The industry is changing, and it’s in a whole different place than it was even a year ago. The population is growing older, there’s no question today that the average person in the marketplace to whom you are marketing your services, to whom you are marketing personal training, is in a different mindset even today than they were a year ago. There’s a real move from fitness to health. People want to feel healthier; they want to feel better about themselves. There’s a sense now that there needs to be a kinder, softer, even gentler approach if you will, to fitness, to the whole idea of getting healthy. People are in a different mindset today because people are truly stressed. I talk to a lot of people that are directly in my age bracket, in their 40s and 50s, and these people, to be frank with you, are tired of dieting. I’m tired of it. People are tired of dieting, some are even tired of working out. And so the challenge we face as the population is growing older is that we have to begin to change because the marketplace is changing. There are people out there today who are saying, “Hey if I miss a day, it’s OK.” I was getting on the elevator today, there were two trainers standing there getting ready to get on the elevator. They were talking about the fact how late they were this morning, and they were going to miss their workout session. Then they began to look for their tickets to be able to see “hey have I got any other workouts scheduled today” and they went, “Oh great, I don’t have any other workouts scheduled today. That’s great.” I thought to myself, “And you make us feel guilty.” They’re like, “gosh I’m just here to learn. I don’t want to work out.” So I think the really big change of the market place is even trainers want to miss a day. The reality of our business is that things are changing. But you know, change can be exciting, particularly if you think about it from this perspective: you have two ways you can learn. You can learn from education, or you can learn from experience. Our goal today is to learn from education, to learn some new ideas to help us move ahead.
I’m going to help you to do three things. One, to focus on the inactive market because there’s a huge opportunity out there. Secondly, how to speak their language so you can promote the right reasons for someone who is inactive to get involved with people like you. And then thirdly, one of the best ways to promote to people and how can you be effective penetrating this portion of the market. So you see when Patty called me and said “Richard would you come back and speak with us in Baltimore, because we want to learn from education and not experience” it called on my mind a situation I was in when I was in the Rolls Royce business many years ago. Back in the mid-1990s, and the market had changed but I refused to think about it. I said, “The market may be changing but we’re going to keep doing what we’ve always done.” Because it was easier to do what we’ve always done. You know the only thing different between a rut and a grave is the depth of the excavation. And we’re in a real rut, and I had developed a marketing plan to market Rolls Royce’s to affluent people. We were doing very well. We had a plan, we knew what the average Rolls Royce owner looked like, what type of cars they were currently driving, what type of business he or she was currently in, how much money they typically had, and we were marketing only to wealthy people. But the market place was changing, entrepreneurs were buying Rolls Royce and we chose to ignore it. We didn’t change our marketing plan, we didn’t change the way we went after the market. So we had to learn from experience, and what an experience it was. The year was 1994 and I had a brand new 1994 silver Mercedes sedan sitting on the showroom floor. I had a couple come driving up in their 1953 Studebaker. They come cruising into the dealership, I looked out the window and I saw that car and I thought, “Wow those people aren’t wealthy, they don’t meet our marketing profile.” Then this fellow gets out of the car and he had on a pair of bib overalls with no shirt on. She got out of the car and she had on one of those plain cotton dresses, with the big plastic buttons down the front. She had those little slippers with the open toe and open heel, with three little balls on top. They got out of the car, I took one look at these people, and I said, “These people don’t meet the profile.” They came into the dealership; I had this beautiful ’94 sedan on the floor. I went and got into my office, I wanted go get as far away from these people as possible. He walked around the car about three times. He said, “Well, what do you think?” She said, “Well honey I like the color.” He walked around it about three more times, and she said “Paul, what do you think?” And he said, “Well darling, I like the color.” He came up to my office door and stuck his head in, and he said, “Sir, can you tell me how much this vehicle would be?” And I said, “Well come on and sit down, I don’t have anything else to do I’ll add it all up for you.” So I’m thinking “oh these people are totally unqualified.” I began to add it up and I said, “Do you want to trade that 1953 Studebaker?” He said, “No sir, we’ll keep it.” I really didn’t have a market for a 1953 Studebaker. I wasn’t real motivated. I got down there and I said, “That will be $48,751.13 delivered to Syracuse, New York.” Then I gave him my best don’t-you-wish-you-could-afford-it smile. That old boy sat there and rubbed his chin for about five minutes. He turned to his wife and said, “Well, what do you think?” And she said, “Well honey, I like the color.” So he stood up there and unhooked those bib overalls, pulled down the flat with no shit on, a lot of body hair. Scary looking. Pulled those bib overalls down and pulled back the flap, and pulled out his old greasy money belt. Counted me out forty thousand dollars in cash. He leaned over that desk and said, “Now son, do you think you can have that car down to my house at eight o’clock tomorrow morning?” I said, “Yes, sir. I’ll be there at eight o’clock sharp.” I sat up all night just to make sure I wasn’t going to be late. But I tell you, I got back from Syracuse and wrote our marketing plan. I grieved for days that I had been so foolish as to not recognize the marketplace was changing. Whether we like it or not, it’s changing.
