At a time when most fitness studios are clinging to every dollar and struggling to bring in revenue, The Hot Room Yoga in Indianapolis brought in $30,000+ last month in fitness retail sales.

In this episode, the owners and Loud Rumor members Michelle and Hye Jin break down their entire strategy and how you can implement it at your studio.

How Fitness Retail Filled The Revenue Gap

Before the pandemic, The Hot Room Yoga was on fire. Full classes, increasing revenue, and growing year-over-year… 

“We had grandiose plans for 2020,” Michelle says, “and unfortunately, we had to think differently.”

Luckily, they were running a virtual option to keep revenue flowing and to add new members. But with fewer members and lower prices, they needed to fill the revenue gap.

“That’s where retail came in,” Hye Jin says, “we put an emphasis on selling more gear.”

Your Fitness Studio’s Focus Doesn’t Change With Retail

“You still need members to sell retail items to,” Hye Jin explains, “so we still put a huge focus on bringing new members through marketing and sales training with Loud Rumor and delivering an amazing experience for people.”

Another thing they did is they got members excited about their reopening. They contacted everyone and they even did some renovations so it felt like a brand-new studio.

Your focus doesn’t change: Keep current members happy and loyal while bringing in new members.

The only difference is that you’ll add selling retail to your process.

How To Sell Fitness Retail To Your Studio’s Members

While their studio was closed, they freshened up the paint, cancelled their current retail purchases, and Michelle went to work on enhancing that space to make it an exciting place for members to purchase gear.

“I brought in the newest seasonal deliveries when it landed, it was just dynamic on the floor,” Michell says, “and I assorted our retail in color-blocking. So, if I have yoga on the top and bottom shelves, I put a matching lifestyle aspect or outfit with it.”

The layout of their new retail shop was done with intention to increase sales.

On top of that, they made it part of their process to educate members on the gear and equipment they sell and which mats and blocks are best for the member’s needs.

“All of this education around our gear is not only designed to sell but elevate the experience and safety of our members,” Hye Jin says.

Prepare The Fitness Retail Sale Before The Member Or Prospect Even Comes Into Your Studio

Another great thing Michelle and Hye Jin do is they prep both members and prospects before they come into the studio. Most people ask things like:

What should I wear?
Do I have to go buy a yoga mat before I come in?
Where can I get blocks and other equipment?
What equipment do I need to bring with me?

The team at The Hot Room Yoga train and practice to help each person get their gear, equipment, and clothing when they come in instead of finding something cheap at a place like Target.

What’s really cool is, Michelle and Hye Jin train their team to get ahead of those questions. “We tell them before they even ask,” Hye Jin says, “that they don’t need to bring anything, we have it all here and we’ll help them pick the right gear specific to them and their needs.”

Remember Why You’re Selling Fitness Retail To Your Members

“I feel like we need to inspire our members to buy but to also help them improve themselves and have them feel more comfortable in a shopping environment,” Michelle explains, “and I believe we cover all of that. Our mantra is Positive, Welcoming, and In Service to Others and we take that to the fitness retail side of our studio too.”

I actually talked about this with another gym owner recently. This guy was in great shape but didn’t feel comfortable selling supplements to his members… 

After we talked about how he’s doing his members a disservice by not selling them the supplements that he uses AND how he could be generating an additional $90,000+ per year in revenue just by making this one change to his gym, it made perfect sense for him to sell retail.

CLICK HERE to checkout my full story about this gym owner and how the $90K+ math works out in STEP #8 of my “11-Step Sales Strategy For Gyms: The Definitive Guide”

 

Create Internal and External Fitness Studio Challenges Around Retail

One of the things The Hot Room Yoga does really well to increase fitness retail sales is they create both internal sales challenges and external milestone challenges.

Internal: They have their team track members and offer equipment and gear upgrades based on when the timing makes sense for that member. They also incentivize their team to follow-up.

External: When members hit certain milestones like “30 Days” they get a free t-shirt which invites the member to look at other gear and equipment to purchase.

Role-Play Your Studio’s Retail Sales One-Liners

Michelle and Hye Jin have a list of what they call “one-liners” to sell more retail. 

“For example,” Hye Jin says, “if someone’s holding up a top, a great one-liner is, have you seen the leggings that go with that top?”

In this episode, I actually role-play their one-liners with them so you can get the full experience.

On top of that, we got a great strategic question from our friends at Pop Fit Studio.

This episode is definitely worth checking out right now. Whether you watch or listen to it, upping your retail game can dramatically help with revenue during these challenging times.