The Worst Sales Strategies For Gym Sales

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Tyler 00:00

Get a heart out to All right, ladies and gentlemen, have a heart out of heart out to where we have a heart out in less than one hour. So we're gonna make this one guys. Thanks for listening to his podcast while I was what I was gonna mumble through. If I didn't clarify it's gonna sound like I have a hard on. We have a hard on. He's so excited to have you all. There's nothing I love more than today's top sales objections in your gym. That's what we want to cover today and not in the way that normally I think people are doing, which is when someone presents you with a sales objection. You're supposed to humiliate them and batter your way through these objections. And then or on the other side of it is whatever the objection is, maybe you should change something about your business. Because, you know, when somebody turns you down or rejects you as the gym owner, if you're handling sales yourself, it gets very easy to get told no for a couple of reasons. And then you just focus on those reasons and you think your whole business needs to start to change. That sucks. Today we're gonna cover some basic sales objections, what the general consensus is for how to address them. And we're really going to try and get behind them for what that actually means. Okay? And if you're in the business of powering through people's objections, we're most likely lying to you and trying to force people into your membership and all that other shit like just don't people should want to do business with you. And objection is not rejection. An objection is just sort of bare Hey, what about this, but very often when someone is presenting an objection, as they're doing it as rejection, that's a very different thing. They're just saying you something, saying something to you to be nice. So we're going to cover some stuff on this here, help you sort your way through it. Before we start, make sure you get to the link in the description of ticket gym owners revolution Facebook group, follow the show at gym owners podcast on Instagram, follow John over there at Jay banks at Bell on Instagram. And you can follow me at Tyler F and stone. That's Tyler eff i n stone. John, we got on this subject as we were talking about the gym owner the other day and they go through some reactivation email campaigns and stuff like this. And we got a message back from gym owner got a message back from a former client and John, do you want to paraphrase what they said? quote it Yeah,



John Fairbanks 02:09

yeah, so the person's like, you know, the very beginning it is. Here it is we're gonna show you the emails your fucking name. I know whether it's got to it versus no. So she just emails back and says, Oh, thank you so much for the email. I miss being with you guys. My schedule just no longer allows me to be able to get to your spot. Right. So technically, it's objection number one, right? But it's like my schedule no longer allows me to get your spot. But hey, I keep hearing I think it'd be super awesome. If you guys would open a women's only gym somewhere in town. I think that would be really great. You know, and then TTF why? Alright,



Tyler 02:45

So first thing to note about this, this one, if you're not contacting former members, you should, because what Did she really say there? I really wish I could First off, it's a good thing. She's not mad that you emailed her. And if she wasn't who she was a little bit, who gives a shit because she's not giving any fucking money anyway, she's just given me a bad idea. So I'm cool with it. Right? There's a person who obviously likes your facility. Enjoyed it. Alright, and so the first takeaway from this you need to do is if you're not doing some sort of reactivation thing where you're contacting regularly, your entire list of Former Members to make sure the doors open for you to come back, you know, we do maybe put together a special offer. So that's what we John and I do in the gear Academy. One of the first things that we run to people right away as those is a simple place to just get live, get a little bit of action that works. That works well. So you should be doing that. Because that's some good outreach right there. Right? That is a person who's now talking to other people in the community, about your gym, as they're hearing and they wish that you would be the one to open it. That's great. But definitely don't fucking do that.



John Fairbanks 03:47

Because at the end of the day, right, like it would be crazy, right? Like it just it's, it's not so crazy as in like, okay, the women's only gym like we all know, right? If we've been around like that's been here, done that, like that's been done.



Tyler 04:05

Because one of the curves is bigger at its peak than I think any of the current 24 hour franchises except for GM locations, except maybe Planet Fitness.



John Fairbanks 04:17

Yeah, global back, like the early 2000s. mid June, are we looking



Tyler 04:21

here? Let me even pull some of this up because there's some like, kind of like insider franchise info here. Was that like, what did they start at? Yeah, 1200 locations in the year 2000 by 2005, almost 8000. And then by 2011 was down to three and a half 1000 and then completely closed everything. Now, that's nuts. But I don't think that by the way, this isn't this lady's fault. This is about another objection, though, that I think is common and that's where we kind of want to get at this with this is there? Is there a bunch of women in your community that feel like they're just not welcome in your gym or in any gym? Is that really true? Um, one thing I want to tell you about clients when it comes to fitness, when they don't want to do fitness that don't want to get in shape, they don't want to fucking own it, they don't want to do the work. So what they're going to do is say whatever thing that they can connect to them, there's a magnetism to excuses, that I don't think people understand. The real reason for a lot of cases is, I'm not willing to overcome any discomfort in any way in order to get fit. I'm not willing to go to a gym where there might be men and I get it, some dudes suck in the gym, or whatever. But like, let's fucking be real here. Like, that's an issue between you and the gym owner. And the gym owners should be worried about what should be concerned about how people are being treated and how they're feeling in the gym. So if as a client, you don't feel welcome in your gym, you're best to be taken that up with just how you fucking correct this, you're just like, I'm never going to gym, I'm just going to not go. And so what happens is whatever, whatever like intersectional excuse works for them, people will find so in this case, I'm a woman, I don't feel comfortable in the gym, I wish there was just a women's only place but then you know what it would be if there was one doesn't fit my schedule, or I really don't like it or actually just bought this peloton. And so it just doesn't fucking matter. They're just going and people are just going to find whatever excuse that they can tell you. And that's the hard part is until you're able to really connect with the real reason that they're pursuing fitness or not. Right, this is an excuse for some from someone who is not pursuing anything gym related. And that's fine. She must be doing something on her own. But I'm talking about the other people that are telling her that they wish there was a women's spot, what they really wish I would hope is just a place that they felt welcomed, that accommodated them that made them feel like they could be there that doesn't need to be an all female gym. You could do this in your own gym by having a by the way, invite them all for semi private classes, like it's just gonna be one coach, and you got a great new female personal trainer. Just be you guys, are you being led around the gym? So being uncomfortable about what to do and not knowing what to do and feeling lost and then being the only female in the gym? Very rarely other than some of the more extreme power spots from every 24 hour gym. My man has predominantly fucking females like 5050 during the daytime. And it really does. You know what I mean, the closest often is 6040.



