by: Joshua Fleming

There are many forms of health club marketing. Some produce a higher ROI (Return on Investment) than others. Phone sales or Telemarketing is an under valued method to effectively contact your potential health club members and close sales. Receiving a phone call from an energetic health club professional, with a purpose driven phone script, is very powerful. Be aware that effective phone skills will show your personality over the phone. Someone that has been thinking about joining a health club may just be waiting for a motivated health club owner to give them a call with an invitation to come in for a free 2 week pass to the “best health club in town.”

LET’S GO OVER A HEALTH CLUB MARKETING PROGRAM USING TELEMARKETING.

Benefits of using Telemarketing for Health Club Marketing:

1. It will affect your entire market. Having your prospects name, phone number, address, etc., reduces the sales cost greatly. A health clubs staff will no longer need to souly depend on lead boxes for names and numbers. It is also easier for sales staff to let current members, as well as hopeful members, know about new or upcoming products and services the club would like to showcase.

2. It is synergetic.In other words, telemarketing will cross promote the other marketing streams you already have in place like: direct mail, lead boxes, etc. The health club establishes the conversation with the prospect rather than just waiting for them to walk in. This is proactive marketing.

3. It is flexible. Different from other media in Direct Marketing, a Telemarketing campaign can change the communication of the marketing on the basis of the answers we receive. This skill set is invaluable in today’s struggling economy where every new member is worth their weight in gold. You can’t risk losing 1 prospect.

4. It is measurable.Telemarketing campaigns have many steps that can be modified to achieve the best possible results. After comparing the results from other campaigns on a week by week basis, a health club is able to develop, analyze the benefits, point out the mistakes and take corrective actions needed to maximize its’ effectiveness.

5. It is fast moving.Phone calls are short – appointments are made quickly. A professionally ran health club telemarketing campaign will generate on average 25-75 new appointments a week. If you have 50 appointments show up, and close an industry standard 75%, you will receive 38 new sales a week.

6. It’s cheap.A telemarketing campaign will cost around $200.00 a week. That covers call list, payroll, phone lines.

Now that you’re starting to understand the benefits that Telemarketing can provide to a health club’s marketing program lets look at some of the steps in starting up your own telemarketing campaign. Every health club will vary its’ approach based on several factors, but the following steps will give the blueprint to follow.

Steps to develop a Successful Telemarketing Campaign:

1. Set up Call Room Rules.The staff you hire will need to know exactly what you expect from them. Things like: daily appointment quota, follow up rules, call conflicts, shift hours, conformation rules, etc. Have the rules in place to insure your telemarketing campaign is ran in a professional and profitable manner.

2. Buy a Call List. There are serious laws governing telemarketing. The “Do Not Call Registry” (DNCR) is a federal department that watches out for consumers? If a person has listed their number on the DNCR, and you contact them, you may be fined up to $35,000.00. There are services that sell call list that have been scrubbed against the DNCR and are safe to call. This list is KING get a good list that has been updated in the past few months.

3. Write a Call Script.A call script is a blueprint which your staff will follow while in conversation with a prospect. The script should contain the following: call to actions, a sense of urgency, value building and relationship building speech. The prospect is used to telemarketers so don’t sound like one of them. Sound like a friend calling with a great offer. The best tool to use to get them in your club is “free 2 week passes.”

4. Hire a Call Staff.Hiring a “call room” can be tricky if you don’t know what to look for. The rule of thumb is to only hire women. Men just don’t have the mindset to make calls for a call shift which will last 4 hours. The most effective appointment setters have a positive outlook on life. Ask them questions in the interview that will reveal there attitude. If they have a lot of life issues going on, or are just a negative, lower energy candidate, then you would be wasting your time by hiring them. Also, remember that a person with prior experience is not always a good find. Breaking bad habits is more difficult than training someone from ground zero.

So now your ready to start making calls. The training of your call room is the most important step of the process. HEATH CLUB MARKETING using telemarketing is pretty simple as long as you keep a few things in mind. Let’s go over the key factors to consider when training a telemarketing call room.

Telemarketing Staff Training for Health Clubs:

1. Long-term relationships with your prospects should be the focus on telemarketing calls. Find a way to gain common ground with prospects by learning what their most pressing needs are such as: weight loss, personal training, child care, etc. and tell them how you can solve them. Following the script is key, but as your room matures, they will be able to impervise on the fly. That’s why a well trained room is priceless.

2. When you call, follow the script. The people that you’re talking to are busy. If you respect their time they will appreciate it. If you’ve called at a time that is inconvenient for them, schedule a different time to talk.

3. Give the prospect an opportunity to talk.The longer they talk the more they are investing into the call. Ask him or her to tell you what their most pressing problem is. Listen intently. Take notes. This will increase the amount of shows you get.

4. Expect that prospects will sometimes object to talking to you when you call.Some of their responses may be hurdles to you getting through to them. Categorize what those hurdles might be in a journal and write strategies to work with them.

5. Don’t be too sensitive. What they may say when they receive a call from you. Not everybody is kind.

6. Talk genuinely and sincerely on the phone as you offer an honest message. Talk in conversational style rather than racing through a script.

7. Ask your new prospect if they have any friends or family. Friend and family members that would also like to receive a free 2 week pass to the club are referrals. Referrals have very high show rates.

8. Remember to remind the prospect of the date and location of their appointment.

9. Conformation is the life blood of the program. Make sure that a lot of efforts go into this area.

10. If the person reacts poorly (this almost never happens) say “thank you for your time” and move to the next person. A person’s reaction is not a reflection on you, but rather on something that is upsetting them in their life.

11. Remember that talking on the telephone is nothing more than educating others on the benefits of obtaining a healthy lifestyle; it is educating the public and promoting your health club. Keep in mind how your existing clients benefited from your health club. Don’t you want everyone to have the same benefits your current client’s experience?

We have used telemarketing in our health club marketing campaigns effectively for many years. Our promotion will produce $10,000-$15,000 per week in new sales using just telemarketing. After factoring in Direct Mail, Email Marketing, Radio Marketing, Etc our on-site promotion will produce $40,000-$80,000 in new membership sales. We know it works so get out there and make some sales using telemarketing. They are just waiting on a call from you.

I sincerely encourage you to contact me by phone, e-mail , or simply by completing and submitting our online Club Profile Form. Your completed Club Profile Form will allow me to assess not only the needs of your business, but also the growth potential of your membership. Additionally, it will provide me with the necessary data to determine which of our Marketing and Promotion campaigns would provide the highest return on investment. You can also view all of our http://www.fitness360online.com/fitness-marketing-services/on-site-membership-promotions/to learn more about what we do and how we do it. Our Marketing and Promotion campaigns are designed specifically for the individual business dynamics in order to maximize the results.

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Cheers,

Joshua Fleming
National Marketing Director
Fitness360 Marketing
http://www.fitness360online.com
1-888-4-FIT-360
http://fitness360.wikispaces.com/+Save+your+health+club+with+these+4+changes
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/4-ways-to-get-more-gym-members-1004455.html

As the National Sales Director of Fitness360 Marketing it is a great honor to be able to spread the knowledge I have gained over the past 18 years in the Health and Fitness Industry. My goal is to help club owners, management and sales staff in the fitness business to think “outside the box” when it comes to running a health club. You my contact me at {http://www.fitness360online.com/ or joshua@fitness360online.com or by calling 1-888-4-FIT-360

The author invites you to visit: http://www.fitness360online.com/