How I *Almost* Signed up for a High-End Fitness Challenge (But They Lost Me at the Last Minute)

A lead generation case study…

I recently moved house, and as you do, I’ve started to establish myself in the new area: find out where I can get a great Indian takeaway, register for the doctor, join a gym …

I’m not a fitness fanatic so I found a budget local gym I could easily walk to. Once I signed up, I liked their Facebook page, and noticed I was seeing more fitness-related ads.

An ad came up for an 8-week fitness challenge, and I was intrigued. ?????♀?

Here’s how this gym successfully got me on the phone and to the final stage of selling to me …

What went right

1. Great-looking, relevant, engaging ad ??

They had a great-looking ad …

• It called out the location I live in
• Said clearly what the challenge was
• Gave a checklist of what was included
• Some one-sentence testimonials, including from a well-known magazine, which was intriguing
• Nice professional-looking video

It appealed to me, given my newfound interest in fitness, so I clicked.

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2. Easy to use, engaging Messenger bot ??

The ad took me to sending their page a message. They had a Messenger bot set up. It was pretty frictionless to use:

• One click to Learn More
• A set of pictures with links to see testimonials, or find out more. This was cool!

Within a couple of clicks they had offered me to schedule a time for a free body composition scan. Why is this a good thing to offer?

• Low barrier to entry — it’s free! ??
• Compelling to the target audience — it got me intrigued about how much body fat I have and what my physical age is
• It requires me to come to their business premises to get the scan

Now, once someone walks through the door and you can actually engage with them personally, they’re much more likely to buy from you. So offering me something that was valuable to me, but was not going to lose the company a ton of money (for example, it’s not a whole week of classes where they could fill the spot with a paying customer instead…) is a great way to engage people.

The link went straight to their Calendly page. ?? This is a super easy to use and nice-looking calendar booking system that I use myself!

I was tempted to book in, but I had a couple more questions about the 8-week challenge, so I popped them in the Messenger conversation instead.

3. Rapid, committed follow-up

This was at about 9.30pm — definitely outside working hours — but they replied within a few minutes. ??

Their response time was great, and so was the following …

• The person replying signed off with their name, which helps build a relationship
• They didn’t immediately respond to my question about pricing for the challenge — I would have potentially been put off straight away, whereas after our phone call I was much more interested
• They scheduled a time to talk with me
• When I missed the first call, they left a voicemail and sent another message to reschedule
• Both times, they called at the time we agreed.

This was all great. So, we get on the phone call …

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4. Personable phone follow-up ??

The guy on the phone was super nice, and established a good rapport before trying to sell anything.

He explained what the challenge was and gave me the pricing.

At this point, this company had a great opportunity to close the deal and get me to become a customer. At this point, it’s a shoe-in, right?! Everything had gone right so far.

So what went wrong?

My first hesitation was about the price. The pricing was pretty high. Like, a large multiple more than my current gym membership. So, it wasn’t as if they were simply asking me to transfer my current spend to them — they would have been asking a whole lot more, which I wasn’t quite prepared for.

1. Justify your pricing

They didn’t justify the price to me after I expressed a reservation about the expense. ??????

My impression was that it wasn’t clear I was going to get anything more out of it than my current gym membership, so why would I invest?

Here’s some of the things they could have said …

It’s a high end service and we include XYZ that the gym you’re currently a member of doesn’t offer.

Our clients are go-getters and we want clients who are willing to invest in their health and fitness. Are you willing to invest in your health?

We find that the people who invest and have skin in the game are far more likely to achieve the results that they want. Because they want to make good on the investment. So it’s a win-win. You get the results you want, and we get a great success story. Do you want to achieve XYZ?

In this business you really get what you pay for. Our clients are willing to pay more than for a regular gym because they know they’re going to get the results. We’ve helped tons of people achieve XYZ … So it’s worth it. Are you serious about achieving XYZ?

Now, even justifying the high price probably wouldn’t have done the job. Because my hesitation wasn’t purely about price, it was also that I wasn’t at that point of desperation that would really force me to take action.

I had got this far into their sales process, and I know that that’s for a reason — at the end of the day, I’m not entirely happy with my current health and fitness! ??

But they didn’t present themselves as the solution I’ve been looking for.