John Fairbanks 07:16

Yeah, and a lot of things you just nailed, which is probably where it comes from where it's like, as a female for sure. Like my wife is a non fitness person. She equates any type of physical workout activity with punishment. Yeah. So like, where we find joy and like lifting weights and doing all that stuff. It's like she's just like, I don't understand what's wrong with you. All right, she's vocal about it. But when I brought her to gyms before, we all went to work and she's working on her own. She does feel this overwhelming sense of pressure, where everyone's looking at me. And it all comes from I don't know what I'm doing. Right? And then that can be very quickly where it's like, well, I'd prefer this workout with a bunch of other people that don't know what they're doing either. Right? So then



Tyler 08:02

someone who doesn't know what they're doing in a place with equipment that is useless. That isn't even



John Fairbanks 08:08

very close, right? If we continue that rabbit hole, like it's



Tyler 08:11

like, while we're over 30 minutes or less. Same, by the way, one of the things you're talking about is stagnating why that model stagnated. So that's only 30 minute workouts. And they were all the same. So even the clients who wanted a spot to go, they were like, well, this sucks. And they're like, well, we're not putting more resources into this. Because we've alienated half the population. We've also kind of alienated fit people. Like I'm okay with catering a significant portion of your business model to people who have a long way to go in fitness. Absolutely. But progress is what you're selling and progress should be appealing to anybody. And that's the thing I think a lot of these people get us like I get it you want to take people from zero to 50 That's your business model great but what if someone's at 35 and they want to go to 70 Like do they got to feel like they got to transcend your spot or that your place is beneath them? Like there can't you can fit can fit more different archetypes of people into your business and you think I'm gonna go through these these objections another one or that one that was mentioned was like I don't know what to do when I'm in the gym and I think that kind of cool relates to the thing that you said I just don't know what I'm doing. One of the things about sales objections is it's one again who said they can just be telling you know, and it can be a hard no and they're just dropping whatever adjacent thing that they may be kind of feel your way to get you off their fucking back. This is chaff, this is if you ever saw a movie the countermeasures to like when you shoot a missile at Air Force One, and they're like, when the missile seeks those, it's like flair. That's what this is. This is fucking Galway. Okay, this is a thing that we do in the Midwest. Midwest, nice, Midwest, nice. It was nice, which means I'm not going to tell you it If you suck, I don't like you. I'm not a big fan of this whole thing that you came to me at your place sucks, smells weird, or everyone who looks here trains here, I can't imagine that I'd want to be around. So just fucking No. You know, that's the reality around here when someone's like, you know, it's just a bit too pricey, and I'm pretty busy and I gotta chase the kids, right? Like, that's what that means. That's what that means. Correct? And it's okay, but don't read too much into this. Now, sometimes there's reality that those are rooted in reality, and it's an invitation to actually address an issue, right? I always talked about part of our sales process. What do you look to accomplish in the next few months? And they tell you, Okay, what's kind of been in the way of you getting there before? Oh, it's foodstuff? I don't know what I'm doing in the gym. When they walked through those objections. That way, it's an opportunity to address that objection with a service that will tell you what if you are having trouble with the food stuff, in regards to your weight loss, we got nutrition coaching here, here's the successes we've had, it's only this much. If you're worried about not being very familiar within the gym, with personal training, we can help you with it. We also have some workout programs that we can send your way. It's part of our intro package. So you can get on your feet and get to know what you're doing. You do need to address them. But you cannot go hard on any of this, which is just be like, like, well, we have nutrition coaching, and we have this and so now you're gonna sign up, it's like knowing that they still need to be presented, not just as a hurdle they need to get over to buy. But it's a hurdle they need to jump over in order to be successful, based on the terms that they've already defined, that are in the way and if you're just asking them, Hey, do you want to join? And then they're like, well, not really, it's too expensive, like, no, it needs to be rooted back into their why, and then you got a shot. And if they're just saying shit to get you off their ass, if I can go away, hit them up in a little bit. Another year, maybe if they didn't find guys, in another year, if they don't find anything else, they're gonna still be looking. And if you're nice and cool and didn't ride them, someone riding me gets pushy about that type, shine, never going back, never going back. I will never go to a car dealership, where a fucking salesman walks out to me in my car while I'm driving through and stops me to talk to me. Blocking never, there's two places in town that do that, and I will never go there. I will never drive through there. Not even once. And that's important. So you can't just bulldoze through these things like you have this perfect little thing. It needs to be these objections that need to be overcome in the context. And I think on the subject of curves, it's just really, really interesting to see how they address that one singular issue, like the entire business wants to address one objection to access to 50% of the population, right? Females only. And ideally, I think it was towards people that aren't necessarily in shape. And based on because it was not rooted in the actual success of those clients, it was just rooted in there being a place where they can go sweat, and where there's going to be no dudes and not really any real fucking outcomes or any real diverse amounts of training, it's you're just coming in and doing a 30 minute thing, you know, a quick thing. There's, it's because that's not rooted in success, it was always bound to fail. And halfway through this, we start going through this, like, the CEO blamed the failures of the franchise on franchisees and that did become a situation where a bunch of these franchise owners just wrote it, the brand grew, it peaked. And the ones that were up, sold, sold, and they sold immediately. And then as it started to contract franchisees we're selling their clubs to other people coming around buying them for as low as $1. By the way, as low as $1. Imagine buying at the peak and selling it for $1 Just because but that's also predatory on the buyer's end of it too. And then when the whole thing goes tits up who gives a shit? It's all over with. So like, I don't. You don't need to move completely, your whole business model shouldn't be based around one objection. I think your business model needs to be based on a few of the objections that are centered around, Hey, am I actually going to be successful because not knowing what you do in the gym? Yeah, that's about your comfort. But it really should be focused. If your version is blended, your version of solving that problem is blended between them being comfortable and actually knowing what to do, because it will make them actually successful at things that they came to do. Now we're talking.



