You can sell right now.

You can do it without being insensitive or tone-deaf to what’s happening. You need to do it with that frame of mind. There are plenty of people who seem completely blind to the fact we’re in a pandemic and everyone is making buying decisions from a unique perspective.

You don’t want to be one of them.

This podcast is for trainers, coaches, and owners who are attempting to take their business online, and who are in early stages of reopening, or those about to reopen or take their business in a new direction.

The things I’m going to cover are:

• What you can sell now
• What you’ll be able to sell in the future
• How you can sell right now
• How to nurture and serve right now
• Know Your Customer Needs

Your customer’s needs right now are unique and different than they were 8 weeks ago. If you’re still talking about weight loss, they may be talking about sleeping.

If you’re still talking about toning those arms for summer, they’re talking about how much vitamin C to take.

If you’re still talking about core to get a flat stomach and bikini body, they’re talking about how to prevent stress-related back and neck pain.

Know Your Competition

It’s now the world. Everyone is online. By that I mean every trainer, fitness instructor, health coach. Are you better? More charisma? More unique? Have you established loyalty? But I also mean every news broadcast, and Netflix-binge-worthy season, and zoom free-for-all you can imagine.

You’ll win if you’re serving. That means you’re serving in a way that they’re looking for. Don’t think that because you’re down the street if they were driving in their car or coming in during their lunch hour they need to go to your site or your social media page. Do you really offer an answer that they’re searching for right now?

Some businesses are afraid to email.

They hesitated to create content talking about immune boosting habits and how to deal with stress and get better sleep. They missed early opportunities to round up experts and communicate regularly.

It's Not Too Late

That doesn’t mean it’s too late. We’re going to be in this for a while. There are still problems there aren’t enough solutions for and that means there’s still opportunities for you.

You’ll win by not being tone-deaf like thousands of other fitness pros that are using the same advertising strategy they had two months ago, ignoring the change in climate.

Do You Believe No One Is Buying Right Now?

Is your customer really not buying now – or are they just not buying what you used to sell?

Most likely they’re not buying what you were selling 2 months ago because they don’t have the same problems they had 2 months ago.

Are you still trying to sell something that made sense pre-COVID19? Or have you created services that support this moment and these needs right now?

Customers have new problems.

They still have needs and they’re still looking for solutions. Not everyone is not buying or not able to. Some just aren’t buying because no one is offering them a “right now” solution to the “right now” problem they have.

They want less stress, less tension, more energy and better ability to sleep. They want immune boosting exercise. They want it for less. They can’t buy your EFT 3 times a week program but they might buy a six-week program with accountability. They want a program that they can do at home if they have to or want to. They want a routine and schedule. They need accountability more than ever. And they know it.

This Won’t Last Forever

Fitness is forever changed. It’s not going back to the way it was. Not in Scottsdale, Arizona. Not in Boulder, Colorado, and not in Ames, Iowa or where ever you are in the world.

It will look different. But it’s anybody’s guess as to how. You can be a part of creating it as it unfolds. If you’re the one asking customers you’re on the front lines of business rebuilding. If you don’t sit back and wait, if you listen, you’ll be leading them.

You will eventually be able to sell something more and you will when they’re ready. They’ll want to buy from you.

How Are You Communicating?

Have you changed the way you talk to customers? Have you changed the message you’re sending to them? Are you helping them understand there is a unique way to use your services- potentially new not same services – now, that helps them get what they want and need now? And are you pointing out in your messaging that it’s not their fault they don’t know how, or may not have realized they’re making mistakes following the same exercise routine they had 2 months ago?

Ask them. Listen to them.

Tell them you’re creating something for them. Tell them you’re not just trying to take what you’ve always had and shove that down their throats.

Change your conversation. Talk about how to feel good. (They’ve had it up to here with stress talk. They know they’re stressed, start telling them how to relax.)

Tell them you’re listening. Tell them you’re creating something based on their responses.

Then do. Not based on what you’ve always sold in times that were predictable but based on right now and what they need, want, and deserve right now.

There you have it.

