How to use one-day events to skyrocket new memberships (Interview with JR Spear)

Highlights from the interview

[09:28] – How to put on one-day events to explode your membership

[15:32] – How to market these one-day events

[17:16] – How to offer events and even training at places where rent is as low as $20 for access!

[51:57] – How to handle multiple prospects at once at your event so you can still close everyone who is interested, even if you are running the event with just 1 helper!

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About our Guest

From growing up into a martial arts family, to serving in Iraq, to opening his own fitness school

We are getting the inside secrets from multiple 6-figure business owner JR Spear on how to get online training clients paying as much as $2500 per ticket.  

JR is really a real-life fitness rockstar!

He’s a 4th degree black belt and a combat veteran spending 4 years in service, 9 months of which was spent in Iraq. After getting out of Iraq, he opened his own martial arts school.

JR, who currently lives in Stafford, Virginia with his wife and 4 kids, knows the fitness business. He has been a personal trainer and has owned multiple 6-figure businesses. In addition, he has done over a dozen triathlons. 

What I really like about this guy is he has tons of energy and his clients just love him. They talk about how he has transformed their fitness business. 

So, I’m sure he’s going to have tons of secrets that we can start using today to get more online clients. 

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Key points from the interview

1. Set a date and time

JR: The number one thing that you have to do before you do anything is to set a date and time for your one-day event.

The reality is you can have all the excitement and the thought of wanting to do an event, but if you don’t actually put something on the calendar to schedule it, you will never going to make it happen.

Don’t procrastinate

JR: I always tell everyone that first off, procrastination is a dream killer.

Whatever you need to get done, you push it all off to the next night. Well, the next night is going to be the end of the week. The end of the week is going to be the end of the next month. Next month is going to turn to next year, and next year will never come.

Schedule as a motivation

JR: If you don’t schedule it, it’s never going to happen. So, I always encourage people, first thing to do, schedule a date, schedule a time and the location where you can do it.

That way you know it’s in there and then you’re going to work that much harder to build your event.

2. Have a theme

JR: The second thing is you need to have a theme.

You have to have a reason why people are going to be on your event. There has to be something fun. You have to have something that people are going to look forward to.

Be creative

JR: For instance, New Year, New You. Everyone wants to get on the big hives and take advantage of it for fitness.

Everyone wants to complain about new year’s resolutions and saying, Hey, don’t grass on New Year’s resolutions, but use it as an opportunity. Because the reality is people are still kind of thinking about New Year’s resolutions.

So, what are you going to do to help them? Make this year better.

3. Offer a giveaway

JR: The third thing is you have to have $1,000 giveaway.

It doesn’t have to be $1,000 cash, think about your offer which you normally give and give it $1,000 on more value, getting creative with them.

When you’re thinking about your irresistible offer, you want it to be 10 times greater than what your normal program actually is.

Offer something irresistible

JR: That’s what makes it so irresistible and why people want to sign up for it because they’re adding value to it. But there’s no difference in getting people there.

So, what is your giveaway? And I always found when I had something of value that was $1,000 or more, usually brought in way more people and referrals, and it did of just kind of throwing things together.

Offer more value

JR: Maybe you offer a group fitness program and you’re giving six or 12 month membership away. It doesn’t hurt you to have an extra body in that class if you’re running a group fitness.

Offer a free membership

JR: Why not offer a free membership to get people there too? I guarantee you if you say, Hey, I’m giving away a free 12 month membership for our group training, you’re going to get a lot of referrals.

I always did a thing where if they came, if they were a member and they came, they got one free ticket.

Offer multiple prizes, little essentials

JR: Every guest that came, they got five tickets that they get to put in a drawing. And then we did the drawing at the end.

So, I always gave with multiple prizes, like little small things. I’ll go to five and below and buy yoga mats and jump ropes and things I would give away.

But my big prize is always the last thing, and it always had to be $1,000 more or value.

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Content

JR: First, you have your Content — you publish and post, so people get to learn about your message.

But they’re not really interested yet to buy from you. They’re just kind of feeling you out, seeing what you have to say, and what you’re able to offer. 

Communication

JR: Then once they do, you’re going to get to the Communication phase.

In this phase, you still don’t have permission to ask them for the sale and you shouldn’t. You want to get to know more about who they are, understand where they want to go, what they are now with their business or know what are some roadblocks in the past for them.

Then propose a plan that’s going to help me get there. 

If you can understand what that communication factor is, you’ll start building that relationship and the DMs. So, don’t just jump in the sale, but learn a little bit more about those four things, their future, their present, their past and the plan. You could go through that process first.

Once you get there, you’ll know about where exactly you want to go. You will understand where you’re at now and what has been keeping you from reaching your goals. So, this is a plan that can help you get there.

But before everything, you need to have their permission to almost get them to convert.  

Conversion

JR: So, you have the content and communication. Now we go to the conversion, where you can actually talk about your program and offer what you have, but it doesn’t stop there.

You offer the conversion and you get them into sales and they buy your program. But, the biggest part that people forget is what comes after you have that credit card.

Community

JR: You sign them up there, you get them into your program and now you need to focus on the community. If you don’t do this and you don’t get them plugged in where they feel like they’re part of something.

They’re not going to stay with you that long. So you would want to create stories and raving fans of people that are gonna stick with you for a lifetime. 

You have to find a way for them to stay forever. 

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Edited transcription of Fitness Business Secrets Podcast, Episode 9

Kristy: Hello everyone! I am so excited today because we’re going to get the inside secrets from multiple six figure business owner, JR Spear on how to get online training clients paying as much as $2,500 per ticket.

JR is really a real-life fitness rock star because he is a fourth-degree black belt and a combat veteran, who spent four years in Iraq. After getting out, he opened his own martial arts school.

He currently lives in Stafford, Virginia with his wife and four kids, who also knows the fitness business.

He has been a personal trainer, owning multiple six figure businesses and in-addition, he’s done over a dozen triathlons. So, what I really like about this guy is that he has tons of energy. He posts really cool videos and his clients just love him. He talks about how he transformed their fitness business. 

I’m sure he’s going to give us tons of secrets on how we can start to get more online clients today.

So JR, thanks for joining us. Thank you for serving the country. How are you doing today?

JR: I’m doing great! Thank you so much. Just to clarify, I spent four years in the service, but not four years in Iraq. So yeah, no problem. It was nine months in Iraq actually.

Kristy: That’s still a long time but thank you. So, from a very robust background, tell us more about your fitness and business background. 

Growing up in a family of martial artists and fitness enthusiasts

JR: Okay, to start things out,  I was in the industry long enough and I started at a young age. I grew up in a family of martial artists and fitness enthusiasts my entire life and I started training when I was three years old.

I have four sisters and my mom has always owned a business, so we all just kind of lived and breathed that lifestyle every single day.

Before we go to school, we would be in the martial arts school and we would go again before we go home. At the end of the day, we’d be there until late hours at night.

That was our daily lifestyle and I thought everyone did that. It was just kind of a norm for my family.

I started coaching when I was 13 years old and even as a teenager all the way through my adult life is kind of where I got exposed to teaching and leading.

It’s just kind of helping other people, to get stronger, be healthier and at that time it was mainly martial arts.

Then I went into the military right off high school  and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I was like, okay, I’m out of the service. I’m back from Iraq now. Now what?

And then, I kind of jumped into not knowing anything about business, just stuck to my roots of what I knew, from there I thought of martial arts. 

Since I know how to teach and coach people. I did it. I trained a ton of Marines, since I did a lot of martial arts as well. It was just something that became very normal for me. So, I just kind of took a leap of faith and jumped right into it. 

Putting up his first martial arts business and failing at it

Kristy: Nice! So, really it was in your bones and you started doing it as a living. When you got out of the service, how was that journey though? I mean, a lot of people have started fitness, but really making it successful is hard.