John Fairbanks 14:26

And if you want to be able to have if you want to be able to have these niche populations that you serve, there are ways that are financial, that allow you to be financially, financially soluble, like in your own business as it is. And we've touched on this before where again, people may have objections, or they may again, if they're flares that they're throwing out to just distract or like whatever. But we've had gym owners get distracted by these before where it's like, well, people really liked this particular class that I Did once. So I'm thinking about having like the whole gym just be this now. It's like, wait, what? Like think about it, what that objection probably was, which is this person came for that for a six week block when that class existed, they really liked it. You stopped doing it. And then you just had your normal shift that you were doing. And then when you reach out to that person again, and are like, Hey, I'd love to have you come back to the gym. And they say, Well, you know, like, I really liked that thing. But you know, I don't have time or whatever it was like it was. So what do you think that now the whole gymnast needs to become that one niche down class that you had? And it's like, no, no, you're missing the point, completely missing it. And I think we can fall into those traps really, really quickly. Because you just want and I think it comes from desperation.



Tyler 15:54

Of course you're trying to get someone else. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So one of the things too, that this kind of goes hand in hand with what you just mentioned, John is the What about it's too expensive. It's generic. And I want these objections as ideally, they need to be coming from your sales meetings, if they're going to be okay. If you are having your sales conversations that way we describe what we're looking to accomplish in the next 12 months. Great. What do you think is in the way of getting you there? What's been in the way in the past? Okay, then you go forward with your presentation, here's what we have to offer that'll fit and walk them through it. All your objections, then are based still on them solving the problem that they're going to come up with vs. So if you're getting objections on fucking Facebook about a singular thing that they're said, nobody cares. That's not a real person. That's not a person who's probably on the brink of doing business with you at all. So just don't gives a fuck you got to shut that stuff up. As a business owner gets very tricky, John, we've been like online businesses with people like that, where we'll have people, the larger audience will get feedback from, like, lots of feedback from people. But what happens is, there's just a couple, three of them that just get to the same thing. And then all of a sudden, the person in charge goes, well, this is what the people are saying. I'm like, No, there's a bit of a survivorship bias here survivor bias based on the like, how these requests or feedback is getting to your attention, that it's only people that are complaining like this, and those people are fucking weirdos, and then maybe they don't need your entire podcast to become about this or your business to become about this or we're all your product and all your services need to become about so many people that just they shape it based on noisy feedback and not real feedback. And not real objections, or even worse, not real data. Because like a statement here, there is not fucking data. Like, do you know how many guys go? Do you guys exist in the world? You go to stores and you see people and employee like, there's a lot of fucking morons out there. What are you? You're just gonna like a person who says that thing. And you're like, Yep, okay. I don't take business advice from hardly anybody. Let alone someone who's never done any business with me doesn't fucking know me at all is just going to tell me like, oh, you should do it this way. Okay, would you? Yeah, nothing frustrates me more, but on the too expensive thing. When that objection comes up. It's within the context of your sales that I am too expensive. That means you just don't have products that fit their budget, which means you don't have a very good offer stack. And you don't understand the concept of down selling instead of upselling. Your best most expensive valuable things should be at the top man to the highest end shit. That's your one on one attention. That's thorough. This is me holding your hand taking you through the gym. This is the VIP white glove, thorough guaranteed results, body scans every week nutrition coaching, I'm riding you holding you accountable. Let's fucking go. But we're checking boxes every week, we're making progress every week from fucking that's a high value shit. That's too expensive. You know what? Probably for your budget. This much money is too expensive. Or if you don't value those types of services, right? If I don't value if I'm like, I'm a dude, I'm not paying. I'm not paying that because I'm going to go to the gym. I go to the gym on my own to do my own thing. I have myself and so I don't need to because it's not valuable to me right now. So for 234 grin, I'm just I would never pay that for it. Some people need it. Right? Some people absolutely need it. And so when those people when someone who doesn't come in goes, Yeah, that's just that's too expensive. Okay, well, here's these other options, and they're only going to scan the price. They're gonna see what literally fits their budget or requires what they want their desired spending versus what they can actually spend, or expected spending is very different. Right? Someone walks into a thing thinking I'd like to get out of this room. I think this is a $50 a month type gym, right? And they start dropping some $200 A month stuff on you and that's the base off. Oh, shit expectations. We're just all correct. But what if they got tons of disposable income that almost doesn't matter? They're still close to that base at 200. That's fine. so that you need to have choices. And if these people don't have choices, they don't get to fall into their buying habits. They don't don't get to reconcile their budget, their desired amount of money to spend with the outcomes that they're chasing, and maybe the process they want to participate in. But if your sales process is completely incomplete, and you're like, here's the thing, the one thing that one day, that means that I'll see the value in it, they or they can't afford it, most likely, it's one or both, right? But you're not going to sit there and just tell them I don't like this thing, which literally when you read these coaching things they're like, like overcoming it, overcoming this objection by showing them the value that they will receive for their money. Explain the equipment and professional assistance available, and offer flexible payment plans and promotional deals as well. That Oh sucks have a better have better tiered products and better stacked offers. So that you can actually serve people that's about them. This means your needs, your wants, your budget, I don't care to force your way up into this. Again, you're selling you're selling, you're selling Porsches to fucking Chevy Cruze people, man, that ain't gonna work, it's just not gonna work.



John Fairbanks 21:11

Because it's not about it being too expensive. Never was like, and that because that is where it comes down to like it was, it was we were talking to a gym owner the other day and it was, so many of you are going to be in this boat. So like, please hear it because you will have heard it from us for so long. If only you people do not have a choice, if they do not have more than one option. Right period. That was like the most sage advice I was ever given from the lawyer that babysat all of us to make sure we didn't get arrested when I played football. He's like, I would ask him, I'm gonna hire him. What do we need to do? I need to have a contract for this job. He goes, Do you have another contract for another job? They will not go so you don't have two options. Therefore you don't have a choice to make. You choose option one, because that's what you got. So the problem is not working. It doesn't exist. It's not there. So if somebody comes in, and all you have is an unlimited membership, one unlimited general membership, it will only be yes. Or the 15 most popular objections that exist, where at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with what just came out of their mouths. But people would like and this was what was important was like, alright, so when we were talking to this gym owner, it was well tell me about how many people well, I have this many people that are doing the general membership. Okay, cool. But it's not the total number of people I work with. What's the other group? He's like? Well, I have the same number of people. The same number that I have is on my recruiting. Yeah, see that just two days passed a week ago what? He said, Well, yeah, like two days pass a week. So I'm like, you realize you just you're slitting your throat with this, this means that you'd like your day passes $15 You have the same people that want to come and work out at your gym, but they don't want to, they don't want to come Unlimited, so it doesn't make sense because their schedule is gonna allow them to come twice a week. So it's, why don't you have a two day a week membership, then you literally have people that are paying with their dollars that are telling you that they want to do this. The problem now is that you now have established what that price is going to be, which is $30 a week that someone's going to pay you for a coach product. Not super awesome. But at the end of the day, people advice that they're going to give you or whatever someone's going to tell you means dick in comparison to what people are literally doing with their dollars. Yeah, so luckily, at least he had a day pass but this is where you need to start looking for those of you that are still FOR THE LOVE OF FUCKING GOD if you are still running punch passes. Or if you are still running day passes that are less than $30 for the day. Some day passes or



