article:

“The early P90X infomercials bombed. But that changed when, at Mr. Daikeler’s urging, customers like “Dallas C.” and “Kristy M.” began sending in before-and-after pictures, now featured on the company’s infomercials and Web site. More than three million copies have been sold since then, with sales increasing every year through 2010 (they are currently running even with last year), company officials said.”

The GAME-CHANGER for them was, and still is, SOCIAL PROOF!

Okay, so that’s not a big breakthrough “secret” – but that’s because there really are no big breakthrough secrets. There are fundamental principles that, when properly executed, ALWAYS WORK. Social proof is the #1 most important fundamental principle. You MUST be able to prove your solution has REAL value, and there is no more effective way to prove that case than with compelling before and after pictures and strong emotional testimonials.

It troubles me that some fitness professionals still don’t seem to understand this vital point. Or, they still struggle to get stunning social proof.

Look, any fitness professional will ALWAYS struggle to build a sustainable, profitable fitness business without an ever-growing “wall of fame.”

Conversely, any remotely capable fitness marketer can build a monstrously successful fitness business with nothing more than stunning social proof, solid offers and effective channels for disseminating that proof/offer to the right target market.

THAT is the big secret to your success:

- Message: Social Proof + Offer
- Market: The right “who”
- Media: Channels for reaching your “who”

Want to see a killer example of compelling social proof? Watch this awesome 28-day transformation video from VIP Robert Brace in New York.

If you’re still struggling to figure out how to get amazing body transformation results for your clients, then read this 40-Day Workout article by Dan John.

And then read this “indisputable secret to body transformation” Velocity Diet article

Yeah, Velocity Diet is HARD! But it works. And that’s what you need: tools in your toolbox that absolutely, unequivocally WORK to get amazing results.

Find yourself a couple “guinea pigs” who want radical and rapid body transformation, put them on the 40-day workout and Velocity diet, and in less than 6 weeks you’ll have STUNNING social proof you can leverage to get new clients out the wazoo.

POINT #3

Video sells.

That’s all the P90X infomercials are – long form videos. And the Beachbody folks behind P90X and Insanity have mastered the “formula” for successful sales videos…without selling hard.

Another direct quote from the P90X article:

“But P90X has achieved blockbuster status with a new approach. Its infomercials are shot in a more documentary style. They feature testimonials from P90X converts, interviews with Mr. Horton and scenes from the workouts. Old infomercial lines like “How much would you pay for all this?” are not part of the pitch.”

There you have it…THE FORMULA:

1. Testimonials from your successful clients
2. Interviews with the expert
3. Scenes from workouts

Use that formula.

POINT #4

YOU are your programs’ pitchman/ambassador, so you better look the part.

Sean and I built NPE into a $4 million dollar (and growing) Inc 500 fitness business development company based on the EXACT SAME marketing, sales and management principles we teach all of you. Our business success is absolute PROOF the principles work. We walk the talk.

If your prospects can’t look at you and say to themselves, “geez, I’d like to have a body like (your name)!” If you don’t REPRESENT your fitness business by being supremely fit yourself, you are putting your business at a distinct disadvantage.

Yes, it IS possible to be successful without looking the part…without actually walking the talk. But it’s a “hole” in your fitness marketing message that is obvious. You become “just another salesman…”

Another quote from the P90X article:

“TONY HORTON, with nary an ounce of fat on him, sits on a leather couch in his Spanish-style house in Santa Monica. He is wearing a pair of shorts, slip-on Chuck Taylors and a U.S. Navy golf shirt that shows off the veins on his well-pumped arms.

“If I don’t look a certain way, I’m just another salesman,” Mr. Horton says.”

Okay, those are the 4 points I wanted to make before sending you off to read the entire New York Times article on P90X.

Go here to read the complete article.

And if you like this blog post, or have any thoughts or ideas to share with the community, please post your comments below. Thanks!

Be a consistent fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

I’m up here in Calgary for a few days visiting with my friends James & Leighanne Fitzgerald.

But wanted to take a moment today to shoot you a quick message about MEGA TRAINING 2011.

The date has been set, the hotel contract has been finalized, and this years event will be taking place on:

October 20-22nd, 2011
in Orlando, FL

Be sure to mark your calendar!

We’ve got some VERY exciting things in the works for this years event.

And while last years event won’t be easy to top, I do think this year is going to be our BEST YET!

Lots more to follow on this in the weeks and months ahead.

To your success,
Sean

You’ve heard about the CrossFit Games, right?

Sean’s friend and 2009 MEGA TRAINING presenter, James Fitzgerald (OPT), was the first person to win the games in 2007.

James Fitzgerald - winner of 2007 CrossFit Games

They’ve grown exponentially in popularity over the years and today they are absolutely HUGE.

So…why not model the CrossFit Games on a local level to generate leads and introduce local athletes to your fitness business?

There are lots of ways you could structure this kind of promotion. Certainly, there is big time publicity opportunities, and no shortage of other local businesses that can help you get the word out.

I’d encourage you to seriously consider associating with a local charity – designating a percentage of your registration fee to go to them.

