FitnessBiz 07 Grows Fast!   Guerilla Marketing Tip #14   Make Your Team Better Tip   Objections in Sales – what the?   Unleashing Creativity in Your Business   Building Your Email Database Tip #1	Aussie Activity Levels   July Winner was . . .   Win Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days!   Justin’s Travels   Business Tool Box   Last Word

FitnessBiz 07 Grows Fast!

We have been very excited with the response to Australia’s latest fitness business convention.  We have overwhelming support and with just under a month to go there are still a few seats left.

To register click here

Ezypay	Bliss Fitness Systems

Guerilla Marketing Tip #14

This month’s tip from Jay Conrad Levinson is all about going Green – after last month’s world wide rock concert concert the awareness of going green has never been higher.  Nearly 50% of American adults say they've switched product brands after discovering that their past product, packaging or manufacturer was environmentally irresponsible. They remain loyal to their new brand.

You can win your own copy of a Guerilla Marketing book by simply forwarding the e-news to a friend or collegue.

Make Your Team Better Tip

Last month we had 2 subscribers who really thought outside the box!

They dropped us an email and told us that they forwarded the Active E-news to all all their personal trainers and all their managers!  They had 7 days to read the newsletter and then they had a 60 minute meeting to discuss what learning they received from the newsletter.

Their respective emails told me the benefits were:

• Saved them time having to find training material for their Team;
• The articles sparked conversations that were not had previously;
• Provided an opportunity for key people to get there; and
• A motivation tool to having them firing!

Thanks for the awesome feedback David from Brisbane and Karen from Melbourne!  I am glad you are taking advantage of this reseource in a positive and productive manner!

If you want to forward this email to your Team, simply click here and if this email has been forwarded to you, you must then subscribe to the e-news. So click here to subscribe!

Objections in Sales – what the?

I read a very interesting article from Jeffrey Gittomer on objections. So if you think the word “objection” is still in sales, think again.

To most salespeople an objection (price is too high, need to check with the partners, no time, yada, yada) is a reason the prospect is not buying and it’s met with dismay and disappointment from our sale people.

Then in sales training, the word objection is usually accompanied by the phrase “get around it,” or “overcome it.” This implies some sort of tactic on the part of the salesperson to “sell” the benefit, or respond in some sales-oriented way.

Here is what we need to think:

• Change your reality of what an objection is. It’s a stall, a barrier, a statement of risk, or a lie. It’s a STALL, and there’s a reason behind it. Probably lack of perceived value. It’s a BARRIER, and you have to lower it. It’s a PERCEIVED RISK, and you have to reduce it.
• Change your reality of what a prospect really means when he or she throws a barrier or stall at you.
• Stop blaming the prospect and start taking responsibility for allowing this situation to occur in the first place.
• It’s time to look for the REAL REASON the stall or barrier is occurring.

What the prospect is really saying when he or she throws some barrier at you is:

• Where’s the value? I want to know what’s in it for me!
• Where’s the resource? I don’t want a salesperson; I want someone who can help me.
• Where’s the difference between you and the others who sell what you sell?
• Where’s my win?
• Do you know why I’m buying?

Do you know my expected outcome? And how are you helping me achieve it?

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Unleashing Creativity in Your Business

Last month we shared some hints on how Cirque du Soleil with over 900 staff and artists keep their creative people focused on the collective vision and maintain their creativity.  Here is what Cirque du Soleil President Daniel Lamarre suggests:

1. Keep casting.  Creative people burn out faster than your standard employee.  Cirque du Soleil lose 20% of it’s cast every year.  Lamarre believes you can never have enough creative people on your Team, so they are always looking!
2. Do not align yourself exclusively with one person’s vision.  In the 90’s the main creator was Franco Dragone and he left in 1999 to set up a rival company.  But for over a decade Cirque du Soleil were grooming others.  So they did not panic nor worry.  Lamarre says, “When someone is a visionary, it can be easy to gibe them the reins.  But we always operate as a creative Team.  It takes many people and many types of talent to put together a show.”

Have you a plan to attract creative people to your business?  What about keeping the ones you have?

Building Your Email Database Tip #1

This month I received 9 tips from Gail Goodman, the CEO of Constant Contact, to help us build our database of email addresse, which allows us to market our businesses and grow our customer base:

Tip #1 - Put a "Join My Email List" sign-up box on your website. Constant Contact and other email marketing service providers make it easy for you to do this. And it's important that you do. Your website is the first place most people look when they want information about your business. It's great when they visit your website, but are you capturing their email addresses? Don't miss the chance to start building a relationship with them.

Aussie Activity Levels

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1 in 3 Aussies play sport or exercise twice a week or more during in 2005-06!  The most popular activities were:

• Walking – 25%
• Aerobics – 13%
• Swimming – 9%
• Cycling – 6%

And the reasons why they exercise:

• Health and fitness – 54%
• Enjoyment – 22%
• Well-being – 7%
• Social & family reasons – 7%

And the reasons why they did not exercise :

• Insufficient time due to work or study commitments – men who used this was 27% and women was 19%
• Insufficient time due to family reasons – women 14% and men 5%

For more information on the results of this study contact the ABS on 1300 135 070.  The study was called, Participation in Sports & Physical Recreation Australia (cat. # 4177.0)

July Winner Was . . . Catherine!

Congratulations Catherine from Healthworks in Queensland, Australia!  Catherine receives a copy of Brain Tattoos.

We would like to thank the following people who did forward our E-news:

• Sonny from Fitness HQ
• Lyndal Burke from Victoria
• Brian from Village Fitness
• Laurie from Club Programming Resources
• Wendy Link Pierce from Victoria
• Gavin from Fitness N Motion
• Karen from Bliss Fitness

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Justin’s Travels

By the time you are reading this e-news I will be on day 11 of my trip to Chile, Argentina and Brazil!  I was lucky enough to meet Edgard from Sao Paulo, Brasil who asked me to come over and do some training with his Team.  So I took the opportunity for a holiday!

After returning from Brasil, I will be home for a few days before heading across the ditch to New Zealand to join Richard, Stephen, Nathan and the FitnessNZ Team on their annual BizGrow conference.  So I look forward to catching up with all my Kiwi mates!

And of course I am still training!  My Ipod Shuffle and heart rate monitor are keeping me going in a quest to better that half marathon time when I do my second on September 23rd!

Business Tool Box

We have now streamlined and improved the process to give you the tools you need to improve your business and your bottom line! 

We can design your own birthday cards, thank you cards and re-activation cards in just 5 days!  And then have them printed for you and delivered directly t your Club!  It has never been easier.

If you would like us to develop any of the marketing material, simply click on the image and you will get taken directly to the information sheet and the order form.

Birthday card

Order Now!

Thank you card

Order Now!

To register click here

The Last Word

“The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks.  These are the guys who try to more than they’re expected to do – they always reach” Lee Iacocca.