Tyler 23:57

day passes are expensive and therefore out of towners only



John Fairbanks 24:01

correct? Like it should be like what's your driver's license? If it's fucking in my county you don't qualify for a day pass but you have to have that structure down in your gym to allow it



Tyler 24:14

you know we're I've seen a ton of people fall over this thing that this day pass mess is martial arts studios everywhere and not be cut by the way I love that martial arts studios and like some CrossFit gyms do this too as well which I kind of don't mind that they do this that they're like if you're from out of time drop into free I don't care if we kind of know you especially in martial arts gyms if you're an insider like if you like every place I've dropped into for open mat or for class for like jujitsu kickball, whatever, they've been great. They've been accommodating and I never had to pay but I always buy something. I'm okay with that kind of but because they offer day passes. There's a lot of these places that get people like well I got to come in from a little ways out tonight. I can only get in once a week or maybe only twice a week and you know if the whole membership is for up to five classes a week or whatever that you offer, like now I'm you know, I'm kind of missing. So I'm just going to do day passes. And the answer is fucking No, you're either a member here, where you're not a member here. I really prefer it that way. And I'm sure there's ways I could be more flexible in my thinking for it. I've just never seen a work worth of shit. I've never seen a person who's willing to commit on a day pass level get fucking great results because they're not they're not committed. And even in the martial arts set, whether you're fitness, CrossFit 24 hour, whatever, if you're only going to pay as you show up to the gym, that incentivizes you financially to not show up to the gym, okay, for sure, if you ended up paying 20 times that, and it would actually equal as much as if you showed up four times a week. Well guess what that financially incentivizes you to do? Show the fuck up to the gym. That's the point like, money is their investment. Time and Effort is their second and third investment in this. That's it like there's no there's nothing around the sub people need to be invested for the work. So stop giving them outs. I just don't. That's my rant on the subject you give people. If someone wants to come and start to learn jujitsu, we're going to find any MMA or shoe like that. Do you think the person coming in is spending 10 bucks once a week and then it's every other week if they were really getting like, want to get good at this? No, they're not. And eventually they're gonna fall off. They all fall off because they're not committed. It's not recurring. It's not automatic. It doesn't hold their feet to fire when they pay out something that they know they haven't been going to. What does that sit in their heads? Like fuck, I gotta go into this. Because I'm wasting money if I don't. Okay, that's how it should be set up. Because that gives them the best chance to succeed. We've ran through the past this before I don't want to get



John Fairbanks 26:40

we have but it's so relevant. And it's not like it's if you listen to this podcast, right? It's worth God. Listen to some of these things, right? Like you just listen and implement them. And if you're right on the cusp, where you're like, Man, I like what these guys have to say I've been listening to. We're over 100 episodes. I've been listening for one every week for the last year fucking plus, it is like this is your if you don't know what to do, and you're absolutely fuckin shoot us a message. Yeah, he won't charge you to talk to you about what you've got going on. It is just as you are right there. You just need this push and you're getting distracted. You're really getting distracted by objections that are happening from people that come in, or you're getting distracted by other gyms that are in your area, like whatever it is, it ends up just being at the end of the day. It's like shiny object syndrome, where you're just getting distracted by stuff that doesn't matter. Because at least it makes you feel like you're trying to solve a problem. But at the end of the day, it's a false road. It's a dead end. It's just going to take you somewhere and you've just lost time.



Tyler 27:46

So what about this one? This is on this list of 15 Common gym sales upset objections, which was also the first objection that the lady who had messaged the A while back to one of our gyms had mentioned, which is I don't have enough time. Yeah. Okay. Now, the hard sell is emphasizing the efficiency of these workouts in the open range of open hours in the gym and offering quick high intensity workouts that can fit into a busy schedule. Who's okay? So that when they say, I don't have enough time, or, by the way, these two things, I think, go hand in hand, or I can work out at home. Okay. Those people are telling you know their gender, this is a thing that we've talked about a bunch of people lie, John, when he went out they lie your clients are lying when they leave. Do you know how useless the data is that you get when you do exit interviews from people about why they're leaving? Especially if you're especially if it's a coach product more than



John Fairbanks 28:50

What's the purpose of an exit interview just so we can say it out loud? Because we all know what it



Tyler 28:53

is. And I tell you the truth is to try to get them back in.



John Fairbanks 28:57

That's it. That's the whole point. To say that it's an exit interview so you can know is bullshit. You are going to try a last ditch effort the same way I'm trying to cancel some fucking software that I subscribe to. I don't know if you guys are really bad at this. I can't remember who it is. But it's like I want to cancel. Oh god you want to cancel Well, what if we discount this at 50%? What No, no, no, I don't I don't want it. What if we give you the next three months for free? What I tell satellite radio is that's what it is. That's exactly what it is. It's satellite radio. It's like Dude, come on now like it's yeah, anyway.



