It's Monday morning, the first day of a new month, and last month's membership numbers are staring you in the face. As you look them over, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach because an unpleasant pattern seems to be emerging. You're off budget -- again! And what bothers you even more is that, although you pride yourself on being an industry pro, you've yet to pinpoint the problem.
Well, ask yourself just one question? 'Do you really know what's going on in your sales department?' That is, do you know exactly what your salespeople are saying to prospects, exactly what happens to a lead once it's generated, and exactly how your salespeople are spending their time?
Because managers can easily get caught up in the macro-management of their clubs -- particularly when membership sales are on target -- it's common for them to fall out of touch with the day-to-day operations of the sales department. Unfortunately, it often takes something as disturbing as a slow, steady decline in sales, or a totally unexpected and substantial drop, for them to get back in touch.
Regularly auditing your sales department will prevent you from losing touch with salespeople, and will help you maintain a consistent level of success; it also leads to improvements in your systems and procedures, and sends a message to your sales staff that you both care and want them to succeed. And more sales means lower employee turnover. And all of the preceding result in high-revenues for your club.
So how, exactly, do you check on the efficiency and productivity of your sales department, and get membership sales moving upwards again?
1. Have anonymous callers inquire about a membership.
How are your salespeople handling info-calls? Can they motivate a prospect enough to close on an appointment? If a salesperson can't book an appointment with a prospect who's initiated the call, I can guarantee you that they're not successfully working buddy referrals or be-back calls. Solution: Provide each salesperson with a script and have them engage in role-playing scenarios until they can handle even the most difficult callers and objections. At the Stratford Athletic Club in Stratford, Connecticut, for instance, after management provided the salespeople with the necessary tools and assistance, the staff's closing percentage on booking appointments from info-calls went up an average of 18% in just one month.
2. Have each of your sales reps anonymously shopped.
Having your club shopped on a regular basis will reveal how the average person is treated there (see 'No Mystery'). Although they may not know the technical steps of selling a membership, anonymous shoppers can give you important feedback on: how they were greeted; if the salesperson took the time to ask questions and establish rapport before taking them on a tour; if the salesperson appeared knowledgeable about the facility and fitness; if the membership sale was presented in a professional, light-handed manner; if the salesperson handled their concerns and objections pleasantly; and if a course of contact with the guest was established. Remember, people don't buy your facility; they buy how they feel when they're at your facility Making sure that every guest has a positive first impression will ultimately mean more sales.
3. Once a month, go through an entire sales presentation with each of your sales reps.
Personally being taken through a presentation from the greeting to the close, and, perhaps more importantly, remaining in the role-playing scenario the entire time, is the only way to really know what a salesperson is saying to guests. Although, at first, the sales-people may tell you, 'Well, I don't do it like that with guests, but you make me nervous,' the bottom line is this: If a salesperson can't role-play every part of their presentation -- with anyone -- then they don't have a systematic approach. And, just like the golf pro who must swing his club the same way, every time, to get a good shot, a sales professional must have a consistent sales presentation to successfully make a sale. Without consistency, there's no way to analyze what is and isn't working.
4. Check the sales reps' lead-management system.
Today's sales cycle requires a salesperson to keep in touch with a prospect for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time. Without a good lead-management system, valuable prospects will invariably fall through the cracks. The system doesn't have to be complicated -- just organized and verifiable. At Gold's Gym in Kingston, New York, for instance, we implemented a simple index-card, file-box system, using 1-31 and January-December dividers. In two months, the be-back ratio of guests improved by more than 10%, and the number of booked appointments increased by 180%.
5. Check the point-of-sale/buddy-referral presentation.
Because buddy referrals are the best source of leads available, it's imperative that your salespeople ask for referrals at the point of sale and use a professional-looking form. For instance, at the Newport Athletic Club in Newport, Rhode Island, as a result of printing up a basic 'New Member Guest Privileges' form, which gives new members an opportunity to bring up to five guests for a free visit, the sales staff went from receiving either none, or just one, name from each sale, to regularly getting two or three. That translates into hundreds of new leads for the club during the course of a year.
6. Evaluate your club's daily goals worksheets.
If you want your sales-people to stay organized, focused, and on top of their performance, daily goals worksheets are a must. These worksheets should track the following things: the days' tours and month-to-days totals; monthly sales totals in numbers or gross; daily prospecting contacts; info-call/show ratio; closing ratio; total appointments made for the month; and total buddy referrals obtained for the month. At Gold's Gym in Syracuse, New York, after using the daily goals worksheets for just one month, one salesperson, an eight-year veteran, managed to increase his productivity by 12%; and by having the entire sales team use the worksheets, management was able to diagnose and solve problems before they became unmanageable.
7. Check up on the club's appointment book.
Basic as it may sound, a central appointment book can help keep your sales department organized, as well as foster team spirit. By having everyone record their appointments in one book, management can, at a glance, know exactly what to anticipate in membership sales each day; and, if a club manager confirms appointments from the book the right before, the club will almost always increase its show ratio. Furthermore, one central appointment book can foster friendly competition amongst the sales team. And, finally, if an individual with an appointment calls to reschedule at a time when the sales rep isn't there or is busy, a coworker can reschedule the appointment immediately, instead of just taking a message.
8. Use the guest register as a sales-management tool.
Virtually every club I visit has a register that guests sign before using the facility. Although this has traditionally been used as a waiver of liability, the register can double as a follow-up tool for the salespeople. If, after a guest leaves the facility, each entry is marked with a discrete, abbreviated code indicating who worked with the guest, if the guest enrolled, and whether or not there was any follow up, you can use the register at the weekly sales meeting to qualify what happened to each prospect. With one club I recently worked with, the manager found that, on average, 14 prospects a week were falling though the cracks, simply because no sales reps were available at the time the prospects came in.
9. Have your salespeople use 'member-contact sheets' to keep in touch with members.
Remember, buddy referrals are the best source of leads. After the point-of-sale /buddy-referral presentation, the best way to continue obtaining referrals from members is simply by staying in touch with them. Unfortunately, the norm in our industry is to call members only when they are due for a renewal. When I was selling memberships on a full-time basis, I kept a log of each member I enrolled and called them about once every three months just to say, 'Hi, how are you? Is there anything you need from me?' Because of this, I was consistently the top salesperson in a 40-club chain, averaging seven referrals per member, per year. Members loved the fact that I took enough interest in them to call regularly.
10. Check on the productivity of lead boxes.
A salesperson with a good referral base shouldn't need lead boxes. But if your club has boxes spread around the community, make sure that the slips are picked up weekly, and that calls to entrants are made in a timely fashion; if this isn't done, people may get the impression that your club isn't professional and organized. Moreover, if a box isn't producing at least 20 leads a week, move it to a new location.
When auditing your sales department, keep a few other things in mind as well. First, salespeople must realize that you audit them not to penalize them but rather because you want to help them improve and become more successful. Second, don't become so obsessed with becoming a 'high-inspection-systems cop' that you take the inspiration and passion out of a salesperson's presentation. Remember, we're in the business of making people feel good about themselves . . . And that begins by having salespeople who are excited enough about their jobs so that they can motivate prospects to buy.
Casey Conrad is the president of the Lincoln, Rhode Island-based Communication Consultants, and author of the book Selling Fitness.