A potential structure for your local version of the games (with your own proprietary name), could be something like this:

- 3-4 Saturdays of group training outdoors to prepare athletes for competition
- 4th or 5th Saturday is the “games”
- $97 registration fee (with $20 going to Charity)

After developing your structure, here are the basic fitness marketing tools you’d need:

- YouTube video announcing/describing the games
- Website landing page with video (I-AM Rainmaker fitness marketing machine is perfect for this)
- Keep-warm and engaged autoresponder sequence for those who enroll (I-AM Rainmaker)
- Couple of press releases (plus your effort to ensure the media takes notice)
- Flyers for local businesses to hand out
- Couple emails for your SA partners to send out
- 5+ emails for you to send to your house list

You definitely will want to get in touch with the major influencers in your area and get their support:

- High school and college coaches
- Local club teams
- MeetUp.com athletic/fitness groups
- Sports leagues (softball, soccer, etc.)
- Potential sponsors

Who Else? That’s such an important question to ask yourself and others. Make an exhaustive list of anyone and everyone who has any connection to sports and fitness in your area, and reach out to all of them.

You could even do some fun team stuff, if you like. For example, you could get all the local gyms/clubs in your area to enter a representative team (a great way to market to the competition “under the radar”).

You could have individual winners AND team winners.

Having teams is always smart because it galvanizes commitment and further enhances competition, therefore maximizing participation.

The bottom line:

Executed correctly, an event like this can make your fitness business a household name in short order. It could literally launch a new athletic training/sports performance business from nothing to big time in 60-90 days, or double the growth of your existing business.

You will probably want to structure the event as a “self-liquidating” promotion. Meaning the revenue generated from participants is enough to defray your marketing expenditures, but not much else. The profits will be in the back-end when you convert a percentage of the participants to clients.

That’s how I’d approach it anyway. I’d focus on maximizing participation, not profit. Make the event lots of fun and a big success. And, of course, make sure you have a well-conceived CONVERSION PROCESS to take the participants through in order to sell your services.

Check out the CrossFit Games web site for ideas (and make sure you get all your competitors to sign a liability waiver – that’s NOT legal advice, just a prudent suggestion).

If you like this fitness marketing strategy – and you should – then I encourage you to invest in Fitness Business Project Manager Pro to make sure you’ve got all your i’s dotted and t’s crossed. It’s just $97. Get Fitness Business Project Manager Pro here.

And let me know what you think about this summertime athletic performance fitness marketing strategy by posting your comments or questions below, okay?

Be a consistent fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

Well it’s Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend here.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to “shutting things down” and heading out of town for a few days.

So no blog posts this weekend, and I’m keeping things “light” today.

But before we head out of here I wanted to share with you some really cool footage we shot last fall while over in Australia.

This video shows you a bit of what Sydney is like (if you’ve never been) and profiles Aussie Member of the Year 2009 Dirk Hansen.

Dirk was making all the “classic” mistakes running his facility like charging too little AND the BIG “no-no” of collecting payment for his training services in the rears.

Then Dirk heard about our VIP program, joined, launched our Raising The Rates Campaign, and brought in over $400,000 in sales.

Talk about LIFE changing… this was it for Dirk!

Check this out, and whether you’re heading out of town this weekend yourself or not… come on a little “virtual vacation” with us to Australia via this video.

Have a great weekend,
Sean

P.S. Dirk’s studio is right up the hill from Bondi Beach, as you’ll see in this video. The morning we were shooting this on the beach it was overcast and drizzling rain. But fortunately there was a  GREAT cafe up the hill we hit up for breakfast and coffee after this was over. If you’ve never been to Australia, one thing I’ll share with you is their coffee is like “liquid gold”.

I could drink it all day long. It’s THAT good.

P.P.S. We’re getting ready to re-open the VIP program very shortly. Stay tuned…

One of the biggest fitness marketing mistakes is not understanding your prospect.

If you don’t understand their problems, you can’t provide solutions that sell.

And I’m not talking about “surface” problems, I’m talking about the deep-rooted “systemic” problems.

This article will help deepen your understanding.

You’ve probably heard of Tom Venuto, Author of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, which is one of (if not THE) all-time best-selling fat-loss and fitness programs on the internet. Tom’s been at this for years and years and is a very trusted resource.

I’m on his mailing list and he recently sent out an email with the Top Ten Body Transformation Mistakes, which I’ve listed below (with full credit to Tom).

Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with fitness marketing. And the answer is…everything!

Because what Tom’s done here is distilled down, through years of experience in the marketplace and countless surveys of his buyers, the top 10 PROBLEMS they face in achieving their fat-loss and fitness goals.

As a fitness marketer, that is priceless information…as long as you act on it.

Here’s an example of what I mean…

Tom’s #1 body transformation mistake is “blaming something or someone else for your condition.” (Side note: this is the #1 mistake/problem in society at large – the underlying cause of so many of the problems we face as a people.)

Now, the interesting thing about this particular mistake is that you can’t just come out and tell prospects, “Hey, stop blaming conditions or other people and take personal responsibility for your own problems!” Well, you could say that, but it wouldn’t resonate too well.

