Open for Business: What You Can Sell Right Now

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.