Five Step To Closing That New Client

FIVE STEPS TO CLOSING THAT NEW CLIENT.

When it comes to money, people are weird.

Or at least everyone’s relationship with money is slightly different, and things often get weird when you’re trying to convince someone to give you money.

Like it or not, if you’re a gym owner, you’re in sales, so you might as well embrace this fact and get as good at it as your can.

Here are five common tips from Madlab Group coaches to help increase your close rate:

5. Change Your Mindset About Sales
Change the way you think about sales, and the whole game will change for you.

Sales don’t have to be slimy or uncomfortable or weird. Instead, all it is is a conversation between two people to get to the bottom of something—to discover if you have a solution to the person’s problem. That takes the pressure off and allows the sales conversation to be a natural, organic conversation between two human beings.

4. Set Your Expectations At The Start
To avoid the cowardly, ‘I’ll think about it,’ line at the end of the introductory session with a prospect, make it very clear that your expectation of the day is to receive a yes or no answer. Make sure you ask, ‘Is there anyone else who needs to be involved in this decision?’ If there is, reschedule for a time where both people can be present to make the decision together and give you a hard yes or no at the end of the consult.

Because there’s nothing worst than the line, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ If someone tells you this, you know you have done absolutely nothing to create a trusting, open environment where the person feels comfortable telling you the truth. You’re not going to sell everyone, but you can create an environment where the person looks you in the eye and says YES or NO to training with you.

3. Ask The Tough Questions To Find Their Pain
Finding out the prospect’s wants and needs isn’t just discovering the person wants to “lose weight” or “get more fit.” It would help if you dug a little deeper than that to find out what’s really driving them. The key here is to ask as many questions as possible and never shy away from asking the tough questions. The moment the person opens up and sheds some tears as she tells you her daughter won’t let her watch her granddaughter alone because she’s overweight and out of shape and can’t be trusted to look after a 3-year-old is the moment you know you have a new client.

Don’t beat around the bush: Find out each person’s real, vulnerable story, and you’ll lay the foundation for a trusting, long-lasting coach-client relationship, where you can actually help the person reach their goals.

2. Acknowledge Weirdness
Often the moment you tell the prospect the price, they recoil and get weird. Like asking the tough questions, what’s stopping you from acknowledging this by asking them why their energy just changed?

Address the elephant in the room—that weird look in the prospect’s eyes—and call him on it. Ask him what just shifted for him, why he just became hesitant.

Or, if the person openly expresses concern about the price, ask, ‘Is price the only thing that matters?’

This puts it all out there in the open and gives you the chance to explain what you do to help show value to the client regarding why your rates are what they are. If they value what you’re offering and you can show them a solution to their problem—to their pain—they’ll often be willing to spend more money on themselves than they thought they would when they walked through the door.

We all know paying for things is about priorities. Proof: That client who cancels his membership because it’s too expensive but then takes off on vacation to Australia for three weeks and comes home and buys a motorcycle. It’s about priorities, and if you can show value to prospects and offer a real solution, the price will not be the only concern.

1. One-On-One Time
Getting to the bottom of something is challenging to do in a group environment when coaching 12 new people through a chaotic workout.

Thus, the first day with any prospective client absolutely needs to be done in a one-on-one environment with one coach and one prospect, where the bulk of the time (or even the entire time) is spent chatting, conversing, figuring out through honest dialogue whether you’re a good fit.

Again, the main goals here are finding out WHY the person is there, discovering their pain, and getting a YES or NO answer. Do this and watch your close rate go through the roof…