The sale in fitness and wellness is relationship-based, not transactional. Transactional sales focus on fast, single exchange purchases like retail goods. Relationship sales means establishing, cultivating, and maintaining a relationship over time with a client or member.
What is the role of today’s sales associate? To be an Expert Facilitator of Decision Making. Think about that. Not a pushy, overly talkative, or which-one-do-you-want type.
When leads make a decision to join a fitness studio or a wellness community, they need someone to help them decide (1) if it is the right place for them, and if so, (2) which membership or service package is the best fit. The word facilitate means to make something easy. Sales associates have the qualities, skills, and beliefs to be an expert facilitator.
Your Checkup Lab Report is prescriptive. Other assessments you might be familiar with are descriptive – meaning they reflect back something about you … your behavior style, what motivates you, the instinctive way you take action. And the typical reaction to them is something like, “Wow, yes, that is me!”
Your Checkup shows strengths and weaknesses. With The Checkup as a roadmap, a sales associate can begin working on areas that could be stronger. There are plenty of suggestions. And, if your company elects to use The Clinic, our online coaching program for your sales team, there are many more opportunities to improve your ability to convert leads into members or clients.
You will see some unusual terms in your report. We purposely chose names that come from the world of getting healthy, focusing on wellness, seeing improvement as a worthy goal. We came up with some medical make-believe phrases too, so that we could inject a little fun into the learning process. That’s the reason for the medical metaphor that runs through your lab report.
Example: An Enlarged Approval Gland. It’s a funny thought, and we can use it to lighten up the mood. “Savannah, is your Approval Gland a little enlarged? No big deal. We can work on it together.”
What are qualities? Traits, features, or attributes that define a person’s character. They are not skills. We don’t try to improve them. But it is important for sales associates to be aware of them.
When RxSales was developed, we had interviews and focus groups with sales leaders. We asked, “What are the most important qualities that support strong relationship selling skills?” It was an impressive list. And then together we chiseled that list down
to arrive at what this very successful group of sales leaders believed are the top three:
Economic Motivation, Commitment, and Positive Outlook.
Because RxSales is prescriptive, your lab report shows strengths and weaknesses. In Framework, we don’t expect people to change a quality. What often happens is sales associates understand the quality better and decide they want to “turn up the heat” on that quality in themselves. They now know how important it is.
Weak This part of your framework is susceptible or vulnerable. That’s what weak means in medicine. It’s not personal. When bone structure is weak, people want to find ways to strengthen it. In life, it means eating protein, exercising, and taking calcium to fortify existing bone structure. Nobody wants to develop osteoporosis! In sales, we want you to think about why this quality needs a boost and what you can do to rediscover or build it up.
Could Be Stronger Your answers to some questions are spot on for being strong in this quality, but not all of them. You need a little conditioning work, and sometimes that’s just an “ah-ha!” moment to understand how you could be getting in your own way.
Very Strong You’ve got strong “bones” on this one! Learn to rely on this quality because it supports you every day when you welcome new people to your studio, club, or wellness community and help them make the life-changing decision to join.
What motivates a sales associate? Does it have to be money? Of course not. But successful sales associates who are responsible for converting leads often have economic motivation. They choose answers like, “I want to achieve my financial goals, and – making money is a driving force for me.”
These sales associates love having a base salary + incentive type of compensation because they want to be in control of their financial future. Other sales associates whose role is customer service or are divided between sales and service tend to answer that helping clients is more important.
So, as you look at your Checkup results, consider what your role is in your studio, club, or wellness center.
Commitment is a dedication, promise, or obligation to a particular course of action, person, or organization.
In The Checkup, we’re talking about UNCONDITIONAL Commitment. It’s a strong internal (self) drive to do whatever it takes — think energy, hours, or setbacks — to accomplish something.
What about being committed to making the company prosper, completing responsibilities, or participating in training opportunities? There’s nothing wrong with those good intentions. But unconditional commitment is a higher level of effort. It’s about personal accountability.