How did you do and what did you do? What type of school did you open? What type of businesses did you end up starting?

JR: My first business was martial arts and I incorporated a ton of fitness within it and I’ll tell you right off the bat, it wasn’t an easy road. To put it I was really good at teaching, but I have no clue about business.

It was a struggle. I was barely making $500 a month, able to keep the lights on. I was going to school, and had a hard time as well. So, I was trying to live this entrepreneurial life.

Plus, going to school and not really bringing a lot of money, but just had a lot of savings that I had coming back from for my racks.

To kind of jump into it, I knew right off the bat that I needed help. I needed a coach. It was more out of desperation. So I was like, okay, what do I need to do to build this business?

To see it as something that I can provide for a future family at that time and stuff like that.

How he transformed his business by hiring a coach

JR: So, I hired a coach. I did a lot of research to figure out who in that space did really well and I found a guy named, Mike Metzger who is absolutely amazing.

He pretty much kind of transformed my way of thinking and the way that I did business, the way I really grew. It was my epiphany and the big “Aha” for me was doing live events.

He showed me first how to create an offer. How to create an irresistible offer that’s going to be able to attract more higher paying clients and get them to convert for longer terms. Instead of just getting a person who’s paying month, after month, after month.

You know, just $50 a month or $100 a month, whatever it is and simply not knowing whether they were going to continue the next month, was a little bit scary.

But he showed me how to build an irresistible offer and how to host a live event, what did that look like, then how to present it.

So, when people are there in the event and we’re done with the event. We then talk about our new program and convert them over to a longer term, higher paying client. That’s what really transformed my business and how I really started to grow. 

After that, I sold the martial arts gym that I had for several years and I started an outdoor group fitness program.

I grew that bootcamp program from three different cities and it really expanded quickly. Then I duplicated the same systems that I learned from the martial arts school and that was doing one day events.

That’s the kind of  system that I’m teaching a lot of my clients nowadays, is how to execute one day events and the power of using an irresistible offer and then how to close them.

So, that’s pretty much how I really transformed my business and I was able to duplicate it in multiple different businesses. 

What most coaches take for granted — people in their backyard

Kristy: Oh wow! I did see that video and I was actually really curious about it. I really wanted to ask you about the online training clients. Which one do you think is more interesting right now to talk about?

JR: Honestly, both of them kind of tie into it. So, for all my online training clients, when they think of online training, they think all the clients need to come from virtual; online, social media or wherever it’s at.

But the reality is that they forget about the people in their backyard. They forget about the people in their community, ones that already know them, like them and trust them. Including those who want to buy their services. 

Just because they are an online coach, doesn’t mean they can’t prospect people that are in their backyard.

So, utilizing those one day events in your backyard can definitely help you become the trusted professional in your area and to be able to convert them to online clients. You don’t just have to get online clients from online.

If you do that, then it’s a great place to be at because you can reach a huge audience.

You can still get high paying clients right in your backyard and the best way to do it is building the community, building the trust factor from people that already know you in your backyard. 

Kristy: So, that’s a big “Aha”, I assumed that you’d get all these clients on social media or something.

We will next talk about training online clients if that’s okay. Then maybe touch on, using these events because I’m so curious how you did these events. I saw a bunch of your videos on it because that’s when I was running Alana in Brooklyn and we tried to do a few events.

I don’t think we did them that great, as in the way you are doing. I think we could have improved it a lot.

We tried to do workshops or a new intro on kegel muscles, which is more of a ladies thing, but simply we were trying to get into this. Hearing how you made it successful is really interesting.

Also, I’m curious about the bootcamp that you grew ,  what’s a quick story on that? How did you get started? How did you grow it to other cities and how did you use these events for that?

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How to put on one-day events to explode your membership

[09:28] JR: I kinda just fell into it because I needed something else to do and just for private purposes.

I’m not going to say how I got out of martial arts school. But ultimately, it was a family owned business and we just needed to separate our way. So, I ended up selling off my side of the business and then started something else. I was young, I think I was only 24 or 25 at that time.

I was like, “okay, what am I going to do?” So, I knew at that time that I didn’t really want to start teaching kids anymore and I wanted to just focus on adults, which is kind of my target market. 

I really love helping people lose weight, transform their body, their mind and just make them feel healthier overall.

I really wanted to build it and I didn’t really know what the program was going to look like, but I really spent a lot of hours. 

There was a lot of grind and hustle. So, literally from when I closed that martial arts school and walked away from it. I spent the next two weeks going door to door and I knocked on every single door. 

I targeted not just businesses, but residents. I started conversations and building connections with them, which were within about three to five mile radius of where I was going to host my first class.

Also, I thought of how to handle the flyers, it was tough. I spend about 80 hours a week just doing that, but I was like, “okay, I’m desperate to gather some clients.”

From there, I got seven new clients that trusted me and that jumped on board. Those seven clients stayed with me until the next decade and from there we had my business and they’re still really good friends of mine today. That was kind of the start of my journey.

I really didn’t have a vision or a plan of where I was going to take it. At the time it was just telling me, “okay, you know, I’m going to start this.”

Then it just kind of developed and honestly, just listening to my clients, hearing what their problems were and what they wanted to see, it really grew.

So, the name of the business was Powerful Bootcamp. Just the name itself, all my clients kind of develop the name of saying, “Hey, are you power fit? or I’m power fit!” it just became a very big trend within the program, that everyone was striving to get power fit.

That something that I found was really huge, as if you want to build a client of a lifetime or a raving fan and they have to have something that they feel like they’re part of something, like they’re part of a community.

When that goes on, one of my clients will say, “Hey, you know, get power fit, or are you power fit?” It was kind of the motivating factor and it’s something that they grasped onto and owned. So it started growing and growing, just kind of organically by doing that.

Then I was, “okay, how can I bring people together?” or to bring more people together, “do I offer like an event and do more group closing?”

That’s why I developed the one day events.

But just kind of looking back from my martial arts roots, how I did that. I just did the same program.

To be successful at one-day events — you need to have a theme

The way I made it to be pretty successful was first off, you need to have a theme. You need to have a reason why people are going to be; there has to be something fun. You need to have something that’s gonna make people look forward to. 

For instance, New Year, New You. Everyone wants to get on the big hives and take advantage of it for fitness.

You know everyone wants to complain about new year’s resolutions and saying, “Hey, don’t grass on new year’s resolutions, but use it as an opportunity.”

Because the reality is people are still thinking about new year’s resolutions. So, what are you going to do to help them make this year better?

A lot of trainers are trying to jump on the trend saying, “don’t think about new year’s resolutions, they should be something you do all the time”, which is great and we should.

But why not use that to your advantage, if people are thinking about it. If that’s what they want to do, that’s what is helping them get started, then use it to your advantage.

I would like a New Year, New You type thing and I would bring in 60 to 100 people in one place at one time with maybe one or two people helping me. But learning how to control a class that size, I would say probably 40% of them are all new guests trying it for the first time.

I’m able to close a high percentage of them over to new sales and that was a big push to the growth of my business, but I wouldn’t just wait for the new year.

So, I would do that and I was like, “okay, well let me do one right before summer”, “Okay, let me do another one at the end of summer”, like back to school type thing.

Also I was thinking of doing one in November, where it would be a non-paid event. It was more like getting money for a fundraiser for a Thanksgiving type thing to feed families.

So, you figure out what theme that you want and what it’s going to be like. In Summer it could be like, getting skinny, whatever you want, or even swimsuit season, whatever you want to call it.

You can do any event, Thanksgiving or for a Valentine’s day where it’s getting couples together. So choosing a theme is going to be really cool because that’s what’s going to make it fun. Then you would tailor the class or the event around that, but the thing is, every event is pretty much the same exact thing.