Tyler 29:36

Yeah so but this you get you're gonna get an exit interviews and someone's gonna say Oh, it's just too expensive or my financial situation changed or you know I've my job schedule changed like none of it is real they did not get the value that they wanted and they're gonna immediately again excuses magnetism towards excuses and they're gonna go, Okay, I want out of this. Whatever I've determined is me. It's Not me that I'm going to tell this business and it should be I'm gonna go. Okay, well, why busy work, kids soccer, fucking whatever buzzword buzzword buzzword again dealing multiple choices and I'll pick two of them. And I'm out of here like, but you cannot take that data, they tell you they don't have enough time. If they tell you they don't have enough time, especially if you're in a 24 hour spot or you have morning's news and evening news, if they don't have enough time to do that. They're not choosing between your gym and another gym. They're telling you that they're going to sit on ass and continue. So that's just fine. That's the person who's not pursuing fitness. That's what I hear about all this. And when I say I can work out at home, okay, that's great. But I do think each of these does not offer an opportunity for you to Bulldog them back in. But if these two objections are coming along, and are tethered to the sales process that we've talked about, you don't have to batter rammed through as a whopper. What are we talking about, like, we got quick, high intensity workouts that can fit into your busy schedule, that sucks. But it's like, okay, that I get that if you can't make it any one can make it like that's a flawless excuse, if I don't have time. But what the thing is, is when I say but I really have got to lose this 30 pounds, I've been struggling. Okay, perfect. Well, if you can't afford the membership and stuff, we do have these new remote nutrition coaching, and then some remote working remote workouts that you can do if you're interested in any of those, but just don't sell them on the way down, sell them on the way out, because and then you can say something like it's if, if I'm just trying to address your objection to continue moving you forward. That's rough because you don't know if that objection is real. They're just being nice. But if I address that objection as a way to move you back down because Okay, well, you don't have time, here's a product that we have that that will basically get you closer to where you want to be, you want to lose 20 pounds, nutritionist most important. Gym is not where we lose weight. Okay, the gym is where we do work. This is where we build this is where we build good habits, discipline, we build health care. But if you're trying to lose weight, we got to work on the food thing. And so if you can't afford the membership, or you want to be working out at home, like why remote nutrition coaches does such a great job, you get a 1216 week plan to under 300 bucks and you're good to go. And, and if that is, I can't afford that you've sold them all the way on sale. Okay, perfect. Hey, no problem. Whenever your situation changes, we're happy for you.



John Fairbanks 32:27

And what you're doing there you are educating and then sending them on their way and you're leaving what Motel Six will leave the light on for you like that. He is like it's just gonna leave it open the door is open for them. Because then they can always be able to come back like prodigal sons. The reality is they can come back to you and continue that work. But you will burn a bridge if you believe somebody. Yeah.



Tyler 32:50

If you ever walk, you've been in these if you never I never respect that salesperson. I never want to go back and in any of those situations, if I feel like I'm having to continue to throw up my nose. You You're selling fucking timeshares. Like you're just locking them in and and by the way, this timeshare shields salespeople and like the really pushy car salespeople I talked about this. Bald, tanned fucking psycho that's all over Instagram and Tiktok because I fucking hate this.



John Fairbanks 33:19

I'm not he's not here. I want



Tyler 33:20

to. I want to get bad. It's rage to me like this guy sucks. Peak sucks. He's small. He talks tough. I'm gonna fucking rip his goddamn arms off. This guy sucks. And it's just the worst. You never as a person want to buy anything? Do you want to deal with him? Or anyone who's ever fucking learned how to sell from him? It sucks. It's the goddamn worst. But their thing is it's just Bulldogs through it and that every objection is bad. And I just you'll never go back to something like that. And I think part of the reason we want you to save face is because you are a local business. That's why a lot of these things don't get these doors or sell software online or whatever. Like there's another one of these guys says What's your you're doing cold calling and shit like this selling fucking infinitely scalable stuff where you just got to go through 200,000 leads a year. Okay, great. But your gym is not that which means you cannot be taking sales advice from people that deal with that amount of volume in your gym, because you will absolutely torch out your target market completely. And what's the turnover rate in your area? Let's be honest, where you're at, how many new people are in and how many old people move out within your two miles, three miles, four miles of your place? Yeah, right. There's just not that many. So you're gonna run out of them pretty quick. If you're pushing an awful or you force box people into contracts or you do all a few of those things, you'd get one chance with one person. And even if they tell you no, now you're never going to get them again. Whereas if you do this right, what you can do is you just go back to every person you have this conversation with and should be entered in your system as a lead. If they're actually sitting down and they're having this conversation with you. They enter and so what you do is you reach out to them in a big batch just like we talked about in the very beginning of this episode. reactivation, like hey, we haven't seen reactivation works for people that were former leads to, right? Hey, haven't heard from me in a while. I hope you found a way to find some fitness that works for you. But if you haven't, we'd really love to have you back if you want to chat, because another year of them doing nothing. While maybe the schedule has freed up or maybe simply whatever excuse they gave you that wasn't real. The other things that they did or did not do in the last year has put them in a situation where they understand that they need to get fit and not doing fuck all isn't going to help them and you don't need to tell them that you don't need to make your sales process about that. Just this is a larger system so don't fucking burn these bridges the first time you see somebody because they won't commit to your some of these gyms some of these, these people are bullying through these objections. And I know what these types of gyms are, that are listing these common sales like, these are people that are freaking out about $50- $60 a month shit. Like how shitty are you to peek at $600 a year out of somebody to give like to push into this. Like to push that hard into like, Well, jeez, I mean, what we do have faster options. You can exercise faster. We have hit workouts. I know you say you're too busy, but you gotta be you gotta it's like, that's I won't fucking I won't have that conversation for $50 a month. There's no fucking way so it's not even worth tarnishing your reputation for such a such a shitty low return on your fucking effort like proposition. It sucks. At least a used car salesman who's slimy and is awful. At least they're moving 510 2030 $50,000 A unit? Yeah, it's word date vs. dorks apply that type of sales structure. Just ruthless reputation torching sales, sales strategies, to your business, which is based on people that you go buy a car, you don't have to go back and see that scumbag every fucking day. So you can kind of grind it out, and you can get through because you want the vehicle. You don't get to do that if you're at the gym. So if you get a little pushy, and you make it seem like God, yeah, that's not welcoming. They're going to come back and see you every day, they're gonna come back and get coached by you are going to come back and get coached by your employees, other people who you've trained like this, that's fucking crazy. And so you do not have the scale, you do not operate on the scale being a local brick and mortar business, to just burn your burn all of these opportunities by just whatever excuse someone gives you let me fucking power ahead



John Fairbanks 37:30

sucks. Now, I touched on the idea earlier where you want to be able to have people the way you get proper opinions from people that they pay with their dollar. Right. So that's, that's how they're giving you their opinion, they want to pay you, that's the only that's the only mode of the mat. See, that's it, and are people paying you to do your service, then your service is valuable until you have them doing that. You don't do anything. And what's important is to understand what we're talking about. These are objections from people that aren't paying you yet. But we do talk about how important it is to actively and routinely survey not fucking strangers Do you know what happens when you survey strangers, you get Boaty McBoatface when you survey strangers, people that are on the internet are going to fucking troll you or they're going to say whatever. So that's what we're talking about. But when you survey your people, and this is also good for general surveying, talking to a gym owner where they like, you know, we have a very high aging population in our area. And when you talk about it, so what's the average age of the people in your gym? 30s Okay,



Tyler 38:47

we've no What's that? It's an opportunity.



