Tag: F45 engagement

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Retention Top Stories

How One Studio Achieved a 2% Churn Rate (And What You Need to Do to Get Results)

How One Studio Achieved a 2% Churn Rate (And What You Need to Do to Get Results)
ctto: F45_training_kumeu

You want to see results in your studio as soon as possible. But things just aren’t going along as fast as they should. And opportunities get missed constantly.

Such issues are usually the result of a lack of organisation. 

One of our clients was in this very situation. They struggled to get more traffic, gather leads, and raise engagement in their studio. The client’s membership was down by 150 people and their visits were only twice on average. 

When we started working with this studio, it turned out that all they needed was some structure and better organisation. That’s why from the moment our client became more organised, things took a turn for the better. 

In fact, the results were astounding.

Their membership started growing despite the disruption that was going on due to the global pandemic. The visits jumped up to 4.8 and the engagement soared.

And none of that happened by accident.

See, our client took action to remove one of the main causes that prevent studios from taking advantage of opportunities and getting results:

They got rid of the drama and the disorganisation it brought. 

You can do the same.

This article will show you how to make your studio more organised, approach your business with a clear head, and start reaching your goals.

Drama Makes You Miss Opportunities

New studios struggle with a particular issue that ends up keeping them down:

They spend most of their time on the urgent rather than the important.

Worst of all, that situation tends to carry on as people get accustomed to living in a world of urgency. At that point, there’s so much focus on the drama that studios miss key periods of the month and even the entire year.

In other words, you’re so caught up in urgent matters that you don’t think about tackling the important moments. This reduces your overall impact and causes you to make less money.

Drama can also cause you to neglect crucial aspects of business, such as getting more flow in your studio and making your team more organised and effective. As a result, nobody, including the owner, understands their role.

Of course, all these changes when the studio gains clarity on its goals and what needs to be done to achieve them. 

And getting your calendar on point is the first step toward that clarity.

The Calendar Is Your Friend

Much can be said about your cash flow from the way your calendar looks. But ultimately, if you don’t apply time blocking, that usually means bad news for your studio.

Now, the main benefit of time blocking is that it helps you single out the most important things that will generate wealth and cash flow and build up your assets. It’s the time you book for yourself to do all of the things that will drive your bottom line.

To put it simply, your calendar isn’t only for marking meetings. In a sense, it can become a logbook for your success.

The problem is that many studio owners don’t view their calendars as the powerful tools that they are. They don’t really understand that the point of a well-organised calendar isn’t only to keep track of your daily activities. It’s also to stay focused on the quality of tasks that take priority in your day, month, and year.

Seeing the calendar as your ally will allow you to carve out the time you need to improve your studio. And focusing on the right tasks might turn out to be just the boost your business needs.

Creating Your Own Luck

Tying in with time blocking, another critical aspect of your studio business is to be prepared and plan your actions.

Truth is, the most important things in business happen by design and intention, rather than mere luck. You might even say that relying on luck is often the worst choice a studio owner might make.

But luck in business is a bit more of a complex notion. In fact, we could talk about two distinct types of luck: dumb luck and the other kind.

Dumb luck is something like when you find $50 under your seat at a cafe. It’s something good that happens to you without any input or direction on your part.

However, the other kind of luck doesn’t work like that. Instead, it’s the luck that you create for yourself.

Imagine doing all of the necessary preparations for your studio. You come up with a formula, and you might’ve seen it play out with success all around you. Then, you see an opportunity appear. Finally, you take action.

Suppose you’re successful. 

In that case, it would be easy to attribute your success to business luck. After all, you’ve come across a perfect opportunity. And when you acted upon it, you actually got the results.

Now, most people would describe that as the “right place at the right time” type of luck. But the truth behind it is different.

What people call business luck actually consists of three key factors:

  • Thorough preparation
  • Spotting the opportunity
  • Taking massive action

Your team needs to be trained and your systems in place. Furthermore, you must be prepared mentally to jump at an opportunity. Then, when the time comes to act, you know precisely what to do and have all the mechanisms in place and ready to go. Finally, once you start acting, you have to do it consistently and with great scope. 

When all of these factors come into place, great results become possible for your studio. 

And that’s the luck that you create yourself, not a game of chance.

