Thoughts for the Gold’s Gym Challenge

by Gold’s Gym Challenge Committee and Sponsors

April signifies the completion of the final flights for the 2012 Gold’s Gym Challenge.  This year’s Challenge was an enormous success with over 160 teams participating representing 240 gyms combining franchise and corporate locations.   

I wanted to share some special messages from the Gold’s Gym Challenge Committee and Sponsors. 

Owners, please take a few moments to read the following thoughts as they are inspirational and leave lasting impressions.   I encourage you to share these messages with your staff and individuals involved in the Gold’s Gym Challenge.

Ginger Collins, Executive Director
Gold’s Gym Franchisee Association

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The Gold’s Gym Challenge is – in my opinion – the single most motivating event we can offer to our members as well as for our staff. Why? Because it represents who we are, what we do, and it teaches so many that a healthy lifestyle is worth every second of sweat and hard work. The Challenge motivates our members – the members motivate our staff!

Here is the PERFECT example, taken from the essay of one of our finalists for this year about why she chose to do the Challenge: 

Loneliness. A kind of silence that roars.

Sometimes, people do wrong things to help combat sadness, stress or in my case, loneliness. It didn’t take long however for my loneliness to join forces with sadness.

I have always been healthy. I have always been in shape. But, loneliness and sadness dulled me out, I didn’t realize it at first. I knew when I started to find a friend with Mr. Beer or Ms. Wine to help settle my discomfort, that the term ‘self medicate’ became truly relative and I didn’t like it.  I felt awful about myself.

Soon, Christmas came – and went. But, not without a compassionate gift from my mom and dad. They knew I wanted to do the challenge, but I couldn’t afford it. Mom said, “This is a Christmas gift and I am more than happy to see you get healthier, this is the best kind of gift I could think of giving.”

The challenge wasn’t a challenge, rather, it became my…journey – an experience. Exercise can be a worldly experience, your body working to dispel and build, work and fight, flow harmoniously, heal and deal. The Gold’s Gym Challenge became for me my ‘Gold’s Gym Journey Work-With’ (the only thing I wanted OUT was my negative thoughts, and they have been dealt with.)

And as for the loneliness…

I’ve made a few, blossoming friends. A couple of them greet me right at the door of the Gold’s Gym in Wenatchee. Here is something I wrote in my journal about the staff in Wenatchee a while back:

“I liked how the staff would greet me like Elisa, Ryan, Kami and Cindy. I learned their names quickly…and soon, they learned mine. I remember when I first started going, they would be able to key in member’s numbers. One day I came in and Ryan said, “Hi xxx, I got you” and he punched in my number. I felt awesome. I felt, by that very gesture, with ALL those people coming in daily, that I was remembered too.”

I know to some this may be nothing special, but for me, it is. Especially when you feel lonely and forgotten, when somebody remembers you, it is special. “

THAT is why we do the Challenge. THAT is why we are in this business. I have shared this whole essay with our staff and it has elevated their mindful presence at the front counter to an all time high.  It’s members like this who remind me every day that I am SO lucky to have a job that I love and people around me that I adore! Honestly, you can’t afford NOT to do the Gold’s Gym Challenge! 

Jenny Hymer, Gold’s Gym Wenatchee

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Every year, Gold’s Gym is proud to offer The Challenge, our largest promotion of the year, to current and new members nationwide.

For our associates, this event is our ultimate opportunity to drive new membership and create a sense of excitement and community in our gyms. For our members, this is their chance to push themselves harder than ever before to attain their personal fitness goals.

They come from all walks of life and experiences. Similar to the stories from “Show Us Your Journey,” our members show inner strength and a desire to overcome their odds and be in the best physical shape of their lives.

This year has been the most powerful year for the Gold’s Gym Challenge to date. A record 3,500 members signed up to push themselves harder and transform their bodies in just 12 weeks.