John Fairbanks 38:48

There it is. So immediately what has happened is that you have just now been told by your population of Who do you have, but who are you seeing everywhere you live. So if you live near the fucking villages in the state of Florida, whereas a goddamn STD extravaganza for everyone 65 and older, you probably want to have a gym that's gonna service those individuals because you have a ton of old people but if you only have young people in it, it's like very private bathrooms. I might, I would say, have a sauna for sure. groups that have no windows and just drain have a drain in the middle. How gangster would that be? But it's this my point that I'm making is the idea is your people are telling you so if you look at your gym, but it's not where you want to go Well now that's something to do. Now I need to adjust my marketing



Tyler 39:45

and now because your marketing is what it is does not mean that is what it has to be like not your market but your current demographic. Let me rephrase that right. If your current demographic in your gym is mostly male while shit that sucks, unless that's on purpose. So if that's on purpose, that's great. Right? But if somehow you did, John, we addressed this very directly with martial arts gyms because we must, right, because martial arts is not for everybody, there's going to be a bit more not turn and burn. But there's gonna be a bit more trouble with retention because violence is not something that everybody needs fitness for, not everybody is going to be willing to get strangled to do it, or to get punched in the face in order to pursue fitness. It's just it's not for everybody, therefore, you're going to have to go through more people, which means you cannot just be like, yeah, we're just two dudes that do jiu jitsu or just dudes that do MMA, like, you're already too far in that the initial what's the word, the initial impression that people are gonna have about your business, I guess, probably just a bunch of bros. So you have to, you have to encourage it. So what we did was very specifically made sure at least that on our content, there were females, right. And at least when we had females or a gym, we did everything we could to make sure they felt like we were, we did everything we could to make sure that we've now built a really good base. And we have some females that trained from striking and grappling. And we had to build it from nothing. And when the business started, it just came to someone's garage, and we're going to beat the shit out of each other like that. You're not going to get very many women, not only not, probably not literally none, actually literally zero. Yeah, and now we're at, you know, we're probably looking at a quarter 25-30% female, which is great, but you but that's because we went, Okay, we're just getting a bunch of dudes. And if we're not getting enough leads, we need more business. Well, who should be doing it? Who should come here? Who can we help? Right? And it was like WHAT JESUS? Yeah, we're, of course, all our marketing is just people punching each other and tough guy shit. You know, our logo, someone smashing someone in the face from the mouth. Like, that's rough. That's rough. That's a rough intro to like, seems welcoming. So we worked on it, right? And in this case, very specifically mentioned, and we got a bunch of 30 year olds fit people great. But you know what, in the goddamn daytime, there's nobody here. And we have such a high amount of a high aging population here right now. We need to get them here. Because Jesus, there's so many people that we could get 200 more people here on memberships, they would come in once or twice a week and just move a little bit? And how do we make sure that those people know what we can do and how we target them? How is our content and how do we reach them? How do we do that? That is attracting a person to your thing, because they're well, that is not creating an entire new facet of your business is identifying what you can do and who you can help and then just seeking it out. Now, one of these other things that when we talk about, I want to just jump right back real quick to options, because one of these objections that they have, it's like they almost flirt with the right answer to this here. And then they get it so wrong on the other stuff, but I don't want to get locked into a contract. So what did they say? What's the solution is offer a variety of membership options, including short term, month to month contracts. So in one case here, they're like, Yeah, down sell, or if I can have different offerings for them. But that's the only one, everything else has just yet shoved him through this. I'm too old. I'm too young and just said no, you're not. That's literally the thing is Yeah, no, you're not. We have equipment suitable for your old ass. You're not. Oh,



John Fairbanks 43:08

don't be a bitch.



Tyler 43:09

Yeah, you're not too old. You're not too young. It's like that. Well, it's got to be more than that. But again, that conversation comes from what they want, if they start with what they want to accomplish. I'm too old. Okay, but you said your body hurts in it and so you just don't okay? That lets that person go through every one of these objections if it's in the context of the way our sales meetings are supposed to be going focus on their goals. They're not as they don't carry as much Wait, they don't strike as hard and they're just not. If that comes up at that moment in the conversation, we're kind of like okay, yeah, I get it. Is there anything else we could do? We talk about nutrition coaching. If you're trying to get help, we could work on your health. You could do some stuff at home. Nothing. Okay. No problem. We're here for you. But God damn, all of this is really bad. Don't start taking sales advice based on blogs that I don't know what to tell you. I guess, John, we're just doing this with our voices. But I'm not overcoming sales objections is the thing I fucking hate the most like it's a term I hate to strategy I hate Do you remember that one was like a hormone II thing which was like if if someone comes in and says that oh, they don't have I don't have my card or whatever. And it's like the because so many times people say Oh, I don't have my my debit card at home my credit card with me I'll have let me talk to the wife and I'll get back to that the solution to that is before the meeting starts because so many people use that excuse before the meeting starts ask them for their ID so you can match it up or whatever. And that usually when they take out their wallet they know they have their ID and their credit card.