Let Go of the Drama, Organise, and Jump Into Action

Being prepared and focusing on the important aspects of your business are, without a doubt, the crucial aspects of your business. 

If you can learn to let go of the drama around urgent matters and pay attention to the key points, everything will start to fall into place. You’ll create a sound foundation for a well-organised studio that works like clockwork and reaches goals without issues.

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Operations Top Stories

Two Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate a Healthier Bottom Line

Two Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate a Healthier Bottom Line
ctto: F45 Darwin

If you went around and ask studio owners one of the worst feelings they can experience, many would probably give the same answer:

Missed opportunities.

Studio owners share this pain point with other businesses, and it’s particularly pronounced with new studios. 

But that doesn’t mean more experienced studios don’t miss out on an opportunity every now and then. In fact, you’d struggle to find a studio immune to the issue.

However, new studios have a more challenging time when they can’t seize opportunities promptly. This is because missed opportunities hinder growth, which is the primary goal of every new studio.

Luckily, there’s a way to resolve the issue. And it comes down to executing key tasks every month.

This article will break down two vital components to make that happen. These components will help you run a successful studio and never miss an opportunity again.

The Captain’s Checklist

This checklist serves to keep your crew, i.e., your team organised and functional.

The captain’s checklist is entirely focused on what happens within your business weekly. And this person-oriented aspect sorts out the crucial tasks your team members have every week.

Essentially, this checklist serves to avoid the constant “Did you remember to do that?” questions. That’s because forgotten tasks can pile up quickly if you don’t have a system to organise them.

That said, coming up with a functional checklist will require some careful consideration on your part.

First, you’ll need to break down everything that has to happen during the week. Then, you’ll need to split all of the crucial tasks into different days. Finally, you’ll have to outline which team member is responsible for which task.

Clearly, the captain’s checklist is an excellent organisational tool. But it provides another great benefit: 

At the end of each week, you can take the checklist and check for any problematic entries. And once the month is over, you can compare all checklists to spot potential issues with specific tasks.

Essentially, the captain’s checklist doesn’t only tell your team who should do what and when. It also tells you how well your team is handling particular aspects of your business. As a result, you can tweak certain processes and establish better work habits that the team can stick to consistently. 

You can make your checklist even more effective by marking key performance indicators or KPIs. Finally, if you want to get into the details, you could create multiple checklists to handle the finer aspects of complex tasks.

At the end of the day, the captain’s checklist will be your best friend when it comes to organising your studio for maximum efficiency.

Start Harvesting Correctly

When we talk about harvest, we’re referring to the last three days of the month. These three days are a critical part of your calendar when specific actions will be necessary. 

In particular, you’ll need to do three things during these days:

First, you’ll send out a new offer to all of your lead lists. 

When sending offers to your newest leads and people who haven’t bought anything from you yet, you’ll give them the exact same offer that they received the last time. The purpose of this is to freshen up these leads with the same message but with a new wrapper around it.

For example, if you had a Valentine’s Day or spring head-start offer, you’ll send out the same content. The only difference will be that you’ll rephrase the offer to make it fresh.

The reason behind this approach is to take away the monthly operational drag that can happen when you need to come up with new service promotions every time.

Doing this regularly will create an atmosphere in which people will automatically raise their hands when the end of the month comes. Then, you’ll have an easier time bringing those people out and making sales.

In essence, this task will set your studio up for the upcoming month while closing the current one.

Second, you’ll do blitz rollovers. 

In other words, you’ll dedicate a day to focusing on anyone who hasn’t rolled over so far during the month. This even includes people who have just arrived.

The vital point here is to gather everything that worked previously and go all out to try and get everyone on board using it. After all, there’s no point in keeping things in the drawer at the end of the month. 

So, don’t hesitate to offer every incentive you can to get people to roll over. Take note of all the freebies, giveaways, vouchers, and every other resource at your disposal and use them to your advantage.

Finally, the third thing you’ll need to do at the end of the month is to take care of the bulk stuff.

This mainly refers to nurturing your important business relationships. For example, you should reach out to your joint ventures, schools, sports teams, businesses, physios, and anyone else that you talk with.