Our members worked hard and got great results. Now as we near the finishing line, it’s time for their final weigh-ins April 25-27 and a shot at more than $75,000 in cash prizes! And as a special congrats from us, members will receive a free duffle bag ($40 value) for finishing.

Thank you for making this one of the most successful Challenges- you have made an impact on our gyms and our members!

Dave Reiseman, Vice President Communications
Gold’s Gym International

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We at Met-Rx want to congratulate all the teams for their strength and drive to take on such a life changing experience. The MET-Rx® brand revolutionized the sports nutrition industry nearly two decades ago and we are proud to be a sponsor for this event. MET-Rx® can assist you in creating an effective nutritional program that fits your lifestyle so you can shape your body for optimum health. “Good Luck to All”.

Don Ernst, Director of Sales & Distribution
MET-Rx

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As a proud sponsor of the 2012 Gold’s Gym Challenge, ABC Financial congratulates all of the participants.  Your focus, dedication and commitment to achieving your goals are an inspiration to us all!  We also congratulate our Gold’s Gym partners on the continued success of this amazing transformation event.

Steve Ayers, Chief Revenue Officer
ABC Financial Services, Inc.

Dana Milkie, Sr. Vice President
ABC Financial Services, Inc.

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Matrix is proud to be a sponsor of the Gold’s Gym Challenge again in 2012. This has become one of my favorite events personally because we can see remarkable results and hear touching stories of how people’s lives have truly been changed through fitness. The GG Challenge participants all across the country have turned the tables on the equipment manufacturers and Gold’s Gym owners, as they are now the ones inspiring us!

Kent Stevens, Executive Vice President
Matrix Fitness

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The Gold’s Gym Challenge is absolutely one of the BEST LIFE-CHANGING programs in the world!  Visual Fitness Planner is proud to be a part of this effort to transform lives around the world.  The Vision of our company is “Creating achievable Visions” and our Mission is to “build innovative systems that … communicate value, educate, and guide customer decision making for the advancement of health, visually and emotionally through cutting edge technology”.  The Gold’s Gym Challenge changes people’s lives by motivating people to give their very best effort in a pre-determined amount of time.  And when people do that, they succeed!  Remember what John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach at UCLA defines success as…. he said:

 “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”  

And every participant is encouraged to succeed through the Gold’s Gym Challenge!

Congratulations to all of the clubs giving the effort to help their members become the best of which they are capable!

Daron Allen, President/CEO
Visual Fitness Planner

Get-em’ While They’re Hot!

by  Casey Conrad, BA, JD
GGFA Think Tank

I remember going to the local carnival as a child and really looking forward to a “Doughboy,” which is nothing more than fried dough dipped in sugar! 

Although the thought of it now makes me nauseous, I can vividly hear in my head the old-timer who ran the stand yelling out, “Doughboys, fresh doughboys; get-em’ while their hot.”

Call me twisted but when I think of new members what goes through my mind is “New Member, fresh attitude; get-em’ while their hot!” 

It’s true.  When a new member joins they are most excited about their membership to the club in terms of attitude.  Sure, it may take them a while to actually obtain their fitness goals and realize physical benefits but their enthusiasm for their new program is at an all time high.

This is why the point of sale (POS) is the most optimal time for getting referrals.  Oh, sure, some people in today’s fast paced world may not want to literally give you the phone numbers of their friends but that is only one element to obtaining referrals. 

All too often salespeople are so afraid of getting rejected they don’t even ask for referrals at the point of sale.  This is extremely unfortunate–not only for the already stated reasons but because most people want to validate a purchase, which is accomplished by telling others about their purchase.  Perhaps even more important perhaps this new member needs the support of a friend as a member?

At the very least, by properly presenting your POS referral program to EVERY new member you are setting the stage to let the person know that your business is based on happy members telling others.  This will make referral opportunities in the future more possible.

