The Upside Leverage of Marketing
Marketing may have the greatest upside leverage of any of the nine Drivers.
How, you ask?
Simple. A bad ad, sales letter or brochure costs the same as a good one. A bad sales presentation takes the same amount of time and energy but results in fewer (and smaller) sales.
So – where do you begin?
Know your numbers.
You can’t improve on an ad if you don’t know what the control (the marketing term for your base ad or letter) pulls. Figure out what each marketing attempt converts. Figure out what your closing percentage on sales presentations is. Figure out what your average package / program value is. Once you know these baseline numbers, then you can work on improving on them.
Here are three ways to get started:
1. Look at what your best salesperson or trainer does and have everyone else emulate him / her. If you have someone that stands out – maybe it’s you – then have other staff members model their behaviors and techniques. This doesn’t exclusively mean closing initial sales…this can mean who gets the most referrals, resigns, upgrades, supplement sales, etc. Model success.
2. Look at what other successful trainers do. Look at how they advertise and market. Look at their web sites. Ask them. Buy their products – both the ones that are geared for trainers and the ones geared for the general public. Don’t bother reinventing the wheel. Too frustrating and it takes too long. Take what others do and make it your own. (Do I really have to remind you not to steal people’s stuff word for word? Model successful trainers – don’t plagiarize them.)
3. Look outside the fitness industry. Look at other businesses that have discovered or refined approaches that produce great results. Modify them and make them your own. That’s exactly why I’m reading the book about Starbucks I mentioned in the last post. I’ve never even had one cup of coffee – but Starbucks has successfully captured the market that fitness professionals typically seek and have a tremendously loyal following among both consumers and employees (or partners - as they call them.) Good enough for me to want to learn more.
Then plug the things that you learn into your systems (you use the FCG Marketing Template don’t you?) and watch your business grow exponentially.
How, you ask?
Simple. A bad ad, sales letter or brochure costs the same as a good one. A bad sales presentation takes the same amount of time and energy but results in fewer (and smaller) sales.
So – where do you begin?
Know your numbers.
You can’t improve on an ad if you don’t know what the control (the marketing term for your base ad or letter) pulls. Figure out what each marketing attempt converts. Figure out what your closing percentage on sales presentations is. Figure out what your average package / program value is. Once you know these baseline numbers, then you can work on improving on them.
Here are three ways to get started:
1. Look at what your best salesperson or trainer does and have everyone else emulate him / her. If you have someone that stands out – maybe it’s you – then have other staff members model their behaviors and techniques. This doesn’t exclusively mean closing initial sales…this can mean who gets the most referrals, resigns, upgrades, supplement sales, etc. Model success.
2. Look at what other successful trainers do. Look at how they advertise and market. Look at their web sites. Ask them. Buy their products – both the ones that are geared for trainers and the ones geared for the general public. Don’t bother reinventing the wheel. Too frustrating and it takes too long. Take what others do and make it your own. (Do I really have to remind you not to steal people’s stuff word for word? Model successful trainers – don’t plagiarize them.)
3. Look outside the fitness industry. Look at other businesses that have discovered or refined approaches that produce great results. Modify them and make them your own. That’s exactly why I’m reading the book about Starbucks I mentioned in the last post. I’ve never even had one cup of coffee – but Starbucks has successfully captured the market that fitness professionals typically seek and have a tremendously loyal following among both consumers and employees (or partners - as they call them.) Good enough for me to want to learn more.
Then plug the things that you learn into your systems (you use the FCG Marketing Template don’t you?) and watch your business grow exponentially.
posted by Pat Rigsby at 2:00 PM
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