Let’s start out today talking about the state of the marketplace. Here are a couple things you may know, but they are vitally important for us to remember. We know that eighty percent of the population is inactive. We’re going absolutely nothing to help ourselves. It’s a tough thing to admit. We have a massive opportunity. Knowing this, and knowing this alone is enough for you to recognize what a huge business we can build here. Because the flip side of this is that twenty percent of the population is being moved around. What I’m saying to you is if you want to make an impact we’ve got to get outside this twenty percent and start reaching people who are truly in need of getting in shape. Particularly the population that’s getting older, because there’s one thing that baby-boomers know is that if we take care of ourselves in our younger years we will feel better in our 60s and 80s. The two scariest words in the world, no it’s not “Richard Simmons.” Two scariest worlds to an inactive person, the greatest challenge they face, are the words “personal trainer.” And there lies our greater challenge. The challenge is how to we get from where we are to where we need to be. And so today, four strategies to meet your best new markets. Strategy number one is to identify your best markets. It is important for us to recognize that the inactive is your best market. And it is important to identify that we cannot be all things to all people. How about you as a personal trainer? My suggestion is that we need to identify and break the market down so that you can figure out the best markets for your practice, versus trying to find someone who is simply willing to pay a fee for your services for a few months then move on to someone else. The challenge is, what is a market? A market is very simply, groups of people who network and communication with one another. How do Americans network with each other? Based on only three criteria. Americans do not congregate with one another based on some demographic profile, or based upon just age or income. Number one, what they do for a living. We know that 68% percent of the American population belongs to at least one organization that supports what they do for a living. This is great insight; this means that we can begin to work those networks of people. Secondly, Americans join together based on what they do for recreation. We know that 54% of the population is involved in some type of recreational thought process or organization. People who recreate are often inactive. The third way that Americans congregate is based on what they do for special interests. There are a tremendous number of people that group together based on their interests. It could be cultural interests, ethnical interests; it could be simply interests in an opportunity in the marketplace. My point to you is simply this: we need to break the marketplace down based on how people network and how people communicate with one another so that we can gain access to them on a favorable basis. My point to you is there are a lot of inactive people out there, but we need to be able to reach out into the community to draw these people to us because personal training is a scary thought process. It is a difficult thing for most of us because we think we are committing to pain for the rest of our lives. We’ve read the ads, no pain no gain. Most of us who are inactive are into pleasure, we’re not into pain. Two Twinkies and a milkshake and we’re rolling. So I’m suggesting to you we must begin to identify our best markets, we must begin to break these markets up.
Once you begin to think about ways to market your practice, the whole thing you have to think about is “work these groups’ needs.” In other words, don’t just talk to a few of them. Talk to plenty of them so you can penetrate the marketplace. How do you do it? Do the things you already know. Co-actively network to gain visibility, do trade shows. How about writing articles, or sending newsletters to inform them, or doing demonstrations? Very few people think that exercise is going to help them until they get there. That’s how most of us feel, that it’s going to be too hard and it’s not worth the effort. But I’m sure you would tell me it’s worth the effort. The point is you have to demonstrate to me it’s worth the effort, or I’m not going to put out the effort to try it. Ask for specific referrals in the marketplace because it opens doors. Send personalized mail because people respond to it. Make special offers; give those five sessions for the price of four. Once you get focused, you need to focus your efforts because you cannot be all things to all people. So the question then is how do you get that inactive person off the couch? Once you get focused, motivation is from within. You have to be able to find out what these people really want and need from us so we can motivate them to want to move to the next level in fitness, the next level in health, the next level of well-being. So what you have to do then is to determine their strengths and weaknesses, what do they need and want, and what are their attitudes. What do the inactive really look for?
When you think about the strengths, the fact that the want to improve, that they have the desire, that they can improve quickly, the reality of life is it’s good for them, they want to feel good, these are great reasons to market to these people. However, what happens to us psychologically we say to gain access to these people, what we need to do is to overcome their attitudes. We have to make them less negative, we have to get them motivated, we have to inform them, we have to make them less cynical. If we could just overcome their weakness and overcome their attitudes, if we could put together an advertising campaign, we can sell to their strengths. Nothing could be further from the truth. The way you motivate people to want to get involved in personal training is to give them what they value and what they prefer. Don’t tell me all the things I shouldn’t be, what you have to do is tell me all the things you can do for me. The point is this is what motivates people to want to get back into shape, because of the things it will do for them. We know today that value is determined by the buyer, not the seller. What that really tells you and I is simply this: the individual to whom you are marketing is going to make the decision whether they do business with you or not. They’re going to decide if it’s a good value. My question to you is, are you selling these people or are you serving these people? Serving up what? Serving up ideas that will help them to want to go forward. “To know and understand a customer so well the product or service will fit him or her and sells itself.” If you have a clear idea of what the inactive what in your community, in a specific market, and give to them what they want, these people then become motivated to want to do business with you. The point is very simple, you have to sell people what they want or need. Give people what they want (prefer) or need (value). Two important principles to remember. Here’s the first one: the sale really moves ahead when the customer does the talking. The more questions you can ask a potential individual as to whether they want to work with you or not are the questions they ask. If you want to reach people in the marketplace, you’ve got be willing to receive from them before you start giving them ideas because they simply cannot figure out what it is that you can do for them. The easiest way to do that today is to ask discovery questions. Ask questions that really get inside what it is they value and prefer. What are your plans? What have you done in the past? When do you want to get together? What is it that you really want? Ask open-ended questions so you can help motivate people. You can’t just give them the technical side, you have to give them the heartfelt side. We have to reach deep inside these people and finds out what motivates them, what is that connection point, what it is that brings them together, what are their values.
Dave Parise CPT FPTA MES Are you thinking?