1) If you want to sell something now, start communicating. Put out a quiz, a survey, a poll. Ask customers what they most need now, what’s the hardest. I can give you a hint at what my customers tell me and that’s routine, a schedule, some anchor in the day and the week.

Work with that.

2) Create something new, something now. Create a mini-series. Create a solution to a problem. Worry last about how to create it. Most often in the past if you’ve been lucky and made the mistake of creating services based on equipment and space instead on the problems of people, you’ll have to change the way you create your business. You’ll start building a stronger business based on people.

3) Price it and offer it in a way that makes sense for the time we’re in and still allows the touch someone needs.

If this was helpful, leave a comment and subscribe in iTunes (or on Stitcher or iHeart radio). Make a difference. Stay strong at home.

Note: this episode was recorded a few weeks before things began opening up. No matter when you listen you'll hear a leader making pivots, share how to stay calm and make rational decisions.

How do you stay calm during these times? Anxiety does not discriminate right now. How are you doing? I’ve brought on a friend and colleague to chat about COVID19 as a business owner and talk about opening up, right now opportunities, and what she’s been thinking and doing.

My guest:

Robin Robertson has owned and operated the Bellingham Training & Tennis Club for 20 years and ushered in a 600% growth in membership while she took the club from a mom & pop 4 court tennis club to its current world-class facility with 5 indoor tennis courts, two strength studios, an indoor cycling studio, locker rooms stocked with amenities and a cozy member lounge with fireplace and free coffee. She is also the founder of Healthy Knees Coach and author of “Healthy Knees Cycling” with a new book due in May called “Healthy Knees Strength.”

Questions we covered in this episode:

• What are you doing to stay calm in COVID19? 
• What concerns you most right now?
• How are you pivoting or what did you already have in place to help business?
• What do you think is going to change about brick-and-mortar vs. virtual gymberships? 
• Suggestions for listeners who want it to "be over" and "go back to the way it was"?
• How can your business prepare to reopen?
• Other ways Robin mentioned they're making good use of this time:

We are rewriting our standard operating procedures for cleanliness, creating options for members to purchase branded equipment packs so they have their own of the harder to clean like bands, talking about putting fears to ease with how to space in group training, what to do about indoor cycling spacing and ventilation)

Connect with Robin:

www.betrainingtennis.com    

www.healthykneescoach.com

robin@healthykneescoach.com  or robin@betrainingtennis.com 

Resources we mentioned:

Book:

• Profit First – Mike Mikalowitz

Program:

• Wealthywellthy.com - Krisstina Wise

Show notes: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/COVID19-update

So you want a fitness career.  If spring of 2020 was your last semester, supposedly full of parties, plans, and optimism, you have officially been rerouted.

If you just passed your certification exam or are on your way…

Now what?

It’s a bit of an oh-Sh*# moment.

Stop! Take a bow!

But first… I want to congratulate you. Stop and acknowledge it, especially if you didn’t get to officially cross the stage and flip your tassel, if you just got that certificate mailed to you – even though that’s typically what happens anyway. That job waiting for you may have disintegrated but do not overlook the thing you just did.

The world does need fitness professionals. You can’t be healthy without exercise. You can’t have a strong immune system without exercise. Your weight loss, or sport specific program is not necessarily your best immune boosting program and people need proper instruction now more than ever. 

The Difference that is Now

Fitness is forever changed. It isn’t what it was just a few short years ago when you declared your major. It isn’t what it was when you headed back to school after your Christmas break. It isn’t even what it was at the time you were looking forward to spring break.

So what’s your plan B?

Maybe you were a lucky one and you already were planning on an online business or a hybrid one at least. And yet, even that is different now. Because 100s of thousands of your fitness training and health coach colleagues are now online too.

There’s more competition than ever.

So What is the Plan B if You Still Want a Fitness Career?

Here are 3 BIG  tips for you. 

(1) Don’t blend in.

Do not do what everyone’s doing. That’s easy in part, because no one was doing this and if you just follow the leader it’s the blind leading the blind. Just because someone was successfully established in a face-to-face training business does not mean they will be successful taking that training business online.

