Fitness Business School – Turning Leads Into Clients

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby hear and in this episode. I want to talk with you about the missing link between leads and clients. It’s likely not something you’ve heard before, but I think we can unpack it and you’ll understand it clearly in this episode.

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.

One of the most common, I guess, questions or concerns or issues that I run into with fitness business owners. The, that I encounter is this kind of belief that leads should instantly become clients. That if somebody doesn’t become a client within 24, 48, 72 hours, then they’re not serious. They’re not committed. They’re, you know, a tire kicker or they’re, they’re a time waster or something like that. And you know, it, it it’s something that, that honestly, if you pull, pull the curtain back on it, nothing could be further from the truth. Because if we look at our own lives, that’s not the way that we make our own meaningful buying decisions. Almost always we are a lead. And then we become what I call a prospect before we become a client or a customer or a patient.

And so let me kind of give you the, the delineation and it, and help you understand each of these stages a little bit better. A lead is somebody who provides their contact information or indicates an interest in a desired result or resolving a problem. So a lead is somebody who says, okay, I’m, you know, I have a general interest in this, but I’m not really at decision-making stage yet. I’m not, I’m just beginning my investigation if you will. Right? So, so let’s say that somebody who ops into look at a house on a website, so the website requires the person to provide their name and email to access the details of the house on a website. Well, that person is a lead at that stage, right? There’s no indication that they’re planning to buy a house this week or, or this month, or even this year, they just may have an interest in. Maybe they’re not even looking for houses. Maybe this is something that they’re interested in seeing what houses in their neighborhood sell for. Maybe they’re looking because they’re interested in selling their house and the house that’s there is similar. So the, the idea that somebody who is just at the beginning of this discovery stage, you know, they’re, they’re typing in search terms on website they’re they’re downloading a lead magnet, that sort of thing, you know, that is somebody who just has a general interest in, you know, an outcome right now, a prospect is somebody who indicates an interest in making a buying decision so that this is a prospect as well.

This is this entire process. It begins with this invisible person to you in most cases, right? Somebody who you don’t know, they likely don’t know you, or even have you. In some cases, they opt in to get your lead magnet, to download your book. They opt in indicating some sort of interest. Maybe they join a free Facebook group because the title of the group appeals to them or whatever. Well, that person is a lead. And they’re now in this kind of discovery or exploratory mode. And so at that stage of the relationship, you’re educating them. You’re motivating them. You’re providing them with content that answers the questions that they do have the questions that they should have, that that really gives them the, the information that they need so that when they do make a buying decision, the possibility, or hopefully even probability, that, that they, that they land on choosing you increases with every passing touchpoint. So when somebody goes, goes from that lead pool to becoming a prospect, basically that’s the person who fills out your inquiry form replies to your invitation, to come in and experience what you do. Calls the facility comes in as a guest with a friend. And this prospect is the person that you’re going to sit down and take through a success session or a consultation.

This prospect is the person that you’re going to make an offer to. And the idea here is we want to build up a pool of leads, because this is like having your own kind of community where you get to send media to them very regularly, right? Like it’s like having your own TV station that people tune in to watch. And you’re the one who gets to design the programming for it. And ultimately when the commercials run their, your commercials and you get to market your services so that when they’re ready to, to, to consider making a decision, they indicate an interest in doing business with you. They, they move to that next step. And I mean, it’s so simple. It’s so obvious, but we overlook it because what we want is that immediate gratification of, Hey, I spent $5 on this ad. I need this person to, to, to respond instantly and, and make a buying decision now because I need to recoup my investment, but we know that’s not how, how things are. And so here’s a simple set of numbers that might help you get, get some clarity or at least manage your expectations along what this should look like. Now, these numbers came from my friend and mentor Dean Jackson.

So you know, he, he worked with a company where he got this data across a broad spectrum of industries. And basically what it told him was that let’s say that you get 200 leads, 200 people opt in. They, they, they indicate an interest in, you know, losing weight and my new, there, there are plenty of options available to them to lose weight, right? They can, they can start a diet, they can get home exercise equipment, they can hire a trainer. They can join a gym. There are all these things that they could do well over those 200 leads that originally indicated this interest in losing weight, a hundred of them are not going to make any sort of investment related to solving this problem or reaching their goal that that caused them to, to, to opt in, to indicate an interest in the first place, their interests change. They, they, they may not have such an acute interest that, that they’re willing to, to invest time or money or effort or energy in pursuing it now. So that’s, that’s half right now of the, the hundred left over 15 of those people are going to make an investment in solving this problem in the next 90 days. Now that investment literally could be going and buying a pair of running shoes and saying, I’m going to go start running. It could be buying some home exercise equipment. It could be buying a diet book or downloading a workout program online, but they’re going to make some sort of investment related to solving the problem to reaching the goal within the next three months, 90 days. And then of that 100 people, 85 of them are going to make an investment related to solving this problem or reaching this goal. But it’s not going to happen until beyond the 90 day mark, right? Because that’s normal. Most people who make a meaningful decision and, and, and don’t get this confused, joining a training program where you’re committing to going somewhere 2, 3, 4 days a week, committing hours and hours over the course of a year, like potentially hundreds of hours to something as well as paying for this and getting out of your comfort zone and rearranging your schedule. That is a meaningful commitment.

Well, 85 of that remaining hundred are going to eventually make a decision to do something about the weight loss desire that they have, but they’re not going to do it immediately. They’re going to go through a discovery process. They’re going to explore their options. Maybe they’re going to wait for what they perceive as the right time. And all you can do with those people is educate them, motivate them, give them information that might expedite their, their exploratory process, because maybe it answers some of the things that they feel like need to be answered before they make a decision. Maybe you can educate them on some things that they wouldn’t ask, because they’re not an expert in this. And you are. So you may be able to give them some things that, that help them move forward faster, but you can’t decide for them and you can’t get frustrated them going at their own pace. If you want to get the best ROI for those enriched funnel leads that you’re generating. But if you stay the course and follow up and continue to put great content in front of people and intersperse offers or invitations to, to work with you to experience what you do, then you’re going to get a meaningful percentage of that. You know, initial 15, who are going to decide quickly. And then that 85 who are going to decide over time, you’re going to get your fair share of those people to become prospects.

And then you get to have your own kind of meeting of the minds discovery session, a consultation, a success session, a trial of what you do so that both sides can see if it’s a fit. And that’s somebody being a prospect. That’s somebody replying and saying, yeah, Hey, I’d like to learn more or filling out your inquiry form and saying, I would like to learn more. So when you embark on your next lead generation initiative, understand that the intermediate step in the process that you’re trying to take those leads through is to get them to become prospects. Don’t assume that the majority are going to jump to becoming a client. You focus on how you can move them to becoming prospects and then ultimately clients. And if you add that focal point in, in the middle, if you help nurture that relationship and position yourself as the best possible solution, more and more of those people will become prospects and ultimately grow your clientele, do that. And you’re going to see your Le lead generation results. Take off your ROI, go up and your business growth.

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