Facility Tour & Membership Presentation

In order to increase your likelihood of enrolling a new member you must first give the prospect (guest) a tour of the facilities. The tour is the process of both giving information about the facility and gathering information about the prospect and their goals. Upon completion of a successful tour, you will be fully prepared to present membership options to the prospect. The end goal of both the facility tour and membership presentation is to enroll a new member and begin the process of helping the member accomplish their goals.

A facility tour and membership presentation is broken down into several steps as outlined below. Understanding these steps and how they can positively or negatively impact the outcome of a sale presentation is very important.

Tour & Presentation:

  • Greeting
    • Engage immediately with prospects when they arrive.
    • Greeting prospects enthusiastically and professionally.
    • Making a positive first impression is very important (always be prepared to greet a guests).
    • Use proper body language…smile, stand up, shake their hand, come around the desk…
  • Registration
    • Have the prospect sign-in on the iPad Fitness Check-in App.
    • This adds or updates guest in the CRM system and is our digital liability waiver.
  • Pre-Tour
    • Find out what brought the prospect into the club today.
    • Find out how the prospect heard about the club.
    • Find out what goals the prospect is interested in accomplishing.
    • Find out where the prospect lives or works in proximity to the club.
    • Build rapport with the prospect by asking questions, smile, shake hands.
  • Tour
    • Give information about the facility and gather information about the prospect.
    • See tour questions for a full description on giving a million-dollar tour.
  • Membership Presentation
    • Bring the prospect into the sales office to present membership options.
    • See membership presentation information for a full description on membership presentations.
  • Close Sale (1st attempt)
    • After the membership presentation make your first attempt at closing the membership sale.
    • More information on closing the sale, overcoming objections and turnovers will be provided in detail later.
  • Customer Objection
  • Isolated Customer Objection
  • Overcome Customer Objection
  • Second attempt to close the membership sales
  • Repeat (isolate, overcome and close steps as needed)
  • Turn Over to Manager

Giving A Tour & Asking Questions:

When giving a tour of the fitness center it is important that you gather information about the prospect and give information about the facility. If you follow a quid pro quo method of asking questions and giving information about the facility based on the information you gather from your questions, you are more likely to successfully end the tour and membership presentation with a new membership sale.

Example: you could ask a prospect, “what are you primarily looking to accomplish from an exercise program?” The prospect might answer, “I want to lose weight and get in better shape”. You could then explain to the prospect, “our cardiovascular machines are a great low-impact exercise option that burn lots of calories while your on the machines exercising and also provide you with what we call the “take away benefit” which is long-term health improvements to your entire cardiovascular system. When you combine both cardiovascular exercise and a resistance (strength) training program like working out on our selectorized machines and/or free weights you will firm, tone, strengthen and develop lean body tissue that will cause your metabolism to reset to burn more calories, even when you’re not exercising. This is why we want to help you develop a successful workout program that incorporates both cardiovascular and resistance training exercises.” You might then ask the prospect. “how many days per week are you planning on exercising to accomplish your goal of losing weight and getting in better shape?” And the prospect might say, “3 or 4 days per week.” And you might say, “will you be exercising before work, after work, or on your lunch hour?” And the prospect might say, “after work.”

As you may have noticed with just a few questions you are already started the process of selling a membership and here’s why: we are asking questions to reveal the prospects goals (their needs) and outline a plan of action (time commitment). In this example the prospect is less likely to say at the point of sale, “I don’t have the time to come to the fitness center” or “I don’t need to workout”.

It is a good idea for you to practice your tour and role play with other staff members. You should also have several designated points throughout your tour where you stop to ask your prospect a specific tour question. Don’t just do a walk around tour. Stop at specific points that are relevant to your prospects needs. Touch the machine, explain the features, show them how it works, have them try it and while you’re there ask one of your tour questions. Following this process ensures you are ready to present membership options when the tour is complete.

Tour Questions

Need:

  • What are you looking to accomplish?
  • What motivated/brought you to the club today?
  • On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest priority, how important is accomplishing these goals?
  • How will you feel once you have accomplished your goal?
  • What’s the first thing you’re going to do once you reach your goal?
  • Are you open to accepting the advice of a personal trainer/coach in order reach your goals?

Think About It:

  • How long have you want to accomplish these goals?
  • When were you last in the best shape of your adult life?
  • How long has it been since you exercised regularly?
  • How many times (over that period) have you considered getting started accomplishing your goals?

Time:

  • How many days per week are you planning to exercise?
  • Which days are best for you?
  • Will you be using the club in the mornings, afternoons, or evenings?
  • How many days per week could you attend the club to accomplish the goals you mentioned?
  • If you knew for a fact you would accomplish your goals, how many days per week would you be willing to attend?

Spouse/Significant Other:

  • Does your spouse or significant other know how important accomplishing your goals are to you?
  • Is your spouse or significant other usually supportive of your decisions?
  • Is your spouse or significant other also interested in beginning an exercise program?
  • What would you do if your spouse or significant other flat out sad, “no”?
  • Do you and your spouse or significant other consider expenses like our monthly fee a major item expenditure or would it be more along the lines of personal care item, like getting your hair styled or colored, getting a manicure and pedicure, etc?

Money:

  • Based on everything we’ve discussed what do you think a program like this might cost monthly?
  • If you accomplished the goals you have in mind would the cost of membership be inconsequential?
  • If you break the membership cost down to a daily expenditure it averages out to less than ____ $ per day.
  • If you use the club 4 times per week the cost averages out to _____ $ per day.

Other Clubs:

  • Are we closer to your home or work?
  • Do you feel we offer everything you’re looking for in a fitness center?
  • Is there something you’re looking for that isn’t offered here?
  • Are you familiar with how their membership programs work?
  • If we are closer: if you join a club farther away you’re less like to attend as often.
  • If we are closer: if you join a club farther away the cost is greater for travel and that will likely off-set any membership saving, not to mention the added inconvenience of traveling.