Ideally, you’ll already have a tally of what you’ve done on that front during the month. This will make it easier to share relevant stories with them and let them know that everything’s working correctly.

Now, this task will be made more straightforward by getting it done in a single day. This way, you won’t have to take note of every contact you’ve talked to.

Remember, these three things are essential to wrap up your month. But there’s one bonus thing you should do come the end of the month:

Put the time aside to plan out the next month.

Once you get all of this done, the harvest period will be over, and your studio will be ready to take on the period ahead in full strength.

Learn to Organise and Wrap Up Every Month

The captain’s checklist can help you bring a high level of organisation into your business, with precise tasks for every team member.

In addition to that organisation, if you make sure not to miss harvesting on the last three days of the month, you’ll enter every period as prepared as you can be. With these aspects covered, you’ll give your studio the boost it needs to become as effective as possible. 

Careful organisation will be your best friend on the road to success.

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Operations Top Stories

The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up – How Leads Work and How You Can Maximise Them

The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up – How Leads Work and How You Can Maximise Them
ctto:F45_training_glebe

When you’re getting started with your studio, the first thing you’ll want to do is score some quick wins. 

This translates to getting a lot of leads and, by extension, new members.

…And that’s where the frustrations begin.

You want to get plenty of new members quickly, but you also want them to be the right type of members, right? Yet, when you look at the stack of names, emails, and phone numbers you’ve got, you don’t know where to start your search.

The frustrating part is that you know there are some potential members on your list. The issue is knowing how to bring them in and, even more importantly, keep them.

Ideally, you want to use the assets already available to turn a lead trickle into a full-fledged flood. 

This article will show you how to grab the opportunities in front of you and maximise leads for your studio.

Understanding How Leads Work

To make the most out of your leads, you first need to understand what happens when your studio starts engaging them.

First of all, it’s crucial to keep in mind that your lead campaign will never be 100% effective. In fact, 50% of the people who opted for an offer will never actually buy.

Another 35% will take between three months and two years to convert.

This leaves you with about 15% of people who will be ready to buy right now. Those are your quick wins.

Of course, leveraging the quick wins is a no-brainer. When you have people willing to buy immediately, that’s a slam-dunk case that won’t require too much attention on your part.

A similar thing applies to the 50% of people who won’t buy. The best you can do about them is keep warming them up and see if they change their minds at some point. However, that’s a task best suited for automation and something you don’t need to think about too much.

The critical part of your leads is those 35%. These are the potential members that might go either way – they either buy or they don’t. Furthermore, they are the leads that you’ve already paid for.

In other words, those leads represent the potential that your studio is sitting on, and that’s where you need to direct most of your attention.

Creating Your Lists of Leads

Building your lists is a matter of playing the long game. The principle at its core is to run specific campaigns to grow an evergreen list of leads ready to join.

Now, to create those specific campaigns, it would be best to segment your audience into particular lists. These should include:

  • Ex-members
  • People who’ve never been members, like the contacts you got from your website who gave their info but never bought anything
  • Unconverted trialers, or people who never rolled over or did sessions
  • Active members
  • Open-ended suspensions, or the members who made a pause due to a variety of reasons

These will be the main sections of your complete lead pool. 

Once you have them in separate lists, you can start reaching out. And the best way to do that will be in an articulated five-day effort.

The Five-Day Sprint

You might’ve noticed that there are five lists of leads and the corresponding number of days for your sprint. There’s a very good reason for that.

When you start to launch your follow-up sequences, you don’t want to do it at the same time for all of your leads. Otherwise, you might get into a situation where a lot of people will start responding and raising their hands at the same time. As a result, you could quickly lose track of who you’ve followed up with and miss out on some opportunities.

For that reason, you’ll want to dedicate one day to each group. And it’s worth noting that you might need to contact a person up to 15 times just to get them on the phone and eventually make the sale.

Doing the five-day sprint will make everything well-organised and allow you to keep track of the people you’ve contacted, as well as any feedback you’ve got from them.

As mentioned before, the way you follow up will depend on the type of lead. 

Building Your Follow-Up Sequences

If you want to make your outreach as efficient as possible, you’ll need to build tailored sequences for each group.

When contacting ex-members, you’ll want to send out a “win-back” offer. This sequence is pretty self-explanatory.