Positive Outlook. On the surface, it might suggest people at the front desk who have a sunny disposition and are upbeat, charismatic, and have natural people skills.
However, here we’re talking about the internal makeup of sales associates – what are the necessary characteristics that keep them feeling positive and able to withstand the not-so-fun days when missed sales are the reality?
Sales associates with high self-esteem do not associate their daily results with their worth as a person. Instead, if the day doesn’t produce conversions, their attitude is, “Next.”
They are like Olympic athletes running for the Gold the next day and, the night before, watch tapes of themselves to know where they can make small changes so that they win.
Relationship selling skills are well known. They include things like asking great questions, active listening, giving recommendations that are right for the person, and establishing strong two-way connection with people.
But what if there is something that prevents you from using your selling skills as well as you could? Wouldn’t you want to know what it is so that you could fix it?
That’s the spirit of this section of your Checkup. By asking certain questions, we conducted some ”lab tests” to find out if there are any adverse conditions that could affect your selling skills and hold you back from achieving your full potential.
Your studio, club, or wellness community has a relationship sales process that works. It’s proven. The creator of that process and your in house sales guru have strong Vital Organs. For you to execute well and consistently, you want to execute the sales process at that same high level. So let’s get rid of those pesky conditions – described here in imaginary medical terms – and turn you loose!
Problem Area You had no idea about this invisible condition, and it is definitely holding you back. It’s like going to the doctor and finding out about some kind of bacteria infection that you can get rid of and be healthier right away. To get started, make sure you understand the condition and follow the prescription. Focus here and you’ll see results.
Some Evidence Your answers indicate you have a touch of this condition. It’s not bad yet, but it could get that way. Take the diagnosis seriously and focus your attention on getting stronger. The result will be more consistency in the related and required selling skill.
No Trace We asked you questions to test for this condition, and you don’t have it! Knowing what the condition is will be healthy for you. Many others in your role suffer from it. Learn to depend on this vital organ. Believe in the fact that you can perform well and do it consistently.
It’s the tendency to use external forces to explain lack of results. Successful sales associates know that competition in the local marketplace is real and managing one’s workload can be difficult. Add to that: leads that can’t make up their minds and sometimes even having enough leads!
Those are very real roadblocks. So what’s the problem? Sales associates are not in control of competition, seasonality, or lack of leads.
What are you in control of? Yourself. When asked about roadblocks, the most successful sales associates say, “Me. I get in my own way as much or more than those other obstacles.”
When you look at yourself first, you resist the temptation to rationalize or blame other things you can’t control.
The role of the sales associate today is to be an Expert Facilitator of Decision Making, and that means being a good decision maker yourself! A dysfunction occurs when sales associates show these symptoms when they buy something themselves:
Now the sales associate is at work and a lead that does any of the things listed above. The reaction: They think the lead’s behavior is normal. After all, this sales associate does it too, right? A roadblock surfaces: they are unable to help the lead move past those objections and make a decision.
Sales requires someone who is people-oriented, who likes other people and is naturally good at connecting with them. Do sales professionals want others to like them? Of course. There’s nothing wrong with having an Approval Gland.
In medicine, when something becomes enlarged, there’s a problem. An enlarged spleen, for example. Yes, that otherwise functional organ is enlarged and now it’s not working right.
Can people get a little too caught up in wanting others to like them? Yes, it’s a well-known psychological condition called Need For Approval. Not just “I like approval,” but more like, “I must have it!”
Social media makes things worse, don’t you think? You know, “How many likes did I get on that post?”
Out in the lobby … at the front desk, this condition causes trouble. Selling skills are well known, we’ve established that. Listening and asking questions are two big ones. How likely is it that a sales associate will be able to focus on the person across the desk – focus on what he or she is really saying, what questions will move the decision forward? Because this is top of mind: “I hope they like me.”
In today’s world, we have to be multi-taskers — deal with things that happen simultaneously and information that bombards us constantly. But multi-tasking doesn’t work when you step into your role as sales associate. Your role requires concentration on the person in front of you and what they’re saying. If you’re thinking about what to say next or what you need to do on the way home, you’re going to miss that one thing they say or a body language clue you can use to make the conversion happen!
