Welcome new subscribers   Two Big Events   Simon Says   A Genesys Lesson   Good Click Thru Rates   Where do Aussies Spend   NEW Club Sales Training Tool	Australian Winner!   GreenHealthClubs.org launches   Guerrilla Marketing Tip #22   Finding Quality Staff   Firms of Endearment   Industry Training First   Mark your diary: FitnessBiz 08

Welcome New Subscribers

Welcome to the new subscribers to the Active Management monthly e-news.  You will find lots of interesting information that you can scan in just a few minutes and hopefully even forward to your staff and friends.

Two Big Events

Since the last e-news, Justin has presented at Filex.  He conducted the Annual 5 Steps to Quality Management, filled in for Karen Woodard and presented 2 new sessions.  One he shared with Trent from Ezypay, which was a huge success.  The other was the last session on Sunday afternoon, so many people missed what was his best session – Firms of Endearment!

Congratulations to Nigel, Amy, Analee, Oli, Jack and all the Network Team on one of the world’s best conferences!

Just a day after finishing Filex, it was a 20 hour flight to Argentina.  It was his first time to Argentina and being part of the Mercado Fitness Conference.  He presented a key note on Leadership and also a session on marketing.  And while his Spanish was poor, he made many new friends who loved the koala and kangaroo giveaways – plus of course Justin’s take home strategies.

Thank you to Guillermo, Solana, Rosana and all the Mercado Fitness Team for a wonderful event and your very kind hospitaility.

Simon Says . . .

I read an interview with Simon Rooney, International Director, National Retail Investments for Jones Lang LaSalle.  Simon was responsible for $1.5 billion in sales last year.  So how did he do it?

• He sought out an industry expert to mentor him when he first entered the real estate industry;
• He has a core value that the customer must always come first;
• He believes determination and focus contribute to success; and
• For total success the key is to be fully prepared and ensure attention to detail.

Simon says, “You must continually look forward, consistently improve what you are doing, specialise and differentiate or you will be left behind to compete with the pack.”

A Genesys Lesson

Stephen Mitchell is the Account Director for Genesys Telecommunications and this month he shared how he secured the biggest sale of his career.

The sale took over two and a half years and started with 31 global suppliers. He made it to the last 2 - themselves and the current supplier.  At the last presentation the incumbent supplier said they would include the software for free.  Mitchell refused and clinched the deal.

A peer in his industry, Joely Scott-Thomas said, “Taking your pants off to clinch a deal is one of the quickest ways to damage your business.”  It takes 12 to 18 months to close a sale in the IT world and the practice of heavy discounting erodes the credibility of the business.

Do You Have Good Click-Through Rates?

Following on from our article last month, here is some more details for you on click through's for your website.

As with open rates, unique click-through rates vary by business type. Other factors that can impact rates are frequency, targeting through list segmentation, and the use of personalisation. Here are a few click-through stats to consider:

• B2B newsletters range from 5 to 15 percent  
• B2C promotional emails' range from about 2 to 12 percent
• Lists that are segmented see rates in the 10 to 20 percent range

To improve your clicks

• Use a concise subject line – subject lines with more than 49 characters (including spaces) show a 75 percent decrease in click-through's. If you have a long, amateurish subject line, people assume the content of the email is equally amateurish.
• Ask for the ‘click’ – if you don't ask for clicks, you won't get them. Strengthen your calls to action. Does the text for your links clearly ask people to click? Make your invitation to click compelling and, most importantly, make it as obvious as possible. "Click to continue" or "click to buy" will consistently outperform links labeled "more" or "continue."
• Make all of your images "clickable" – people love to click on images, so make sure that when they do they're sent to your website.
• Listen, learn, and react – you learn a lot about your readers from your clicks, like what information or offerings they find most compelling and what they don't care about.

Now that you are thinking about click-through's, go back and take a look at yours (both types) on your past two or three campaigns and ask yourself, "What can I learn?"

Where do Aussie's spend?

A recent study found that the average Australian household income is now $109,600.  And here is how it is spent:

• Non-durable goods: 19.6%
• Food: 7.4%
• Alcohol & tobacco: 2.6%
• Clothing: 2.4%
• Utilities: 1.4%
• Car operations: 3.8%
• Other: 2%
• Taxes & Social Contribution: 15.9%
• Rent & other housing costs: 11.7%
• Capital related expenses: 11.7%
• Entertainment: 7.9%
• Durables: 6.6%
• Financial & insurances: 6.6%
• Hospitality: 5%
• Mobility: 3.5%
• Communication: 1.9%
• Fares: 1.6%
• Health: 3.3%
• Education: 2.3%
• Other: 2%

We wonder where health club memberships or personal training fit in . .  . if they do at all?

NEW Sales Training Tools

Ask anyone in the fitness industry who is the world leader in sales training & they will say Casey Conrad.  And after taking some time out to focus on Healthy Inspirations and Take it Off Weightloss program, she is back with www.HealthClubSalesTraining.com.

Now when you go there . . . enlist to receive her free e-news and you get a free copy download of the audio program "The 8 Steps to Selling Health Club Memberships." 

This is a great asset to your business.

Coming soon . . . Casey will provide us some key insights into selling memberships and personal training, starting next month!

Australian Winner!

Last week, Richard & Rhys from Southern Cross Health Club won the Australian Fitness Facility of the Year.  They have been a member of the Round Table program for nearly 10 years.  So we are very proud of them!

Next month, you can read an interview with Richard on what he thinks is important for health club success!