The second group is the people who’ve never been members. For them, you’ll want to create a massive level of engagement because you’re offering a new experience. Consistency is the name of the game here. After all, people will buy when they want to, not when it’s convenient for you. And that brings everything down to timing.

When it comes to the unconverted trialers, they’ll need some sort of incentive. It might be an extension, an offer to try again, or a special offer that feels like it’s tailored for them specifically.

For active members, it would be best to focus on those who might bring in referrals. Besides that, you should remember to answer any of their emails or questions.

Finally, the goal with open-ended suspensions is to connect with those people. You should get them on the phone, have a conversation, build a plan, and book them for their first session back with your studio. If needed, you might even offer some additional incentives like a price reduction for the first month. In essence, following up with these leads should be uncomplicated.

Use Leads Wisely to Build Up Your Studio

Leads are everything when it comes to growing your studio. You have to be able to bring in as many ideal-fit leads as possible and convert them efficiently to keep your studio business moving forward.

Remember that creating particular groups of leads and designing specific sequences for each one according to their wants and needs will be the best way to grow your number of members. 

Do it right, and your studio will start to thrive.

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Retention Top Stories

What Numbers Say About Your Studio – And the Secret Key to Growth

What Numbers Say About Your Studio – And the Secret Key to Growth
ctto: f45_training_bayswater

One of the greatest challenges for many studios is that they aren’t growing fast enough.

This problem leads to numerous hardships and additional complications for businesses, as well as plenty of frustration.

After all, you put in all of the effort and give it your best, but things still seem to move forward at a snail’s pace. Then, when you try to determine the cause of the slow growth, you realise that so many aspects of your business need attention.

So you start playing whack-a-mole, chasing after the source of your business issues. You try to cover every base, sending yourself and your team into a spin. But it’s not clear what works and what doesn’t.

In the end, the only things you’re left with are feelings of uncertainty and a lack of control. And it’s all because of a simple mistake in the approach:

You can’t afford to make reactive decisions in your business. 

By the time you start patching up the critical spots, it might become nearly impossible to control what happens. That’s why the best way to go is to make your decisions proactive and based on data. 

This article will explain how to leverage numbers to grow your business and avoid the common pitfalls of an unprepared studio owner.

The Four Futures Outcome

Imagine an aeroplane flying from San Francisco to New York. 

On a regular flight, getting from one city to the other would be pretty straightforward.

But imagine if the plane veered off course by only two degrees. In that case, the aircraft would end up in Baltimore instead of New York.

In other words, a small mistake can lead to significant consequences in the long run. 

The same principle applies to businesses, and it’s the basis of the Four Futures model.

Based on your metrics, your business might be looking at one of four possible outcomes: 

  • Good
  • Okay
  • Poor
  • Disaster

Furthermore, these outcomes can manifest over different periods, which is why monitoring your metrics on a three, six, nine-month, and yearly basis is crucial.

Naturally, you’ll want to gravitate more towards better outcomes, ideally reaching great every time. But to do this reliably, you’ll need to understand how metric tracking and measuring work and why it matters.

What You Need to Know About Measuring Your Metrics

When studios don’t understand their metrics, they might find themselves in a strange situation: 

They might be winning without even realising it. On the other hand, they could be on a downward spiral and not know it.

This is why understanding your studio’s metrics is crucial.

Now, the essential things you need to know about your metrics boil down to three key principles. The first one is simple:

Your numbers should never be a mystery.

The reality is that so many studios have no idea about how many leads they’re getting. Not to mention their conversion rates, rollovers, and other metrics.

It should go without saying that missing out on the crucial numbers can make you leave a lot of money on the table. Plus, your team likely won’t have a clear direction towards success. 

Next, you can’t keep making decisions based on emotions.

This isn’t because emotions are necessarily bad in business. Rather, if you allow your feelings and stress levels to dictate your decisions, your team will never know which version of you will show up. This will make the work process unclear.

Your decisions should be driven by data because that’s the most definitive and measurable way to go. 

Finally, understanding your metrics will allow you to get help whenever you get stuck.

If you don’t know where you are and what’s working and what’s not, nobody will be able to help you to their best ability.

Now, these principles require you to get familiar with at least some crucial metrics. Let’s look at them in more detail.

