From marketing to retention, the key to success is a deep understanding of your ideal client.
The longer you’re in business and the more your business grows, the harder it is to stay in touch with your ideal clients’ wants, needs, and aspirations. But that’s exactly what you need to be focused on to make your gym successful.
In this episode, we discuss…
- Small mistakes in your marketing that cost you big wins.
- How to foster a community that keeps your clients happy and engaged.
- Just how easy it can be to lose sight of important client needs.
Plus much more!
Are you looking to strengthen your gym’s client experience? At Naamly, we make it easy for you to keep your clients engaged and active throughout the entire customer journey. Sign up for a FREE trial to learn how Naamly can help you set your gym apart with your client experience.
Watch The Full Episode Now!
Sumit: All right, Tom. Welcome back. Uh, it’s nice to have you again. And, uh, let’s get started.
Thomas Plummer: I’ve seen when I’ve attended your workshops. And the sessions that we’ve had at sitting late nights, it’s like, I always felt that you were talking to me and then that’s the feeling I’ve got with all other gym owners that I interact with that, Hey, yo, you know what, Tom talks to me.
It’s like, Tom’s looking at me, Thomas talking to me, he’s connecting with me. So on that connection point, like it’s, it’s amazing how you understand what exactly. The gym owners looking for, right. How does the gym owner know what their members are looking for? Like, and well, what
Sumit: does, what does the member really need?
Because if we really understood that, then we’ll probably never have a ghosting member or a person disappearing or any of that. So, so break that up for me, calmly from your viewpoint.
Thomas Plummer: What does a member looking for? They, if you start with the perspective of why, and again, this is what I’m saying here, this is one of those things that you’d never get to talk about in a workshop there’s just too much, but this is one of those questions that needs to be asked.
It’s the mistake the owners make is it’s I laugh about this, but too much inbreeding.
And the weird thing is we’re so much into training world that we forget. The client, because we’re, we’re so much into how we teach. We’re so much into new techniques. We’re so much into safety. We’re so much into class schedules. And so everything is really related to what the gym owner needs. And it’s very rare to have the time or the ability or the willingness to step aside and say, what does this client really want from me?
We don’t ask that question enough, which is a shame because. That’s step many ways. The only real question that counts, because if I could solve that, I’m probably going to stay in business longer and the client will stay longer and pay longer than anywhere else. So you have to start with this.
So start with this mindset. There’s a client we market and everything we do in the gyms is based towards somebody that’s already made up their mind. They’re going to join a gym. That’s why marketing most, all the old school marketing sort of work like a Quickstart. A quick start program is geared towards somebody who says, yes, I need fitness.
I’m ready to go. Well, what’s my options. One, if there’s a client that hasn’t made up their mind yet that they’re like, I need it. I know I need it. I don’t know where to start. I don’t even know, you know, is a gym even, right. For me, they haven’t made that. Yes. I need a gym commitment. So marketing going forward has to be geared toward them.
Now that clients coming to the gym, what are their expectations? Their expectation is go slow. So one of the biggest mistakes most gym owners make is they go too far, too fast, too soon. And it’s that, that client coming in, they need 30 days of remedial work. 30 days of go slow 30 days with other people like them, because their biggest fear is I will not fit in.
And that’s their biggest fear that it’s just, why don’t you join a gym? Oh, everybody’s in shape, but me never fit in that gym. Oh my God. They’re all healthy people. They’re they’re fit people. Uh, working with a training group in Europe, we started a very serious online business to support their chain of clubs.
And the first client that signed up paid two pounds, which is a huge amount of money to join online. And she was, I think something.
20 pounds never set foot in a gym. And then he goes, why? She goes, I I’d never would belong to a gym. I never, I would be so embarrassed. I would be so horrible to go into gym. I just would never even consider that you spoke to me because you, you addressed my fears and that person’s walking into gyms and I stayed.
So that person needs so I’ll need, they could fit it. So one of the things, things I have to do with my image, my marketing all the way through this. First off my marketing, a picture of.