It’s just one way to make it fun and interesting and bring people in. So, that’s the first part

Kristy: I’m loving this!

Before you host a one-day event — choose a date and time

JR: Also, I forgot to mention first is you have to choose a date and time.

This is the number one thing that you have to do before you do anything. Because the reality is you can have all the excitement and the thought of wanting to do an event, but if you don’t actually put something on the calendar to schedule it, you’re never going to make it happen.

I always tell everyone that first off, procrastination is a dream killer and whatever you need to get done, you push it all off to the next night. The next night you will be going for it and then push it again to the end of the week.

Then the end of the week is going to be the end of the next month. Then next month is going to turn to next year and then next year will never come.

If you don’t schedule it, it’s never going to happen. So, I always encourage people, first thing to do, schedule a date.

Then time and then the location where you can do it. That way you know it’s in there and then you’re going to work that much harder to build your event.

Kristy: With that, I’m curious. When we ran our events, it was exactly the same. We were like, “Oh well we should do this workshop” and then we’d get in touch with the teacher and I’d put it off.

Then the next thing you know, we were scrambling and we didn’t give ourselves enough time to promote it.

So, for how much time do you recommend someone give themselves, from the point of listening to this, being inspired and saying, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to set a date.”

Also, we want to know how to give themselves enough time to promote it. So, how much time when they have nothing planned, should they give themselves before it’s scheduled or before they have it?

How to market these one-day events

[15:32] JR: That’s a great question. I’ll tell you a little backstory about me because I found out that events were so great when I was running them.

So I got to a point where I was doing almost at least one event a month. I still coach people on how to do that, but they’re not all paid events and have the same thing.

You may have free events, paid events, things that are used to draw new clients for referrals or whatever it is, but you offer something because you want a reason to bring people together.

The more you can bring people together. The greater your community is going to grow and people are going to feel like they’re part of something.

With regards to timing wise. The ones that I’ve put together, which I gave myself at least four to six weeks to plan out, advertising and marketing. Were more successful than ones that I just tried to throw together which I only had one or two weeks to plan out.

So, I would say probably four to six weeks is a good timeframe because there’s a lot that goes into it. Everything from your sales page, to your social media marketing plan.

To connect with those who are in your community. To tell your clients so that you can build up the excitement and momentum you want with your team members.

And then, make sure that they’re going to do it. Then have an incentive for your team members if they bring brand people in. You guys can get creative, if you set up so many new people and that you have so many new guests.

So, you’re gonna reward everyone, just kind of building and getting everyone excited as much as you can.

It takes time and you don’t want to just pull it together and do it last minute. So, four to six weeks is kind of my recommendation for it. 

Kristy: Yeah, that sounds good and still tight if you’ve never done one, but at least four to six weeks makes sense. Also, for your bootcamp, did you have your event outside or was it inside somewhere? 

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How to offer events and even training at places where rent is as low as $20 for access

[17:16] JR: My boot camps were very unique. Everyone tried to say, boot camps are not good because if there’s bad weather, then you won’t be able to have a class.

Since I’ve always known exactly the type of locations where we had a class. I always made sure there was an indoor backup. 

So, we always try to make sure that our classes were outside. But what people forget is where you can offer a class where you don’t need to have a big overhead. It allows you to still be mobile and you run your business wherever you want.  

My biggest niche was churches, because churches always have dead space and dead times where they’re not doing anything. Also, they needed a little extra income. So, I negotiated everything from free to maybe $25 a class. 

It worked very well for me and I was able to coordinate and work with so many different churches within our community. So, we just had tons of classes going around.

So, if we could do it outside, my weather policy was normally 40 and below. We go inside of course if there was rain, but normally, we try to stay outside as much as possible. 

Kristy: Nice! I guess everyone’s thinking, “Oh, this is so great”, “This is amazing” and “I want to do this.” Well how did you get people to show up? What are the tricks?

Because I could put up a bunch of flyers and for me, that hasn’t really worked. 

How did you get people to show up? What are the tricks? — an irresistible offer

JR: The secret is the giveaway. You have your thing, but you need that $1,000 giveaway. It’s no different than thinking about your irresistible offer and when you’re thinking about this, you want it to be 10 times greater than what your normal program actually is.

That’s what makes it so irresistible and why people want to sign up for it, because they’re adding value to it. But there’s no difference in getting people there.

So what is your giveaway? I always found when I had something of value that was $1,000 or more, usually brought in by more people and referrals, it just kind of threw things together.

It doesn’t have to be $1,000 cash, you can think about your offer which you normally give and give $1,000 of more value.

Get creative with them. Maybe you can offer a group fitness program and you’re giving six or 12 month membership away. It won’t hurt to have an extra body in that class if you’re running a group fitness.

Also, why not offer a free membership? To get people there too and get them excited.

I guarantee you if you say, “Hey, I’m giving away a free 12 month membership for a group for fitness training”, you’re going to get a lot of referrals. I always did it where they came and if they are a member, they get one free ticket.

Every guest that came, they got five tickets that they got to put in a drawing lot and we did the drawing of winners at the end. So I’ve always given multiple prizes, like little small things.

I’ll go to Five and Below and buy yoga stuff and jump ropes, things I would give away. But my big prize is always the last thing and it always has to be $1,000 of more value.

Another creative thing is, find out other sponsors in the area. I always start with my clients, like who’s a client of mine now that offers a business that I can help or promote in a way.

I go to them and say, “Hey, do you want to donate something that we can give away as a prize?” and he can be the one presenting it. Well then they’re going to be excited because they’re getting a chance to spotlight their business.

They’re doing the drawing and they’re also giving away something of value that someone’s going to want. So, you can reach out to clients with that or just local businesses that you would want to be part of and give away different things like that.

So, that’ll  help bring in other communities, other vendors who are going to be excited about telling other people to bring them in there.

But having that thousand dollar giveaway was always like my secret sauce that brought people in. The bigger the prize, the more people I’m going to have there.

How do you promote your one-day events to incentivize people to come in?

Kristy: So, once you have that prize giveaway, the thousand dollar offer, how do you promote that to incentivize people to come in? 

JR: When I was running it, social media was not near as big. At the time when I was doing a lot of my events and granted I moved to Virginia from St. Louis in 2016.

That’s when I sold that business. But I had it for more than a decade in three different cities. So, the past three years I’ve been focused on other things, other businesses that I’ve started and launched in Virginia.

But again, when I was running it, social media wasn’t as big. So, I would really reach out to all my clients and I would go to my local vendors. I built a huge network through networking with other businesses in the area and stuff like that, just going around talking.

My recommendation right now and the way I promote even my coaching business, is utilizing social media. So everything that you do on there, needs to have a purpose.

Your every post needs to have a purpose for it, needs to be shareable and needs to be likable, so that people would want to be able to talk about and see it.

Also, Being mindful of everything that you post, having a call to action and guiding people correctly on how or where to actually find out how to sign up and all these different things.

So, social media is huge. Another big way, especially if you’re hosting a local event, is to get out there, do tons of lunches and learn with businesses. These businesses really want their employees to be healthy and I don’t care if it’s from a nail salon, a hair salon, to a big corporation.

Everyone wants their employees to be healthier because first off, they’re going to be better to work within the environment. They’re going to be more energized and be more alert. They’re going to be more focused.

So, the more we can provide an opportunity to be able to teach and educate them, the happier that the employer is going to be. 

So going into a business and saying, “Hey, can I offer a 20 or 30 minutes free lunch”, here I learn where I’m gonna come in and talk a little bit about some health and fitness or wellness, whatever topic that you want to do that can offer value.

And hopefully that gives you more leads to add to your email list and more opportunity to invite people to come to class. But you’re also giving an opportunity saying, “Hey, I’m also offering this free event that’s coming out on this date.”

