The Basics Of Selling Anything

by Emmet Williams (Owner CFM Australia & NZ)

Let’s face it; sales make the world turn round! It moves supplements from your counters, it increases your solarium minutes, it increases your personal training cliental, increases your membership basis, and ultimately, it pays your wage! So rather than get bogged down with too many technical terms and techniques in selling, let’s just start with the four (4) basic principles and then enjoy the results they bring!

1. The Greeting
The ultimate intention in the greeting is to build rapport and trust. When you have rapport and trust people know that you are trying to help them and will listen to what you have to say. If you don’t trust your brain surgeon, would you take his advice and let him operate on you? Of course not, you would probably say `I want to think about it’. So the first step with your greeting is to make sure you have built that rapport with your prospect/client which will help you immensely with the second step…

2. The information gathering
Pressure selling is when you try to push or sell something to someone that is not in line with what they want. Ask and understand what the person is trying to achieve and why. Once you know what they want and they know that you know what they want, you will have a clearer picture to be easily able to offer the solution.

3. Presenting the solution
You should never have to sell anything to anyone. That’s right, all you need to do is offer the solution in line with what they want and if they are serious about wanting a solution, they should buy it. It’s as simple as that. For example “From what you have told me Bob, you want a supplement that will help you put on muscle that will also help you lose body fat. This supplement XYZ is what you are after.”

4. Closing
It is important to ask for the sale. As the saying goes, `selling without closing is like playing golf without putting- you get a lot of exercise, but you don’t get a result!’ Pressure selling is when the prospect doesn’t understand or believe you have offered the solution to their problem and you try and `push’ them to buy. However, if you have gone through the previous 3 steps, held rapport and presented the solution and they know that it is the solution, the natural progression is to ask if people are happy to go ahead. And there is nothing wrong with asking.

Many people in the fitness industry hate the term `sales’; yet it pays their livelihood. Ask your staff to look at it from a different angle- they should be `helping’ people achieve what they want, rather than selling something that they don’t want. By using the above four pointers, this should make it even easier for you, your staff and the prospects to all achieve a win-win scenario.

For information on Creative Fitness Marketing and how their services can benefit your business please visit the Marketing Category in the Industry Suppliers Directory.