Canned sales pitches will kill your lead conversion numbers if you operate a gym in the performance training space. Sure, structure matters, but not when it comes at the expense of relevance to client wants and needs.
Let me explain…
We have a relatively specific client avatar here at Cressey Sports Performance - MA (CSP) as it relates to our core clientele: the 14-22 year old baseball player. While we’re known on the internet for accommodating professional athletes, the reality is that less than 15% of our clients fall outside of this aforementioned age range and background.
Here’s the interesting thing about these young amateur athletes…they only occasionally reach out on their own to inquire about our services. In fact, by my count, there can be as many as four different types of people who will reach out on behalf of a youth athlete.
That list includes but is not limited to: parents, advisors (agents who one day hope to see an athlete sign a professional contract so that they can start getting paid), high school or summer league coaches, and even the occasional strength coach who is willing to acknowledge that he knows what he doesn’t know and is willing to ask for some assistance.
Delivering the same sales language to five different types of people would convert a considerably lower volume of business as personalizing the approach would, right? So, how do you adjust moving forward?
The idea of having as many as five distinctly different sales pitches to design and deliver might be daunting, and it thankfully isn’t necessary. Instead, all you really need is to appreciate the distinction between top-down and bottom-up selling.
What the hell does that mean, you ask?
In a top-down selling scenario, it is your job to appeal to the decision maker. This means that if the parent is the one holding the credit card, he’s situated at “the top of the organization.” As mentioned earlier, parents are often more drawn to the aspects of our service offering that will reduce the likelihood that they end up sitting in front of an ortho discussing surgical options, so I lean heavily on injury prevention and responsible coaching.
This is the visual parents are trying to avoid…
In a bottom-up selling scenario, my job is to convince the end user (the athlete) that he needs our services so bad that he feels compelled to go home and bully his dad into spending with us. In a sense, my bottom up sales strategy is about putting the athlete in a position to go home and do some top-down selling of his own on my behalf.
As you can tell by this point, the biggest difference between the two is the motivating factors driving the sale.
So long as you’re able to identify whether you’re specifically pitching the decision maker or the end user, you should be capable of crafting the right selling approach. Just don’t make the mistake of pitching them both the same way if you have dreams of closing business on nearly every lead.
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