We’re doing a $1,000 prize giveaway where you have a chance to win a free 12 months membership, 6 months membership or whatever it is.

That just gives you more opportunities to do that. So, going and reaching out to the local businesses is definitely a huge way and a huge opportunity or even a great opportunity to start building those connections and relationships to start a corporate wellness program. 

A lot of personal trainers are striving to do that.

When you’re offering something of value and something that can help them, that just helps build that relationship that much more because you’re giving something of free value to them that can help their employers.

People are scared to talk to the people that they already know. They’re scared to talk to their friends and family about their services. But why not use it to your advantage?

It almost behooves you to not do that and it’s almost bad if you think that you can’t talk to them because if you’re scared to talk to your family and friends about what you do.

Then you probably don’t believe in your product or service that you’re offering or the people that you’re trying to talk to, won’t have faith and trust in what you offer to sell. 

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Reach out to your own community

JR: I also believe that you should reach out to your community, your network and the people that you already know.

You will be really shocked about how many people would be excited about wanting to come to a free event, but now have changed to win a free prize or you can even just tell other people. 

So, those are the three main things and of course there’s a lot other ways that they can get creative to bring people, but if you just work hard, get out there and do it, you’d be really shocked about how many people that you can get to an event.

Just imagine if you talked to 10 people that you’re really close to or 10 clients that you already have. Even if you don’t have 10 clients, but just say you had 10 clients and you talk to them about wanting to come.

Each one of them brings a guest, well then that’s 10 more people that they will have and now they got 20 people in the class. If you close it, even just one person, for example 10% out of those 10 new guests that came.

Well that one person could be a new 12 month membership or it could be a full time monthly membership that can make a huge difference in your business. 

Who knows how many people they can refer to you. So, every client counts. With that you just got to work with what you have.

If you don’t have a big following, you need to get out there, network and build relationships within your communities, so you can have a following and get people in.

Who do you reach out to to promote corporate wellness?

Kristy: I have a question, I love corporate wellness, I went to a workshop on it and there’s definitely some nice money to be made with good margins. but in general, when you’re starting off, I love the idea of starting off with offering something free to this business. 

Now I’m thinking, so there’s the nail salon and I get it. You walk in when the owner’s around or you call the owner, but are you talking about slightly larger businesses, where you got to get in touch with a special person like the HR?

So, how do you do that for a possibly slightly larger business? Who do you contact?

JR: Well, it goes to the basics of sales.

First off is knowing who’s in charge of the wellness program and that’s normally the HR person. But I’ve also ran into situations where it’s not the HR person that they actually have. It can be a division that deals with health and wellness, like a wellness committee.

So, figure out who that person is by just asking questions. You have to do the work, you need to get out there, grind and understand that it’s not just going to fall into it. One call is not going to be enough.

So maybe, if it’s a bigger corporation, you may have to start with talking to the front desk person because they’re going to be the person that’s going to keep you from getting to the top person.

So just start by building a relationship with that front desk person and come in there once a week, then a couple of times a week. You ask questions, get to know who they are, and then see if they’ll name drop anyone. If they did, then take the name, go do some research, then call it  and ask for that person.

Just constantly show them, “Hey, I’m resilient, I really want to get to know who you guys are and I want to offer some value. But if you’re trying to get into these bigger corporations, they’re not gonna let you just walk in and just give you the business. You’ve got to actually show them something of value. 

Show them that you want to be there, not just for an extra dollar or a paycheck, but you want to be there to offer something that’s going to help them and what’s going to be beneficial to the employers, not just the employees because they are always going to look at what’s in it for me?

You got to figure that out. Like, what makes them tick, what makes them figure out what that’s going to benefit them and why they should even let you in.

So, it does take some research, it does take some time to understand. But, if that’s what you want to do, if you’re going after those bigger corporations, you gotta put the work in.

Kristy: For lunch and learn the smaller business, like the nail salons where the business owner might be easier to get in touch with. About how many people are you generally looking for where you feel it’s effective to do a mini seminar there?

JR: My thought is every new connection counts. So yes, you kind of want to make it worth your time and stuff, but say you’re just starting out, you’re not going to be picky and choosy of looking just for five or 10 people to be in front of.

You’re going to look for every person that you can. So, even if it’s one person, get in there and talk to that one person. Build that relationship with them because you don’t know who they know, right?

They may have a connection to a bigger corporation, a bigger business or even a bigger community. You don’t know if that person has a ton of friends from college days that they all love to work out together.

Like, “Hey, I’m part of a running group. We get together every Saturday and go run.” So, you say, instead of doing that, why don’t you guys all come here and try out my free event or come out here and try a free class or whatever it is.

So, for me personally, if I’m just starting out. I don’t care if there’s one person there because every person in my network and every relationship I can build makes a difference.

Yeah, that’s nice and I love that you can add them to your email list. Also, how about in an urban environment? I don’t know exactly what kind of environment, If it’s more of residential being in New York city. Some part of me is thinking, “Oh, this wouldn’t work because it is so urban”.

Do you have any thoughts on, if the person’s business is in a very congested or downtown area?

Are you referring to just corporate wellness? Are you referring to just doing a regular? 

Reaching out to smaller businesses — pros and cons

Kristy: I’m thinking, when I was running the gym and we were trying to get more people in. The issue we would come into is, we would say, “Hey, let’s go talk to all the small businesses nearby.”

We’d go there, there’s one person at the desk and two people in the store, let’s say it’s a clothing store or a nail salon. We’d say, “Hey, we want to reach out.”

Maybe it’s not necessary because it’s an urban environment, but it was hard to feel like we’re making progress there. Even if we were going to do a little event for them because there aren’t a lot of people in there since these stores are so small.

We ran into this problem where we didn’t know how to get more people for our event. I think that we could’ve definitely implemented that $1,000 giveaway. By just even getting people to know about it , I’m trying to get some advice on that. 

JR: So, I’m part of a mastermind with Vince Del Monte and one thing he always says is you got to work on data, not emotions and that really hit home for me recently because a lot of times we get so frustrated. 

We’ve walked into 10 businesses or 20 businesses and we’re not really getting a lot of traction. But the truth is, you have to know your numbers. You have to know how many businesses it is going to take or how many people do I need to get in front of, for it to take to get that one person that’s going to say yes. 

When you can understand, that even if it takes you to talk to 20 businesses just to get one person to even speak with you or get to know at least. You know, there’s 20 businesses that you’ve got to get through to be able to get to that one person. So understand that data. 

Second off, being in the urban area, it just feels like there’s more opportunity there because you have so many businesses that are close by versus that are so spread out.

The challenge that I had is being in the suburbs and businesses were so far spread out. I have to try convincing them why they needed to drive 20 to 30 minutes to be able to come to one event on a Saturday morning, that’s taken away from their family and kids. 

So, to me that that was a harder sell than being someone that’s close by, where I can knock on way more doors, way more people, opportunities and businesses to be able to speak to in a less time frame.

I just think that people give up so easily. I mean, they get out there and do it, but they’re just like, “okay, well I talked to 10 businesses, I didn’t get anything.”

But then, it also comes back on how you are presenting it. Like, what is your offer? Because if you’re going in there and you’re saying, “Hey, I got a free event for people to come to.” You know that that doesn’t probably get many different people, that have different workshops or events and things all the time.

But what’s gonna make you different? Why should they give up their Saturday, away from their family and kids to be able to come to you? That’s something that you really got to think about.

Like what are you as a personal trainer? What are you offering that’s different than the next personal trainer as a business? 

You have to train your team and your staff that’s going to knock on the doors, to have that excitement and it goes with enthusiasm too.

No one wants to talk to someone that just comes in there and just gives information and just saying, “Hey!” dropping off a pamphlet or a flyer.

