How to Generate More Point of Sale Referrals
The hunt for members, month after month can, at times, become
monotonous. Occasionally we can forget to include the basic but key
areas we should be consistently tapping into to produce the Sales
result we crave.
Whilst it is vital to ensure that marketing campaigns are
sufficiently powerful to produce a high volume of enquiries, when
you need that large injection of leads and ultimately Sales,
maintaining an ongoing presence in the market place is just as
important.
There are a number of ways to do this. Daily activity, to create
consistent local awareness of your facility, ensures a constant flow
of enquiries. This is vital to avoid or reduce those scary dips in
Sales that we all experience throughout the year. This awareness can
be achieved by tapping in to 5 key areas which can be found pretty
much on your doorstep.
(Internal) Your members, Your Ex members, (Prospecting external),
Local companies, Local community network (outreach), and
Residential, all of which must all be combined into each monthly
plan you implement throughout the year.
All of the above are pretty standard; however it’s the consistency
month after month which makes all the difference.
Take your members for example. You spend a lot of time with these
people from the time they enquire and throughout the life of their
membership. Why not encourage them to advertise the club for you?
There are two ways of generating leads through your members:
1. Existing member referral campaigns and
2. Point of sale referrals
Point of sale referrals is a basic, but essential, part of
generating good leads daily and often the part which is left out or
forgotten. Sales people sometimes find it hard to do this, but could
that be purely because of the way they are looking at the task they
are faced with? Is it possible that, if they were to look at this
task from a slightly different perspective, it could actually make
it a lot easier and more enjoyable process?
Well, let’s see! Most people assume that in order to acquire
‘referral’ leads at point of sale they will have to ask the customer
for them. Now this is done at a time when the customer has just
parted with some money to join your club and so, quite rightly, you
may feel slightly uncomfortable that now you’re going to ask them
for something more! (Usually, names of people they think may want to
join the club). How about we change things around slightly and
instead of asking the customer to give us something (names) we
instead, give each of our new members a gift? Giving a gift is an
enjoyable experience and not something to ‘forget’ to do, especially
when your new member has just parted with their hard earned money
and you have established a good rapport with them!
Your gift to the new member is 5 VIP passes to the club. These
passes allow their friends, family members or colleagues to come and
enjoy the club with them (and as we know it is more fun and the
customer will stay longer if they exercise with a friend). These
passes are valid for the first 30 days of their membership and are
valued at £x each giving a total gift value of £x, something to be
happy about as a new member!! Now, instead of giving the passes to
the member there and then, (which could mean they get lost or
forgotten) you offer to distribute the passes for them!
As a professional you would ask the customer to jot down on your
referral sheet the names and contact details of the people they’d
like to receive the passes, and say you will contact them to invite
them to the club, show them round and activate their pass for them
(isn’t it so refreshing when people are helpful!). Now, as you go
off to process your new member’s payment, you simply leave them to
complete the referral sheet, letting your customer know, should any
of their friends use the passes, like the club and decide to become
a member, they themselves will receive a gift (that one is up to
you)!! You can help your customer to think of who they would like to
nominate by narrowing down specific areas for them to consider, for
example: – ‘most people check through their mobile phones’, or ‘you
mentioned you had just joined a local dance club, how about someone
from there?’, ‘what about your work colleagues?’. When your customer
has completed the referral sheet, ask them to let their friends or
colleagues know you will be calling to invite them down and activate
their pass. This will make your call much easier.
Hopefully, by the time your new member walks away, you will have 5
good leads to follow up. In a worst case scenario you may only have
1. Based on only 10 sales per week, that gives you 40 good leads per
month extra to follow up and convert to sales.
Always keep the new members referral information on file. Let them
know that if they have thought of only 1 person, or they would
prefer to check with their friends first before they give you the
names, they have 30 days to take advantage of this new member’s
gift! Create a sense of urgency as well as the feeling that it is
only for them as a new member privilege. Always follow up with a
call, or talk to your new members in the club and tie this in with
the 30 day pass expiry date. Call them after 20 days to remind them
they have 10 days left. By this time they will be settled into the
club and probably very happy to give you details of people they want
to bring with them.
Try it – it works!
By Pete Mills