In scoring your lab report, we look at such things as what you’re doing in an interaction with a lead and how much of the time you think you should be talking and they should be talking. That ratio is extremely important. You are spot on if the number in your head for sales associate talking is about 30% and the lead 70%. That’s because you need to be asking questions and listening.
Paralysis is a strong word – it’s the inability to move! This hidden condition describes a sales associate who “complimentaryzes up” when it’s time to talk about money. That’s not a good thing for the person responsible for converting leads into members or clients!
So where does this condition show up?
First, The Money Conversation. Prospective members or clients take action when there is something they want to fix, accomplish, or avoid. Early in the conversation, a sales associate must ask questions to establish common ground, develop rapport, and then to identify a lead’s goals or problems.
After the lead has had an opportunity to experience your fitness studio by taking a class or classes, or your wellness community’s services, you initiate a conversation to help this person choose the best option – a membership, class packs, etc.
Can you take the lead back to the goal or problem they discussed earlier, and with recent experience, help the lead articulate the best course of action, the best decision? Every decision has a cost, and it’s easier for a lead to decide it’s worth it when they’ve had someone bring them back to the reason they came in the first place.
The other “strain” of this virus or hidden condition is called Threshold for Money. It affects sales associates who let their own personal definition of a lot of money slow down the sales process. If a lead says, “Oh, that membership is expensive!” do you think to yourself, “Well, they’re right about that. I couldn’t afford it!” If so, you’re silently agreeing with the lead. How could you possibly handle that price objection? Remember, it’s their decision … not yours!
Sales associates must be able to make connections with prospective members or clients. Consumers tell us that from their perspective, it takes no more than 30 seconds to know if they feel a connection (or not) with a sales associate they just met.
Your studio or wellness center can have a knockout sales process, and you can have it down cold, executing every step, but if you don’t establish a connection with leads (it’s called rapport), the sale is going nowhere. It’s broken – severed is our word.
The symptoms of Severed Style Connections are:
Our beliefs affect our behavior – the observable way we act or conduct ourselves. Ancient philosophers and modern psychologists agree on that.
The role of the sales associate is to be an Expert Facilitator of Decision Making. A big part of that is interacting with leads throughout the sales process. Beliefs about working with people are guiding your actions all the time.
Are those beliefs supporting you, helping you in your interactions? Or are they limiting beliefs – not helpful, in fact, holding you back?
In the final section of The Checkup, we analyze beliefs about working with people in a relationship sales situation.
Diagnosis in the Beliefs area centers on this question: How many limiting beliefs about the relationship sales process do you have? There are 12 beliefs that are either supportive or limiting.
As before, the result lies one of three possibilities: Many Limiting Beliefs, Some, or Very Few.
Beliefs are powerful forces. They channel our actions. Beliefs are also very personal and they go deep because they’ve been directing behavior for a long time.
In working with hundreds of sales associates over the years, we find that if they can understand why that belief is causing problems for them, they will want to “re-write it,” so to speak. It takes work, but it does happen.
Another interesting thing about beliefs: When sales associates are successful in changing a belief from limiting to supportive, they naturally start executing the sales process better and more consistently. It affects the way they work with people in a positive way.
If your answers suggest a Limiting Belief, it is highlighted in the column on the right. It’s not that you said these exact words, but several of your answers come close to the intent of the statement.
Limiting beliefs often contain kernels of truth. The statement isn’t completely wrong, and you are not wrong. What’s important is that having this belief can cause a negative outcome. Examples of negative outcomes: (1) The lead you’re working with can’t stop obsessing about lowest price and you can’t help them or (2) The lead says NO and disappears.
For each highlighted belief, ask yourself, “What is the potential negative outcome if a sales associate has this belief?”
The column at the left (Supportive Beliefs) shows how sales associates with strong belief systems articulate this same statement. Notice the difference between it and the Limiting Belief version on the right.