And adding, “you gotta see this!”, then, “hope you guys can make it!” and go, but think of it still as a sales opportunity. 

You’ve got to sell them on why they need to come to the event and why they can’t miss out. There has to be that urgency. There has to be a reason why you like them to be there. If they miss out, then there’s not going to be another opportunity like it. 

So what does that look like? In every business, it’s going to be different. It’s just a matter of going, what are your messages, what is your thing, what is your giveaway and what is something that you can provide as different.

A very good example was when I was in St. Louis, I had some corporate businesses there for several years that I ran there and you have to figure out what’s going to benefit them.

Well, I knew those employees weren’t going to come to me, so I actually took my business to them and granted being a bootcamp program, I was able to do it, but any personal trainer can do it as well.

So, I went there and I would offer the class, two to three days a week at their facility when the employees got off. It offered a high, intense, full of energy class which I would have 15 to 20 employees coming in and I’m being paid enough for it. It was really good!

But some business owners give up so easily and they just don’t think that it’s possible. It’s just a matter of knowing who your audience is, who you’re going after and what are your messages. So, for me, thinking it being an urban area, city area or whatever.

That is actually a little bit more opportunity than it is in the suburbs area, just because there are way more businesses and people close by. You can reach more people in a shorter time frame. 

So, if you take one or two hours out a day to go knocking on doors and you didn’t get the right people. So, knock on the same doors again until you get an answer of yes or no. “Yes, I’m interested!” or “No, I’m not interested.”

So, I would always look for the answers of yes or no, not the maybes. Although, they can say “I’m going to think of it.” With this, I’m going to be back until they give me a yes or no, but regardless of their answer I try to get people to register that day, just so I can actually follow up with them. You need to have that system in place as well.

Once you get that information, are you going there just to give up easily, where you just get the information and go where you want to go on with it?

The point is, you want to sell to them and you want them to come to the event. You want them to try out your program because you have the best program around.

Well, if you’re going to do that, you need to have a way to get in touch with them. You need to have a reason for them to give you the information. It’s no different than online, where you set up the sales page where you have your pitch. So, this is what’s going to hook someone in to be able to do it.

You tell them to get this, you have to give this, for them to provide you with the information that’s going to help you grow your business. You can ask for email addresses, phone numbers or whatever it is.

There’s no difference than when you’re walking into a business and say “Hey, you know, I’ll give you this free free event, free advice, or free, whatever.”

But to do this, you need to have something to follow up with. So you need to get their contact information, just so you can follow up with them. 

It’s simple as “Hey, Kristy, I’ve got this event that’s coming and you said you showed interest. How about you give me your phone number and I’ll follow up, so I can give you some more details. If you give me this, I can offer you some free stuff, or I can give you some healthy recipes”. 

You add them to your email list, so it can help you get that much closer. So having that onboarding process will be a great experience for them and will definitely help set you apart from everybody else.

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The 4 C’s of an effective sales system

Kristy: Okay, great! You’re saying for social media, is there any special technique or what’s your favorite technique to get people to opt in for your event?

JR: I do this four step sales system that I use for everything. Whether it’s going to be for an event, for closing on my DMs or whatever it is.

When it comes to social media, it’s no different than with a real-life person. You use the same process all around, no matter what and you got to think about the trust factor.

It’s almost like you’re dating your client and people automatically say, “Oh wait, you liked my page or you’re following my Instagram account”, “you’re doing this, so you must’ve liked me and maybe you might want to buy my services. So, hey, here’s my offer.”

JR: Most people have just jumped right to that, but they don’t take them through that process. So, the four steps sales system that I teach, are the four C’s.

First, you have your Content. You publish and post, so people get to learn about your message.

But they’re not really interested yet to buy from you. So, they’re just kind of feeling you out, seeing what you have to say, what you’re able to offer. 

Then once they do, then you’re going to get to the Communication phase. In this phase, you still don’t have permission to ask them for the sale and you shouldn’t.

You want to get to know more about who they are, understand where they want to go, what they are now with their business or know what are some roadblocks in the past for them. Then propose a plan that’s going to help me get there. 

If you can understand what that communication factor is, you’ll start building that relationship and the DMs. So, don’t just jump in the sale, but learn a little bit more about those four things, their future, present, past and the plan. You could go through that process first.

Once you get there, you’ll know about where exactly you want to go. You will understand where you’re at now and what has been keeping you from reaching your goals. So, this is a plan that can help you get there. But before everything, you need to have their permission to almost get them to convert.  

So, you have the content and communication. Now we go to the Conversion, where you can actually talk about your program and offer what you have, but it doesn’t stop there.

You offer the conversion and you get them into sales and they buy your program. But, the biggest part that people forget is what comes after you have that credit card.

You sign them up there, you get them into your program and now you need to focus on the Community.  If you don’t do this and you don’t get them plugged in where they feel like they’re part of something.

They’re not going to stay with you that long. So you would want to create stories and rave fans of people that are gonna stick with you for a lifetime. 

You have to find a way for them to stay forever. 

Kristy: That four-step sales system, which I totally understand. I love that you’re saying something big, but what a lot of people might overlook is that you don’t ask for the sale upfront.

You just basically need to have that patience because when you get a lead, that’s gold! You could have paid $50 just to get that.

So, to hold off and get to know them, even if it’s through social media, that’s really interesting. Also, you’re seeing this four step sales system by using it all the time, is this the system you also recommend for getting online training clients?

This is through online. Although, you could do it in person as well using the same process. 

Focusing on high ticket sales

JR: Also, I want to clarify, if you’re trying to just convert someone over to a small $50, $100 and $200 type sale, you won’t have much time because to me those are lower offers.

But if you’re looking to get the $1,1000 or more tight clients, it’s going to take a longer process for it.

Depending on what your offer is, what you’re selling and what you’re giving away is what your program or system is going to determine on how you sell to that client and it’s going to take a little bit more work.

So, when I use the sales system, it’s going to be focusing on high ticket sales versus focusing more on the low ticket thing.

Because if I’m selling to someone that wants a cheaper option, I just go in and talk about the value and then I’m able to convert them a lot easier. But if I want to get a higher ticket type of sale, then I’m going to focus on these.

I’ve done this strictly in my DMs so, if I find someone that’s showing a little bit of interest, I don’t care what platform whether there’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or if there is another platform that people are using.

So, I use the same process all the time and you could also do the same thing in the same person when it comes to networking and getting building relationships with people. 

Kristy: Is there a difference when a person shows interest in a higher ticket item? Because my initial reaction or what I’ve been taught also is too, at least get them into some type of ticket item.

Because my fear is if I put my interest first, I’m going to lose them. So, I should at least get them involved in something.

You can correct me, but this is just the fear I would have if I was in that situation  because If they want to sign up for a $150 product and it allows me to slowly upsell them without losing them, that would be great.

Plus, on social media, everyone’s attention span is short. What are your thoughts on someone who thinks that?

JR: That’s a good question. My first response is that you attract people by the way you buy and that fear is going to come by everytime you purchase.

If you have a fear of selling someone on a high ticket type program, that’s probably because you have a fear of buying a high ticket type of program yourself.

So, if you start and dabble with lower barrier offers at first, that’s probably because that’s how you buy it. There’s a lot of truth in a lot of studies to actually prove that. So, just try it out.

Sometimes, go out there and let’s say you plan to purchase a coaching program and you’re going to spend $10,000 on it.

Just think about how much more motivated you are to get out there, to hustle and work that much more to be able to pay that off. Also, Just to make sure that you got your ROI is that much better.

So, you’re going to work that much harder and you’re going to find those types of clients that are willing to do that. Since, you are going to attract those same types of people. 

I’m okay with low barrier offers, but not right off the bat. If they’re going to be buying low right then, then they’re probably not seeing the value in what you have to offer. They’re not trusting it and the services that you have. In-short, they’re not willing to invest that much into it.