The Numbers You Need to Know

At the bare minimum, every studio owner should know about one critical set of numbers: 

Leads.

To be precise, you should understand how many leads you’re getting weekly and monthly, as well as their sources.

Some of the leads will come from paid sources, while others will be from organic sources. Knowing how many leads either side brings will inform you about the cost-efficiency of your marketing. 

Then, you should view the number of leads in comparison to how many sales you’ve made. And if you express that ratio as a percentage, you’ll get your conversion rate.

Another crucial metric is your rollover rate. The magic number you want to reach in that regard is 80%, but getting there will require you to understand some other numbers. 

In particular, you’ll need to keep track of your overall number of members and whether your studio is at a weekly net growth or loss. This particular set of numbers brings us to one metric that will be the key to your studio’s growth.

The Key to Growth

To put it simply, growth is rollovers minus churn.

Now, this is simple in theory. If you want your studio to grow, you need to increase the number of rollovers and reduce the amount of churn. 

In practice, however, it can be a more complex matter.

To increase your rollover, you need to boost your leads, conversions, and sales. And to reduce churn, you have to improve engagement and your retention systems.

All of this work starts with tracking your numbers. If you do that correctly, you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Leverage Numbers to Bring Your Studio to the Top

Understanding the crucial metrics in your business is the very thing that makes or breaks a studio. In fact, it’s the main difference between the top studios and the rest. 

Remember, the studios that truly succeed have a clear grasp of their numbers and know how to tweak them to get optimal results.

If you devote enough time and effort to learning about your key metrics, you’ll be able to make your studio as efficient as possible, making it stand out from the competition.

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The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Studio

The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Studio
ctto: f45_training_eppingvic

Retention.

As you know, a large part of growing your studio has to do with getting your members to stay for long. After all, if they’re happy with your services, they may recommend your business to other people. Not to mention they’ll willingly pay the full price. 

You can use several strategies to improve your retention rate, such as auditing your newbie member acquisition process. Unfortunately, many studio owners overlook this step, causing their businesses to underperform. 

This article will dig deeper into why you can’t ignore auditing your newbie member acquisition process and two other mistakes you need to avoid. 

The 3 Mistakes

Mistake #1. Using The Word ‘Trialers’

As previously discussed, you want to audit your newbie member acquisition process to support your studio’s growth. But you also want to ensure your team is invested in the acquisition process by shifting their mindset. 

One of the shifts you should make is to stop calling your new members ‘trialers.’ It has a negative connotation because it means you don’t expect them to stay. 

Remember this:

Your new members aren’t trialers – they’re just new members. They’re yours to lose, and you will lose them unless you treat them as your customers. 

Unfortunately, many studio owners ignore this part of the acquisition process. They consider their new members as trialers, so they typically provide them with subpar services. 

What’s the result of this? 

A low rollover percentage, usually around 30%. They may hit 50% if they’re lucky, but they’ll get nowhere near 80% or higher numbers. 

You can only have a high rollover percentage if you audit your acquisition process and stop viewing your new members as trialers. 

So, adopt a different mindset.

Your studio’s new members are here to stay, and you need to make them stay if you provide them with high-quality services. 

Mistake #2. Not Changing Your Beliefs

The reality is that studio owners share certain beliefs that hold them back. 

For example, they’re not confident enough about their studio. While they become a coach or manager, they don’t think they’re cut out for it. 

Also, they want to help people, but they believe they will let them down. And they feel that they’re out of their depth because they can’t figure out how to approach their customers. 

If you share this attitude, you need to change it as soon as possible to prevent new members from leaving your studio. 

And the best way to do so is by getting coaching. 

Those who are experienced in this industry can guide you through client interaction and any other aspect you’re not confident about. 

As you train harder and harder, the conversation with your customers will be more authentic. They’ll trust you more and be eager to stay with your gym. 

Another belief studio owners have is that they need to talk to their prospects like they’re selling their services. They think this is the only way to persuade potential customers to become full-time members. 

But that’s not what you should do. 

Rather than cutting a deal with people, listen to their needs and accommodate them. 

Remember, you have something to offer to these people. But don’t make it sound like you’re only interested in selling your services. 

Instead, put yourself in their shoes. 