Instead, you want to softly “let them off the hook.” That’s why you see so many sales letters saying things like, “It’s not your fault – you’ve been lied to and deceived…”

So you might use a headline like this:

Do You Want To Lose Weight Fast And Have A Real “Head-Turning” Body…But Feel Like The Odds Are Stacked Against You?

This is how you get attention for your advertisement by pushing that emotional hot button – which Tom’s research reveals is the #1 most common problem (i.e. LOTS of people feel that way).

Okay, take a look at Tom Venuto’s top 10 list:

Body Transformation mistake #1:
Blaming something or someone else for your condition

Success Strategy:
Taking personal responsibility

Body Transformation mistake #2:
Self doubt / not believing you can do it

Success Strategy:
Self Faith / believing in yourself

Body Transformation mistake #3:
Dieting

Success Strategy:
Eating healthy for life

Body Transformation mistake #4:
No accountability system

Success Strategy:
Being accountable to yourself AND to others

Body Transformation mistake #5:
Following the crowd

Success Strategy:
Following the successful people

Body Transformation mistake #6:
Using only willpower; trying to change with force

Success Strategy:
Using habit power and your subconscious mind to change automatically

Body Transformation mistake #7:
Lying to yourself about your condition, your commitment or your consistency

Success Strategy:
Honesty about your condition, commitment and consistency

Body Transformation mistake #8:
Inconsistency

Success Strategy:
Consistency with nutrition and training every single day

Body Transformation mistake #9:
No Goals or fuzzy goals

Success Strategy:
Lots of specific goals/ becoming a lifelong goal setter

Body Transformation mistake #10:
Giving up at the first obstacle

Success Strategy:
Persisting through adversity until you succeed

Notice that not ONE of the top 10 mistakes is about doing lunges instead of squats, using the treadmill rather than the elliptical, HIT instead of long, slow cardio.

They are almost all about what goes on between the person’s ears, i.e. HEAD TRASH.

I don’t know exactly how many customers Tom has, but I do know it’s many, many thousands. And I also know he’s a very smart marketer. That’s why I’m sharing this list with you. It contains what I believe to be accurate results. Weigh it against what you know from your experience. If it rings true to you, then I encourage you to use this valuable information in your fitness marketing.

I particularly like #6 “using only willpower; trying to change with force.”

So many people have repeatedly tried and failed to lose the weight and finally get fit. They no longer trust in their own ability, and they’re scared of failing again. This is a big-time buggaboo.

That’s why you’ll see me use language in my copy like, “All you need to do is show up, we do all the rest.”

And on the fulfillment side, you DO need to do all the rest for these people. You need to provide a system, both fitness and nutrition, that eliminates failure to the greatest degree possible.

On the marketing side, you need to address this problem (objection) and overcome it…by promising (and delivering) a COMPLETE solution that’s PROVEN to work time and again…for people just like them.

You prove that with testimonials illustrating your successful clients had the same problem, and that problem was solved by coming to you.

This is very meaty stuff demanding serious thought on your part about how to incorporate into your marketing messages to attract more people, and into your fulfillment to produce more success stories.

One of the greatest advertisements of all time is Maxwell Sackheim’s “Do You Make These Mistakes In English?” It was an unbeatable control for over 40 years.

The obvious variation of this for your purposes could be, “Do You Make These Weight Loss Mistakes?” or “Do You Make These Fitness Mistakes?”

The use of “these” is critical to the success of the ad. It arouses curiosity by indicating the mistakes will be addressed in the body copy of the ad, providing immediate gratification.

But, of course, the mistakes are only described. To get the solutions, you have to request the special report (in Sackheim’s case it was a free booklet on English called “How You Can Master Good English In 15 Minutes A Day” – so your report could be “How You Can Master Your Metabolism And Lose Weight Quickly In Just 15 Minutes A Day”).

Now you have the information you need to put together a compelling report (among other things) that addresses THE top 10 mistakes, and your solution.

Be a fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

Ok, lots of good questions posted to the blog and sent in via email on this.

I’ve got my typing cut out for me this morning with these, so we’re going to skip the intros and jump right in.

Here are your questions… and my answers… in no particular order.

Also, because we’ve got PLENTY here to discuss that should address most (if not all) the points from my conversations the past couple weeks… I’m going to skip putting in questions/answers from the folks that I’ve already personally responded to.

Q: What is the best way to go about raising the rates with our members. Allow them time to sign up for a contract at the regular rate and give them a deadline? My next question is how much to raise it to without totally freaking out our members? -Mark & Nikki Snow

A: Ok, a 2-part question. Let’s address the “allowing people time to sign up at the old rate” one first. Because I’ve gotten that one several times now and you’ll see it repeated again down below here.

I’ll start with a little history to give this answer some context…

So the “original” version of the Raise The Rates Campaign… which has worked extremely well for over 5 several years… and has literally brought in millions of dollars/Euros/and other currencies for all our clients… included the option to “buy in now” at the old rate as part of the message.

I’m linking the first letter in that original (Version 1.0) sequence so you can see it here.

When you read it you’ll see that the main reason given for the price increase was to reinvest in staff and allow the facility to continue hiring the best coaches in town.

