Communication is, I believe, almost the secret to life!

You know what its like, you hear a comment from someone and you immediately make up your mind on what they meant and how you are going  to respond. Its only later in the conversation or later that day or week that the penny drops, if you are lucky, and you realise you completely misunderstood what they said. This can play havok with your personal relationships with partners, friends and family. You see the problem is that we communicate to other people the way we like to be communicated too, which sounds reasonable but most people are not like you so the message gets lost or confused.

This can have serious consequences in the work place and is often the reson why some businesses fail. If you are the owner/boss or manager then it is even more important that the lines of communication are open and more importantly effective. I talk to a lot of business owners in the fitness industry who tell me thay can’t seem to keep good staff. Once we have a good look at the way they find and hire their staff then it becomes obvious to me that the communication is the problem.

These days people don’t come into a job interview to be interviewed, they come in to interview YOU! How you feel about that is not important its what you DO about it that counts. If you don’t know how they communicate and what they want, how are you going to be able to convince them to work for you now and for the next few years? Using a ’system’ is the only way for you to know what to say and when to say it.

My newest employee in my PT studio is a young man who is very mature and wants to know he has the ability to grow and develop in the business, taking on more responsibility if he proves himself to have the qualities we need. Now I need to communicate that to him in the interview and as he continues to work for me. I can do this by telling him, recognising his efforts personally and publically, rewarding his work financially and in other ways (movie tickets, restaurant vouchers, bottle of wine etc) and, ultimately giving him a promotion.

Is he going to know that this is the progression he has to look forward to if I don’t tell him?

I hear business owners say “but I want them to work in the business as if it was their’s”. Well tell them! Let them know that they will have the opportunity to become the manager and potentially own the business themselves if they do all the right things! Would that motivate me to work hard consistently…you betcha!

Now lets go back to what I said earlier. If your potential staff member wants to work hard in a stable job without too much responsibility or change and is happy to do the same tasks each day, would you communicate the potential to one day run the business? No. You would be listening to what they want and then explain that the position you have would be for someone who is reliable and can do similar tasks each day, wants a long term job and would be responsible for their own actions only. Would this sound attractive to them?

Now folks remember that this is the same position! A PT instructor who does some group classes, cleaning and building client relationships. Its how you communicate the position that makes all of the difference. Is their room for both types of personalities and wants? Absolutely! Do I want both types of people in my business?  Absolutely! The key is being able to communicate what you need and what they want. The roles and tasks that the position holds must be written down in detail and the staff must understand and appreciate these requirements.

You need to be able to do this at the start and then consistently throughout the working life of that staff member in your business. You must have a staff meeting each week where everyone has the opportunity to speak and people are recognised for their good work and bad. You must be able to see where people excell and where they fall short and immediately take action.Then you will have a loyal, respectful group of employees whose needs are met and love working for such a leader. Without these systems in place your business will be at the mercy of your staff and, believe me, that is no fun at all.

For those of you who want a system to find, hire, train and manage staff join us on the !2th of March for our Duplicator Discovery Webinar where I will take you through the tools and system of this brilliant program. Learn how I and hundreds of other fitness business owners have duplicated themselves in their businesses and have a ‘bubbling pot’ of potential staff just waiting to get a chance to work for you.

Go to www.PTDuplicatorNow.com to register for this awesome webinar.

Committed to your success
Ric Isaac

Hi folks, I want to comment on one of the most critical components of your fitness business….  Staff!
I talk to business owners right across Australia and New Zealand and the biggest problem that they have when trying to build their business is getting and keeping good staff.  If you a doing all off the training, the book work, administrative tasks etc. and you don’t have staff in your business, then in all reality, you don’t have a business, you have a very stressful job!

If you have two or three staff who are dictating to you what hours they can do and what hours they want to do, then at any stage, your whole business could collapse like a pack of cards if they decide to leave. I hear lots of horror stories of business owners being held to ransom by greedy staff who basically blackmail the business into getting more money, hours etc.

I have personally seen my business almost go bust when I had staff member (a manager in this case) quit and….take half my clients with them! I was dragged back into the busness and had to mend some seriously damaged relationships and start to build it up all over again. I used to say things like “No one can do it like me” and “My clients just won’t work with someone else” and I hear the same thing from fitness business owners everywhere. If you cannot duplicate yourself in your business then frankly folks you are always going to struggle.

Like one of our new VIP members who has been in his business for 20 years and is financially very successful but is still doing 60 to 70 hours a week, split shifts everyday and doesn’t have a life.  I was devastated when I was told by a Business Broker that my business that I had worked so hard for 5 years to build up was worth nothing! Nada! Zero! “But I have lots of paying clients” I said, “but they all want to work with you” he answered “and as soon as you leave , they will too!” and I realised that I had been working my butt off to have a very stressful JOB.

Maybe YOU would love to help more people and make more money but doing another 15 hours of PT would mean you wouldn’t ever sleep so you hold yourself and your business back because you have no way of getting staff  to do what you and your clients want.

