We Filled Our Gym In 10 Days. Here's How...

Estimated read time: 13 minutes 9 seconds.

Two months ago, we decided to launch a new fitness studio.

This week’s newsletter is a deep dive into our entire launch process and how we hit member capacity before we opened our doors.

Step 1 - We Started an Email List

When you decide to go down the path of launching a local personal training studio, you need to attract attention. Why? Because when you have attention, you have leverage.

For us, we posted content in our town’s local Facebook group.

This gave us an engaged audience from day 1 and meant we could divert the keen beans to our own email list. (Borrowed → owned distribution)

This strategy alone resulted in 300+ locals signing up for our waiting list within 24 hours.

Step 2 - We Documented the Process

Once you have the attention, you need trust.

Anyone can hack attention.

I could go into the street right now, rip off my clothes and sing “Never Forget” by Take That.

But before I’d have the chance of finishing the first verse, I’d be all over social media and thousands of people would know who I am.

The problem with this is that no-one would ever trust me again.

(Unless of course you’re a Take That tribute act agency looking for naked performers for the next tour. If so, I’m in.)

Anyway, my point is… in order to accelerate trust, you need to share the entire build out of your studio.

Every week, we sent our email list a new and exclusive update.

Paint job? We took pictures and sent to our list.

Security system fixed? We took pictures and sent to our list.

New trainers hired? We took pictures and sent to our list.

Every email and post in the noticeboard is another coin in your “trust bank” (something we later found out would come in very handy…)

Step 3 - We Split the Sales Process Into 2 Phases

We incentivised people on our waiting list by letting them sign up before anyone else.

When people feel they’re a priority, they feel special.

Our entire sales process was split into two phases: private and public.

When the time came, we opened up our diary for consultations ONLY available for our waiting list. But this came with a warning that the rest of the public could book their consultations the following week.

Here’s where we layered an extra bit of magic sauce…

Two days before the offer went live to our waiting list, we allowed people to “skip the queue”.

These guys would get the notification 1 hour before the rest of the waiting list. This added tension, built anticipation and meant we could get a signal of demand.

We ended up having 20 people skip the queue so we could comfortably predict at least 20 consultations straight away.

34 then followed from the main email sent to the rest of the list!

Step 4 - We Built an Appointment Funnel

Getting people to book appointments is one thing. Getting them to show up and feel ready to buy is another.

When we released the offer to our email list, 44 people booked their appointments immediately (I’m talking literally within 5 minutes).

But the machine we built on the back-end was mainly to blame for our success.

Here’s what we had in place:

• FAQ Page (Educating people on the offer with videos handling any objections/limiting beliefs they may have)

• Appointment Email/SMS Sequence (Ensuring they show up)

• Appointment Reschedule Sequence (Ensuring they reschedule if they cancel)

• Appointment No Show Sequence (Ensuring they reschedule if they don’t show up)

All of the above resulted in a ~70% show-up rate and 79% close rate overall.

Step 5 - We Offered a 1-1 Consultation

We purposefully didn’t reveal price to anyone before we had a chance to present our offer in-person. We did this for a few reasons.

#1 - We didn’t want price to become a factor in making a decision.

#2 - We wanted to be the ones to decide who joins our studio based on our ability to solve their individual needs.

When anyone asks for your price, I’d put them in the category of “product aware”.

This means they’re comparing you to the other gyms/studios in their local radius. And the one variable they’re comparing you on? Price.

These prospects are usually the hardest to sell. And even if they do decide to sign up, they become hard to retain (from our experience).

However, when you take the decision to not mention price until the consultation, the prospect is forced to jump through a few hoops before they make a decision to sign up.

This qualifies them more as an ideal client and also shows they’re judging you more on the solution you’re offering—not necessarily how much it costs.

For the consultation itself, Jack welcomed the attendee into the studio and sat down next to a plyo box to talk through their goals and present the offer.

With permission, he then carried out a movement analysis as well as a body composition test with the help of our fancy Boditrax scales.

The results from the tests were able to give an accurate representation of where they’re at and where they ultimately want to end up.

This, together with a well-thought out presentation resulted in 79% of consultations committing to our introductory offer at £299.

Step 6 - We Knew (& Communicated) Our Capacity

One thing we did from the beginning was publicise our capacity. From the minute our offer went live, everyone knew how many people we needed to fill the gym.

It’s a little bit counter-intuitive but when you limit your supply, the demand increases. When you have more people wanting your thing, the thing becomes more valuable.

For example, 10 people bidding for a piece of art pushes the value up.

This is why it’s so important to stick to your guns when it comes to capacity and never get greedy.

Better to have a few spaces spare with 100% customer satisfaction than a group of disgruntled clients wanting to leave because sessions feel too cramped. The life time value of the business is always at stake.

We signed members up on a first come first served basis.

After 10 days of consultations (and Jack losing his voice), we had 42 appointments still in the diary after reaching our capacity.

We were forced to let these guys down gently but our honesty will likely increase the chance they’ll join when we open up the doors again in the future.

Know your capacity and stay consistent in your marketing.

Step 7 - We Gave Clients Ownership

One of the biggest reasons people join private fitness studios for £250+ per month and not PureGym for £10 per month is because of the community.

Being in a group of like-minded people and experiencing results together feels so much more special than punching in and out of a gym.

But for anyone to feel like they’re in a community, they need ownership of the community. Here are some ways we did this (which we believe helped sales too):

We gifted each new member a t-shirt

It doesn’t cost much but handing a t-shirt to new members is a powerful way of shifting their identity. They now feel more of a member because the t-shirt is proof.

(This was also valuable in presenting social proof. We took a photo of every new member holding a t-shirt, posted on Instagram and their friends ended up wanting to join too).

We created an online community group

We made a Facebook group and added everyone into it. We asked each member to introduce themselves and the banter is now in full swing. We also used this to post regular updates in the lead up to launch as well as managing ongoing feedback to this day.

We gave out gift bags

Again, it's a nice touch to give your members a gift bag. We ordered branded paper bags enclosed with a “welcome” postcard and their Revamp t-shirt. When new members walked out with their bags, it added visual proof for people waiting for their consultation.

We hosted onboarding group sessions

Before the challenge commenced, we invited our members to the studio for a ‘Challenge Orientation’.

This gave everyone the chance to meet in-person, find out more about the programme and meet the coaches. We hosted the sessions in 30 minute intervals, repeating 4 times to allow people to drop in when they please. We also recorded the event so people could watch back whenever they like.

TL;DR

1. We started an email list

2. We documented the process

3. We split the sales process into two phases

4. We built an appointment funnel

5. We offered a 1-1 consultation

6. We knew and communicated capacity

7. We gave clients ownership

Hopefully all of this shows that it’s not a case of scheduling a few posts on social media and hoping you get some members for your gym. If you want to hit your capacity before you open, you need to create a plan to make it happen.

In the words of Steve Martin, “Be so good, they can’t ignore you”.

That’s it from us.

— Cardy Brothers