Very plausible argument and good “reason why.”

Because really, who doesn’t want good coaching and understand the value a good coach provides in a service environment?

Heck, if people just wanted cheap shit with no regard to quality of services then they’d be working out at the discounted globogym in town and not at your place, right?

Then to ‘soften the blow’ AND fill up the bank accounts with lots of cash… the letter was closed with an offer to purchases services at the old rate for as long as you’d like. But in order to do so, clients would have to ‘pre-pay’ the amount in full. Hence the name “cash flow surge” we gave the product when we packaged up the campaign and sold it with a training video and some coaching in our webstore.

Now, does this work?

Absolutely!

Is there anything wrong with the campaign or this strategy?

Not at all.

However, we’ve been working with several clients lately that have such very low current rates… and as a result they are really struggling with their businesses… that I created a second version (Version 2.0) of the campaign which does a couple things.

First, it adds more “reasons why” for the price increase and “builds the case” for the new rate.

Second, it lists “added value” that will now be included with client programs along with the rate increase… again going further to “build the case”.

Third, it removes the offer to buy in now at the old rate…because it really had to be removed for these clients who are suffering right now.

Having folks “buy in” at the old rate right now would only add to 6 or 12 more months of no profitability in their business… which would defeat the whole purpose of launching this campaign in the first place.

The goal is NOT to raise rates for the sake of raising rates. The goal is to build in more margin and find PROFITABILITY in your business RIGHT NOW.

However, I chose to “soften the blow” in another way… by announcing a referral rewards campaign that allows clients to get their choice of either cash or credit to their account when they refer a new client that signs up for the program.

I included this for a couple reasons…

Because anytime you can ‘soften the blow’ (and the more you increase price, the more you’re going to want to have ways to soften it) you build goodwill with your clients.

You also now build yourself in a virtually bullet proof “objection handler”.

If some folks are really persistent, and want to get on your case about the price increase even though you’ve already addressed a number of strong ‘reasons why’ you’re raising the rate, and listed out how you are going to ‘add value’ to the program… then you can always fall back on this as a last resort.

If someone can’t afford the increase, all they have to do is send you some referrals and they can get their training for free.

Now the reality of the situation is that the real whiners probably WON’T do this, that’s why we call them whiners in the first place. They don’t do a whole lot of anything, except “whine” and complain.

I suspect the best and highest number of referrals will come from the clients who love you, value what you do for them, and have no problem with the price increase. They still think you’re too cheap, and they feel they “owe it” to you to share info on your programs with their friends and family they care about who can really benefit from the introduction.

But regardless, you’ve got a strong fallback here to defend your position.

Nobody can say you’ve haven’t given them “options” to be able to continue with your program if they truly value it.

If you haven’t downloaded that first letter of the Version 2.o of the campaign I posted to the blog the other day, then you can do so now by clicking here.

Ok, now to the second part of your question.

How much to raise it to without totally freaking out our members?

Now we’re getting to the good stuff.

There are no hard or fast answers here.

I don’t know what exactly is the “perfect” number for you.

But let’s talk about some things that need to be considered in you figuring out what that number will be.

Right now I’m teaching a class about 52 students with my friend James Fitgerald as part of his OPT CCP certification course for coaches. And it just so happens we came up to the lesson on packaging and pricing just 10 days ago, so this question is coming up a lot with those students.

This question also came up in my initial phone call with Bob too (sorry Bob that we’ve gotta keep talking about this here).

Bob told me in our first conversation he researched some gyms doing price increase (which means he called up a few Crossfit buddies) and the ‘average’ price increase folks are implementing is 20%, so that’s intel he used make the decision he made about raising his rates from $75/month to a $100/month.

The only problem here is I suspect Bob’s Crossfit buddies are running just as unprofitable a business as he is!

So now we’ve just got bad genes doing more inbreading. And the offspring all look the same… which means they are both ugly AND stupid.

Sorry, not calling anyone ugly or stupid, just had to go with the metaphor… so laugh at that one, OK?

You see Bob increased price by 20%, but he still hasn’t found profitably in his business. He’s just found maybe breakeven. Which isn’t really breakeven yet, because he needs to hire an admin, increase his salary, pay off that loan, invest in a new location, and a whole lot more.

So that kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

Plus, Bob’s services are also still too cheap if he’s really delivering a ton of value.

Look, as I shared with you in another post.. there are KNUCKLEHEADS in the marketplace right now charging and GETTING $300/month for holding a stopwatch and having people run cones and do pushups/situps in the local park. And I think we could all agree it ain’t hard to match or exceed THAT level of service. So why should you be priced so much less than THEM?

But let’s continue…

Here are some things you want to consider when finding what your “number” for what the rate increase will be:

Leave your thoughts about your current rate, and what % of increase will be, and your fear about ‘freaking out the current clients’ off the table right now.

Let’s talk about what you’d do and how you’d redesign this whole thing… knowing what you know now… if you were starting over from scratch.

What would you pay yourself for a salary in your business (and therefore build that number into the payroll expenses of the biz)?

What would you pay your coaches?

