Fitness Business School – Attracting Better Clients for Less Money

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And today in this episode, I’ve got three different things that you can do to start to attract clients without really spending a lot of money, but they’re going to be really effective. And it’s going to pull in the exact type of client you want to work with. So let’s get to it.

Welcome to the fitness business school with Pat Rigsby, the podcast for fitness entrepreneurs who want to make more income, have greater impact, and enjoy more freedom in their ideal business. If you’d like an accelerated route to these goals, email me at [email protected] and put BGA in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details about our business growth accelerator program.

So let’s talk about different ways that you can bring new clients into your business, and probably a little bit of a, maybe a non-traditional, or at least non-common…not even sure that’s a phrase, but you know, a different way to bring people into your business than maybe we see in the marketplace on a regular basis. You know, I’m probably a little bit nostalgic today because we’re recording a couple of our final episodes here in my home office before we move and embark on a whole new home office adventure. So let’s make these last couple ones great.

Now the first kind of non common marketing tactic that I’ve seen be very successful with the limited number of people who’ve employed it is really simple. It’s out-giving your competition. We have the opportunity to put really good things out into the marketplace and connect with people, making a, a really positive first impression. But most people don’t do it. Most people sit back and say, okay, how can I get this person to spend money with me is the first interaction. How can I make it about me? What’s in it for me? And if we think about what we can do for the perspective client, what we can do for our community as a whole, and let the perspective clients kind of self identify, raise their hand, so to speak. I know we’re going to be so much better off. We can give away lead magnets. We can give away great content education information. We can give away workouts. I mean, we can let people come in and try and experience what we have to offer. We can go do good things for other people in the community. We can support local charities. We can go and do fitness days at local schools. There are so many things that we can do to, to build Goodwill and make a great first impression with people that may not already know who we are, but man, when they get to connect with this, they’re going to say, you know what, that’s the type of business that want to work with. Those are the type of people that I want to connect with because I think that we share similar values and they’re certainly doing good things for people that I care about. So if you want to, to really be a pillar of the community, so to speak, go out and out, give the competition.

Now some of that may be throttled back as far as the offline or in person stuff, when it comes to doing good work out in the community, kind of boots on the ground stuff. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do do good work and an out-give the competition online. You can certainly gift all sorts of resources and education and even do fundraising things that are entirely online driven, you know, in the immediate future and start to build those relationships now. So if you’re not going into the market saying, okay, how can I build relationships and really start them off in a very positive way by giving you’re missing out. So be sure to consider who you want to connect with and how you can serve them first.

So that’s number two, you know, let’s build a community culture. That’s going to be attractive to the type of target market that we want to appeal to that we want to attract. I think a lot of times we think, okay, we’re, we’ll go get the people and that will create the culture. That’ll create the community. Maybe the better approach is building that community in instilling that culture and really driving that culture each and every day and then exposing more and more people to it. If you focus on the people that you have, right, you make like in the, in the baseball coaching ranks that I grew up in, you know, talk about making the big time where you are, right. Instead of chasing that next better job, we would spend our time saying, okay, how do we make this a program that’s really successful? And then not all open doors for different opportunities down the line. Sure. But let’s win with who we have.

Let’s win with the resources that we have today. And so if you were building or business with that mindset, improving the culture, making it something that your clients can’t help, but rave about then, you know, not only are they going to stay longer, so you’re going to have to do less kind of back-filling to, to get past in the attrition you have, but they’re going to become ambassadors for your business. They’re going to go out and tell other people when you do like very tactical referral promotions, they’re going to be really eager to take part because they know they’re part of something unique and special. And then you all, so had the opportunity to go out and invite people to come in and experience it in a low risk free fashion. I mean, I just talked with you about, you know, leading by giving out, giving the competition. Well, sometimes maybe what you’re giving is just a free experience to come in and see what you’re about. And then you get to let this culture in this community really be your best sales. I think one of the things that we’ve kind of made it’s understood in the fitness industry for as long as I’ve been involved is thinking that price is the determining factor.

For most people, when making a buying decision, there are so many things that go into a buying decision, right? People do not always choose the cheapest option available. I mean, look at what they do when they’re choosing a house, when they’re choosing a car, a vacation, whatever else they’re not always looking for that bargain basement type of pricing. They’re looking for the thing that they feel like it’s the best fit for them. This combination of value and personal preference. No. So maybe the easiest way for you to attract more of what we’d consider the right people is to get them in the door and let them experience what you have to offer and let them kind of self select, so to speak. And if you bring them in, in that fashion, we’ve done. What I think is the hardest part of this. It’s not to get them to put a credit card down. It’s not to get somebody to, to spin them money. I think most people spend money each and every day. The hardest thing is to get them to walk in the door and get out of their comfort zone and start to experience something new and different because most people don’t do that each and every day. So we’ve got lead with that kind of giving hand and not giving the competition. We’ve got building a culture and a community that’s attractive to your ideal client.

And then the third thing is being very client centric with your marketing. I know it sounds very, very simple. It’s kind of common sense, but if you make your marketing about answering the questions that your clients and your prospective clients have in solving the problems that your clients and your prospective clients are experiencing now you’re speaking directly to them. Most marketing is not about that. Most marketing is about the business or the business owner is the businesses process. It’s not about the client. And so if you want to stand out, if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, when it comes to marketing, be about the client, answer the questions that they’re asking. Most of those questions kind of go unanswered directly in the client has to, or at least the perspective client has to fill in the blanks and kind of connect the dots on their own and figure it out and guess as to whether or not it’s good fit. And then all of the problems that they’re experiencing before they ever even come in to see you now, how do you know what questions they’re going to have or what problems they want to solve? Well, you’re already serving clients today. You already have prospects today. We have to document those questions are asking. We have to document the things that they’re bringing to us. When we sit down for that initial consultation or the questions that our clients are asking during sessions, because let’s face it. If you want more people like the clients that you’re currently serving ads, are those people out there have similar questions, similar needs, similar questions, similar ones.

So we just need to document those things. And the questions would give our clients face to face. Go answer those questions online, film a video, post it on social media and let other people know that you’re here specifically for them. You’re not just kind of being self-serving. You’re not about your process and hoping everybody will just kind of conform to you. Sure. We need to develop a process that becomes kind of a consistent way of serving our clients needs. But the key to that sentence is clients’ needs. We need to be client centric with our marketing. So three different things that a lot of people don’t talk about. So many people spend their time talking about tactical stuff, you know, Facebook ads or funnels and those sorts of things. But if you were out-giving your competition, if you’re building a community and culture that is attractive to the people that you want to serve and creating opportunities for people to come in and experience it. And if you’re being client centric with your marketing, you’re going to stand out from the competition. You’re going to have that kind of snowball effect, where you know, the people that you bring in become advocates for you and ambassadors for you. And they start to bring in people with them and you become known for the things you want to be known for in your community. You’re going to see your business grow, and you’re going to see yourself become a category of one, not a bad place to be in the industry today.

Thanks for listening. I’m giving away a bundle of my bestselling books, the ideal business formula, the fitness entrepreneur handbook in the path. All you have to do is go to patrigsby.com/podgift to get it. Also, make sure to subscribe to The Fitness Business School with Pat Rigsby so you don’t miss an episode and you get yourself on the fast track to creating your ideal business.