I don’t want a picture of a guy with a tight t-shirt or no shirt. You, you, as an owner lifting, you’re not a role model. Despite what you think you are, male or female. You’re not people don’t look at you, standing there with your workout brought and your little. Any pants and you’re going on my, you know, I, I train hard.
I want to train you. And that 220 pound woman, that’s never set foot in the gym goes, hell no, you know that overweight guy with the beer belly that says, I can’t go in there. I can never keep up with these kids. So that whole client, so you have to look at what people want. You have to start outside the door with what brands you send in the community, you know?
So the first thing they want, I’m going to get all this down to one thing is they want total support. They want total support, but they want it as they need it. They want it as they need it. It was a gym owner, that person coming in, every, every piece of marketing I send out how they experienced the gym the first time. So the person has to feel I fit. Do I fit into this gym?
Am I going to be respected here even though I’m 30 pounds overweight. So that person feels that coming through the door. Now, the other clients, what are their expectations? Plus this first group? Well, people that have gym experience. How is your gym different? Well, my other gym, everything started on, you know, they started 10 minutes late.
The thing is that when I come in, I’d want to be treated with respect. I want to be, I want to come in here. I want to make it feel like it fit.
So the thing is what people want. One, if somebody like. He gone before me. That’s why I like testimonial labs because then they prove that somebody survived the process, not you, but me. So lesson number one, not for this, but also for marketing is let your successful clients speak for you because they look average.
They are average. They’re just people. And I might have a woman, 30 pounds overweight and say, I lost 30 pounds. I got 30 to go, but I love this gym. And the one that goes. She can do it. I can do it. So I feel like I fit in. Then once I’m in, then it’s contact points. It’s do things. Start on time and end on time.
Well, I’ve got kids. That’s important. I’ve got to get out of here. I work out at my house, but I got a zoom meeting at two o’clock. I can’t screw around because you’re 15 minutes late again today. So we look at all the professionalism that has to happen. So people want these things to be organized, to do issue plan.
They don’t want any surprises. They don’t like inconsistency. They like quality every time they come in. Cause this is their escape for the day. So you that’s a hard part of the gym is you have to be perfect. Every time I visit. And then if you go deeper on it, they want to be connected every day. I believe every gym needs six days a week of contact points, because if I’m not in the gym and I can’t get there today, I still need to know that you love me.
So I’m looking for emails three to six times a week. I’m looking for posts on social media and the close community talking about what’s going the gym. I want to see something that’s maybe a text. It just, Hey. I’m stretched today. Don’t forget to do your stretches. Cool. I’m up doing my stretches? Got I got that from the gym.
The guy loves me all that type stuff. I get a new electronic newsletter every two or three weeks with maybe four pages of just training tips or read to.
Going to do together. I have to feel that I’m part of a community. That’s one of the things that CrossFit did so well is they brought back the term community. But one of the things they didn’t do well is it was, so it was so. Uh, Bob did there being something so elite that it kept a lot of people out of the community.
Just isn’t the workout. It’s how I’m connected to the club every day. So I need to be touched outside the gym. I need constant communication updates. I need special things for me. We talked in one of the past. By the lead segments, you know, lead clients on getting that re rewards for being a client, respecting my money.
And so what do I want there? I want you to respect me, but I also, I want to be part of the. I want to be something here where I’m connected that you’re constantly giving me stuff, but not trying to sell me stuff. And we can end this segment on this and would it be like that’s one of the hardest things is people will stop your emails.
If you’re constantly begging for money, begging referrals, begging to sign up for another program begging for something. But if you just say, look, I just read this. Water. Boom. Here it is. Just read, read this review of shoes. I know they carry them at the local running store. You’ve got to like the shoot.
Boom. I love it. Okay. Here, here’s three things to do to, Hey, by the way, here’s a three minute float. Just get up off your destiny because 60% of people work out their houses. Now get up and do the flow. So here’s one of the coaches at the gym doing a three minute flow I can do with just body weight, Brian and mine right in my office.
Cool. I got that. It didn’t cost me anything that the club touched me. So it can’t be constantly sell, sell, sell. It’s gotta be, I love you. You’re part of the family. This is really cool. I think he needs to know this. In fact, that’s the terminology. I want a lot of the guys that use it, especially like we do the elite gifts.
