Fitness Business School – Convert Your Leads Into Clients

Full Transcript

Hey Pat Rigsby here and in today’s episode I want to talk with you about fixing what I call the convert unit or converting more of the leads that you get into clients. I’ve got some things that are going to help you generate more business in this episode. So let’s get started.

Welcome to The Fitness Business School podcast – the show for fitness business owners who want to grow their income, increase their impact and improve their lifestyle. Be sure to listen til the end of this episode, because we have a brand new special offer exclusive for listeners. So stay tuned.

So our recently shared an episode specific to generating more leads to kind of fixing your lead generation problem, if you will. Well, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me to touch on the lead generation problem. If we weren’t going to also address a potential conversion problem, because a lot of times people think, well, if I get more leads that will solve my, my revenue issue, but ultimately until somebody is paying you for your service, it’s not really solving anything. So you know, it it’s something that a lot of people drop the ball on in our industry because they get into this and they feel like, Hey, I’m not a salesperson I don’t like to sell. They see selling as this kind of antagonistic thing. Whereas I see it as a natural step in the relationship where there’s a bigger commitment on both parts to help somebody reach a goal.

So let, let’s kind of walk through this. I mean, the first thing we have to, to have is someone who kind of self identifies as being interested in what you have to offer, right? Like they, you know, the problems you can solve, the the, the goals you can help people achieve. Like, so, so they have to have kind of what I consider like a loose fit, but I always talk about casting a relatively wide net, because a lot of people try to pre-qualify somebody really early in the process by, by some sort of demographic metric or by you know, by, by income or something like that. I’m like, man, I mean, if the desire is really strong, a lot of times people will find a way. So what’s great is if you kind of make this shift in your mentality about can conversion and understand that you really can’t have a profound impact on these people’s lives until they become a client, you understand this is good for everybody. You know, you, you can really jump ahead because like I said, we, we dropped the ball on this in our industry. Most of the time, many business owners don’t follow up. If someone doesn’t buy initially, they, you know, they get written off as a tire kicker or not being serious. And if they, if there is a follow-up at all, it’s just hounding people with nothing but sales messages and kind of becoming something akin to, to spam. And I mean, you, you get it, you get all these bought text messages from, from people promoting things, but never really adding any value to your life. Right?

So my approach about this is pretty different. I’ve, I’ve written a daily email newsletter for over 16 years. And the way that I think of this is that’s like fast approaching 6,000 follow-up messages. It’s just following up with people, staying in front of them, creating awareness and positioning myself in a, in a positive way, hopefully. Right. and it’s worked to convert prospects to coaching clients. It’s worked to sell hundreds of franchise locations and generate, you know, multiple eight figures in business. And what’s fun about it for me is it’s not really about the newsletter itself. It’s the newsletter is just the vehicle that I use to accomplish this. You could do it through a podcast or a free Facebook group. I mean, I’ve seen people do it through direct mail. You could do it through any number of mechanisms, but once somebody is interested, we need to give them an opportunity to move forward. If they’re ready and we need to do it today, we need to avoid delaying people. A lot of times somebody will say, Hey, well, I’m going to run this challenge in three weeks. You can start then or something like that. I, if I’m ready to start, then allow me the opportunity to start now and stay in front of me. And let me know that there is an opportunity to start now with you because awareness is a really big factor in buying decisions, and then help them understand why your, the best solution to reach their goals and solve their problems.

Because, you know, if somebody opts in, if somebody is a lead and you follow up with them and you give them answers to the questions they have, you, you teach them some things. Maybe they didn’t know all this stuff positions you as that best solution. And if you couple that with alleviating the fears and the concerns that they have about joining your program or anybody else’s man, it’s like magic, you know, if that opportunity to stay in front of them or stay stay promoting your offer, it it’s it it’s in front of them continually. And you’re building this, this potential upside to working with you continuously through, you know, my three times a week email or a podcast or something like that, you know, people are, I see it almost kinda like a football field where every day they’re moving a couple yards closer to the goal line.

