Membership Sales - The Ostrich Effect

The Ostrich Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_effect

The health & wellness industry has been held hostage to two distinctly different membership sales dynamics for far too long. The downturn in the economy has fueled the "The Old School" and revealed "The School Of False Assumptions".

1. The Old School - High Pressure Sales - No Service

2. The School Of False Assumptions - False Assumptions have been advanced by industry "experts" and are easily mathematically disproven and further proven to be counter productive to maximum performance potential.

"The School Of False Assumptions" advances the notion that no stand alone membership sales department is needed and that "cross responsibility" staff can handle that business function. Cross responsibility staff include front desk and/or fitness staff handling membership sales duties in addition to their own departmental specialization. This is the perfect recipe for mediocrity or worse. Feel free to e-mail me for a mathematical illustration of how most clubs lose hundreds of thousands of irretrievable dollars every year through "The School Of False Assumptions". E-mail address: GeoffLHampton@aol.com

For Health & Wellness Businesses who engage a stand alone membership sales team, a frequently asked question is, "What do I do when my membership sales team has nothing to do"?

First, lets assign an identity to that scenario. This reveals a department of "order takers" who respond reactively to any sales situation that presents itself. Maximum success is unattainable with "order takers".

The question of what to do with sales staff during their "downtime" is too frequently asked for an industry with such exciting professional growth potential. The answer is that there should never be a time when the sales staff in a wellness/health facility has "nothing to do."

Having a sales staff with nothing to do is usually rooted in one of two scenarios:

1. Inadequate education in sales management

2. Willingness (either conscious or subconscious) to accept less than maximal performance from staff. In either scenario, the facility's bottom-line, the service provided to members and the efforts to recruit new members are not what they should be.

Sometimes sales staff spend their time fraternizing with other staff, which is rationalized as "camaraderie" by the facility management team. The truth is that there is no fine line between camaraderie and dereliction of duty. Though that may sound harsh, it is simply a call to eliminate excuse making. Strong sales management is not accomplished through harsh direction, but through training and behavior modification to achieve maximal performance. This means that managers must be effectively equipped to bring strong leadership to the all-important realm of sales management.

Keep the sales cycle strong

Part of the equation of keeping a sales staff adequately occupied is making sure that a club's sales model is healthy. The wellness/health club model of the new millennium is based on strong sales supported by strong retention. Having strong sales without strong member retention creates a vicious cycle of attrition-driven sales initiatives.

Selling new memberships is the initial combustion that starts the business success cycle. Retention is the guarantee of long-term success for that business, as the monies derived from membership renewals become a constant. Retention of existing members is also important for sales as satisfied members refer their friends and associates to the club. Any shift in that dynamic creates an unbalanced scenario that makes management much more difficult.

To relate this sales model to how your staff spends their time, think about your team meetings. How much time and energy is spent on the process of selling new membership versus retaining existing members? Now, take that thought process in a different direction. If the time spent on selling memberships and retaining members is similar, is the time spent on the sale of new memberships enough to create the strength of sales that will fuel the growth of your business?

Too many wellness/health operations lose tremendous selling opportunities because the operators think that their business "sells itself," or have some other false assumption about the impact of strong sales and retention efforts.

Keeping your sales staff occupied means keeping your sales cycle strong. To do this, be open to new information and ideas. See your new members as people vs. dollars. Train your sales staff to be honest, sincere and compassionate. There simply shouldn't be a time that any membership sales-related staff have nothing to do. The truth is that selling new memberships and retaining members are the most important aspects of wellness/health facility operation. Enage effective goals rooted in Bench Mark Performance standards that are monitored for effectiveness. Have a determination to be the best...and then do it!

If you would like additional information on this issue, please feel free to contact me at GEOFFLHAMPTON@aol.com.

By phone: (865) 281-2422

* SPECIAL OFFER: Complimentary 15 minute phone consultation to evaluate your current performance limiters and determine a powerful pathway for you in order to maximize your true success potential.