That day with the Business Broker was when I changed my whole approach to my business and, when I was able to get that system to find, hire, train and manage staff, I finally got an asset that is growing everyday, week and month without me in it. My Staff work in the business like it is their own and they also know that I have a ‘bubbling pot’ of applicants who are ready to jump in when needed if they are not pulling their weight. This has given me a huge boost of confidence and allowed me to really put the foot on the marketing accelerator and leverage off the efforts of others.

Are my staff happy? You betcha, they love working in a business that is growing and growing even during this economic environment and they also get the X factor. The X factor is critical to you keeping good staff and building a culture of excellence in your fitness business. What is the X factor…..Recognition and Reward! Do this consistenly and you will create a team of loyal, committed staff who are constantly trying to do better.

If you would like to find out more about the system that changed my fitness business forever then go to www.PTduplicator.com

Cheers

Ric Isaac

Yesterday’s referability quiz was about EARNING the fitness referral.

Today I want to quiz you on the second part of the formula: ASKING.

Have you ever heard of Ockham’s Razor?

Ockham was an English philosopher in the 14th century. I still remember the first time I ever heard the classic, “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

This guy was sharp.

Ockham’s claim to fame is his “theory” that to be most productive, we need to peel away the layers of, well… crud…in order to get to the simple truth of things. Essentially, solve problems through simplicity rather than sophistication.

That sounds good, right?

Keep it simple.

I can dig it.

Ockham’s razor states: “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” The term razor refers to the act of shaving away unnecessary assumptions to get to the simplest explanation. The simplest truth, the simplest solution.

Now, with that said, let me ask you question #1 in today’s quiz:

1. Do you simply and clearly ASK your clients to refer? In person, face to face, nose to nose, belly to belly. Do you ask them?

Most people, I’ve discovered, do not. They lack the fortitude, fear the potential rejection, avoid, at almost all cost, the confrontation.

And that is a big mistake.

It’s curious to me why so many will go to such great lengths to avoid confrontation.

And this goes back to my question #12 from yesterday’s quiz… are you fearless about feedback?

See, there’s no way - none - that you can improve if you live in your own little bubble, sealed off from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Remember your Shakespeare?

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?

I’m not rambling here, so don’t think I’ve gone off my rocker with Ockham and Shakespeare. There’s a very real, and a very serious point to be made, and it’s right there in Shakespeare’s quote from Hamlet.

Should you suffer the “outrageous fortune” - should you be a martyr?

Or should you stand up and fight, and by fighting, put an end to the problem?

Stand up, straighten up, and confront your fears.

ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT.

And then let the chips fall where they may. If they make a big mess, clean them up. Believe me, you’ll learn a valuable lesson by doing that. You’ll learn how valuable it is to confront - you’ll learn how valuable it is to find out what your clients are REALLY thinking - because only then will you know how to fix the problem. Only then will you know the secret to turning your clients into champions of your business.

Anyway, food for thought. At the very least, I hope you found this stimulating and entertaining and different. Those are good things.

Cheers,

Ric Isaac

P.S. Despite having just conveyed what may be the most important lesson on referrals you’ll ever get, I can appreciate that maybe you were hoping for something more today. If so, don’t fret. Lots more on referrals coming tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow is the official unveiling of our new AUTOMATIC REFERRAL ENGINE. You’ll like that, for certain. Until then…

Lots of fitness professionals wonder why they don’t get more referrals - wonder what they can DO to lubricate the referral process. This quiz will help by shining a bright light on your referability… or lack thereof.

(Big referability hint here: PERCEPTION is reality. Don’t miss question #12 below, it’s the single most important question of all.)

And now with this messy economy, it’s more important than ever that you be referable. Because nothing beats referrals. Nothing.

So, are you referable? Are you referral WORTHY? Take this quiz to find out…

PART I: EARN THE REFERRAL

1. Do you promise results to your clients?

2. Do you get results for them? (The results they were promised.)

3. Do you document those results and reinforce them with the client? (Remember, results occur over a period of time - they are incremental. From day to day, the client may not notice the changes, or properly value what’s happening because of the rate at which it occurs. It’s your job to show them the progress at each re-assessment.)

4. Do you reinforce the VALUE of what you do for the client? (Do they really understand just how life- changing this is? See question #3)

5. Do you educate the client, or just train the client? (Some people may not appear interested in being “educated”. It’s your job to deliver their education in a way that is palatable and consumable by them. Want to foster word-of-mouth? Don’t just get results, teach them HOW to get results…so they can share their expertise with others…you will inevitably come up in THAT conversation…and people are much more passionate and influential when speaking about something they truly understand.)

6. Do you create a WOW! experience for the client… while they’re with you and even while they’re not? (Or do they just show up and go through the motions, forgetting about you and your business the moment they leave?)

