If you want to learn how to improve your sales conversion quickly, you need to understand how influence works. If you can understand what "triggers" people to make a decision, you can take intelligent action to improve your levels of success.
The best resource to fast track your understanding of influence is the book- Influence by Robert Cialdini. This is considered a classic book on the psychology of influence and I have personally found it to be invaluable.
Below is a quick summary of the 6 core principles of influence uncovered in the book.
1. Reciprocity
2. Scarcity
3. Authority
4. Consistency
5. Liking
6. Consensus
Let's unpack each of these and relate them to how we could use them in a gym.
- What is reciprocity?
- If a friend invites you to their party, there's an obligation for you to invite them to a future party you are hosting. People feel obliged to return a favour. If you give something of value to someone, they feel a need to repay that favour.
This principle can be used in our marketing efforts by giving a prospective member a really cool resource, something that has genuine value. It might be a mini-course on weight loss, or it might be an insightful article. By giving value upfront, you build up some goodwill with your prospects which can help boost your conversion.
We do this in our software business. We publish a lot of useful content that is completely free. The quality of the information we provide is so good that we could charge for it. But we give this away to help and provide upfront value for our potential customers. I think it's important not to expect anything in return. The goal should be to provide something of value, and if this helps someone, then they may be more receptive to working with you on a deeper level.
- Scarcity
- Things that are rare typically have a higher perceived value. Scarcity is often used to drive people to action. It can be in the form of a limited time offer or sale.
Sometimes using scarcity can be overdone and can turn people off. If you always have a special offer that must end on a certain date, people become immune to it.
I am a fan of using scarcity that is linked to a prospects initial enquiry. For example, if someone is completing a trial at your gym, you could present an offer where they can trade in their trial before the 7-day expiry for a special discount or deal. This offer would expire after the seven days, which would help drive more people to make a decision before the deadline.
- Authority
- People follow the lead of credible and knowledgeable experts.
A person is more likely to listen to a nutritionist about dietary advice rather than some random person.
Our influence will increase if we are perceived as experts in a specific area.
Some ways to increase authority include writing articles, publishing small books, doing webinars, doing interviews etc.
The key is to publish some content that is relevant to your prospects, and you will automatically be considered an expert. If you publish a guide to safe and effective weight loss, you will be positioning your gym as an expert in the area of weight loss.
There are countless ways to subtlety display your expertise. Has your gym won an award? Has any of your staff won awards?
- Consistency
- People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.
If someone verbally commits to something, then they will typically feel a need to stay consistent with that commitment.
In some ways, I feel this is the hardest principle of influence to leverage; however, it can be powerful if the opportunity arises.
An example of consistency can be highlighted via a study which reduced missed appointments at health centres by 18% simply by asking the patients. Rather than the staff to write down appointment details on the future appointment card. You could apply that same approach in your gym by getting new members to write a commitment statement in their own writing.
For example
I commit to
Coming to the gym for at least 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
I commit to seeing my trainer every 8 weeks to ensure I stay on track.
If a member were to write this down, they would likely have a much higher likelihood of staying consistent with that commitment.
- Liking
- People tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.
This makes it important to train your staff on rapport building skills. If your sales team and frontline staff have good rapport building skills, you will have a much easier time converting your leads into members.
- Consensus
- Consensus relates to the principle that people will look to the actions and behaviours of others to determine their own.
For example, when I go to the beach during the summer, we like to buy some ice cream. Naturally, there are 3 or 4 ice cream shops along the street opposite the beach. How do we choose the best ice cream shop? We look for the one with most people. If it has a line out the front door, then it must be good right!
If everyone seems to be doing it, it must be good right.
We use this principle in our software business. In our newsletter, we do spotlights on new installations and case studies from our existing customer base. We make noise about all the people using our platform, which makes it seem like everyone is doing it!
You can leverage this principle in your gym marketing and sales conversions by highlighting what the majority are doing.
For example - 79% of our members lose at least 2cm from their waistline.
81% of our members visit at least two times per week
We have more than 2000 members working toward better health and wellness.
Our membership base has grown 20% in the last year, which I think is due to the great level of support we provide our members.
It is important that these claims are true.
There are countless ways you can include the influence principle of consensus in your marketing.
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