John Fairbanks 44:40

Well that's because they can say I don't have a wallet. I don't have my wallet. So let's try the majors here and then the like oh well for sure you have your wallets then oh, and then



Tyler 44:49

The other one is to take the other objection to that. By the way the other pathway that's even worse, which is take out your phone and open your banking app and get let me get your routing number shit to foster foster Hey, you're doing that you saw the fucking worse, your product sucks, they don't want it. And all you're doing is catching them in a lie and making them arrive that lie all the way into the rocks. If that's how you want your business to go, go for it, dude. But like, I just better have better products, get the right people into these meetings. By the way, if someone was really connected to what they're trying to do there and truly believed that your stuff had the value to let to deliver it to them, and they got choices that would fit their budget, and it's something they're actually fucking interested in doing. They'll just buy it. But it's because your products suck, you suck. Everything sucks. Your marketing sucks. The whole thing doesn't add up to something they believe in. And I'm gonna get out here. Yeah, I forgot my wallet. He's like, let me see your phone. Everyone has online, let me see that. As it relates to some of them I don't understand how people don't get hit, because I get a little defensive. If I'm simply trying to be nice. I'm like, actually, I got a credit card. It's at the house. Oh, well just get out your banking app and be like, my, my switch would get flipped immediately. And I think who the fuck do you think you're talking to Don't, don't back this shit off. I'll never set foot here again. I told you man, the man was true or not. We all have to deal with reality. I said this. Now I'm going to go do that. Or I won't. But that's what I have said, I don't have my credit card. I will talk to my wife about it. And then I will come back and we'll decide what we're gonna do. But I forgot how much I hate you. I have a foot now. Now my wife got to come get me out of jail because I smashed somebody's fucking face off the desk. God damn it, you'll be wearing those strips just like your fucking favorite sales dork to like that shit sucks. Most men just don't take advice from these people about barreling through sales objections, that shit is for different products, it's just not it, you have to be built to already diffuse them based on the need to defuse them themselves. If you're not built like that, then you're just going to be out there. And this is why you hate selling. So gym owners hate selling because they tried to do that stuff. It doesn't feel right. To work. People need to be bought in.



John Fairbanks 47:09

You hate selling. So there's several things that I want to bring here to threaten to beat people up. You didn't threaten violence, but I think it will bring us back right? Is it like not in jail? The fact is these tips and tricks, and these Jedi Mind melons that they're trying to get you to memorize and learn. You're dealing with a very particular lead. And these are cold leads that are coming off of ads, where your ad is nebulous, right? It's ambiguous, the ad kind of is bringing them in to do a thing. But it's not that. So very



Tyler 47:47

often, it doesn't even mention your gym by location, brand, or anything. It's just like a thing. It's a very MLM feeling.



John Fairbanks 47:55

And so because people's guards are so strong in that scenario, the people you have got in, you have to now go to your you're at war, right? You are battling with this individual to get them to a sale, that the expectations were not set ahead of time. And this is why we don't do things this way. Everything. If you listen to the last 100 plus hours that we've talked, it is always about setting expectations first. Yeah. So if we establish those expectations ahead of time through honest marketing, and then having the offer correct, because that's really then when it comes to it, where it's like if the offer is built correctly, it now is just a conversation. Yeah. And you're able to take that person through a natural conversation, expectations are established. And now you are able to just know when someone does give you an objection, a lot of times, it's just, hey, I'm worried about this. Could you help me not be worried about this? And you just say, Well, yeah, actually, you know, what, we 've had several people that have been worried about not having enough time to be able to get this. But we actually have the ability to do X, Y, and Z. And they've been very successful. And that just allows the person to say, Hello, good. And the way I would always describe it as if those expectations are sent. The person you are now in a sales meeting with is either a longtime friend that is coming back to come talk to you or it's your grandma. And how are you going to talk to your grandma about this? When Grandma says I'm nervous. You're not going to say Grandma, don't be a bitch, your grandma, go get your wallet, you'll be like, Oh, well, let's help explain whatever you're nervous about.



Tyler 49:35

And then the big difference between a concern and true objection, a concern. And the concern is always about the value. It's about the fit. It's about the likelihood of success. Those concerns are reasonable to talk about but when it comes up as Yeah, I don't know. It just seems so expensive. Okay, well, we have cheaper options, but like, take the things that they say knowing that They may be lying, but then just go to that thing. Don't take that thing and be like, I mean, it's too expensive like what are you gonna? You're gonna you're gonna fucking diabetes is expensive bro it's your fucking problem like that's some of this stuff is nuts everyone will be better have fucking ABS



John Fairbanks 50:15

Does your wife allow you to get your balls out of her purse? Like if you're a lawyer you're



Tyler 50:20

some of that some of that stuff by the way did you see some of the stuff that the spouse stuff is like well I mean, your spouse if you went to pick a car you wouldn't do this it's like what are we playing fucking weird games like this? Like you're getting people to prove that they're like no no I move I make decisions. I make decisions. I make decisions. I can make decisions that sucks keep that shit out of your business because that's what represents your business. There's many who will say no. Still right? By the way, it's a numbers game so many are gonna say no. And that's the experience I had with you. So when someone says I was gonna go to gym or someone's asking around your commute, how many gyms John are within five miles of your place right now? Six, six. Okay, so when somebody who does not have a gym membership is not doing any fitness. So there's all people who have that need or get being compelled towards this one way or another. So when they are having conversations amongst themselves, amongst other friends a bunch of way more people have attempted going to gyms and stopped or gone to gym and not bought than those that are currently in gyms, right? You'd agree. Therefore, when they're talking to their friends, co-workers, family, and they're saying, hey, like, which gym should I go to? And they're like, Well, I would watch geez, this fuckin spot box me into a two year contract. And that's where this guy was, like, super pushy, and I just needed to think about and he was fucking awful about it. Or this one, they only have one thing or this one, they only do classes or this one's just for chicks. Or this one is all dudes in a scary dude. Like, but like, that pool is shallower than you already think. Right? The people you're competing with and you do not get a lot of chances to make a first impression and your first impression goes the furthest. Even if people aren't doing business with you. You didn't have an opportunity to even make that person successful. Okay, but you didn't have to take that opportunity to trash your business's public perception. Okay, by letting them be a shitty, pushy kind of salesperson. And just like doing all the wrong shit, dude, like just not making it about them, their journey, the things they want to accomplish, presenting your products. cool about it? If it's too expensive down, sell out there. It's not gonna work. Okay, well, great. Well, we'll hit you up, maybe any year, we'll see. See where you're at. And I wish you all the best. Then when that person leaves and someone in their circle that a few months goes, Hey, I mean, we look about a gym, have you heard of this spot over here. And they're gonna say when they talk about your spot to disguise and say, you know, I went in, it was a bit expensive. Like the top options were, it is awesome stuff. Like, it's nice, like their top up there. They do personal training and food. So there's a lot of it, just more than I can afford. But the guy was really nice. Yeah, yeah, there was so much better, so much better. And that's what you got. That's how he this has stuff has to be built, because you sell like these fucking sales gurus on the internet, and your ship will be sunk very, very, very, very quick.