What kinda of money would you want to take out of net profits and reinvest back in more marketing, investments in new/better/more equipment?

What would you want to save for business expansion, relocation, commercial real estate purchase?

What would you reinvest back into hiring more staff like a full-time administrative assistant to handle all the little things and free you up from that stuff?

What money would you use to repay any loans or debt service you have from when you started building the business and had to leverage credit to get started?

Start to think about the answers to those questions, and reverse engineer some numbers on number of clients, package rates, and gross revenue/net profits at different price points.

This is the type of work that will lead you in the right direction and what you really need to be thinking about.

For some clients, that are a real mess, they will NOT benefit from minor business ‘repair’ or ‘improvement’ right now.

What they need to be thinking about is more along the lines of complete business ‘RE-INVENTION’.

Because their model just isn’t working.

And a small increase ain’t gonna dramatically change things here for them or the business.

So Mark & Nikki, spend some time with this. Run some numbers and do some work thinking about the answers to these questions. Then if you’d like some more feedback, go into the EA class forums and post your current “menu” rates. Along with what you think you want to set your “new” rates at. And ask for specific feedback from our team and your peers. Leverage the group to assist you here. We’re got lots of VERY sharp clients posting in those forums everyday now and I’m continually impressed when I have a moment to hop over there and read all the comments/posts/and discussions. Our clients and this community are on POINT!

Q: What can you say to your clients about why the rate is changing? Increase in costs, inflation, etc?? How do you phrase it. Thanks for tackling this topic!! -Laura Lynn

Laura, think I’ve answered this in the answer above.

But download the RTR Version 2.0 letter template here, and you’ll see some ‘reasons why’ I’ve given you to use in “building your case” here.

You can use “reasons why” I’ve given you, add your own, or start over building them from scratch.

Think of yourself as an attorney. And the jury is your clients.

Your job is to “prove your case” and win over the jury.

So spend some time working on your argument and brief.

You need to have a strong position that you can defend well.

But it’s pretty straightforward process and you don’t have to be O.J.’s dream team to win this case.

So don’t over think or stress about it too much.

Make your list and go for it.

Q: Raising the Rates Campaign – one legitimate reason – to afford highly qualified fitness professionals – per RTR VIP Product. Is this no longer a strong enough reason to your clients…is the question…..I could think of 100 more reasons why to raise the rates, but guess it all goes back to sticking with how ‘well you know your market’. -Jerremy

Jerremy, great observation.

And I’ve addressed this in the previous 2 answers.

Version 2.0 of the campaign I’ve “beefed up” the argument with more reasons why here and it builds a stronger case.

You have also correctly pointed out that your market (AKA “the jury”) are the ones you have to convince here with your case.

Doesn’t matter what I think about your reasons why.

And for that matter it doesn’t really matter what YOU think about your reasons why either, though you better BELIEVE in them so you can back them up with confidence.

Your market is the jury and they are the ones who will decide if your business is “innocent” or “guilty”.

So make sure you’re tuning into THEIR reasons why in your letter, not yours.

For example, this would NOT be a good letter:

Hi clients, I’m raising your rates because I:

1. Really want to buy a new sports car
2. Plan to take all your cash and go on vacation for 2 months
3. Have some credit cards I think you should pay off for me

NOT a good letter.

As you can see the “reasons why” we’re using in the RTR Version 2.0 template are all justified as business reinvestments which include:

1.    Hiring and retaining the top coaches in the area.
2.    Continuing education from leading experts in the field.
3.    New equipment purchases. _______________.
4.    Expansion and improvement in our facility.
5.    ANY OTHER REASONS WHY? List and describe them here…

SO MAKE SURE THE ‘REASONS WHY’ YOU CHOOSE TO USE IN ‘BUILDING YOUR CASE’ ARE IMPORTANT TO YOUR MARKET… NOT YOU.

SORRY, BUT NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU HERE.

YOU HAVE TO POSITION THIS IN TERMS OF BENEFITS TO THEM.

Q: I have a very small boutique style gym in my home. I am in the countryside. Oddly enough there is uber competition in little towns around mine. I believe I offer quality personal training, nutrition and group classes. People still go to the cheaper or “easier – like Curves” gyms. How can I financially get the edge on the competition? -Ginette Kitchener

Ginette you got some comments and feedback to your question on the last post from other clients of ours. Review them because they are all spot on.

As I’ve said in other posts, the key to differentiating yourself IN THE SERVICE BUSINESS, is in the RESULTS and CUSTOMER SERVICE you deliver.

Which, fortunately for you, are 2 things those “cheap and easy” places you mentioned know virtually nothing about.

When I first started working as a fitness coach years ago, my first client was an old retired guy that just wanted to kinda stay active. Didn’t really care about doing so much with this fitness beyond that.

But my SECOND client, Mary, was a 30-year old ex-stripper who had gained a ton of weight. I focused on delivering a great program and getting her results. And made sure to assess the client (with photos of course) every 4 weeks. I made sure the client got AMAZING results, and at the end of 12 weeks her before and after photos were incredible.

I made some marketing materials with her before and after photos, and then I got FLOODED with folks who wanted to hire me as their coach.