Casey Conrad, BA, JD, has been in the health and fitness industry for 26 years.  She is the author of numerous club sales and marketing products, including the number one book “Selling Fitness”.  To access her free sales tips and videos please visit www.HealthClubSalesTraining.com.  She can be reached at Casey@CaseyConrad.com. 

Lead Nurturing for Gyms

by Fred Elias, Director of Business Development – TouchPoint
Visual Fitness Planner

Lead nurturing is not the same as lead management. In our world, an example of lead management would be:  A prospect signs up for a 7-day pass on your website. The sales person makes an attempt to contact the prospect and follows your club’s manual system, which may include a 1-31 approach.  The sales person begins to call the prospect on a frequent schedule which may be every day, or even several times per day until an appointment is made.  After a week or two, and potentially dozens of calls later, the salesperson gives up and moves on to a newer/fresher lead. Here are a couple of critical questions you need to ask yourself: What happens to the lead after it’s been cooled off? What was the experience like for the prospect?

Lead nurturing is the process of cultivating leads/prospects that are not yet ready to buy. Successful lead nurturing anticipates the needs of the buyer based on where they are in the buying process.  Nurturing keeps prospects engaged by providing relevant content (emails and SMS/text) that best fit their health and fitness goals.

If done well, nurturing can build strong Brand loyalty long before a prospect is ready to buy.  By cultivating concealed needs or desires, clubs can increase the conversion of unqualified leads to hot leads and ultimately sell more memberships. Nurturing also helps accelerate the chances with your hot leads by giving them the needed information to make purchasing decisions more quickly.

Lead nurturing is about helping your prospects explore their journey for better health and fitness. Lead nurturing technologies are often used to automate such real-time marketing. This type of software makes it possible to track leads and automate the delivery of content, while simultaneously triggering corresponding actions.

Why Does My Gym Need to Nurture Leads?

Not every prospect is ready to buy now.  In fact, a large club chain has statistics that show out of 100 leads their sales reps engage, 90% will not buy within the first 30 days.  But it’s a mistake to ignore those leads.  After all, 60% of prospects that don’t make a commitment today will go on to buy from you or a competitor within the next 24 months. When they do, you want your club at the top of their short list.

Once prospects are in your sales follow-up cycle, nurturing them with helpful, relevant communication moves potential members through each stage of consideration at a natural pace until they’re ready to join.  Nurturing is the “safety net” for every stage of the buying cycle, helping ensure that no revenue opportunity is missed.

Lead nurturing, as a way to systematically communicate with your prospects, is now available and is only going to become more main stream as time passes.  Finding ways to implement strategies and execute consistently is key.

Finding tools and applications that help you achieve your goal of increasing your conversion rate from lead to appointment, and then of course into members, clients, and ultimately revenue is job number one in the health club industry.  

Please ask yourself, “Do I truly know what is happening to every lead? Do I have a strategy to do long-term follow-up with every lead?”  If you don’t know the answers, ask your peers what they are doing and get a system in place!

Fitness Trends from IHRSA

by Blair McHaney, Gold’s Gym Wenatchee
GGFA Director Emeritus

For the first time in 7 years I was able to walk the tradeshow floor at IHRSA without being hurried.  I spent the entire day Friday walking the show and talking to vendors.  I decided I would take pictures of anything that had me think “that’s kind of cool” or anything that I thought was innovative.  My purpose was to see what the biggest trends are and try to predict where they will end up.  There are two things I felt that were the biggest trends.  The first is the continuing trend toward more functional training and the use of equipment to support it.  For gyms to deliver more and more functional training requires that we support it with space, equipment, and human capital.  I believe we are at risk of over-shooting on this one.  There is a lot of inertia behind this right now.  I do think it is important, intelligent, and urgent to create more and more programming around this kind of training.  But let’s not leave an entire market behind when we do.  We will fail at this if we over-dedicate space and if we allow our fitness staff to concentrate all their trainer development and exercise programming efforts here.   