I want them to say, look, I found this great gym bag and I liked it so much. I bought one, but I also bought one for bill, everybody, all the elite clients. So I got 58 clients I bought. Actually why? Cause I couldn’t live without it. I knew you’d love it. Or I got these great workout headphones and they were only like they were on sale for 40 bucks.
So I bought, I bought them for everybody cause I thought they were so cool. So that’s what I’m giving you this month. Thank you for being a client. I’m going to hook you up. I’m going to connect you. I’m going to bring you in as part of the family there’s circle stuff. People want to believe. The problem in a lot of gyms is we teach to the person that is in our face.
This the loudest. So there’s always that quiet person in the back and they, they get ignored because they’re not the person appear. That’s following you around. Always tried to talk to you and ask questions. We, we, we don’t make the clients equal. We don’t reach out. Touch them equally. Well, six days a week, emails, uh, stuff like, uh, to texts all that, that equalizes the clients.
It keeps them all the same because the, we, we have to treat them. Yes. I love you. Cause your heater. You’re one of my best clients, but I love her too. She hasn’t said a word in 12 months, but she’s made every payment and she comes four times a week. She’s just as valuable as this one, but this one gets more attention than this one and this one gets lost.
And that goes back to our retention second, at which we’ve talked about other segments. So what our clients want from us, respect my money, but stay in touch with me. Bring me to the inner circle. Don’t sell me every day. Just let me know. You’re there. Let me know. I’m part of this skill. Invite me for special parties and special events.
I constantly have to surprise the member, but we’ll go back to this term. Again, repetition fatigue working out is a really boring thing if I do the same over, but you know what? You had a party Friday broke up the whole routine.
I blew off my workout and went and sat and drank beer with you in the parking lot. I never got to see you personally. I never got to hear your story. Cool. Well, Tom, I never heard your story. How cool is that? We, we, and all of a sudden next week, how do I feel about the gym? What do I want? I want your attention.
Sumit: That’s lovely. That’s beautiful. So,
Thomas Plummer: and are we doing these part of monthly? I want more than a workout. It’s not. Oh, you could. Yeah. I’d love to have guys do once a month. Like that we had a guy in Wisconsin that, uh, he sold his, we ran it for about, let’s say 10 years. He built a band stage into his place that, uh, what, uh, every once in a while he’d get a local band.
Um, he was in Madison, so kind of a music college town, and he’d get a local band on Fridays.
And they played for two or three hours and he’d give out free beer and he’d have two, 300 members that were working out that just listened to music. And after the workouts, they would all hang out and drink beer and stuff like that expose local bands to them, but he had his part of his act. Um, I mean, how cool is that?
That was 10 years ahead of his time. Very, very cool thing to do, but we think working out being pure as a thing, but we never connect to the, you know, having a party like. Putting it on the calendar once a month. Yeah. So the one with the clients. Perfect.
Sumit:I mean, I, I, when you were saying that I was remembering, uh, our workshops where, you know, you would always say, it’s, it’s, it’s all about the customer.
You know, you gotta make them feel special and, uh, you’re right. These are things that kind of connect with you a lot.
And those clients tend to stay loyal to people like that. It’s not about just the workout. Every, every good trainer could get good results. But, and I, but I don’t stay for that. I, I go for the results, but I stayed for the family. And until you, until you build that connection with your clients and make them part of that inner circle, they’re not going to stay and they, and they will drift away and they will follow somebody that loves them more.
Because if you don’t love me anymore and all you want is my money. I can find plenty of people that take my money, but you know what? This guy threw a party and it was fun. At least he was different. Yeah. Fair enough.
Sumit: This is great. Like, you know, you were saying that and I was thinking about. The gym needs to be the third place.
Like you keep saying, right? So this is the great way of making this the third place. So for sure. Um, so we’ll wrap this thing up, Tom, and we’ll talk about another session where
I want to talk about the clients that do drift away. How do we bring them back in? So I’m going to stop this and then we’ll talk about that on our next episode.
Thomas Plummer: Perfect. All right.