One of the most frustrating aspects of growing a fitness business is developing others to sell your services for you.
But until you’re able to clone yourself, you may feel like you’re tied to speaking with every prospect and personally completing every consult, just to bring new revenue in the door.
If you want to step out of the sales role, then follow these steps to get the right people on board and to lead them to success, month after month.
Once you have the systems and tools to and understand how to hire, train, and develop someone else to perform the sales role in your business effectively… you’ll be on your way to more sales, more freedom, and more growth!
STEP 1. GET CLEAR ON YOUR VISION
Ask yourself questions to get clear on your vision for:
Your life: What does your ideal day look like? What do you want to have more freedom to do outside of your business?
Your business: How many clients do you want your studio to be serving? What type of revenue will that generate for your business each month?
Hiring your first sales professional: What are the qualities that you want to see in someone else representing your business with a new prospective client?
STEP 2. CHECK YOUR MINDSET
Too many fitness business owners have the mindset of ‘I’m the only one who can sell.’
If you believe you’re the only one who can do it, then you’re right. If you want to do everything forever, keep selling by yourself!
In order to grow as a business owner, however, you have to adopt the mindset that others can sell, and it is your role to learn how to recruit, develop, and lead others to sell for you – this is the way to make a bigger impact.
STEP 3. ASSESS YOUR TEAM
Prospective clients pay for value.
V = CE + R + R (Value = Client Experience + Relationships + Results You Deliver)
If the people you’re recruiting (for any role) aren’t a good fit with your culture, chances are that they’re not going to support your mission of providing a great client experience or building close relationships with those clients.
STEP 4. ENROL YOUR TEAM
There’s nothing more frustrating from a staff member’s perspective than to not understand what success looks like, what is expected of them, and how to perform their job well. Enrol your team by:
A. Developing a scorecard which has three main components:
- Mission – The essence of why the top exists and should be tied directly to your company’s overall mission.
- Outcomes – The three to eight things that someone in the role must get done, listed in order of importance.
- Competencies – What a candidate must bring to the table in order to get the job done such as honesty, integrity, etc.
B. Understanding what motivates your staff and putting incentives in place like:
- Commissions
- Recognition
- Time off
- Rewards and bonuses
STEP 5. IMPLEMENT A ROCK-SOLID SALES SYSTEM
Using a sales system in your studio is crucial to closing sales consistently, but it’s even MORE important when you start trying to train other people how to sell for you.
STEP 6. GET THE RIGHT TOOLS IN PLACE
In order to fully implement a sales system, you’ll need to get two tools in place: a pre-qualification script and a sales presentation.
THE PRE-QUALIFICATION SCRIPT
The two most important things to get out of pre-qualification is to make sure the prospect can:
a) afford your services; and
b) have the power to make a buying decision.
THE SALES PRESENTATION
One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a PowerPoint presentation that’s branded with your business (colours, logos, etc…
STEP 7. TRAIN STAFF TO BE SALES SUPERSTARS
After you’ve recruited a sales professional, it’s crucial to:
- Train your staff on the sales process
- Role-play the sales presentation with them
- Have the sales professional complete a self assessment
- Complete an assessment of the staff member’s performance.
STEP 8. TRACK, REVIEW, AND IMPROVE (MONTH AFTER MONTH)
Creating a feedback loop helps determine how your staff performed and ensure the correct processes were followed.
Review their self-assessment and your assessment of them, before having a discussion about where they’re succeeding, where they’re breaking down (and why), and what they can do to continue improving and achieving their goals.
Do this consistently and it won’t be long before you’re generating more revenue, developing stronger sales professionals, and making strides to achieve your company’s mission!
THE PAYOFF
Holding onto the mindset that only you can sell will lead to long hours, endless work, and a business that’s bound to get stuck for weeks, months, and years ahead.
Follow these steps to transition out of a sales role in your business, get more control of your business (and life), and enjoy the freedom to do more of the things you love to do!
Article written by Sean Greeley for the What’s New in Fitness Magazine – Autumn 2017 Edition.