With her “new” hot body Mary eventually stopped training, went back to stripping, and got back on cocaine. But that’s another story for another time.

The point is all you need in the beginning is 1 client who is committed to their goals. Service the heck out of them, get them great results, document the change (photos being the key since a picture of REAL person getting results is worth a thousand words), then use their story/results in your marketing to go attract more clients.

You do this and you will soon be SWAMPED.

Q: If I have about 50 clients and I do the RTR campaign but offer existing clients to sign a contract at the old price, should I limit that contract length? It seems that if I do the RTR and most sign a 12 month agreement at the old rate I will barely make any extra profit for a long time. I know having a ton of clients signing 12 month contracts isn’t the biggest problem you can have, but if one goal is to have a nice cash infusion, won’t this cause problems? -David Bears

David, as I’ve answered in the first question, if allowing existing clients to buy in at the old rate doesn’t do much to ‘move the needle’ in terms of finding profitability in your business right now… then ditch that and use the VERSION 2.0 of the campaign.

Q: This may take the conversation off-topic but the RTR solution seems to be a small piece of the puzzle. As discussed in the other related threads the expenses in this case and value proposition required a thorough review as well. RTR will most likely help his top line but will he be able to tighten expenses and improve his branding, market position to increase profitability? The advice and sample letter are spot on for just solving the “to RTR or not to RTR” question. I’d like to see it taken a step further to see how scalable and sustainable this would be. Say we work w/ the $30,000/month the person above is bringing in. I’m assuming they have a staff but it doesn’t sound like the original “case study” does. If you project providing revenue generating services 6 days/week, 8 hours per day then that is about 192 hours per month of revenue generating time. That’s pretty much maxing it out and grinding it out. If you pull in $30,000/month, that averages out to $156.25 per hour, nice $$$! That means this guy is producing revenue 192 hours per month, not sustainable for most I don’t care how passionate you are about fitness. So, a bigger piece becomes how does he staff up? What passive income revenue streams does he create? Do you have to start as a “one man/woman show” and work these type of hours before you add staff? If you add staff that adds expenses and impacts profitability. What is the tipping point? Do you provide a plan/strategy/business model where you can start out having the business work for you and not having to work for the business? Also assume this guy wants to have a family, house, health insurance, savings, a vacation, you know, grown up things. Most of the advice and solutions offered seem to be tailored to someone just starting out or with minimal responsibilities (i.e. supporting a family, needing health insurance, planning for retirement, etc). Apologies if this took the conversation too far off the path but as I read the posts on this topic the past several days these are the questions I started thinking about. -Curt

Ok Curt.

This is a blog post, remember?

Not a full day of consulting.

But yes, you are correct in bringing some good points into the conversation that I’ve touched on previously. In finding profitability, a thorough review of expenses, margins, staff increases as certain capacity points, should all be looked at for long term planning.

If you wanted to do a real thorough job on that, then you’d use the $15,000 sales forecast/proforma modeling tool we give our students in the CONTROLLER™ Fitness Finance System course (NOTE: this is also included in Level 5 of the Studio/Facility version of our EVOLUTION ACCELERATOR™ program.)

Also, yes, in the example shared with Bob, he will benefit from some time invested in business RE-positioning as well.

But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I don’t think it’s realistic to ask Bob (or anyone else for that matter) to try and do all those things at the same time.

So in coaching our clients over here, we look to see what is the FIRST thing we can do to make the BIGGEST IMPACT in bottom line results/net profit RIGHT NOW.

And in this case, if we do nothing else but RTR… Bob’s business gets a whole lot more profitable IMMEDIATELY.

The rest will come with time, and will a whole lot easier to work on with some “breathing room” in terms of profitability of his business.

Comment: If you mail your Raising the Rates letter to your current clients, I would strongly recommend also handing them a copy at their next session and taking 5 minutes to explain it. People don’t always open all of their mail, and they may just skim it and not completely understand how to take advantage of any special offer you put with it. This personal attention and explanation more than doubled the return for me when we did this last summer. -Tony Maslan

Ok, this isn’t a question but just a comment on best practices made by Tony Maslan. And it’s VERY good advice, based on Tony’s actual results implementing this campaign the last time he did it 2 years ago.

So I wanted to be sure you caught it here and didn’t miss this.

Thanks as always for chiming in and sharing here Tony!

Q: As someone who is approaching 50 years old, I too am sometimes frustrated with advice that often times seems to be geared to a much younger audience. The action steps I was able to consider with I started my first fitness business over 21 years ago (lost this business in a divorce 5 years ago and have been working hard over the past 18 months to get started again) are more limited today with kids, a hefty mortgage etc. not to mention a part-time job to make ends meet as I get my new Nutrition & Fitness business up to speed. My wife has several health concerns which limit the type and duration of her physical activities. She is also a full-time mom and stays home with our kids. So, this means there isn’t any significant second income in our house. However, I am constantly searching for and working on incorporating ways to bring passive income streams into play for my business to benefit my family. I have had some minor successes with that so far. I already tried e-books, and I am currently an affiliate for a few nutrition & weight loss products too. If anyone has some different passive income ideas that have worked for you regarding this , I welcome your input, thank you! -Steve Loder

Steve, first off let me say the advice on building businesses we share isn’t “age specific”.