The second trend is the attempt to capture and move exercise data.  A few companies look like they are going to do a fabulous job with this within their own product set. I don’t even want to get started on what I think one could do with the capture of all the exercise data in a gym.  But what is not happening is the creation of a standard.   In other words (and each of these companies is thinking about this!), if the only way to capture exercise data is to use one brand of equipment, then we will not have a standard.  It is the adoption of a single METHOD for capturing data across all companies and all exercises that can make this idea so powerful.  Having such a “standard” would be the innovation that would drive massive innovations for decades. 

So there is my insight and my thoughts.  The first trend we may be at risk of overshooting.  The second we are at risk of undershooting. 

Great to see you all in LA!

March Madness for Gold’s Gym

by Sean Kirby, National Sales Director – ASF International

I love this time of year. College basketball is at its best with the madness that goes along with tournament wins and loses. However, in our industry there is another March Madness.  First quarter sales, traditionally the strongest for any gym, are coming to a close. The thought of the approaching summer months and the cancellations, bad debt and slow paying members that come with them becomes worrisome and maddening for all Gold’s Gym owners. “How am I going to survive another summer?”…”Will the economy hold up long enough to reach my goals or even survive?”…”Better run another special and get as many sales in the door as possible.”…There is another way.

Just three months ago, new members flocked into your gym with dreams and resolutions of becoming healthier, fit and reaching the goal they had set in their mind. This is traditionally the time of year that those members start dropping off the attendance list, losing track of their dreams and realize they’re not reaching that goal. They need help.

This could be the opportune time to get these members involved in some type of group training. Many gyms refer to this differently: large group training, small group, semi private, boot camps, etc. The idea is to get those members refocused, remotivated, set a short-term goal for the summer months, and get them involved in the social aspect of Gold’s Gym. The additional revenue from these training groups now supplements, or replaces, the revenue decline of new sales in the summer months.

“Get ready for golf season”…”Look your best on your summer vacation”…”Spring is here and it will soon be time to wear shorts and tank tops.” Gold’s Gym members can relate to these program ideas, but they need the coaching and instruction to get started. No one likes to go this road alone. That’s why the group aspect is so appealing. The social aspect of our business is still vital for survival. Remember the 90′s when Gold’s Gyms thrived almost like nightclubs?  Back then, a soft economy made it difficult for gyms without substance to survive. Today, the growing Gold’s Gyms are offering the substance of achieving member goals and introducing the social aspect of group training.

Avoid the madness of March. Run your attendance report for members that joined in January and February, and focus on those who have declining attendance. Get in touch with them about your group training, and give them a renewed vision of why they joined Gold’s Gym in the first place.

Franchisees Making Fundamental Changes … Will You Change Too?

by Ginger Collins, GGFA Executive Director

In the past two months, the GGFA hosted four regional workshops that became a phenomenal experience. You’ve heard and read the testimonials and accolades from Franchisees and suppliers who attended.  What you haven’t heard are my thoughts from producing these events and observing the results. 

First, I have to thank Blair McHaney for creating and presenting an amazing journey for all of us.  His true nature of believing that education is just as important as air, water and food elevates his peers to a higher level of operations excellence. 

During and after each workshop, I witnessed Gold’s Gym owners do what you do really well!  Get excited and motivated to make innovative changes in your business.  The workshop content proved to be what we need for today to continue the fight tomorrow.  I watched and listened as the results from assigned tasks were produced by each team in each region.  You’ve heard me say it before – there is a certain DNA Gold’s Gym Owners share – and you proved it again.  The findings from region to region were astonishingly similar.  It was very fascinating for me to watch all four events and that sense of pride I always feel when I’m around you enveloped me. 

Now, the “homework” assignments are starting to come in and you have embarked on a mission to make fundamental changes.  These changes will engage your entire organization to advance to a higher level by creating a clear purpose for each of your own team members, who in turn, will deliver an exceptional member experience. 

Stay tuned as this is Part I…..   We’re only getting started!