Why not just start right off from the top tier, wherein this is your top program and what do you have to offer there. Then, you work your way down. Most people would start from the bottom and work their way up.

If I know that whatever it is and that they can’t afford it or they can’t do it. So, I figure out what their objections are, then I’m going to find something that can help meet their needs. But I always work from the top and work my way down.

So, if you think about it from any type of sales standpoint. If you started down, it’s really hard to get that person to nudge up before they start seeing the value in moving up.

But, if you start up, it’s a lot easier from the first call to be able to work your way down and find something that works for them. They might also end up buying your top program or they might buy the middle tier.

So, offering different programs, this is something that I like to do for myself. I always start from the top and work my way down.

Kristy: That makes sense! So, for the four step program, you mentioned that it’s really about nurturing the communication, when you talk to them on the DM and building the relationship.

Let’s say there’s this personal trainer and he just started. Has one or two online clients and they want to build up to six or seven more, that’s their goal.

They have high ticket items such as $4,000 and 2,500 could be their middle item. They also have a $1,000 to $500 item. So, can you imagine that they would go through that system and nurture the relationship.

Even if they may end up just selling them a hundred dollar maintenance kind of program,  but at the same time, start at the high tier and use the same process.

JR: Absolutely, 100%. The biggest thing is if you’re just starting out and you want to get more clients faster, is to be really good at one day events. Which means you are really good at getting people in one room at the same time.

It can be just five people or you can have a hundred people in there. But if you get really good at getting people in one place and offer an awesome value where they are able to walk away with a “wow” factor. Then that’s an irresistible offer they can’t refuse before they leave.

You’re able to build a quick connection right then and there with those people because they already got a taste of it. They are getting a taste of the type of community and what you have to offer. 

Going online is going to be a much longer game. So, still nurture and do everything as you can online and you have to be consistent with it daily.

But again, if you’re just starting out, the fastest way that I believe in the way I’ve been able to build multiple businesses, is through one day events. Also, as I’ve always said, every time that I’m doing my events, I always start with the top tier because at my events or when I’m given an irresistible offer.

You gotta understand that your offers are going to be worth 10 times more value than it is going to be in your regular program and you’re going to over deliver to after that.

So, now you’ve got them even more excited about your program and which means they’re going to want to tell more people and if you can duplicate this over and over.

That’s the fastest way that I believe to achieve it and it has worked for me ever since when I bring more people in the quickest .

Doing social media online is great and you have to do it, plus you have to be consistent with it. But it’s a long term process because people need to understand what your message is first. Get to know who you are before they’re even going to start. 

Training one-on-one vs training online

Kristy: So, let’s say I’m a personal trainer. Generally you do one on one clients and then you’re trying to get more online clients.

Will this person still be a good person for one day events if they don’t have a boot camp? Or do you think they should just start a boot camp for the sake of a funnel? 

JR: No, I think you can do one on one type training. You can do online training. It doesn’t matter what it is. If you go back to my four step sales process, the last part is community.

Even though they’re in your backyard, you could still have online clients which you can bring in.

Just make sure you have an online page, like a Facebook group or something like that. Even through other apps that people use when they communicate, build relationships. So that, if they are struggling, where do they get the accountability?

So people are establishing relationships there, but if they’re in your backyard, then still host a live event. Also, maybe it’s a health day, then for whatever reason your brand and other people in your community are part of it.

Then you’re converting them to your online type program and you don’t need to do group fitness or anything like that.

All you need to do is have a way to bring people together, to learn and convert them. We’ll do the program from there. So, It’s important to have  built that online community.

Even if you’re an online type trainer, which is an aspect that people always forget. They’re like, “Man, if I’m only doing all my training, why am I going to do a live event?”

But the thing is, when you become a personal trainer, you become a trainer. But hopefully for these reasons because you want to help people and build those relationships. I think a lot of trainers just go on the grind and just keep chasing that next client, but they forget about the people that they’re helping and built relationships with.

If you can take your mindset off that and thank people first, which is what I can really do to build a relationship and help them really care. Then that’s going to change it that much further. 

So, what I really think is that, even if you’re doing online training or if you’re doing one on one in person. Having one day events is going to be a great way for you to bring people together in one place and that has a common goal and be able to still convert them over.

Kristy: All right. I’m really excited! So, we do one day events, no matter if you’re an online, offline, bootcamp or one-on-on trainer. Can you walk me through how we would do that? 

We’ve talked about the lead generation, so we don’t need to get into that part. But from the point of someone, let’s say, you do a little mini class at a salon, you have 7 beauticians and three of them sign up. 

Now you got people coming in. So, how many people and what kind of space should you be looking for your event? Also, we all know that, not everybody shows up when they say they’re going to.

How do you make sure they show up? or what percentage should you expect for your conversion rate?

How do you make sure they show up to your events?

JR: I guess the start by picking a date, time and location. When you have that, then that’s going to determine how many people that you can have at the event.

I always like to estimate a little bit high, and assuming every market’s a little bit different, but kind of knowing your area and the type of people that you’re talking to helps you decide.

Let’s say, I only can hold 20 people. So, I’m going to make sure I get 30 people. But you need to have that onboarding process even before the event because you need to know, how are they going to register? Will we be using a Facebook page? or other registered pages through a website.

Whatever it is, you need to figure out, how are you gathering information. To make sure that they’re going to be there, so you can actually follow-up and then give them a ton of value before they even come.

Maybe, you can give them a little background about who you are. Maybe talk about some testimonial stories where you have been able to help some people.

What should they expect from the event? This would make them start mapping out from the day that you actually talked to them. So, they start getting excited. 

If you got their phone number, start a texting campaign. Even if you’re not paying for a texting service, shoot them a text message every once in a while.

Offer a little bit of value or testimonials or how excited you are about them coming to the event just to make sure that it’s keeping them thinking about the program and coming to the event. 

But your onboarding process for the event is no different than the onboarding process to convert them over to a client because it starts right there.

If you want to build a raving fan after they sign up, you gotta start before they even come to your class and that’ s huge. What people mostly forget is that they need to register, but they just wait from the company event. They might have forgotten about registering before.

So, when the events come in, it’s not on top of their mind and they forgot to put it on their calendar.

It is important that from that first day, you have to have an onboarding system to make sure that they are actually going to be signed up, but you need to have a way to collect that information.

Now, they’re registered and they’re excited about it. Get their information, phone number, email, whatever it is and a start, a follow up system.

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How to handle multiple prospects at once at your event so you can still close everyone who is interested

[51:57] Kristy: Alright so, we’ve got the system and you mentioned, if there’s 20 people, you’d get 30. Are you saying that a 66% show up rate should be, what we should at least shoot for?

JR: It’s all different in the market, but I would always try to estimate 10 more people extra because you can say, if everyone shows up, then that’s good. But for example an extra 10 shows up, then you can still squeeze them in some way.

I try to do my events outside if it’s good weather as much as I can and it always has been helpful.

But I’ve also had situations where I hosted an event in an elementary school and I was able to get there on the weekends for an event where the janitor was there and they opened it up for me early in the morning. 

So, we would have horrible weather and they didn’t really have a gymnasium in there and the rooms were really small. So, I utilized the hallways, stairs or whatever space we can use.

The thing is you can’t allow things like this, to give you an excuse to not have a great experience. You could always make the experience awesome and people are coming there because they want to work out.

Also, they’re excited by your program. So, they don’t care about the situation at their end. 

But you may have a couple of people who are going to whine and complain about the environment and probably those are the people that don’t want to be part of your program anyways. 

Learn to adapt and don’t allow situations like that to stop you from having a great event.

I’ve had some crazy situations where I just literally had one long hallway because there was an event going on at the gymnasium at a school where I was supposed to have it.