7. Do your clients feel like they are part of something special - a community? (Like the TV show Cheers: “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”)

8. Do you communicate consistently, via multiple media, with your clients? (Particularly in the form of motivational, inspirational and educational info - like sharing success stories, as one example.)

9. Do you share pieces of yourself - do they they really know, like and trust you?

10. Do you over-deliver? Really, truly OVER-DELIVER (go the extra mile)?

11. Do you have what Bill Gates calls “a referral mindset”?

He describes it this way…

“Your attitudes and assumptions toward referrals constitute the starting point towards building a successful referral-
based business. You must adopt a referral mindset. Having this mindset means that you embrace referrals as the best way to build your business. When you have a referral mindset, referrals are not just something nice that happens every now and then. They are your primary method for acquiring new clients, or at least a major part of your overall marketing plan. When you truly adopt a referral mindset, everything you do in your business will promote your goal of getting more high-quality referrals.”

Think about that!

12. And finally…are you FEARLESS ABOUT FEEDBACK? Do you go to great lengths to not only find out what your clients want, and give it to them (hint: surveys), but also to solicit honest, uncensored feedback about how you are doing…how they PERCEIVE the value of your services?

Perception is reality, my friend. Perception is reality.

Maybe YOU can answer these questions in the affirmative…

…but the 64 thousand dollar question is…

Will your CLIENTS answer them in the affirmative?

Because what you think is of little consequence if your clients think otherwise.

All that REALLY matters is how your clients PERCEIVE you and your services.

Okay, that’s the end of PART I of your referability quiz. Part II is coming on Wednesday. Keep your eye out, cause that’s when we get into the “ASK” portion of this quiz. Here’s your mission, should you choose to accept it…

Brainstorm out every way you can think of to EARN the referral from your clients. We’ve touched on some of the major strategies in this quiz, but there are multiple tactics within each strategy. How many are you using?

NOW is the time to get very, very serious about referrals. Because it looks like this economic condition isn’t changing any time soon, and therefore it becomes ever so much more important that you WOW-em’ and WORK-em’ for  referrals, squeezing every possible new client out of your existing clients (and sphere of influence).

Now is the time to get really good at maximising client lifetime value - and there is nothing more valuable than a client who refers.

To Your Success,

Ric Isaac

P.S. I think - no, scratch that - I KNOW this is going to blow you away. On Thursday, Fit For Profit is releasing an automatic referral ENGINE for your fitness business. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. And it’s so darn simple to use, so refreshingly easy, yet so monstrously powerful… it WILL BLOW YOU AWAY. And here’s more good news…it costs ZERO to implement, and almost zero to own (I’m talking dirt cheap).

Hi Folks,

Myself and my Fiance were invited to the birthday party of one of our clients in our PT business, Fit For Health. I am a huge fan of ABM (always be marketing) and don’t mind a party so we put on our best clobber and off we went.

It was at a function center which had a huge outdoor area with a kids playground so the little ones, there was heaps of them, could entertain themselves. We didn’t know anyone except the Birthday girl so we had to do the conversation thing. Seeing people with their kids is easy as they are more than happy to have a chat about them and the joys/tribulations of bringing them up.

It was during one of these conversations that I got a massive reminder about how to be successful in our industry. I was talking to Graham, who I had just met, he knew that I owned a PT business and was asking how this economic crisis was affecting me. I explained we were very specialised and that it didn’t make a difference to us. He went on to say this:

“I know what you mean, I joined _____ (a big gym chain) and as soon as I paid I was forgotten, the only time a got a call was to renew! I tried another gym really close to work and the same thing happened. Then I found a small PT studio and I absolutely love it! They call me if I miss a session and ask how I am doing or if I haven’t been for a week they will ring me too. I feel like they really care about me getting results and I have referred heaps of work colleagues, friends and family so there is always someone I know there. They greet me by my first name when I walk in and I will never go anywhere else”.

I remembered when, back in the day, I used to worry about calling people if they didn’t turn up because I didn’t want them to feel like I was nagging them, what a dufus. Graham’s experience sums up what everyone wants, a personalised, caring and supportive place which does help them to get results. I think sometimes we get caught up in having the latest equipment or new wiz bang training method when really people just want results and to know that you care about them.

How many of us call our clients regularly? Even if you have seen them recently how hard is it to give them a call and just say hello, the impact of doing this will spread like a wave amongst your community, just like Graham. This should be the focus of our businesses.

Make sure you are giving people the ‘Wow’ experience with your business and they will be happy to pay top price for that service and….they will refer like mad!

To find out how to streamline your ability to always stay in contact with your clients and prospects check out the ‘Deep Core Program’ in our webstore. We give you the tools to create a constant flow of new people interested in your service and enable you to give your clients that personalised service that they deserve.

http://www.fitnessmarketingaustralia.com/webstore.html

Make sure your business stands out from the crowd and you will benefit from this economic climate as your competition falls away, leaving you as the go to PT/Gym in your town.

Keep chargin’
Ric Isaac