Teach and inspire to show that you are the expert
Avoiding pain and moving towards pleasure is the greatest motivator of human behavior, especially when it comes to making fast decisions. These days, our prospects are savvy buyers, so in order to close the sale we must know learn how to teach. This means that successful sales now involves: avoiding pain, moving towards pleasure and teaching.
Gone are the days of leading a conversation through qualification, to create a compelling reason to buy with your prospects, and then showing them the solution. That’s old school and it doesn’t work like it used to. These days we have to teach to inspire. Prospects will buy when they believe you are an expert in the Industry and in order to do this, they need to feel inspired.
This inspiration through teaching is achieved through the use of what we call an “INK Spot” and it stands for “I Never Knew that…” which is the response we want our prospects to think or say. These INK Spots are statements you make to the prospect, in order to teach them something they don’t already know. It may be a fact about your club/studio, yourself as a PT, or a fact about exercise or health. INK Spots are most powerful when they relate to your Unique Selling Points (USPs) – that is, you are the “first”, “fastest”, “newest”, “longest”, “best”, “leading”, etc. in the local area/state/nation and have benefits that relate to the prospect’s goals.
Your INK Spot should begin with the words “You may not know…” For instance:
“You may not know that members who participate in group fitness as part of their program, are more consistent and attend more regularly than those who train by themselves. The benefit for you is, the more consistent you are, the faster you’ll achieve your weight loss goal, and feel confident at your (event). By the way, we have the largest number of group fitness classes in the local area, so you will never get bored.”
INK Spots to teach and inspire can be used on the telephone, during your tour, when you’re capturing the exercise history, delivering the price presentation, or any other area of your presentation. If your club/studio uses INK Spots and your competitors do not, then you will be perceived as the expert, which will increase your overall close rates. In fact, if your team are perceived as the experts, and you have something no one else has, then prospects will stop shopping around altogether, and will want to be part of your club/studio, which increases conversion and reduces follow-up.
At every staff meeting, have each staff member come up with one new INK Spot. Create a list as a Teach Sheet that your staff can use to pick from.
For more information about increasing your expertise and authority in your marketplace, or to learn more about INK Spots, USPs and tailoring them to your club, please contact Darren from Impact by phoning 0434 546 725 or email [email protected]