Partly because they didn’t have a clue what my goals were and why I was unhappy! Because they never asked!!

So, here’s what could have tipped it over the line and reminded me that actually I was at that action point or that if I did want results I needed to feel that real hunger for it — and that therefore I needed to become their customer …

2. Understand your customer’s goals

So, couple of quick questions before we start. What prompted you to click on this ad?

What are your fitness goals?

I might have said, I’d like to have less of a Michelin tyre around my waist and maybe just be a bit stronger.

3. Understand how your customer really feels about not reaching their goals

Great so you want to lose weight around your waist, how does it feel right now to not be at that point?

Fitness and health is quite an emotive topic … it ties into self-esteem and all sorts. So this is quite a deep well to be digging into, potentially! At the end of the day, it doesn’t feel good at all to look in the mirror and not see the best version of yourself, and presumably this is why most people express an interest in fitness.

Let’s say my reply was that I felt like a failure because I couldn’t stop eating Pringles and it goes straight to my tummy … (I made that up) ??????

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4. Understand whether they are already on the route to achieving their goals — do they really need a new solution or are they good?

OK so you want to lose some weight off your waist and no longer feel like a failure. Are you able to lose that and feel like a winner again with what you’re currently doing? With your current gym membership and eating habits?

Now here I probably would have said … no. Realistically, I’m doing ok, but I’m not gymming it up every day, and I get chocolate cravings …

And without a supportive community, or without someone who’s gonna pester me to attend the classes, or easily provide me with meal plans … my beginner’s enthusiasm is unlikely to last.

I think I do need an expert to help me. ??

At that point they would have established that I really did need a new solution and they were in the perfect position to close the sale …

5. Position yourselves as the solution!

Great, well helping people lose weight from their waist and no longer feel like failures is our bread and butter. Other other client XYZ was in the exact same position and after completing the challenge they had achieved XYZ. They took action, signed up and this is where they’re at now.

By the end of 8 weeks from now, you could be still feeling like a failure because your current health and fitness efforts aren’t working and you still have the belly fat. Or you could be in XYZ’s position and feeling great.

Where would you rather be? How much longer do you want to go before you stop feeling like a failure?

And honestly guys, I think if he had said all that — if he had dug into the real, potentially half-subconscious reasons why I clicked on the ad and am currently interested in fitness — it would have stoked the concerns that I’ve had for years. With those concerns front of mind, rather than repressed or buried under unjustified excuses, I honestly think I would have given it a go.

Now, note …

I might not have signed up for the full membership. ????

BUT one thing they did right was to offer me to get started with a much lower barrier to entry …

They downsold me a two-week trial for a much lower price point. Like with the body composition scan, this would have got me in the door, meeting them in person and benefiting from their services, with a small amount of skin in the game but without the business making too much of a loss.

And I might well have signed up for that over the phone. Win. ??

Conclusion

I hope that gives a little insight into the consumer mindset and how even if you get everything right marketing-wise, you can still fall down on the sales side.

I hope it helps you think about how you approach your phone calls or in-person meetings with customers!

The consumer mindset is:

People buy when they’re at the end of their rope ?and would be willing to throw practically any amount of money at the problem in order to see it disappear (or in this case, to see my Michelin tyre disappear!).

And some people may really be at the end of their rope, but burying it under excuses and mindset problems, such as …

I don’t think I can ever achieve this, therefore why should I bother.

I’ll do my 10 minutes on the treadmill (even though that won’t really help me) and I’ll make the excuse to myself that because I’m already making all these efforts, but they’re not working, that means I’ve tried everything and have to give it up as a lost cause.

(Legit extracts from my own reasoning on this topic!)

Still, digging deeper, you can find that the motivation is there underneath. ????

If someone clicks on your ad, and particularly if someone makes it through your marketing processes so that you get in front of them in person, that motivation is probably there somewhere!

Now, if your product/service is good, if it actually works and gets great results, don’t you pretty much have a duty to get it in front of people and do them that service?

If I’d been successfully “sold” on the challenge and it transformed my belly and life ??, I wouldn’t be complaining about being “sold to”.

So don’t be so squeamish!

Now … since I’ve reflected on all this since I first talked to that company, I think I need to go sign up for that trial ??

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