The Alloy Sales Process

In this episode, Matt and Rick take you through the Alloy sales process and how it ties into client satisfaction and long-term client retention. This is a well-scripted 4 part sales process we run with great success. The key highlight of our sales process is that we keep it personal because we are in the business of small group personal training.

The word ‘sales’ is sometimes viewed as a dirty word in the fitness industry. Many years ago, the gym sales process was much like a used car sales process with untrusty sales practices. Now, laws are in place to protect the consumer.

You also had the lack of fitness staff understanding of what selling really is. You hear coaches and trainers say, “I don’t like to sell.” Some trainers don’t even want anything to do with sales, they just want to help people get in better shape. The reality is if you can’t sell, you can’t even begin to help people. You can be the best trainer, but you won’t have any clients without sales.

Why You Need A Scripted Sales Process

In the book, E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, he describes why a scripted sales process is infinitely more successful than shooting from the hip. It is very difficult to find amazing salespeople, so the script enables you to find trainers that can learn to follow a script to feel more comfortable selling what they are good at doing, helping people to be the best they can be. If you’re looking to scale your business or open a second location, finding amazing salespersons is very difficult to do. So if you’re trying to open your first gym or open a second location, you’re going to need someone to sell, and you’re going to need tell them this is how we do things.

A scripted sales process is important because listening and asking meaningful questions is a skill that can be learned. If you have those traits naturally as an individual, you’re going to be better in that sales seat, but someone who’s not a good listener can still get better with practice. Everyone is going to be better and deliver a consistent sales experience with a script.

As a franchise brand, we want a consistent experience for the customer. If you let salespeople shoot from the hip, you aren’t delivering the right message to your customers and you will not have a successful business.

Typically, the Alloy sales process is one hour, broken into 4 parts or 15 minute portions.

Alloy 4 Part Sales Process

Meet and Greet
The Assessment
Sample Workout
The Sale

Meet & Greet

The meet and greet is the part where we do the golden needs analysis. We also call it “peeling the onion.” Before we meet with them, we collect a few pieces of information from their phone call. For example, we might have learned on the call their number one goal is weight loss. We make sure we put that in their notes in our system, the Customer Relationship Management(CRM). Maybe they mentioned they had rotator cuff surgery two years ago and has a bad back.

Before you visit with this person, review those notes. When they arrive, you are standing and ready to meet and greet. Then do a tour of the club. Since it is a smaller facility, it is easy to introduce them to coaches and some pivotal clients that are ambassadors of the brand. This helps make the prospect more comfortable and peek under the covers at what our culture looks like.

Then you walk them back to sit down in an office for privacy because we’re going to dig deep. This meet and greet is where we peel the onion. This is personal training. So we’re talking about sitting down and getting personal, digging in and finding out why someone’s there and convincing them we’re the place that can help them do that. Digging deep is that connection that makes it personal training. This is a differentiator between Alloy and all the other fitness franchises that are in your market. Immediately, this takes the relationship from transactional to personal. And that’s where we want to keep it. Body language is important too. You want to be facing them and give them eye contact.

We ask questions, and the goal is to let them talk. Don’t talk for them and don’t interrupt. There’s the old sales adage that says whoever’s talking is losing. So asking meaningful questions, and then just shut up and listen. So we finish the first 1/4 of the hour with the meet and greet, where we dig in, find out everything we can about health history, why they’re there, what we can do for them, what kind of quality of life the desire, why they failed in the past, and how we’re going to be different.

Assessment and Sample Workout

After the meet and greet, we take them out to the floor for an assessment and a sample workout. We measure how you move and do a couple of sample exercises to gauge their fitness level.Then take them back to the office to discuss the assessment in a meaningful conversation. Now you are 80% of the way.

Ask For The Sale

Now you are at the end of the four-part sales process where you ask for the sale. We present them with the membership options and which option we suggest based on their goals, the assessment and sample workout. When you first suggest the option that is right for the prospect, there’s sometimes this uncomfortable silence that feels like an eternity before they may respond. The old sales advice is still true: the first one to speak loses. When you ask for the sale, then just be quiet and wait for the prospect to talk.

If you put more effort into stages one, two, and three, the rest should be easy.When you ask for the sale, it’s should be personal and friendly, not transactional.

Listen in to learn more tips on closing the sale and how we create customers for life through our sales process.

Podcast with: Rick Mayo and Matt Helland

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