How many times has one of your staff given a great tour, and everything has gone perfectly, but your prospective member leaves without joining? What may have happened is that the prospective member has sold your staff on procrastinating. To prove this is true, go back through your past guest register and call people that didn't join your club and ask them if they've joined a club yet. Eight out of 10 will say they haven't.

Most people will do whatever it takes to avoid working out in a health club, even though they know they need to do it. That's why prospective members give the salesperson objections when it comes time to join the club. It's easier to say, “I want to think about it,” rather than just taking that decisive step and joining the club.

ALL IN THE ATTITUDE

People often will procrastinate starting a regular exercise program, your sales staff needs to be insistent about prospective members joining without being perceived as high-pressure salespeople. Here are two helpful tips.

The first tip is to adopt the mind-set of “I'm going to make a friend.” Why? Because people buy things from people they like and people they trust. Your prospective members that are currently strangers need to be treated as the friends they will soon become once they join your club. Think about how many current members you say “hello” to everyday that were once strangers when they first came in to join. You have great rapport with them and you may have become such good friends with some of them that you may have socialized with them outside the club.

The second attitude is to maintain a positive expectant mind-set that your prospective members will join on their first visit into your club. When prospective members come into your club, they're 80-percent sold on joining. It's up to the salesperson, to complete the final 20 percent. Your staff must, beyond a shadow of a doubt, expect your prospective members to say yes when you ask them to join.

When your salespeople adopt these two mind-sets upon touring prospective members, they'll minimize the sales resistance of your prospective members and find themselves enrolling more members as a result.

Next month we'll look at some of the most common first-day objections and how your staff can overcome them.

Jim Collins is the president of Health Club Training, a consulting company that provides proven sales systems for health clubs. He can be reached at www.healthclubtraining.com or at (561) 741-7676.

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