How to Master the New Sales Landscape for Health Clubs

It doesn’t matter that your current business challenges are no fault of your own—you still have to find solutions. As the industry comes together to problem-solve on the fly, certain strategies are emerging that show a path forward.

IHRSA continues to tap the best minds in and outside of the industry to get health clubs back to stability and profitability. Events like the IHRSA Innovation Summit (on September 17) can provide essential guidance to today’s club operators and fitness entrepreneurs. But clubs also need to have the right tools in their toolbox to communicate with their local community and rebuild their membership.

New memberships have always been the lifeblood of clubs. This tried and true rule will become more urgent as facilities start to reopen on a more consistent basis. With safety measures as part of the pitch, clubs need a diverse and robust digital voice to carry their message to current members, former members, and key prospects.

But how do you find these key prospects? Where are the new members? And how will you convince them to enter your doors?

The answer lies in your data analytics, digital platforms, and sales software. Of course, you have these elements already in-house, but are they up to speed? The marketplace has dramatically changed. Your pre-pandemic strategic plans need to be revamped, and the sooner the better.

This point was emphasized in a report by McKinsey & Company called, “The Restart.” Based on interviews with eight CEOs about their relaunch efforts, the report states: “The crisis has shattered many of the assumptions and tools that business leaders rely on for decision-making, but for the restart, they will need to define a solid framework for action in a highly volatile environment.”

When it comes to technology, the report suggests three steps to take:

• Accelerate digital transformation to serve new customer and employee needs.
• Improve data-driven decision making and data availability.
• Rethink the portfolio of IT projects and technology spending.

Here’s what that looks like for a club operator.

‘Don’t Simply Automate—Innovate’

This advice comes from Forbes writer Arus Shastri, who believes it’s important to understand the opportunities that come with major market disruptions. But you need to be honest about where you stand. If you’re like most business owners, you’re relying more on technology than ever before.

“Lost revenue means leaner workforces,” writes Shastri. “Lean workforces drive the need for automation so that smaller teams can accomplish more with fewer people.”

This means that the optimized tasks performed by your CRM is more critical than ever for lead generation and conversion. You have to scale your AI solutions as a result. You need to be more aggressive and proactive—and you need to be more creative.

Automation allows you to do less with more, but it has to be integrated and driven by analytics that are primed to produce results. As Shastri writes: “Your AI is only as good as the data that you provide to it. Scaled solutions require data that will continuously inform new outcomes.”

To see if your sales software is delivering what you need in today’s marketplace, ask yourself these questions:

Does your CRM generate phone call prompts so your sales team doesn’t allow any leads to fall through the cracks? This is an example of a simple but effective automated tool that can increase conversion rates without extra manpower or resources.

Does your CRM give you real-time KPI monitoring and other analytics that are integrated into your sales pipeline? You need full integration of all of your digital systems, so you’re operating from an accurate and comprehensive data set. If not, your analytics will have too much static, sending your sales team and automated communications into dead-ends.

Are your SMS capabilities supplied with up-to-date lists and messaging? You may have a great SMS strategy, but sending automated SMS messages isn’t productive if your lists aren’t up to date. If you’re targeting former members, for instance, you need to know where they are and how to reach them. A CRM that’s not optimized to the highest industry standards is going to miss prospects if data is old or faulty. These days, you can’t let any opportunity slip by.

Your CRM supplier needs to arm you with digital outreach tools that will penetrate today’s cluttered online communication channels. Here’s how to do it.

A Software Supplier That Specializes in Health Clubs

There’s no better way to ensure you have the best CRM for your facility than to trust a company solely dedicated to serving health clubs and studios. GymSales, powered by ABC Financial, specializes in sales management tools that are calibrated to capture, nurture, and convert new members. This is software that’s engineered to provide comprehensive sales servicing that will help your team do what they do best.

You can tell by their name that GymSales is not a one-size-fits-all software solution, but a targeted and potent set of sales tools that will cut through the noise and provide quick and productive results. Their menu of options includes:

• Phone call prompts that keep your sales team laser-focused on top prospects.
• Automated SMS messages that confirm appointments, promote exclusive offers, and deliver announcements that get noticed and lead to action. These SMS messages can increase appointment attendance rates by 40%.
• KPI monitoring that tracks performance and keeps your sales staff on-point and engaged in high-value targets.
• Insightful, actionable reports that keep careful track of leads, prospects, enquiries, and performance of sales campaigns. This is essential in understanding what’s working and what’s wasting resources.

GymSales software can seamlessly integrate with your overall digital systems, so you hit the ground running with glitch-free, minimal setup. This is important as you grow your way back from months of shutdown. It’s important that clubs be able to grow their way out of the current disruption instead of relying on cost-cutting. This is why you need a strong sales platform, and GymSales delivers just that.

More than 4,000 fitness facilities, including some of the largest national health club chains, trust GymSales for their sales generation and conversion. These powerful and smart sales tools will give you the automation and data analytics you need to get you to the next level.

To learn how GymSales can help your club build membership and revenue, contact them via their website or email them at us@gymsales.net or call 855-855-2977.