They want to exercise, but they don’t have support at home pushing them to sign up for a studio. Their family may not be interested in their well-being, which can be a huge setback. 

So, they need someone to provide the support… 

And that someone is you. 

Position yourself as a lifesaver. You can help your members become healthier, lose weight, gain muscle, or achieve any other goal. 

Once the conversation takes this direction, you’ve moved past the price and are now focused on the outcomes your prospect is looking for. They’ll realise your mission is to help them and not take their money. 

Such wholesome interaction is conducive to faster studio growth. 

Mistake #3. Not Converting at the Studio

Making sales calls isn’t the only way to get more members. Nevertheless, most studio owners only rely on this method to seal the deal. 

This is the wrong approach. 

Yes, making sales calls should be a big part of your sales strategy, but it shouldn’t be the only part. You should also convert at the studio. 

In fact, getting new members might be even easier on the floor. 

Think about it.

If someone walks into your studio because it’s an open week or you’ve set up an appointment, it means they’re interested in your services.

They think your studio might be perfect for them. But you’ll still need to convince them of that.

Not trying to convert is a wasted opportunity, which is one of the reasons most studios don’t grow fast enough. 

See, prospects enter their studio, but they let these prospects leave without attempting to sell. They’re reluctant to propose despite doing the hard work of getting prospects to visit their place. 

Here’s the thing:

Clients perceive their hesitance and lack of confidence, so they leave. 

This hesitation usually happens because selling is a weak spot for many studio owners. And they naturally avoid what they’re not good at. Also, they never address the issue and improve their skills, which makes them lose numerous members. 

Some owners also depend on their talent only. Talent may indeed deliver some success, but it’s not sustainable for long-term growth. 

The only way to overcome this obstacle is to invest in proper training. 

As you learn more about the sales process, you’ll know what you need to say at any given moment once your prospect enters your studio. 

Additionally, you shouldn’t be the only one who can make sales. 

You should have at least one or two converters on the team who are confident enough to sell on the floor. This way, you’ll always be ready to convert. 

Set Your Studio Up for Success

Mistakes can happen to anyone. However, you can’t ignore them and leave the growth of your studio to chance. 

Whether you’ve adopted wrong beliefs, treated your new members as trialers, or failed to convert at the studio, tackle the issue head-on. 

An optimised sales strategy and improved client interaction can make your membership go through the roof. And, of course, getting some guidance always helps.

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Sales Top Stories

Increase Your Pickup Rate to Increase Your Studio’s Sales – The 6 Tips You Need to Know

Increase Your Pickup Rate to Increase Your Studio’s Sales
ctto: f45_training_chatswood

Your studio looks amazing.

You’ve developed a polished retention strategy that you feel is effective. 

So, you’re ready to reap the rewards of your hard work. And you’re expecting hundreds of people to line up for your studio. 

However…

Your enthusiasm becomes short-lived because a huge problem soon arises:

Potential members aren’t interested to pickup the phone! 

You’ve generated a large number of leads, but there’s no way to convert them because you can’t even talk to them. 

Now, you may decide to do nothing about this issue and wait for it to resolve itself. 

But if you sit idle and fail to change your strategies… you’ll only waste time and money. Worse, you risk losing your clients to another studio and killing your chances of taking off. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic wand that will make your prospects pick up the phone. You need to make it happen, and this article will help you do so. 

We’ll list six tips to help you get people on the phone and boost your pickup rate.

The 6 Tips to Increase Your Pickup Rate

Tip #1. Don’t Use Certain Words

The first step to improving your phone pickup rate is to adopt a different mindset. More specifically, you want to stop using certain words, such as “no one’s picking up.” 

What do I mean?

The situation might not be great, but there’s no reason to discourage yourself further. 

In fact, many studio owners think that no one’s picking up after dialling just one or two numbers. They set unrealistic expectations, hoping that each potential client will answer their call. 

But unless you’re doing 10 to 12 follow-ups per lead, stop thinking all your clients are refusing to answer you. 

The problem may lie in just one or two prospects. 

Tip #2. Do More Follow-Ups 

As previously discussed, doing more follow-ups is essential to converting your prospects. Lead generation keeps your sales funnel in motion, but your efforts will be in vain if you can’t convert them. 