They double-booked me for some reason and all I had was that hallway.

So, I have people on both sides and I would just run up and down the hallway and teach the class, doing the best that I can.

It ended up being a great event. People had a great workout, they got awesome prizes and they sat new clients. So, don’t allow the situation to stop you.

Kristy: That’s funny because I was actually going to ask you if these situations happen, what do you do during the event? Do they work out? So, walk me through an overview of the event. Also, one thing that we faced was that. Sometimes we had a decent turnout. 

We had someone stand up, give a testimonial of the program and people sounded excited. But if we didn’t have enough staffing, and from your standpoint, it sounded like you’re pretty much the main guy.

So, we tend to lose them and we don’t like them to leave not until we get the chance to talk to them.

How did you do your system, of what to do first and then second, just so you don’t lose them and the sale or offer turns out great? Also, how long was the overall event?

You should always keep a check in process. If it was just me with a big class, I would recruit some of my best clients to actually help run that table.

JR: So, I’d always have a table that is there, because if they are really good clients, it won’t take me a while. They have a story, they’re excited about what I offer, what they’ve been receiving and they’re going to tell other people about that.

I’m always standing by the check-in as well because I want to meet and greet every single person. I want to get to know them.

If they were a guest, I want to know their name because the thing that people value most in their life is their own name. If I can be in the class and call someone out by their name, you know that’s going to show a lot more value and they’re gonna be happy about it and it will show how much you care about them.

So, I make sure I’m greeting every single person when they come in.

I was someone that does the check-in, prizes, tickets and stuff like that, but I’m actually greeting everyone and making them feel comfortable, we talk about some stuff and pre-frames like say to them.

“Make sure you stick around to the very end because we have some awesome prize giveaways. But we also have an offer that we’re able to get you on how you can actually join our program.”

That way they’re already thinking about it and it’s not a surprise at the end. Tell them right from the beginning, in that way you keep them around until it ends. Also, offer the giveaway after the prizes. So you get to talk to them before they leave. So, that’s how you get people to stay.

The way my events always worked is I always have the check in process. I always did about a 45 minute high energy class, depending on the time. I usually run about 45 minutes, but sometimes about 30.

Then I would have some success stories of my clients that have been with me for a while and they have awesome stories to share.

So, try to get one or two people to stand up. They talk for about 10 to 30 seconds or whatever, just saying how much they loved my program and you know, what results that they’ve gotten.

We’ll do that, then we’ll talk about our prize giveaway and stack it, a very irresistible offer. 

Without going too much detail on how to build the offer because they spent a whole hour just doing it. The key thing is making sure it’s 10 times more valued than your regular offer and you have to have some type of a limit. It can either be a limit to time or quantity. 

Meaning we only allow in so many people to get this offer and you have to sign up before it’s gone or you have until the end of this class. Once the class ends, then you don’t get it.

This is today’s only opportunity. If you’ll do it and they walk away. Then they’re not going to get that offer.   

So, you do that offer and then you do the prize giveaways and make sure you make the people that are interested, do the paperwork first before you start doing the prizes.

If I have someone over here that is interested and if you just get them over to the side. Give them a piece of paper or a print out that talks about it and maybe you can have two options, either they’re painful or. you can pay monthly

This is what this is and they could start filling that out. They’re seeing the information. Then after you do the prize giveaways, then you go over and describe what the program is and which offer they can choose. You’ll get them onboarded right there.

The big thing to keep them to stay, is you make sure that you give your offer first and stack it in a way that people can’t refuse.

You can do this during your presentation, before you do the prize giveaways because if you do the prize giveaways first, there’s no reason for them to stay.  

Your events sound pretty big, but let’s say someone’s going to use their own space or they have one of those bootcamp CrossFit types of studios and they get 25 people to show up. Although, that sounds pretty good to me. 

Do you need to talk to each of the participants?

Kristy: Although it’s not too large and there can be more than one or even two trainers that could talk to everyone, but even though, they could probably still run out of time because let’s say, you allocate an hour and a half to the event or an hour.

You have the check-in that takes about 15 minutes. Then you have the class that’s 45 minutes long. 

Then you only have 10 minutes to talk about the value in the offer, but of course you want to get people to actually sign up, put down their credit card and get started.

So, do you need to talk to each person to get them or do they just fill out a form because you might run out of time right before you get to all 25 people?

JR: A big thing is, you can’t talk yourself out of a sale. So, the more you talk, the more reason you’re giving a person why they shouldn’t sign up. You already sold them why they want to sign up.

Just get them signed up and you don’t need to talk to each one of them individually.

Say you’ve got a group of people that’s interested and you have 5 or 10 people that are saying, “Hey, I want to sign up right now”. You got them over to the side. They haven’t been spared and they’re looking at it and then you’re just going to go over there and talk about how to get them signed up.

Once you get the credit card and the information. Then you follow up with each one of them individually, to talk about your onboarding process and get them connected.

Just figure out your follow-up system from there, but don’t talk yourself out of the sale and give all the deliverables at that moment.

Only thing you’re focused on is how to get them signed up and if they want to stay around for more Q & A and other stuff, you can do that after you get the papers and everything going.

You want to be respectful of people’s time too. So, let them do the information and then go. You can follow up with them and give them that personal touch.

I also want to discuss, not every event that I had was always a knock out of the park. So, I’ve had events where I only had 10 people show up for it and out of those 10 people, about two or three are guests, but I know that I’m going to sign up at least one new client.

Don’t be discouraged if there’s only 10 people that come. Yes, it’s not as fine and you were expecting about 30 to 50 people, but everybody, every new relationship and every new person counts.

So, just give as much energy and attention to that small group as you would to a big group. 

Also, the ones that I’ve had smaller events, with less people is because I put less time on it and marketing. So, getting people there and telling other people, those are the ones that I put together last minute where I know I should have put more effort into it, so it all falls back on me.

Kristy: That makes sense. So, even small events could be great. You can sign up people and let’s say you do get 20 to 30 people to sign up. Also you mentioned 5 to 10 people come to the side and say they’re interested. 

The question I’d like to ask also is if, have you done a 14-day money back guarantee or something just to really assuage their worries?

 JR: Well, if someone’s asking and if I see hesitance. You have to be a good judge of people too. From the time you started talking to people about the event, that’s when the sales process started. Not from the time that they walked up to your event and checked-in and stuff.

They already knew that they were going to be sold to and then you even prepared them before they even started your class. So, it’s not unexpected. So, when people are getting the form and they’re kind of hesitant, you could easily pick out who those types of people are.

Maybe they’re just not writing or they’ll just think about it or they’re just chit chatting with their neighbor because they’re discussing which classes to take.

So, whatever it is, I’m going to go over there and talk about what questions they have, about setting up and being onboarded. Some are a little bit off to the track, but not everyone’s going to have that.

If you see someone that’s writing their information and it looks like they’re going to give it to you, leave them alone, let them finish it and just get the papers so they can get out there, so you can start moving on with your day. 

But the people who don’t look like that. Meaning, they’re not writing down as much or they may be chit chatting with their neighbor. Go over there and you might have a little bit of conversation.

It could be a scenario where they’re with their friend or their guests and they’re talking to them about the program. They’re trying to figure out which days are going to be the best days and times. So, that they can come together. It also may not be anything related with the program,

You will know who are the persons that you need to talk to and those who you don’t need to. Although, by this time they should already know what to expect on your program.

There shouldn’t be a whole lot of objections. If there are objections, then you’ll just have to work through it, case by case.

I also want to point out that the people who are there, they’re going to be higher quality type people that are already excited by your program because a lot of them are going to be referrals from other people, those who have already taken your program and have already mentioned your program to them.

So, the type of people that are going to be there are not the ones who haven’t asked questions or didn’t know about it before. They’re the type of people that are going to be there are ones who already know a little bit, about who you are and what you have to offer.

