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“What are the Best Gym Deals To Offer if My Fitness Studio is at Limited Capacity?”

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The biggest question fitness studio owners are asking me right now is, “What are the best gym deals to offer if my studio is at limited capacity?” It makes sense…

With so many gyms being able to reopen under specific rules around sanitation, masks, social distancing, and operating way under capacity, how can you take on the right amount of new members?

How do you not overbook or exceed capacity with your marketing and sales?

In this article, I break down how to leverage the best offers for getting leads in volume while also running offers that allow you to be able to fulfill on your promises to prospects.

best offers for fitness studios cheat sheet

First, These Are The Best Gym Deals To Run Right Now

The best offers that we are seeing which, as soon as you read this, you’re going to say, “That’s not going to work right now, Mike.” But hear me out… 

The best gym deals all revolve around FREE.

In fact, the highest performing offer the top 5% of fitness studios we work with are seeing right now is still a FREE WEEK.

OK, the problem is that your fitness studio is operating at limited capacity so how are you going to do a free week offer when you can’t fit everyone in? 

The solution isn’t “Let’s go find another offer.” That can be a solution, but I don’t think it’s the right solution. A really good solution, one that I recommend, is changing your sales script.

I actually role-played this new script with some of the gyms we work with recently and it went really well. Those gyms are implementing it and growing despite being at limited capacity. 

How To Change Your Gym’s Sales Pitch To Make Free Offers At limited Capacity Work

So now you know that the best gym deals are all about FREE. Free week, free workout, etc. Which means you’ll get more leads despite limited available space. You can counter this with your fitness studio’s sales pitch.

First, what people don’t like is a “bait and switch” pitch. They don’t like when you bait them with a FREE WEEK and switch it with a $7 for 7 Days, for example. Here’s the deal though…

You can’t handle every FREE WEEK lead that comes in, so you need to do a bait and bait. You give them what they want in a different way. Here’s how it works:

This Is Your Full “Best Gym Deals” Sales Script

So, you’re calling leads who opted in for a free week but most of your classes are full because you’re at limited capacity. Especially your primetime spots.

You probably have some non-primetime classes available or created up new spots for the situation… so you’ve maybe one or two open.

You call the lead and they answer the phone… 

Lead: Hello?

You: Hey, is this Jane?

Lead: Yes, this is Jane. 

You: Hey, Jane. This is Mike with Mike’s Fitness. How are you doing? 

Lead: Good. 

You: Hey, Jane. Listen, I saw that you filled out our form to get a free pass here at our studio. I’m actually calling to get you all set up. Are you excited? 

Lead: Yes. 

You: Very cool. Have you gotten a chance to actually workout yet since being in quarantine? To actually go out to a place and workout, or is this gonna be your first time? 

Lead: No, it’s going to be my first time. 

You: That’s awesome. Well, I appreciate you wanting to workout here with us. So, you opted in for the free week pass, which is really cool. I do want to share something with you, though.

It’s kind of crazy with everything opening back up and you’re actually not the only person excited to get out and start working out at a gym again. 

In fact, a lot of people are. So, we actually right now are kind of in a weird situation where we have a lot of people who opted in for a free week pass, combined with we can only fit a limited amount of the people we normally fit in order to keep social distancing… so you can see the challenge. 

This Is The Bait And Bait Fitness Studio Sales Pitch

So right now we do have a few classes available, but not a ton of options open—just really classes in the middle of the day. But I’d like to make it awesome for you and make sure that you still love that you got the free pass here—I’m going to do a couple of different options here…

Number One, You can come to the few free sessions we have in the middle of the day, like 11:00 AM or 1:00 PM, if that’s OK with you. 

Or Number Two, I’ll double your offer and I’ll give you two free weeks for when we’re finally open at full capacity. 

Or, Option Number Three, I’ll actually give you an entire month for free if you buy two months right now, right? So if you were to buy two months now, we can either do your first and second month, then you get that third month free.

The other thing I can do is take that third month and pro-rate it over each month. So you basically get 33% off each month. Does that make sense?

Lead: Yes. 

Your Fitness Studio Is Still Delivering On Its Best Gym Deals Here

I know that’s going to be a lot to memorize, but it works. Here’s how the script, the conversation continues… 

You: So I just want to make sure I do right by you here, Jane. 

Which is better for you? Do you want to come in and workout this week midday? Did you want a free two-week pass? Or have an entire month for free where I can pro-rate the savings to 33% off each month? Which one works best for you, Jane? 

All 3 Of Your Gym’s Sales Pitch Options Should Include FREE

Did you see how it was “bait and bait”? I gave options that help me fulfill the promise of FREE to the prospect while making sure it doesn’t overwhelm my gym running at limited capacity.

So you just gave the lead options and they’re picking which one they want to do. Now, what I believe most prospects will do is choose either that second option with the two free weeks, and some will choose the free month.