But you can’t expect to land prospects with just one follow-up. In many cases, you’ll need to do at least two to three follow-ups to get your prospect to join your studio. 

Some prospects don’t require much convincing, allowing you to seal the deal after the initial contact. But keep in mind that these people already know their fitness goals and how your studio can help them achieve them. 

Such prospects are extremely rare. 

In fact, you’re much more likely to encounter prospects who require two to three follow-ups. 

Of course, getting them on board requires patience. But you also need to overcome your fear of rejection. 

You might think your prospects are indifferent to your studio, but that may not be the case at all. They could simply be waiting for you to make the first move and address certain pain points. 

If so, being persistent with your follow-ups will let you sell your studio’s services and convince them that yours is the right studio for them. 

Tip #3. Switching Phone Numbers 

Another thing you can try to improve your lead conversion is to use a different phone number. By this, I mean if your primary number is receiving no attention, switch to your secondary number. 

This tactic can work great with many potential members, especially those who are hesitant to join a studio. They don’t know who you are yet, which is why they’re timid and reluctant to answer your calls. 

But as previously discussed, persistence pays off. 

Using a different phone number ties perfectly into this point. Since they don’t know that it’s you calling using your secondary number, chances are they’re more likely to pick up.

Tip #4. Do the Double Tap

Don’t feel disheartened if your prospect doesn’t answer the first time. I know many studio owners call it quits at this point, but that’s not what you should do. 

Instead, do the double tap – redial your potential client’s number immediately after your first attempt. 

It’s because they might not have heard your first call or think you got the wrong number. But once they see you’re redialing, they’ll be more likely to pick up the phone. 

Now, the double tap strategy doesn’t hold for phone pickup only. It also applies to other types of communication. 

For example, if your prospect doesn’t respond to your initial email, follow it up with another message. This increases the chances of a response. 

Tip #5. Don’t Call at Your Convenience

One of the biggest mistakes studio owners make is calling at their convenience. That is, they dial their prospect’s numbers at the same time every day because it’s convenient for them. 

For example, you might call in-between doing some pickups or after lunch. You might have free time at this point, so you decide to ring your potential client up. 

It’s convenient for you…

But is it convenient for your prospects?

The easiest solution to this problem is to call your prospects at a different time. This way, you’ll rule out the possibility that they’re too busy to answer you. 

Tip #6. Identify and Use the Ideal Time Slots 

Identifying the ideal time slots to call is directly connected to the previous point. These windows have to do with when your prospects are more likely to pick up the phone. 

Here are the three best time slots for dialling your prospect’s number: 

  • Five minutes after the initial lead drop 
  • Between 9 and 11 AM
  • Between 4:30 and 6:30 AM (after work hours) 

The first option might be your best bet since this is when the lead is still fresh. At that point, the prospect expects you to reach out, so use this opportunity while it’s open. 

Adopt the Winner’s Mindset

The best studio owners are resolute. 

Their pickup rate might not have been great when they first launched their studio, but this didn’t discourage them. Instead, they identified and solved the issue to improve their lead conversion. 

You can do the same with these tips. 

The key thing to remember is to not be discouraged by a few unanswered phone calls. Redialing your prospects and doing several follow-ups usually do the trick. 

If not, understand that your customers are busy and choose a better time slot. You’ll be surprised by the improvements to your pickup rate. 

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How to Optimise Your Challenge Strategy to Sign More Members

How to Optimise Your Challenge Strategy to Sign More Members

Much of your work as a studio owner revolves around setting up challenges. And setting up diet and exercise challenges, for starters, can motivate newbies to transform their lives. 

This makes them perfect for increasing your membership. 

As you grow, you need to streamline your challenges to keep them from becoming stale. Doing so will spark more interest in your studio, attracting new people. 

However, optimising your challenge strategy can be overwhelming. 

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if there was a simple recipe for advancing your challenge strategy? 

Well, there is one.

And it has to do with building brand equity for your challenges. 

This article will show you how to build brand equity for your studio’s challenges without getting overwhelmed. 

Theme the Challenges 

The first step to enhancing your strategy is to theme your challenges. 

Now, you might hesitate because you might think that your studio is running too many challenges already. Or that they’re too short to fit any themes. 