The selling process isn’t going to be difficult as it is. If they just came there, more than likely they have pre-registered, which you should have already addressed, gotten excited about and already have answered a lot of questions during the onboarding process. 

Kristy: I love it! So, basically it’s interesting because we’re changing the whole idea of sales and the sales process. Since you mentioned this really interesting four step sales system and you’re creating that relationship and the communication during that part. You’re addressing their concerns. 

When you ask for the sale, you’ve already pre-sold it, and you’ve pre-framed it. That makes a lot more sense to me and I love it! Although, I do have one last question.

So, the gym I had in Brooklyn, It was just more of a regular boutique studio for yoga and some cycling. So, we have classes every day and what we would do is we would invite people and talk to them.

We’d go out, pass out flyers and talk again to people, then invite them to take a class, when it worked for them on their schedule.

We do a lot of things that you mentioned, where we would communicate with them, text them to make sure they show up for the time they requested. We would also call them even before they came in.

We would read them by name, show them around the gym, ask some questions about their goals and then put them into class. Then after, we pitch to them the other gym memberships and training.

So that worked for us and we haven’t really cracked the nut on the one day events, even though we’ve done a few. So, what are your thoughts on free passes and some of those similar sales strategies with your bootcamp classes.

Where people could just show up with their friend, then you could sell to them after which was more of a supplement? Or is there a key difference here and why?

Learning to control the conversation — what to do when someone brings a friend along

JR: They’re two separate things and I never turn down anyone that wants to come down and try a class or if one of my clients would want to bring a guest. They can come anytime.

The event was just a separate thing to bring in more people and get them excited. Ideally if they just come in, I might not offer them the same deal unlike people who are in the event.

Although I don’t have another event for the next two or three months from the time that they tried on a class. Well, I’m not going to wait so I’ll talk to them about my program right there and then.  

The thing is, people forget that this is a whole new conversation and the actual sales process and how they talk are where a lot of people fail because they allow the client or prospect to lead the conversation versus them.

You have to learn to control the conversation and where it’s going to go. Just saying, what are your goals? What do you want to achieve? or you’re trying to address them, which is good. But you’re not really digging deep because people are emotional buyers and you’ve got to get down to the emotional part. 

This applies to what I was talking to you about a while ago, the four steps of the future. Understand where they want to go and why do they want to get there. I know it sounds cliche, but that’s the truth.

There has to be something bigger that’s driving them to be able to find a way to get stronger. That’s why they came to see you in the first place and you got to figure out what is that.

You can use that to your advantage, but also over-deliver beyond that mixture. It’s like saying that, a client wants to lose 20 pounds, so that he can actually walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. So, you tell them that’s a strong buy for you and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that you get there.

So, feel what that future’s in there and then understand where they’re at presently. If they need to lose that way, where are they at presently and what do we need to do to help them get to their vision and their ambitions to do what they want to do?

Then what are the roadblocks of why they couldn’t get to the point before?

So the emotional eaters are, are they stressed at work? Are they always on the road because they have a sales job or something? Or what are the roadblocks and what is he/she doing about it and then creating a plan for them.

By the time you get to that plan, you already had such a great conversation and you know in yourself that you really painted a picture of what it is.

You’re leading that conversation, not letting them saying what they wanted against when they come in and you can say this by telling them, not everyone’s a good fit for our gym.

We just want to make sure that you’re a good fit for what we have to offer and to do so I need to understand where you’re at and where you want to go. But of course break it to them in a subtle manner.

It’s the same thing of knowing the problem and solution, but you’re just making it that much deeper and you’re showing that you’re more genuine, you care about them.

So, learning to control that situation and the conversation and really building a plan. Another thing is, as a personal trainer, you have to know your message as well.

A lot of trainers, more often than not, when I first started a conversation with a personal trainer and they’re coming to me for coaching advice, I ask him, who’s your client? They say, the general public who just wants to lose weight.

That is a common answer I get from everyone and to me it just blows me away because they’re in there without getting too deep. So, there’s a big difference between being an expert and a specialist.

Even as a personal trainer, we still need to have a specific type of person that we want to attract and we want to help with.

Yes, we can all help people lose weight, but who’s the right type of person we want to do? Are you going to be that general box gym? Personal trainer is going to go in and just treat every symptom. 

You can do that, but then you’re only going to get paid 10, 15 or 20 bucks an hour or per session, do you want to be that person who’s getting that charge? or you’re able to charge $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or even $5,000 for your program and specialize specifically for this.

This is the problem that they have, a lot of trainers don’t even know their own message. So, you really have to understand what or who your niche is and what are the problems you want to solve.

You have to understand who you can help and don’t just take everyone. Stay within your lane. So, during that conversation only talk about the things that they want you to help with and don’t talk about things that you think they need help with.

Just stand there and tell them what they need to know, but really give them what they need.

Kristy: I like that and it was interesting because I was thinking, how do you control the conversation? You explained it by saying, just understanding what they want to do. Then once you get to the point of having a plan, then you’re pretty much guiding them.

Now I see how you control and I like that. Also what’s interesting is what you said about, “you should know your message” and make sure to try to be a specialist. So that you can differentiate yourself , speak more specific on a topic and that’s very important. 

The millennials these days don’t want to join a big box gym. They want something special or have a trainer that’s special. 

So, I love it and thank you. We covered so much from your sales techniques, sales message, the process, and the one day events which are overwhelming. Also, I like how everyone is different. The approaches are very different.

I thought we were just going to talk about how to get leads on social media, but again this is different. Also, I love lunch and learning. That’s something and just different things or compliments to just add up to your linear sales process.

So, do you have anything else you want to add in? Also, how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about these sales events and these sales techniques? 

JR: If they want to connect with me, they can find me on any social media site, either Instagram or Facebook, just look up, JR Spear.

Just shoot me a DM and start a conversation. I promise you, I’m not going to try to sell to you. As I said before, I want to get to know more about you and to make sure that we’re a good fit, but I’m not going to turn out someone even if they just have a basic question,  if they want to know something simple. I’ll answer it and I’ll be genuine.

I have a heart to help. I want to be able to help as many people as possible. So, just find me on social media, that’s the best way. Join my free Facebook page, also you can go to www.100kfitpro.com, or their facebook group. Also, we have some questions that you get to answer to be able to join the group, but those are nice.

Kristy: So, check it out and join the group. Also, I know that  you have an upcoming program, a 90 day program that could really help some trainers out. 

 JR: It’s funny that you mentioned that because I just had put of a soft announcement last week about it So, I found a need where a lot of people aren’t looking for long-term type coaching, where they just need something like a brand new trainer or someone that’s looking to transition out of their current situation.

My big thing is I want to help personal trainers fire their boss, get out of their current gym or wherever they work. So, they can slowly build a profitable business of their own and my 90 day program is going to give them pretty much 90 days where I’m going to walk them through on how to set up their one day events.

Everything from the mindset, knowing who your client is, how to get leads and people to your event, how to find the location to do your event and then the onboarding process afterwards.

After you do your event, you have people signing up. So, what can you do to service more people at one time without taking away more time from you.

So, the 90 day event that we’re going to be doing is pretty much talking about the one day events. Everything from start to finish and to, help you close and add another three to 5,000 plus more to your recruiting.

Kristy: Who doesn’t want that? 90 days, two, three to five thousand dollars more.

All right, so make sure to message JR if you want to be part of his program. It sounds amazing and he’s definitely doing something different. Also, he has  some really unique strategies and great testimonials on his Facebook page. He transformed a lot of lives and I definitely recommend him.

If anyone wants to reach out to you, what’s your social media and website?

Kristy: Thanks for taking the time and sharing all your insider secrets. 

JR: Thank you so much for having me.