What we share are tested and proven systems, strategies, and tools that work if you apply them… regardless if you’re 25 or 65… and we’ve got MANY clients that span all across that age range.

And regardless of the difficulties or obstacles you face, you can improve your business in a dramatic way in you study and apply them.

In fact MANY of our clients, and I’m not going to share people’s very personal stories about spouses/health challenges here, have worked through obstacles like you’re mentioning and are KILLING IT.

In every case I can think of right now, it was those challenges that gave them the MOTIVATION to keep searching for answers and doing the work required that led them to success.

So, “saddle up” I say.

But the real reason I included your question in our discussion today is because I wanted to address your comments on looking for “passive income” and “back-end” revenue.

They are both very important topics.

And when you have an established business, they can be a total GAME CHANGER in terms of infusing your business with more net profits through better monetizing and selling more into the “lifecycle” of your existing customer/client base.

But if you’re focusing on that as a solution to finding profitability… in a business that has only a small number of clients or has bad economics in the model in terms of pricing/margins in the first place… then you “trying to climb a ladder that is against the wrong wall” as they say.

I would encourage you to examine your core business and look at what may need to be done to make it profitable on it’s own with your core product/service offerings FIRST, before trying to solve a profitability problem by focusing on the back-end.

And it may be that the economics of your business model are already very sound, and the only problem you have is that you just need to go market and get more clients signed up to experience it.

I don’t know.

But I often see many folks… who aren’t making much money… going on and on about “passive income” and the “backend” of a business… like it’s the holy grail solution… meanwhile if we examined bank accounts these folks are generally the ones who are broke.

So, again, don’t know where you’re at… but thought I’d address some things to consider here.

Q: Two questions: 1. RTR for PT/BC is one thing…..how should we address the membership prices for our member base? We have some monster clubs nearby….we don’t want to raise our rates out of the market for this area. 2. Looking for the V2.0 RTR Campaign – is it on the member site?

AND via email…

Hi Sean, We’ve been following all the posts over the last several days and want to know what the best approach would be for a health club to raise the rates? We offer personal training, bootcamps, class passes, and memberships. We have already raised our rates for our new training clients, but we want to know if it would be easier to raise all rates across the board 15%, or raise the PT rate percentage separately from the membership, and the bootcamps, and just include an explanation and rate sheet for all three different services. Most clients are members and a percentage of them pay additionally for PT, Bootcamp, and membership. We are ready to pull the trigger on the rate increase this week for about 50 PT clients, but do we also need to send a letter to all the individual members as well? Our membership rates are already higher than all the chain clubs at $39 per month. We were thinking of going to $44. Our PT Rates are $69 at 1x per Week, $64 at 2x per week, and $59 at three times per week. Boot camps are too low averaging $99 per month. Thanks. -Dave Mugavero

Ok, guys… let’s see what we can do here.

First, yes the RTR version 2.0 letter was linked in one of the previous posts (how could you have missed it with all that reading?) and I’ve linked it a few times already in this letter here.

But… to be sure to don’t miss it… here it is again.

Now, Dave don’t think you were on the entire VIP Studio/Facility mastermind call we had on Wednesday… and if that’s case… I recommend you download and listen to the recording.

What was NOT included in your question, but I think is the real BIG opportunity for you here… is to RTR on PT AND simultaneously launch semi-private training. Which would more the double your net profits per hour from the rates you’ve proposed here.

Let’s run the math…

Private training at $70/session VS. 4 semi-private clients at $50/session = $200

Which is almost 3X the gross, and even if you pay out a little more in labor (refer to that VIP mastermind call recording where we went in-depth on discussion for staff base pay + commission compensation examples for this), YOU STILL HAVE A LOT MORE NET!

And you can now increase capacity of the ‘prime time’ hours dramatically without adding more staff.

So, if I were to pick 1 THING for you guys to do right now that would have the BIGGEST IMPACT that would be it.

But, since you’re asking let’s also talk about the membership increase.

$39 –> $44 ain’t a big increase.

And at the end of the day, you wouldn’t have to give a whole lot more to me as a member to ask me for an extra $5/month.

My guess is that because you’re already higher than all the other big box gyms in town, and nobody is complaining, then your members aren’t buying from you because you’ve got the newest equipment, coolest paint colors, or nicest carpet.

They are buying for “other” reasons.

I think you would benefit from uncovering and understanding those better.

Why do your members buy from you rather than the other big box gym that is priced less?

My guess is it’s probably a number of factors including location/convenicence, community/relationship, maybe cleanliness, quality of coaching/classes that are offered, etc.

But what are their reasons?

And how do they prioritize/rank their reasons?

And if you want to raise price… how can you increase the value (or do you already have enough ‘built in) to justify the increase?

I think the biggest point of leverage you have here in terms of delivering value.. all things being equal… is in COMMUNITY and RELATIONSHIP.

If I were you’d I’d be doing BBQ’s in the parking lot on Saturdays, having a monthly member “social” type event/outing, maybe a quarterly client appreciation event with giveaways, all that kinda stuff.

