Get Ahead of 99% of Fitness Businesses Instantly...Without Selling

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Most Business Owners hate sales.

I used to suck at sales…I hated it.

When I worked at WHSmith, I used to cringe when asking each customer:

"Would you like a Terry's Chocolate Orange today?"

It was only £1 but it still felt icky and wrong.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see why I felt this way back then - but we'll unpack that in a few moments.

Here's a harsh truth: Whether you like it or not, you're a Salesperson.

If you're in business, you're in sales.

If you don't make sales…you won't be in business!

This becomes apparent quickly when you first start in business.

If you're in Fitness, like me, you learn that getting good at consultations and selling from them is imperative.

Without the ability to sell you don't sign up any clients, can't make any money, and are unable to run your business.

It's as simple as that.

Even if you do manage to get by, if you don't get to grips with the foundations of 'sales' and what creates a good sales process, you'll forever find business difficult.

You may have experienced this yourself.

The feeling that your constantly chasing your tail looking for new clients or riding a rollercoaster of finance that goes up and down every other month.

Sure, there's a retention component to this.

But ultimately, there's an underlying sales issue that needs resolving.

So let's focus on that…

The #1 Skill to Dominate the Fitness Industry: Problem Discovery 

I know you've experienced this…

Someone tells you they "can't afford" your services or that they are "too expensive" and then only a few days or weeks later, you see them blowing money on things that seem ludicrous to you.

...That used to frustrate the hell out of me.

But after some time, I realised what was happening.

And I realised that the problem was me, not them.

I was missing a (now obvious) element of sales.

Problem Solving.

When people buy something, they're solving a problem.

The 'nonsense' things I saw people spending money on had done a better job of positioning themselves at solving a specific problem.

I hadn't done that.

I had try to sell PT, rather than try and solve a set of problems.

People don't buy SlimFast because they want to drink shakes all day. They buy it because they want to lose weight, fast, and in a convenient manner.

It solves a clear set of problems.

My issue was that I didn't yet fully understand what people's problems were and how to best position my service for solving those problems quickly. 

Eventually, I realised that needed to make 'Problem Discovery' a big part of my sales process.

"If I had 60 minutes to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes defining it, and 5 minutes solving it"

- Albert Einstein

I needed to better use my initial contact and consultation with people, so that I could clearly understand the problems they were trying to solve.

And more importantly…

Get the potential client to understand their own problems clearly, so that they could make a better decision about how to solve them.

This is the essence of 'Problem Discovery'.

You can apply however you like. It's a principle.

But here are some steps I take to apply it in my sales conversations, and in doing so, find myself never really needing to sell at all!

Stop Selling, Start Solving Problems

Here are some simple steps to help you 'discover' the problems you need to help someone solve…

1.Establish a connection, quickly

Even if you can solve my problems, I won't let you unless I trust you.

A car salesman can sell me a car at a good deal, but if I don't like him or trust him, I'm not buying!

There's only so much trust and rapport you can build in a one-off consultation, so I like to make sure this process starts before that point.

Here are ways you can build trust BEFORE you even sit down with someone…

• Through your content & marketing (your values, your beliefs, your social proof)

• Pre-consult call: spend 5 mins on the phone with a prospect before they come to meet you - this acts as an additional touch-point and change to get to know them.

• Communication: The texts and emails you send in the days leading up to a consultation that 'remind' the prospect of your meeting but also give additional touch-points where you can share your personality.

**Side Note - This is one of the many reasons we started Fitness OS - to make creating these systems and automations far easier and help you grow your business more quickly.

Once you made use of the ways you can establish a better connection with people, you'll do a better job of the next step…

2.Probing Questions (that don't suck)

• Where would you ideally like to get to?

• What's holding you back or getting in the way?

• What needs to be different this time round?

• What's worked well for you in the past?

…these are all examples of probing questions.

They are open-questions that create conversation that leads to deeper insights.

But the key is this: The answer to a probing question opens the door to further probing.

Let's take a quick example…

Q. What needs to be different this time round?

A.I need something that's sustainable that I can stick to.

You could leave that there. 

Or instead, you could ask…

Q. What would make this more sustainable for you?

The answer they give here will tell you EXACTLY what you need to highlight in your service.

This person is telling you the exact problems they are looking to solve and they will do this multiple times in your conversation if you probe the answers they give to your probing questions.

On to the last step…

3.Prescribe The Solution

Prescription-based selling is something I will cover again in the future. 

It deserves its own dedicated exploration.

For now, here's what you need to know…

• The person in front of you likes you and trusts you

• They've explained the problems they're facing and how it's stopping them reaching their goals

• They believe that You can help them

Your job now is to present your service to them as the solution to their problems by highlighting the feature of your service that best solve their biggest, most pressing problems.

You essentially repeat back a good chunk of the information they've given you and then build on top of that.

If you do that (well) you won't have to sell your service.

The person will want to buy.

Money will become less of a barrier.

The perceived value will skyrocket…because who else is presenting them something that so clearly solves the problems they're looking to solve?

To Summarise

"All life is problem solving"

- Karl Popper

(Matt's addition…"and sales is no different")

The day I realised that 'Selling' was essentially 'Problem Solving' it changed the way I felt and acted.

It literally transformed how I went about doing business.

I'm not here to sell you anything.

I'm here to solve your problems.

(That's my primary role as a coach)

And if I can present the solutions to your problems clearly, you will want to buy.

We all hate being sold to, but we enjoy the feeling of buying.

They are opposite ends of the same spectrum and feel completely different even thought the underlying act or behaviour is the same.

You can apply these same principles and this exact approach to your business.

When you do, things will change.

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