Monday 29 December 2014

New Year Sales



The New Year will soon be upon on us, and so will the most important business period for the leisure and fitness industry.  At this time of year people sit down and work out what they want from the year ahead and for a large majority of the population this includes such things as a new job, a better social life, quiting something bad or getting more healthy.

As an industry we have made the New Year Resolution our own.  We have created the perfect match for many of the late night, last minute promises people have set themsleves, most based on feelings of regret, poor self image and a desire to be better.

The important thing to remember is, that whatever the pain that has casued someone to decide to change, we have the perfect tool to achieve it!  Never under estimate the power you have as a fitness or leisure club owner, personal trainer or fitness professional.  You can change lives and inspire peoiple to change others lives.  

Now the important bit.

You are not the only one trying to attract this new, excited and motivated group of people.  Its a competitive business with huge numbers of gyms, leisure clubs, leisure centres, freelance personal trainers, boo tcamps, fitness classes...... all of which believe they have a service or facility to offer those who want to change a way of doing so.  How will you make sure you are ahead of the game?

Well, there are a few things you can do to ensure you are ahead of the game:

1) Plan: It may seem simple, but by sitting down and creating a marketing plan you will be ahead of almost 50% of the competition.  It never fails to amaze us when you speak to a client and ask to see their plan and one simply does not exist? A plan does not and should not be set in stone, it should be a working dopcumnet whereby successful activities are continues and unsuccessful ones discarded and replace with new activity.

Your plan should include CORE activities, those things that should be completed every month/campaign withoput fail. These include:
  1. Changing the club marketing to the new campaign materials
  2. Letters, texts, emails and calls that should be completed for all campaigns
  3. Newsletters
  4. Updating any e-commerce channels and directories with the latest campign
  5. Changing retail displays
  6. etc etc
Secondly should be your MONTHLY actions.  These actions will change depending on the time of the year, your offer and your business focus.  These will detail:
  1. Your exact offers
  2. Your referall campaigns
  3. Any advertising such as Google adwords, local paper etc
  4. Any internal activities
  5. Retention programs
  6. New promotions
Fore each of the plans you should consider the distinct business models you have.  Most businesses have mnore than one revenue stream and so you should consider each of these in isoltaion and not as one large plan.  This creates focus and direction for each revenue area.  For most leisure and fitness clubs you should look to consider:
  1. Membership
  2. Tuition (Personal Training, Group Fitness, Swimming lessons, Boot camps)
  3. Retail
  4. Guest Fees
  5. Rentals (studio rental, facility rental)
  6. Spa
  7. Food and beverage (bar, snacks etc)
  8. Miscelaneous (Sunbeds, Creche)

We would also suggest that when writing your plan you get your team involved if you have one. This creates energy, desire and buy in to the challenge ahead and how as a business you plan to perform. Don't be afraid to show the team the budget numbers for the year and ask for their ideas. Successful businesses are only as good as the teams  that achieve them.  Whilst you may believe you are the best at what you do and in many businesses you may be the best there.  That does not mean though you know everything and that you always have the solution.  Nieve minds are ofetn best at comingt up with th best solutions as they have no past experience of what works and what doesn't and therefor no pre concieved ideas of what will and won't work.

When starting to train a new team we always encourage the managemnet team to sit back at first and see what the team come up with.  You will be amazed!

There is probably not much time now to get prepared for the January rush, however there is sufficient time to ensure you have a plan in place and your team are ready.  the rush tends to start around the January pay weekend and not the first week. Be ready for it and you will be ahead of the game!