Are your personal trainers producing extra revenues for your club? Or are they weighing heavy on your payroll expense line?
In the worst cases you feel that your trainers are acting as tour guides for your club and social directors for your members, or worse yet, for themselves. In the next best case your trainers are helping members use the equipment effectively and are motivational “friends” to members. And in the best of all worlds your trainers are doing all of that, plus they are developing food plans along with challenging workout regimens for members. Well, with just a little help from you they can be selling products to your members as well that will not only increase your profits and their incomes but will keep your members coming back for more every month.
The nutritional supplements that you are selling in your store (you do have a store, or at least a counter where you sell products, right) will be flying off the shelves when they are supported, recommended and endorsed by your personal trainers. Your trainers are the experts that your members trust and look to for their fitness needs. When your members are low on energy, are injured or sick or have some sort of health problem, it is your trainer that they are going to tell. So where you previously thought your trainers were getting to personal with members you can now help them recognize an opportunity to further help those members and at the same time help themselves and the club.
There are three 3 fundamentals that your trainers need to understand to make money selling supplements. These are all very easy to recommend, because they are proven effective, safe and prevalent. I am also going to tell you how to differentiate the supplements that you sell from the ones available everywhere, so your members will come back month after month to buy them from you… and thank you for it while they are there. I am not going to talk about protein supplements today, I’m sure you know about those very well and I will go into them in another article later.
Here are the 3 supplement fundamentals:
1. The multi-vitamin as a foundation for energy and health
2. Glucosasmine & chondroitin for healthy joints and cartilage
3. Fish oil for healthy heart, brain and reproductive health.
Regarding the foundation of all supplements, the multi-vitamin, perhaps you are thinking, ho-hum how boring and un-sexy. But you would be amazed at the difference in energy levels, immune function and mental health that can be achieved with a great multi-vitamin. First of all, most Americans (77% see chart) are not eating properly, either because they are too busy, on a diet- thus restricting food intake, or they just don’t like those fruits and vegetables that they know they should be eating... that your trainers are telling them they need to eat. Top NCAA and Olympic athletes prove out the effectiveness of this one supplement regimen every day in their training programs. And believe me they don’t take that stuff you buy in the grocery store. They take high quality, pharmaceutical grade liquid vitamins.
Now it is interesting for you that liquids are far superior to pills, because they are not widely sold in stores. The pills sold in grocery stores and vitamin stores are hard to swallow and only provide about 20% absorption into the system. Whereas, liquids get absorbed into the bloodstream immediately and up to 98%, providing a much longer acting, more effective product regardless of the category. So you can offer your members, through your trainer’s recommendations a vastly superior product that is going to improve their energy and their results in their training program and have them coming back to you every month for more.
So here are 3 simple products that your trainers should be recommending to club members to help them achieve success in their workouts and health goals and keep coming back to you to get them.
1. For Every Client – A Daily Liquid Multi-vitamin
2. For clients with joint injuries, sore joints, arthritis & heavy lifters to protect joints – glucosasmine with chondroitin
3. For all clients - Daily Fish Oil supplementation.
So introduce your trainers to the benefits of supplementation and give them the best products to sell that your customers can’t find on every grocery shelf. Give them the incentive they need and help them to offer your members the most complete program in town. Your retail profits will grow and your customer loyalty will too.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
How to Make Money Selling to Baby Boomers
Just as baby boomers are a large portion of the population working out in your facilities, they are also a large portion of the population purchasing nutritional supplements of all kinds. “Boomers,” the 35- to 54-year-old crowd, are very interested in health issues and all things anti-aging related – which is probably half of the reason you opened a gym in the first place. Anything that will improve the health of their joints and bones, brain, heart, eyes; give immune support, menopausal support, or help them control their weight is worth a shot…and worth a buck out of their wallets. By 2010 one-in-three Americans will be age 50 or over. Fully 56% of the U.S. adult population is taking vitamins of some kind, spending $4.8 billion per year. And, adults who exercise are 22% to 66% more likely to take vitamins than the average1.
So, how do you market effectively to this crowd? Research shows (as does prevalent advertising) that products that are clearly identified as condition-specific attract more attention and increase sales. For example, this statement, “Four common supplements – chromium, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and multivitamins – may help slow weight gain in middle-aged adults,” is very specific and an effective attention-grabber. You can get the supporting article at my website, or at foodnavigator.com. Additionally, the FDA can help you out, they give detailed information on “qualified health claims” which are authorized by the FDA at www.dfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qhc-sum.html –claims related to such things as: cancer and Selenium and antioxidant vitamins; coronary heart disease; Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil); vascular disease, and B vitamins.