How many members do you have right now?

500 X $5 = $2,500 extra a month (not a big number).

2,500 X $5 = $10,000 extra a month (much more significant).

Do you raise price on membership, bootcamp, private training, and launch semi-private all at once?

Maybe. I’m a “rip the band-aid off all at once” kinda guy, but even this might take some serious balls to do.

Dunno.

But since you guys are VIP clients, why don’t you complete a menu with everything you’ve got now and current pricing. Then the new menu of proposed pricing. And get the answers to some of the other questions I’ve asked. Post all to the VIP forum and ask for some input and feedback from your VIP peers. And you can also shoot everything over in an email to support@netprofitexplosion.com and schedule a call with Camelia to review… or if Lauren can find some time on my schedule… I’m more than happy to also jump on the call with you myself if you’d like.

Q: Hello, I really appreciate this site and all the fantastic information… just wondering if anyone has a ‘generic type’ template on tier pricing? I am looking to do something based on the amount of services I will be providing where the price will increase according to what is offered. I am not sure how to implement as I have a pay by class type packages now. I am adding classes and going to unlimited packages (hence the tier pricing). I would greatly appreciate any information and insight on how to do the cross-over and examples or templates on any tier packages. Thank you so much in advance, Don Poore

Don, not trying to be self-serving here… but really you need to go through our AUTO-CLOSER™ Fitness Sales Training program.

It will answer all your questions on this, give you access to all our best students who can assist you through the class forums, and you can even review your packaging/pricing worksheet with our coaches when you’ve worked it out.

Plus you will benefit greatly from mastering a sales process to sell at the high price point/bigger packages on the front end with NEW clients coming in the door.

AUTO-CLOSER™ is available in our webstore here or in EVOLUTION ACCELERATOR™ which includes that and a whole lot more for a much better savings. You can learn more about the EA program here.

Q: I currently have several clients paying different rates due in part because they bought a training package under the old training package structure which offered blocks of personal training sessions at a set rate per session or because they’ve been on an automatic renewal and their rate hasn’t been updated in a few years years – My question is, I would like to raise the rates and the new minimum rate will be a substantially higher increase for some more so than for others, what do you suggest?.. One increase across the board or two incremental increases to bring everyone current once and for all? -Joe Green

Joe, now your situation is not quite as dramatic as Dave and Paula’s.

You’re not trying to raise prices on 3/4 programs all at once. You’re just asking about bringing everyone “in line” at once with current rate increase.

So if you believe your delivering the value and you’ve got “stored equity” in your client relationships, then I would “rip the band-aid off all at once” and go for it here.

A lot of folks avoid doing this out of fear of losing clients, or because they can kinda ‘get by’ with how they’re doing now and aren’t in extreme pain yet where they HAVE to do it now.

So they avoid it… and the business just kinda limps along.

Usually avoiding this makes things worse because clients talk to each other and get pissed when one is paying “X” and the other is paying “Y”. And while you thought you were doing all this to be a “nice guy” you’ve really just shot yourself in the foot here and look like an asshole.

Don’t be one of those guys.

So if you’ve delivering the value… and you’ve got stored equity in the relationship… then I’d balls up and do it now.

Summary

Ok, time for me to head to the beach while there’s still some time left in the day here.

So I’m going to wrap this up by saying that I hope all this discussion INSPIRES YOU TO TAKE ACTION.

There continues to be great conversation, and a lot of personal/professional growth going on right now in our community as a result of these conversations.

Let’s not let up until we get you to where you want to be!

I want to thank EVERYONE who’s posted comments and added great points to all the posts. And I want to especially thank all our clients who’ve shared their stories of success and lended their support to others here.

I’m very proud of the fact that all you guys are awesome. And how everything continues to snowball in a positive direction for us all AS A RESULT of YOUR support. THANK YOU!

Lastly, if you’ve got remaining questions on raising the rates or your business right now, then the best thing to do is post a comment here and also request a diagnostics phone consultation with one of our team by filling out the webform here.

Just be patient in getting a call scheduled. I’m told we’re just about booked out for 2 weeks right now… AGAIN.

Camelia and I were juggling schedules Friday to look at what we could rearrange, and the new coach we’ve hired won’t be done here for another 2 week yet. But we’re here to help, are committed to your success, and WILL GET TO YOU!

Have a great Sunday,

Sean

P.S. So if you’re curious, I had a follow-up phone conversation with “Bob” on Thursday. And Bob said he’s been reading all these posts many times and agreed with all the points of discussion.

However, given that he just signed his clients to a 6 month contract approximately 30 days ago… and since he can ‘get by’ with where he’s at now… he’s not comfortable going back and raising rates on those clients at this moment.

But he HAS committed to doing so in 5 months when their contracts expire. And he wants to do a lot of work to improve his business in the meantime. So, I accepted him into our VIP program.

He’ll be attending the VIP Spring Training event in June so I figure he’ll also benefit from our veteran “varsity” squad VIPs giving him some shit.. err, I mean “support”. So Bob, welcome to the family! Onward we go…