John Fairbanks 53:11

And you don't have you just don't have the population and burn through like that in that way. Because you still gotta grocery, you still got to look that person in the eye. Because your kids are gonna play on the same sports teams like it's, it's your you are not them, they are not you. The other thing that I wanted to call out was this idea where like, you don't like to sell for you guys, as gym owners. I don't I don't like to sell. And this can come from where you've done your best to build out whatever you've got. And you either have had bad experiences where people tell you no, and that sucks, right? Like rejection sucks. They don't want to do it, it doesn't align whatever, or you just continue to pack in shit. And it's just like, I just don't like the high stakes or feeling uncomfortable in that sales process. And the biggest thing is, what you are trying to talk to someone about is not simple enough, it's not streamlined enough to where you can have the confidence that like your 10 year old could talk someone through it. And that is the beauty of just having it built ahead of time to where it can take someone through a conversation. Because that's all it is, it's just a conversation and getting out of your own way too many gym owners that we talked to in the very, very beginning when we're just getting started. There's a moment where all of them never spend this much money. And it's just this, get out of your own fucking way. You are not your clients, you are not the people that you're trying to serve. You are not them, you are ahead. You're trying to provide that service to them. And so getting out of your way and having the confidence that this is built to handle every single person that walks through your gym to allow them to have the greatest chance of success. It is a little bit of mind woowoo bullshit, but it is flipping words, you are setting it up to where you can now make them successful, they can actually achieve their goals. They have the ability where you are serving them to where now instead of this one size fits all smash them in hopefully they'll be there and I'll try and coach my balls off because I'm a good coach and do Oh, it's no, no, no, we just build this to be exactly what they need to be able to be successful. And then you just do that and then it's so it takes this weight off of your shoulders to where now it's not right or die. And I think there's too much pressure put on you guys where it is. I have to make the sale only to get so many leads a day and I actually have some it's interesting. So then what you do is you get a little bit spastic Have you ever seen a three year old interact with a bunny before? That's like, oh god, he's gonna kill the bunny, because he's never done. He's never gotten his hands on the bunny before. It's like, oh, it's so cute. I love it. And it's, and that's what you're doing with your leads, these people that come in, there's like, well, I have this friend and they're here that would be like, Oh, let me touch your face. And then and then it becomes now becomes



Tyler 56:08

or they ignore him. Or they're nearly ignored if there's, there's, there's, there's the overbearing version, which almost goes to some of this pushy objective stuff. Because if you don't have the moves, or the reps to back it up trying to overcome sales objections, the way some of the pros tell you, if you're going to eat a plate of shit, it's going to be bad. But also being too nonchalant about it, especially when you just have a singular product if you don't seem interested in it. So why would they be interested in it, it sucks. And so this is why you kind of need to meet in the middle, which is I'm enthusiastic, but I was enthusiastic when it mattered. I was enthusiastic when I set about helping you when I set up my business so that I offer multiple tiers of products and services to cover your diverse amount of needs, your budgets, your time, all this stuff. So here, we got something for you. Right, take a look. And then I can be a little nonchalant about that moment with a quick two three sentence conversation and a sentiment hit. Well, let's go through this. What are you looking to do, and then bam, they go through and they're just gonna pick it, man. And that's it, let it sit, let it handle so. So if you don't want to constantly have to stress about this sales thing, like fucking every single time someone comes through the door and feel like you're just sitting on you're just a person on an island yelling into the void while people continue to tell you know, or even worse, they commit for your silly little $150 a month product that sucks and they all either commit to that or don't, that's your that's your greatest success is some yeses at that, that sucks, too. So you need to open the door so that your system is built to give people a high lead and high likelihood of success. So that every once awhile you hit some damn homeruns to you come out and a lot of these gyms are coming out, they're stepping up to the plate, and you're just bunting every time someone comes in, you're not even swing it, you're going okay, well I Sure. Let's just put this one down the third base line and see if it works. And that's all you're doing. Sometimes you gotta put the ball in play, you got to swing, you got to swing for the fences. You don't do it every time but it better be in your skill set or you're not going to make it very far honestly. So prepare ahead of time. And then you can be nonchalant about it. All I gotta do is worry about connecting them. I don't have to over explain my products. It's all presented in a way and I wish it sounds like we're selling some super slick software thing that's like this is it's really not like we just help people build that out based on what they do. There's no whatever you do, there's no secret sauce. I would love for this to be Yeah, this is the revolution app and you gotta like this. It's not that this isn't that this is fucking it's a human process. And you I guess it could be we do hedge we'll have we'll have a revolution app screen registry spreadsheets, do some stuff or whatever for us on the back end. But it requires every gym to have different offerings, different specialties, different target clients, so like you just gotta build it. Just fucking build it. Got it. What will take a couple of days. It's not that much work. But if it greatly increases your upside it will intensely increase your closure rate. And it'll make your whole sales process much easier scalable, you can plug anyone in to sell for you at that point. Anyone, any coach anyone you want, it doesn't always have to be you at this point because otherwise you will you're just the reason a lot of gym owners struggle to put coaches up in sales is that you don't have a sales process a source of shit, you don't really have anything to go so you're just parking a person and they're not selling the potential clients on your gym. The coach is just selling the potential client on themselves or the equipment and it sucks and so it's tough. So if you want to help with that, hit us up message me at Tyler footstone Instagram messages show at the gym owners podcast on Instagram John is at Jay banks f l go to gym owners revolution.com Get in the Facebook group I hope this helped and if you're seeing show me by the way share with me your favorite awful bad sales advice if this shit comes across you see these like sales my way because I just one thing I like It's like getting my blood boil and about some shit I Hate About twice a day I got it. I got it. It fuels me especially when I Faster I'm gonna fast and block right now to where it's like I can get a little bit of that rage in me about 9am And I don't need anything but I have coffee and a little stupid social media rage and I'm good till I'm good till late at night.



John Fairbanks 1:00:15

I was sent out I'd be like Yeah, fuck this guy and send him a clip it's just like



Tyler 1:00:18

oh yeah, I do. That's actually what I send her a lot. This is nuts. Guys, we gotta get going, follow us, follow the show. The Facebook group link is in the show description. I will see y'all next week. Bye.