But the reality is you can theme any challenge, regardless of how many you’ve set up and their duration.

In fact, the easiest way to do so is to consider the current season and the mood of the people. 

For example, newbies may want to be free to show off their bodies in the summer. If so, the theme of your challenge could be ‘freedom.’ 

Theming your challenges makes the routines more personalised and gives newbies more reasons to do the challenge. 

Focus on Delivery Method

When setting up your challenge, you’ll probably focus on how many people will sign up for it. 

A different approach might work better, though. 

Instead of just considering the number of people who’ll participate, you also want to focus on the delivery method. Determine the ideal delivery method that will help you produce an epic scan out rate and enhance the reputation of your challenges. 

For instance, if your only goal is to get 100 newbies to participate in your challenge, the outcome will probably be disappointing. After all, you may indeed get 100 newbies to join the challenge but just 20 of them may scan out. It won’t be enough to grow your studio, right?

You should do it the other way around.

Determine the ideal scan out rate (80% out of 100, for example) and develop a delivery model that lets you achieve it. 

Get Challenge Specifics

Asking the right questions can help you empower newbies through challenges. However, you can’t ask them just any question. 

For example, the “Are you doing the challenge?” question will get you nowhere. 

After all…NOBODY really wants to do challenges – we all know they’re hard!

That’s why you should ask much better questions like, “Where do you want to be by Christmas?”. Or even, “What does it take for you to be super happy and proud of your fitness and health achievements?”.

Ask such questions and you can be sure that newbies will give you an answer. But this shouldn’t be the end of your conversation. 

There’s a chance that they may not be specific enough, so continue to probe them. The second or third answer will probably be the information you’re looking for. 

Now, when they give you an answer like, “I want to be 80 kilograms on Christmas morning”, this is a specific answer you can work with. It tells you what the newbie aims for, and you can shape your challenges around them to help the newbie achieve them. 

Then, you can ask them why their goal is important to make sure it’s meaningful: 

“Why do you want to weigh 80 kilograms at Christmas? What happens if you don’t get there? Would it really be so bad?” 

Using the last question, it will seem you’re trying to take away the newbie’s goal. And this should make them even more adamant about accomplishing it and taking your challenge. 

At this point, you’ll have all the necessary details for setting up the challenge. This includes the newbie’s goal, timeframe, and emotional reason. 

That means you can now ask them the final question: 

“What’s your plan?” 

In most cases, they won’t have one, allowing you to offer your challenge as a solution. 

Prescribe the Challenge 

You’ve already established what people want to achieve through your challenge. They want to feel like an absolute superman or superwoman on Christmas morning, for example. And your studio will help them do so. 

Does this mean your work is over? 

Nope!

You still need to prescribe the challenge, laying down the specifics. 

Make it clear to your newbies that your challenge isn’t just about weight loss. Depending on their goals, it can also be about getting shredded, putting on muscle mass, or getting their habits in order. 

By explaining the ins and outs of your challenge, you can sell your plan more easily. The newbie will then visualise it and picture themselves at the end of the challenge. 

They’ll soon understand that your method will help them create a healthy routine that lets them transform their bodies. 

Get Your Team Behind It 

The final part of streamlining your challenge strategy has to do with your team. Everyone needs to be on the same page and invested in creating a successful challenge. 

How do you ensure this? 

You can consider a financial award for hitting a target scan out rate. Whether it’s a raise or a bonus, it’ll motivate your team to work harder on the challenge, knowing there’s a lot to gain. 

But the award doesn’t need to be monetary. Sometimes, a mesmerising team experience can work better than money. 

For instance, you could organise a team trip towards the end of the year if they hit certain numbers of your challenge. They’ll look forward to this bonding event and put in more effort.

Dream Big With Your Challenges – It’ll Pay Off 

The reality is that many studio owners get overwhelmed when developing challenges. So, they make huge mistakes that kill their scan out rate and lead to subpar results. 

But you don’t have to fall into the same trap since the recipe for success is simple: 

Theme your challenges, focus on the delivery method, and obtain specific information from your newbies. 

Once your newbies are on board, prescribe your challenge and make sure your team is fully involved. The result will be more members and faster studio growth!

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