For one good reason, if they weren’t there in the first place before COVID19, they didn’t believe online training was effective.

If you believe that in your gut, you will relay that and no one is going to buy from you something that you don’t even believe in yourself.

An established business with a track record is starting at square one just like you are when they go online.

In fact, the more conservative, and set in habits and at pricing and package structures, the more they used a script and stuck with the script that worked decades ago… the harder time they’ll have.

(2) Do homework.

You have to set yourself apart and you’ll do that by doing foundational work. Know who you want to serve and why. Know what their problem is, in their own words.

Three big mistakes any trainer can make are starting with:

• I want to teach….
• I want to use…
• I want to be on… (social media platform)

So let’s go through them one at a time:

I want to teach kickboxing… or yoga… or zumba …

If you start like this you might have some success. But it’s limited. So someone has to be shopping for Kickboxing or yoga or zumba, first. Then you’re going to potentially have a problem already. Who might be searching for yoga, for instance? Someone who loves it. And that could mean an 18 year old, a 50 year old, and a 70 year old. Could be a male or female, an athlete or a woman with hot flashes and stress. It could be someone suffering from depression and anxiety.

And the same is true for Zumba or Kickboxing (or fill in the blank). So starting that way can make it hard to write an ad or an email to someone. Don’t you talk differently to an 18 year old girlfriend than you would to a 50 year old man who’s dealing with depression?

So if you want to have a fitness career, start with one of those people and the problem they have you can talk to them all day in a way they’ll listen.

I want to use… bodyweight only… or TRX… or trampolines…

I get it. Some tools are just sexy and fun and are easily accessible. But, to play devil’s advocate again, body weight training is going to eliminate anyone who has a shoulder issue and it makes it hard to do pulling exercises unless you’ve got a swing set – and even then… can you do a pull up? So you miss one of the most-needed posture-balancing exercises needed today.

Should it be about the tools? Or about the problem someone has? If you find someone you work with is say, over a keyboard much of the day do you want them doing push ups for their workout? Or if they need to improve bone density, will body weight alone do it?

If you focus on the person with the problem you can create a solution.

I want to be on …. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok…

By now you get where I’m coming from and if you can pick the person and the particular problem you solve, the only platform you should care about is the one that customer uses and loves. YOU may love TikTok and Instagram but if your customer is on Facebook or LinkedIn is an even better opportunity, that’s where you want to be.

There is one universal platform no matter who you serve and that’s YouTube. It’s a search engine all by itself. Owned by Google and you can’t go wrong with it.

Well, wait – you actually CAN go wrong with it. You have to be talking to one person. You have to appeal to the wants and desires of that person. You may know what they need. But they don’t necessarily (even if they think they do) so you have to meet them where they are.

Message them in a way that gets their attention.

Make your posts something they envy, want, desire, resonate with. Hate something they hate. Love something they love. Peak their curiosity.

Avoid being teachy, preachy, or condescending.

If you want to be shared and saved make it something they don’t want to forget. Make it something that makes them say, Yes! Or Huh, I didn’t know that, or I love this!

(3) Never Give Up.

What you try the first time won’t always work. What you try many times won’t work. You may get laughed at, told it’s risky, told no – for a loan or by a potential client, or told you’re crazy by your parents, friends and still feel like yes, this is absolutely what you’re meant for and want to do.

Don’t give up. Surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to be doing, who can teach you and mentor you, and who have struggled too. Anyone with staying power has struggled a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and still believes so much in what they’re doing they learned how to make a good business decision – over and over again. They learned how to be scrappy and save money and where to invest it and where not to.

Where to Turn For Help When No One Has Navigated THIS Before?

Usually success leaves clues. If you follow someone who has stuck with it and created more than one business, they are usually the ones who can do it again. Make good decisions about following who you know is successful not based on their social media popularity.

There you have it. If you want a fitness career there is still plenty of opportunity. It looks different. And you can do it.

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Comment?

Leave your comments below the show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery.com/want-a-fitness-career

Whether you’re a University Lecturer, gym owner, recent grad, or newly certified fitness professional let me hear your thoughts.