There tends to be a pattern that differentiates gyms that are successful and ones that struggle. Here three common mistakes of many struggling gyms make and how to avoid doing the same.
Mistake # 1: Struggling gyms don’t have regularly scheduled meetings
Among the primary reasons teams fall apart is because there is little or no communication among the staff. Employees are disengaged and performance is low because the team doesn’t have any clear direction. New members join the gym, but the staff don’t know anything about these individuals. There is no system of responsibility for cleaning and upkeep of the gym; sometimes it gets done and most of the time it doesn’t. Staff has little to no appreciation or respect about each other’s jobs. Committing to weekly staff meetings and discuss these types of issues is a great first step to creating a stronger team culture.
Mistake # 2: Struggling gyms don’t talk about sales and have no sales goals
A good friend once told me, “all problems appear to be much smaller when you have money coming in.” Struggling clubs have a misunderstanding about what it means to sell memberships or personal training. A struggling club thinks selling means bothering people or forcing prospects to do what they may not want to. Clubs that are doing poorly have no sales goals to aspire to; so if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.
The books Selling Personal Training and Selling Fitness by Casey Conrad and Creating Lasting Change by Tony Robbins are excellent resources to use with your sales staff to shift their mindset and teach them the proper skills to sell. For goal-setting in your gym, Thomas Plumber has an excellent resource, How to More Money in the Fitness Industry.
Mistake # 3: Struggling gyms don’t know their numbers
Struggling gyms operate their businesses blindly. They don’t recognize they have challenges because they are unaware of their own trends. The reason why the past seems to repeat itself is because of a very poor sense of awareness.
Knowing your past trends and looking at your data on a chart or a graph could be extremely helpful in identifying whether or not you are trending up or down. Charts and graphs are there to tell you a story of the kind of business you are running. The decisions you make today will impact future trends. Having a sense of awareness of your numbers will give you peace of mind to either stay the course or change direction.
