Progress over the end result

It will be 20 years since I opened my first business, Fernwood Women’s Health Club Beverly Hills. We owned and operated the business for 4 years.

I had just quit my job as GM of Human Resources for Saville Hotel Group before embarking on this new entrepreneurial path, and while I was nervous about being a business owner, I was determined to bring my learning and development background to how we ran the business.

Little did I know at the time just how valuable to the business my background would be.

In research released in 2016 (12 years after I opened my first business), Oettingen, Mayer & Thorpe were able to show that individuals who focus on progress are more likely to persist and ultimately achieve better outcomes than those who focus solely on the end result.

I had a team of three sales consultants, and along with me, there were four of us selling memberships. Only one of us had experience selling gym memberships, and that person was not me. This sales team was critical to our performance; we were starting with a membership base of zero, and we had to be able to sell memberships to make the business viable. Rather than overwhelm anyone with a big sales target, I focused on daily progressions.

First up, we made sure we had the skills. We all got trained by Fernwood Head Office, and we ran follow-up role plays internally regularly. We implemented all the important sales processes; we set our daily, weekly, and monthly targets and tracked our enquiries, tours, conversions, and follow-ups like our lives depended on it.

But it was the coaching conversations where I focused my energy. At the end of every sales shift, I would ask every membership sales consultant three questions:

1.???? What did you do well today?

2.???? What could you have done better?

3.???? What are you going to focus on tomorrow?

I also got my consultants to ask me these three questions at the end of my sales shifts too, and each day I shared my answers with them.

Let me give you an example:

What did I do well today? I did a good job of tailoring the tours to what the potential members had told me was important to them.

What could I have done better? I didn’t get as curious as I could have. For example, I had one woman tell me she had never lasted at any gym before, and I didn’t ask her more about that or why she felt like she had struggled with attendance in the past.

What am I going to focus on tomorrow? I’m going to remain curious and ask more questions when a potential member shares information with me.

These conversations were not about how many sales we had done; it was about the little things we felt we had done well, could have done better, and were going to focus on tomorrow.?

These conversations were all about progress. If, for any reason, I was not there when one of my team wrapped up their shift, I would call the club just before their shift ended to ask them these 3 questions.

During our pre-sales period, we sold so many memberships, we had to put people on a waiting list before we opened our doors. Within a few months of opening, we had the highest yield per member in the network, and by our first anniversary, we were one of the top 3 clubs in the country on all metrics.

There were a lot of other things that were on our side that contributed to the success of Fernwood Beverly Hills. We had an amazing site in a great location and awesome exposure, with a beautiful club that people loved.

But this small team of four (with very little experience) was responsible for ensuring the business was viable from the day we opened our doors and continued to ensure our membership base was strong as we moved forward.

And I believe that our strong daily focus on progress was a huge contributing factor to our success.

So, at the end of today, I challenge you to ask yourself these 3 questions…?

1.???? What did you do well today?

2.???? What could you have done better today?

3.???? What are you going to focus on tomorrow?

And better still, how about you ask your team those same three questions, today, tomorrow, and beyond?