Does your sales manager train your staff to engage with prospective members? Do you customize your sales pitch to the needs, motivation, concerns and sense of urgency of the prospective member? Do you take time before the tour to discover the information you need to be able to make the tour about the prospective member and not about the club? Is your tone encouraging? If you cannot answer with a resounding yes then you are starting to negatively impact retention before that prospective member even joins. There is a correlation in selling with the initial relationship and the quality and longevity of the relationship.

What is your integration system for the prospective member? While on tour, do you know who you should introduce the prospective member to that will help make a difference when he or she become a member? Do you create relationships that make the prospective member feel a part of the club? Do you focus the tour on the prospective member and make the tour about him or her? Do you point out the difference in your free and fee for programs and make recommendations about how your fee for programs can help him or her achieve results faster? For example, if the prospective member wants to achieve results, do you sell a personal training starter kit at the time of joining or do you let the prospective member find out about personal training on his or her own? The problem with that is that we put new members in the position of seeking service on their own and not giving them what they want and need. If new members see results from the beginning, they will develop the positive reinforcement they need to remain a member.

As a membership representative, your job is to get members, as well as to keep them. Review the job description in the sidebar and see how you can enhance your job to enhance member retention.