Once you’ve got their attention, you will need to differentiate the supplements that you are selling from the ones they are already likely to be using. Most vitamins are sold in grocery stores, drug stores, and large “supercenters” (70%). Another 20% are sold in vitamin stores with only 10% being sold in other outlets, some of which are gyms. So there is huge potential here for you. You have the exact target market for nutritional supplements walking into your facility every day with their mind already on their health concerns and goals. The most common type of vitamins sold, are multi-vitamins in a pill form. So your customers already know the value of vitamins, they are already spending money on them – you simply need to upgrade their standards to a product that they can get most conveniently from you, when they are in for their workouts. Here again, I can’t recommend liquid vitamins too much. Pill forms provide only about 10% to 20% absorption into the system, where liquids are absorbed up to 98%. A high quality, pharmaceutical-grade, liquid vitamin is also retained in the system longer, providing a more effective usage of the nutrients. Your clients already view themselves as above average and they want the products to prove it.
Here is a proposed marketing strategy for supplements in your facility. Implement this and watch your sales grow.
1. Stock up on high-quality liquid vitamins
· Start with the basic multi-vitamin
· Add hot topic boomer issue add-ons – joint formula, fish oil, Calcium
· Market them based on specific conditions – a different feature each month
2. Check out my site or the FDA site for help
3. Appeal to the Boomer’s discriminating taste and demanding lifestyle.
4. Make sure your trainers are recommending your products
Don’t let those health conscious consumers walk out of your gym to the grocery store or vitamin store that is parked next door to you. Those stores know that people who exercise regularly are 22% to 66% more likely to invest in their health through vitamins than the average person. And, since 56% of the U.S. adult population is already buying nutritional supplements, don’t you want to be the one selling them more of the good health that they are looking for?
The U.S. Nutritional Supplements Market – by Packaged Facts, October 2004
So, how do you market effectively to this crowd? Research shows (as does prevalent advertising) that products that are clearly identified as condition-specific attract more attention and increase sales. For example, this statement, “Four common supplements – chromium, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and multivitamins – may help slow weight gain in middle-aged adults,” is very specific and an effective attention-grabber. You can get the supporting article at my website, or at foodnavigator.com. Additionally, the FDA can help you out, they give detailed information on “qualified health claims” which are authorized by the FDA at www.dfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qhc-sum.html –claims related to such things as: cancer and Selenium and antioxidant vitamins; coronary heart disease; Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil); vascular disease, and B vitamins.
Once you’ve got their attention, you will need to differentiate the supplements that you are selling from the ones they are already likely to be using. Most vitamins are sold in grocery stores, drug stores, and large “supercenters” (70%). Another 20% are sold in vitamin stores with only 10% being sold in other outlets, some of which are gyms. So there is huge potential here for you. You have the exact target market for nutritional supplements walking into your facility every day with their mind already on their health concerns and goals. The most common type of vitamins sold, are multi-vitamins in a pill form. So your customers already know the value of vitamins, they are already spending money on them – you simply need to upgrade their standards to a product that they can get most conveniently from you, when they are in for their workouts. Here again, I can’t recommend liquid vitamins too much. Pill forms provide only about 10% to 20% absorption into the system, where liquids are absorbed up to 98%. A high quality, pharmaceutical-grade, liquid vitamin is also retained in the system longer, providing a more effective usage of the nutrients. Your clients already view themselves as above average and they want the products to prove it.
Here is a proposed marketing strategy for supplements in your facility. Implement this and watch your sales grow.
1. Stock up on high-quality liquid vitamins
· Start with the basic multi-vitamin
· Add hot topic boomer issue add-ons – joint formula, fish oil, Calcium
· Market them based on specific conditions – a different feature each month
2. Check out my site or the FDA site for help
3. Appeal to the Boomer’s discriminating taste and demanding lifestyle.
4. Make sure your trainers are recommending your products
Don’t let those health conscious consumers walk out of your gym to the grocery store or vitamin store that is parked next door to you. Those stores know that people who exercise regularly are 22% to 66% more likely to invest in their health through vitamins than the average person. And, since 56% of the U.S. adult population is already buying nutritional supplements, don’t you want to be the one selling them more of the good health that they are looking for?
The U.S. Nutritional Supplements Market – by Packaged Facts, October 2004
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