Now I offer the, this sort of, this sort of content in a written format bit, man, I mean, you can use video, you can use audio. And the whole idea is, Hey, let’s, let’s move people forward, connect with them in an interactive way and help them understand how we can take them from where they are to where they want to be. Right. And what’s great is if you actually take the time to sit down with somebody and let them come in and experience what you do or do some sort of consultation call, whether we call it a success session or strategy session or a consultation, you know, I mean, you need to know that it’s a good fit. You need to know that the relationship works because this is a relationship based business. And so in my opinion, you need some sort of interactive situation before they join. Like somebody shouldn’t be perceived as a great fit, just because they’ve got a pulse on a credit card, they need to come in and experience what you do. And you need to know that they’re going to be a fit. So, you know, I offer the opportunity to get up, you know, get on a call with people very early on in the relationship.

And more often than not people aren’t gonna take me up on it. But over time, there’s just this steady trickle of people that do. And you know, a lot of times people want to learn more before they bother getting on a call. A lot of times they’ve been burned by unethical business coaches in the past. Maybe they’re not ready to invest money or time in coaching. Now, maybe they’re already working with somebody and they’re just doing a little bit of research to, to shop around, to see what else is out there. And your prospects are just the same as mine. They may have had a bad experience with the gym or a trainer. They may have tried programs or diets or whatever else in the past and failed. And maybe they’re just kind of exploring and investigating programs, whether or not they’re already involved in one, right? Maybe they’re a member somewhere else. And they’re considering a change. All of it’s fine, right?

We’re going to follow up with them because most of them aren’t ready today. And that’s to our advantage. Most of the competition’s just going to write them off and move on to the next person. But if we’re doing things the right way and we follow up, we’re going to accomplish those elements. I mentioned, we’re going to build a relationship. We’re going to be seen as somebody that is a trusted authority. We’re going to be seen as somebody who, who is client centric and cares about helping people reach their goals. Instead of just seeing them as a transaction and granting somebody permission to show up and join their class. And if we keep that opportunity to work together in front of them, for me, I use that PS on my emails, or, you know, I mean, you can even listen to the outro, eh, on this or any podcast episode, there’s an opportunity to work together. That is really a low risk opportunity at all times, because for the person who listened to the episode say, you know what, I wouldn’t mind giving this a shot. I want it to be there right in front of you. And you know, you’re, you’re kind of pre-selling people on how you do things.

So when they come on board, they already know your philosophy and your approach which creates better clients, people that are going to stick around a little bit longer, certainly longer than a six week challenge. In fact, that’s part of why as I talk through this podcast, you know, it’s it’s very informal. It’s just kinda me coaching because I want somebody to know what they’re getting into. And if they don’t like me, then neither of us have to waste a whole lot of time on a phone call later. Right? And if we want somebody to be a long-term client, we, we need to know it’s a partnership, right? They have to believe you can give them the knowledge, the support, the coaching they need. And you have to believe that they’re going to be a good client who gets the value you have to offer. And if you approach this kind of what I call the convert unit in the right way, all these things are gonna happen. And you know, all those shiny object ads become a lot less relevant because you’re having this conversation between you and the prospect that ultimately results in, you know, a, a long-term successful coach, client relationship.

So practical steps things you can do now to put this into action. Number one, think of follow-up as a forever thing. I know in our coaching programs, we help people choreograph an onboarding sequence to kind of put our best foot forward and get a couple offers in front of people. During the first couple of weeks. And then after that, we, you know, we help them either providing actual emails or coach them on what to send out if they’re going to videos or want to craft their own messages to follow up. Usually about three times a week with a PS that has some offers. And then we coach people to make continual offers or invitations for people to experience what they do throughout that relationship in perpetuity. Right? Think of this as a pipeline, it’s not a funnel. They’re just not going to fall out the end into your lap, right? It’s more of a, a pipeline where you’re kind of creating this, this environment that pushes people through on their own terms on their own time, but we’re going to keep them moving forward through adding value to their lives, to showing them how we can help alleviating their fears and inviting them to experience what we do. If you put this into action, you’re going to maximize the number of leads that actually turn into clients. It’s going to make you more money. It’s going to bring in more the right people, And it’s going to make your business a lot more fun to operate.

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