"List the worst things that the other party could say about you and say them before the other person can."
This is a section I highlighted in Never Split The Difference - Negotiate As If Your Life Depended on It.
My most recent entertainment.
Have you bothered to list the most common counter arguments you've received while giving your fitness services sales pitch over the months or years you've been in business?
Your gym is too far from my home for me to train there consistently.
The cost is a big jump from the monthly rate I pay for my commercial gym membership.
I'm concerned that I won't be able to properly execute my program without supervision upon returning home. What if I forget how to do an exercise?
These are a few of mine. A little frustrating? Sure. But insurmountable? Definitely not.
I can anticipate the sticking points in my canned sales pitch coming into just about every conversation as long as I know a little bit about the lead. Did they list a home address in their email signature? Who referred them to our business? What kind of terminology did they use regarding injury history or training experience in their voicemail?
Unless you answered a phone call unprepared, or someone dropped in unexpectedly, the clues are probably already in place to allow for an informed pitch while getting ahead of "the worst things the other party could say."
Want an example?
"I noticed in your email signature that you guys are from Connecticut. We've got clients coming in from all over New England, so I'm certain we can take good care of you...We know the long commute can be a limiting factor in the frequency with which you'll be able to make it in to see us, so we've created a system that allows for a single weekly supervised training session here at CSP along with training material designed to be easily executed at a gym closer to your home. We'll also give you access to our regularly updated exercise video database to ensure that you have a resource to lean on should you find that you're a little hazy on proper exercise execution upon returning home...We want to make sure that you feel properly equipped to maximize what you take away from your time in the gym since you'll be paying a premium price point for your entirely individualized training materials."
Distance concerns? Not anymore.
Worth the cost? Yup.
Productive use of time, even if just once weekly? Absolutely.
A little proactivity in your approach to selling can effectively eliminate some of the biggest headaches you currently encounter on a daily basis. Sit down and write your list now so that you can start closing more leads and abbreviate some previously lengthy pitches.
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