Either way, you win and they win. As I said in my 11-Step Sales Strategy For Gyms: The Definitive Guide, sales is always a win-win transaction.

sales strategy definitive guide click image

Here’s how you close the sale with this best gym deals script… 

You: OK, Jane, so you want to go with the two free weeks—sounds awesome. And look, you know what, if you’d like, I won’t even count this towards your two free weeks, but did you want to come in and workout tomorrow? I’ve got an 11:00 AM class open and I’d love for you to come in and check it out. What do you think?

NOTE: You want to get the prospect in your studio for a workout as quickly as possible. Most sales are done in-studio. When she comes in and experiences what you’re all about, you can upsell her to the free full month offer where she pays you for two months upfront.

Add A Virtual Fitness Offer To Your Best Gym Deals Sales Script

With everything your fitness studio is deal with—limited capacity, masks, social distancing, etc.—you can still offer FREE as part of your best gym deals sales script AND, you can sweeten the deal for your leads… 

What you can do if you have a virtual fitness option setup, which I really hope you have virtual, I believe this should still be a very big focus for you. In fact…

A friend of mine said that 80% of the most successful gym owners he works with right now are still focusing mainly on their virtual options.

You should be too. If you’re not running a virtual option or you want to upgrade your virtual option to increase revenue, book a free demo of Elite Virtual Studio HERE: www.elitevirtualstudio.com 

elite virtual fitness studio loud rumor

Here’s what you can say next in your script:

You: Hey, Jane to add on top of that, we have unlimited virtual classes that you can actually attend during your free trial. Including prerecorded ones that you can actually attend anytime you want. So if you’d like, for that three-month deal, I’ll give you virtual access for free. Normally we charge an extra $99 a month for that but I’ll throw that in for free as well. Do you want to do that?

You’re providing value on top of giving them options that fit why they opted in in the first place.

What About All The Leads You Can’t Get Into A Free Class?

When negotiating with your gym prospects, it’s important to know all of the different options you have for them. That doesn’t mean bringing offers or prices down, it means trading.

“I’ll do this if you do that.”

This script shows there are lot of ways to solve the problem of operating at limited capacity while still offering the best gym deals around free offers.

I know a lot of you are thinking, “Well, we can’t afford it, we can’t service everyone, so let’s do a 25% OFF or a 20 Days for $20, or something like that.” But here’s the problem… 

You won’t generate enough leads or revenue while operating at limited capacity.

What you’re really wanting to do right now is build your book of business.

With a greater book of business that you’ll continue following up with, all while collecting revenue right now and building up your retargeting lists, building up your email list, you’ll play the long game and end up way ahead when you’re running at full capacity again.

Because your list is FREE.

Remember, there are three types of leads and traffic that you could have:

  1. There’s Paid Traffic – which is if you’re running ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.
  2. Earned Traffic – which, if you’re an GSD 360 TEAM member, I messaged teh group about how easy it is to get your fitness studio featured on local news TV right now—that’s an example of earned traffic.
  3. And then there’s Owned Traffic – owned traffic is either created by paid or earned, but you own it because you don’t have to pay or earn for this list of people anymore. You can text, call, or email traffic you own… for FREE.

You can really build up your book right now while a lot of other people are freaking out and having less attractive offers and struggling to find ways to give value. 

You want to go wide. 

What Happens When Your Gym Is Back At Full Capacity And Full Price?

One of the gym owners we work with at Loud Rumor came to me with this concern:

“How do we justify readjusting our pricing when we’ve got this group of people who are paying full price and this other group of people paying 50% price, but basically getting the same thing when we fully reopen? What happens then? Do I lower deals or raise them? Either way, I feel like I’m going to lose money or lose business.”

This is a legitimate concern.

I spoke with GSD 360 Performance Consultant and Co-Owner of LadyStrong Fitness, Brittany Welk. Brittany had about 50 people she had to change pricing for when her studio fully reopened and no one gave her any pushback.

In fact, some people actually told her, “How can I pay more to finally get set up and be ready to go when you’re fully open?”

Part of this is putting a massive focus on retention. We have a great episode of The GSD Show on gym retention here: https://www.loudrumor.com/podcasts/raw-8

The key is, don’t be afraid. You’ve been honest with them from the beginning and now you’re just being honest with them again.

Plus, should some people give pushback, you’ll already have a great book of business built up and you’ll still be generating leads through your FREE WEEK offer.

Summary Of The Best Gym Deals

  • Run FREE Offers
  • Update Your Sales Script
  • Build Your Book Of Business
  • Be Honest In Every Category
  • Don’t Be Afraid

It’s true, some people are still worried to go into a gym. But, a lot of people are over this and just want to get out of their house and back to normal.

So be sure to practice this new best gym deals sales script. I know it’s long, but memorize it, role-play it every morning, and implement it as soon as possible.

Save this Blog and revisit this script anytime you and your fitness studio’s team need it.

With this strategy, you should be able to grow your business, grow your book, and get results during all of this.

Your competitors probably aren’t doing this, so this is your leg up. This is your competitive advantage.

Let me know how it goes: [email protected]

GSD!

Loud Rumor
Loud Rumor

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