GreenHealthClubs.org

Last month this innovative site was launched providing key information on operating your health club in an environmentally friendly manner.  It was worth a regular check, so you can keep up to date with everything you can do. In fact, did you know . . .

A study done at the University of Agriculture in Norway found that indoor plants can reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30 percent, partially by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust.
Therefore, it is no surprise that The Clean Air Council recommends one potted plant for each 100 square feet of living space. Plants that do a particularly good job of cleaning the air are:

• Bamboo Palm
• Chinese Evergreen
• English Ivy
• Gerbera Daisy
• Janet Craig
• Marginata
• Mass cane/Corn Plant
• Mother-in-Law's Tongue
• Pot Mum
• Peace Lily
• Warneckii

Indoor plants do more than brighten up a room; they bring real health benefits to your body.

Guerilla Marketing Tip #22

This months tip from Jay Conrad Levinson . . . Never be in a rush to create your marketing materials. Keep in mind that to develop them, you are faced with three variables -- speed, quality and economy. You may select any two, but not all three. Guerrillas opt for quality and economy every time. Timing also refers to tying in with the news of the moment, with what's on your prospect's minds, and with what your competitors are doing. Guerrilla timing can make the difference between a campaign fizzling or flourishing.

There have been 21 previous tips, so if you want to see these click here.

Finding Quality Staff

The most common challenge worldwide in the fitness industry: finding good quality employees.  But the other commonality is that very few businesses have a recruitment culture, which means they only try to find people when they need people, which is often too late.  Here are some recruiting tips:

• Develop a recruiting culture. Everyone -- from the CEO on down to the front line workers-- should keep an eye out for potential employees. 
• Establish an employee referral program. Set up a program whereby your employees receive cash bonuses and other rewards for referring talented people. 
• Create compelling, opportunity-focused job ads. You are now marketing working for you compared with other businesses (not just fitness businesses), so your ads should clearly state the advantages of working for you.
• Use multiple strategies to attract qualified job candidates. You need to be proactive and have a creative approach to recruiting.
• Think out of the box. What about this options for you:
• Offer training sessions so people can learn a new skill. Use the sessions to evaluate attendees as potential job candidates. 
• Consider short-term consulting contracts at the senior level. 
• Look into outsourcing and job sharing. 
• Ask customers, suppliers and vendors for referrals. 
• Read the papers for news of layoffs, mergers and acquisitions and companies where the stock price is declining.
• Never stop recruiting. Recruit seven days a week, 365 days a year. Never stop recruiting, even when you don't have any job openings.

Firms of Endearment

This year at Filex I shared this great book.  This is an excellent but challenging read and over the next couple of issues of our E-news, i will share some insights.  A firm of endearment has many qualities and traits for example Patagonia:

• Employ people who love the outdoors and hiking, climbing, etc
• Often receive 10,000 resumes for 100 positions!
• Gives employees up to 2 months per year with full pay, to volunteer with an environmental cause of their choice.
• Offers ‘green benefits’ - $2K rebate in you purchase a hybrid vehicle,
• Offers “Brain Food Classes” on surfing, yoga, time management, business  communication, even European history!
• Cafe serves healthy, local & organic food
• Subsidised on-site child care – parents often have lunch with the kids in the company cafe.
• Suppliers must meet specified quality, environmental compliance and social responsibility standards.  They undertake restructuring to be a supplier because the high regard Patagonia have for their suppliers.  They know they choose their suppliers based on quality, responsiveness and social conscience not price.
• Check out www.patagonia.com and click on Foot Print Chronicles – very cool!

Industry Training First

Fitness First Management must have read the book Firms of Endearment as this month they announced their first Fitness First Global Business Academy at the Barcelona University in Spain.

As part of an ongoing commitment to retaining and developing the very best talent in their organisation the FF GBA is designed to be an entire experience rather than just a ‘course’, the day’s events will go beyond the classroom and include lunches with delegates, faculty, dinners, club visits, tours, and team building activities. World class executive facilities and an attentive staff at the business school create a comfortable and accessible environment that facilitates learning.
The week long Academy will be delivered by a combination of Fitness First senior executives, and Barcelona University lecturers. The training will cover: 

• Cases Studies on other businesses to sharpen your commercial acumen and business skills.
• Video and teamwork opportunities to enhance your awareness of your leadership ability.
• A learning experience where you will have the opportunity to work on your professional development and participate in activities that foster meaningful exchange and networking.
• Tools and skills to help you manage yourself and your teams.
• A follow up 100 day monitoring plan to help you put this into practice. Each delegate will have a Fitness First mentor assigned to them back at work.

Fitness First are setting a great example for the rest of the industry to follow.  Don’t think you need to do the same thing but start thinking about what training you can offer your Team, above and beyond sales training.
If you would like to Justin for any house training, drop him an email now!

Mark Your Diary: FitnessBiz 08

This year Australia's own FitnessBiz 08 conference will be held in August! We have 3 great speakers:

• Justin Tamsett - Managing Director of Active Management: Select & Develop a Team of Champions to do Champion Things
• Emmett Williams - Owner of Creative Fitness Marketing: Marketing Strategies & Promotion
• Natalie Sherlock - Owner of Incredible People Coaching: The Real Way to Successful Goal Setting for Your Members and Team

And here are the dates:

• 20th August - Melbourne
• 21st August - Adelaide
• 22nd August - Perth
• 27th August - Hobart
• 28th August – Brisbane
• 29th August - Sydney

If you would like to secure the Very Early Bird Investment of just $120 . . . email Justin.  This offer will close strictly on the 15th May.  So hurry!