Social Media CAN Drive Revenue for Your Club. But How? Turn Facebook Into an Online Lead Box

by:   Mario Bravolamo, Founder 
         Daron Allen, President/CEO 
         Visual Fitness Planner 

Social media is changing our world.  The adoption rate of users to Facebook was the fastest of any product in history.  Facebook has done a remarkable job of connecting people.  The concept of community is core to Facebook… as well as our clubs.  But for most, it is still a mystery as to how social media communities can immediately and directly affect the bottom line and drive business for clubs.

They say that numbers don’t lie.  And the statistics tied to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, etc.) are astounding.  For most, they create confusion and cause the question, “Those numbers are significant, but how do they relate to me?  How can I leverage this power?”

Let’s look at two of the most compelling statistics related to social media:

 1.)  People who interact with a company’s Facebook page spend 20% more money with that company than with other companies which they do not interact with online.         

2.)  People are 90% more likely to take their friend’s recommendation about making a purchase than all other forms of marketing.

By looking at these statistics, it is clear that an opportunity exists for the health club industry.  Especially since significant numbers of our members are generated through referrals.  But in order to capitalize, you must have a strategy, and most importantly, you must be able to execute the strategy each and every day with each and every prospect and member of your club.  You need a system.

Converting the social media platform from just connecting people to actually connecting people with your club is the strategy.  Now for the execution; you need a system.  You need to be able to ask new  and existing members of your club to promote you.  You do this by posting messages about your club on Facebook, sending Tweets about how great it is to work out, adding your club logo onto their Facebook wall, and sending club e-mails including “special deals” to all their friends and family.  Your club Facebook page needs to have relevant content and be updated daily or at least weekly.  The top level staff in the club should  Tweet about special services, special offerings, and/or added value.  Your special deals should give consumers the ability to “buy the deal of the day/week” and refer their friends to your special offers as well.  All of this requires a system to be able to execute.

After interviewing various sources, the response was “We know most of this… we just cannot consistenly execute these strategies”.  This cemented in our minds that the execution of the strategy was the key and we created an application that is incredibly simple for your club staff to execute.  Simply provide your prospects and members with a link that, when clicked, will post formatted messages via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more in exchange for a small reward from the club.

This link can be clicked on when they join,  in the privacy of their home, or on their smart phone.  The formatted post can have your club logo, a link to your Facebook page, and any special deals or offers from your club.  Think ‘membership referrals meet Facebook meet Groupon’.

Think about how your paper-based lead boxes worked.  Lead boxes are placed around the community.  The lead box would prompt people to try and get a “deal” or special offer.  They would fill out an entry form with their information and put it in the lead box to get the special deal… and for your salespeople to have as a lead for the next day.

Now apply this concept to social media: view social media as the new online lead box.  You offer special deals that consumers are able to access instantly; they can purchase and refer their friends.  As a result, your club offers can now go “viral” within the social media world driven by prospects and members, exposing your club deals and offers to potentially thousands of people.  Any person wanting to claim a special offer or deal via your club’s “deal site” will simply fill out minimal information and can be followed up with by your team as a new lead.

Your offers and deals become more powerful because they were recommended among friends within the social media communities.  The formatted messages with your club logo also gives you the ability to connect people with your company’s Facebook page, resulting in more company loyalty and revenue per member.

Social media as a way to connect people with your business is only going to become more mainstream as time passes.  Finding ways to implement strategies and execute consistently is key.

Finding tools and applications that help you achieve your goal of driving more leads and increasing your revenue per member through social media will become critical business functions in the health club industry.  You will probably be able to find various systems designed to help you leverage social media at the IHRSA trade show March 14th through the 17th in Los Angeles, California.  We encourage you to begin finding systems to leverage social media.

Don’t miss your chance for a personal demonstration!  Stop by our booth #647 for a free demonstration!  Make sure you test drive our new application designed to give you a turnkey solution to leveraging social media.

You can also scan the QR code to find more information.