Is The Wrong Language Costing Your Your Fitness Business Success?
Have you ever noticed how some trainers seem to be perpetually struggling to get
new clients and keep their old ones happy while others seem to act like some kind of homing beacon that attracts and keeps new clients without effort?Have you ever stopped to wonder why? I certainly have - especially in the early years when I trying to grow my client base. Back then, it seemed that whenever I tried to use the 'tried and tested' systems offered by the sales team at my fitness centre, that I actually repelled the very clients that I was trying to attract!
Obviously, I was doing something wrong. But what was it? I'd read book after book on sales, 'closing techniques', open-ended questioning and all manner of systems (I later heard a marketing expert refer to most of these as 'Traps'), yet, it almost seemed to me that the more I used them, the less successful I became at attracting new clients. I was truly frustrated!
Luckily for me, I had struck up a pretty good relationship with one of the gym members who happened to be a high-flying advertising executive. On his advice, I got myself a copy of a book called 'Scientific Advertising' by a guy call Claude Hopkins, who during the 1920's was regarded as an advertising genius of some renown.
Well, sceptical though I was that a book the same age as my grandmother could teach me about modern marketing, I soon found that Mr Hopkins not only knew more about advertising than anyone in his generation but also that he had quite literally 'written the book' on advertising that all successful advertisers still follow to this present day.
Pretty much everything that Claude Hopkins had written in that short book made sense to me, but none more so than his chapter on service where he put forward the concept giving more to get more.
'Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, "Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money. This is not a popular appeal.
The best ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample or to buy the first package or to send something on approval so that the customers may prove claims without risk'.
These words offered the single biggest kick up the backside that I had received to date with regards to growing my business.
Here was I, thinking that all I had to do was show up, say a few words about me, how qualified I was, how good I was at what I did and much fun it would be to work with me and bob's your uncle, a new client would appear. How wrong could I be?
I'd been following a model that said 'ask for the business' when all along I should have been taking Hopkins advice and offering something of value, of service to those whose business I sought. It was as if I were speaking a completely different language than the one my prospects were speaking.
In fact, I was doing just that. Every time I was presented with a new prospect, I started speaking the language of WID!
Now, you may not have heard of the language of WID before, you may even think I'm making it up but it's very real and its words are spoken fluently by nearly every person on the planet. The language of WID is, of course, WHAT I DO.
It's a highly specialised language, full of self-reference, self-promotion, and self-service. It is, as Hopkins stated, the language of 'Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money'. No wonder I wasn't getting through!
To make matters worse, the people I was talking to were speaking a language of their own that I simply didn't understand - the language of WIIFM, or WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME? (Or 'gimme, gimme, gimme' as some call it ).
Here I was, trying to get my message across (by essentially selling me in different ways) whilst all the while my prospect was busy trying to understand exactly what was in it for them to give me their business rather than someone else. What would they get? And preferably for free!
They were, as Hopkins stated, selfish. Now, contrary to what you might think, selfishness isn't always a bad thing. In fact, if you're a marketer of any kind it's a great thing indeed. And if you're trying to establish yourself as an expert in your field, better still.
After all, if people are in gimme, gimme, gimme mode and you just happen to be the person who's giving, then you are not only in an excellent position to put your product or service right under their noses, but also very likely to be the person that they come back to when they want more.
In my own case, the wisdom of Claude Hopkins proved itself over, and over and over again. The very next day after reading Scientific Advertising, I put Hopkins ideas to the test. I entered the gym with the intention GIVING as much as I could to every person I came into contact with.
I created programmes above and beyond what was expected of me, I taught classes that I wasn't being paid for, I stretched gym members for free, wrote nutrition plans for any who wanted them and acted as a personal trainer to anyone who remotely looked like they could use some advice. In fact, I gave information to people who weren't even signed up as members yet!
The results of all this giving...were amazing! Within 2 weeks I'd gone from being the new trainer on the team to being the busiest and the one considered to be the 'expert trainer' among not only the members at my gym, but the other trainers too.
Bear in mind, that during that time I hadn't expanded my knowledge of personal training or nutrition one iota. Not a bit. All I was doing was sharing the information I already had more freely with those who could benefit by it. Those crying 'gimme, gimme, gimme'.
Well, I gave, and gave, and gave and continue to give to this day in the form of articles for magazines, newsletters, books, seminars, workshops, complimentary vouchers for services. I give away anything and everything that I possibly can.
And you know what? It's true...you can't out give the universe. The more you give away, the more you'll get in return. Always!
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