April 14, 2025 • 21 mins
If you own a gym, you must sell.
That probably makes you uncomfortable, but Chris Cooper is here to remind you that selling is actually the first act of coaching. If you can't get people to sign up, you can't coach them to improve their health and fitness.
Still, no fitness coach wants to feel pushy or slimy. In this episode, Coop explains how to sell while maintaining a philosophy of generosity and service.
He lays out the Help First funnel, which has four sections:
- Introduction
- Conversation
- Invitation
- Conversion
It's a system characterized by honesty, and it allows gym owners to move from "selling" to "helping":
- If you are trying to get only what you want, you are selling.
- If you are trying to supply what they want and need, you are helping.
This mindset shift will make all the difference when a desperate person is asking you how to lose 20 lb. As a coach, it's your duty to tell that person exactly how to solve the problem and offer your expert help.
If you remember that, you'll change more lives and close more sales.
Links
0:01 - Intro
0:33 - The Help First strategy
3:29 - How to start conversations
6:35 - How to extend an invitation
12:22 - Sales: the first act of coaching
14:30 - The Prescriptive Model
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
If you own a gym, you have to sell. I know that
makes you uncomfortable, and itdid me for many years too. But
here's the truth. Selling isactually the first act of
coaching, and today I'm gonnashare some lessons about
selling to make you comfortableselling without feeling pushy.
We're gonna be using someexamples from my book, help
First, and I'm also gonna bewalking you through the
(00:23):
process. This is Run aProfitable Gym . I'm Chris
Cooper, and if I hadn't gottenover my fear of selling way
back in 2008, I wouldn't behere talking to you right now.
Ever since I wrote this bookHelp First in 2017, a lot of
people have quoted it, I've gotit on t-shirts and some people
even mis explain it. And sotoday I want to just quickly
(00:45):
walk through what Help Firstactually means. It's not just a
marketing tactic, it is aneffective marketing strategy,
but more than that, it's aphilosophy of generosity and
service. Every gym owner wantsto help. Uh , you know, and
that's why we got into thisbusiness, but if somebody
doesn't sign up for yourservice, you can't help them
(01:05):
helping starts withconversations, but it has to
end with conversions. If youtruly wanna help somebody, you
have to invite them into yourservice. But the difference
between helping and sellingcomes down to one word, and
that is intent. If I wanna helpyou get what you want, then I'm
not selling. If I'm trying toget only what I want, then I am
(01:28):
selling. Let's talk about theHelp First strategy here,
because some people who havereally adopted this believe
that helping first just meanshelping period or helping for
free or helping at a discountor just producing a lot of
content. Here's what itactually means. I wanna give
you a new perspective on amarketing funnel that's built
(01:50):
around helping. First, if youthink back to all of the
marketing that you've everlearned, the books, you've
read, the podcast, you'veheard, maybe you took a course
in marketing in college like Idid 30 years ago. You were
taught that funnels basicallyguide a broad audience of
people down into the one personthat you can help and then
sell. Here's how this looks ina help first context. First
(02:14):
off, you're going to introducepeople through providing free
seminars, free content, helpingonline groups. I'm gonna give
you a few examples in a minute.
And there, there are literallydozens in this book. Help first
, you know, running free, freeseminars at your gym, going
into the workplace, et cetera .
The second step though isconversation. And the point of
(02:35):
that help first marketingstrategy is to start this
conversation, okay? It's tomove them down the funnel. You
are showing up at theirworkplace to start a
conversation. You arepartnering with the bridal shop
so that you have an opportunityto start a conversation. They
are making the introductionsfor you after that conversation
or , or the point of thatconversation is to work toward
(02:57):
an invitation to your service.
You're not just having aconversation as a getting to
know you. There's a point tothe conversation, and the
conversation should lead to aninvitation, and that invitation
should lead to a conversion. Ifyou are having trouble
remembering this, here's what Ido. I remember I-C-I-C-I-C-I-C
(03:21):
, introduction, conversation,invitation, conversion,
introduction, conversation,invitation, conversion. Now
here's how that looks inpractice. The help first
strategies that you'll find inthis book, get people into the
conversation stage. They makean introduction for you. So
here's some examples from thebook , um, telling client
(03:42):
stories, people share thesestories online, other people
comment, and that is anintroduction to you. Next,
offering free seminars, goinginto the client's workplace
and, and telling them how tode-stress at their desk. That's
an introduction to you. Yourclient is introducing you to
their coworkers , uh, founders'club launches where you're
talking to local businesses andputting up signs outside your
(04:04):
gym about your founders' club.
These is are introductions toyou , uh, giving help in
occupational or social bubbles.
So for example, hey, I knowthat you're golfing next
weekend. Why don't you bring inall of the women that you're
golfing with and we'll do asession together. Or, Hey, I
know that you're in thiswedding, let's bring in the
wedding party and start asession together. That's a
social bubble. Uh , media andnewsletters are an introduction
(04:26):
to you. Podcasts like this oneare an introduction to you
thanking everyday heroes. Sothanking up, you know, sharing
posts about people who aredoing amazing things in your
community. These are anintroduction to you team
building and community events.
Going to the clients who ownbusinesses and saying, why
don't you bring your your teamin here and we'll do a team
building night? Or going to ,uh, the clients that you have
(04:47):
who are on sports teams andsaying, why don't you bring
your team in here for a funlittle combine or a year end
party. Uh, these areintroductions to you. Another
one is something like a wineand wad, where on a Friday
night you tell your clients,bring in one friend, we're
gonna have a little , uh, funlittle workout, and then we're
gonna just drink some winetogether and just have a fun
little party or a Christmasevent or whatever you want.
(05:07):
These are all introductions toyou. It's usually your clients
introducing you to theirfriends, right? The goal of
these introductions is to startconversations. This is why just
doing a free trial group atyour gym doesn't work because
it's just an introduction, butit doesn't lead to a
conversation. Well , you haveto keep in mind in what some
people miss in the book HelpFirst is that they just produce
(05:31):
content, but then they neverfurther the conversation. If
you really wanna help people,remember, you have to get them
into your gym. It's not enoughto give them education.
Education will not change theirlives alone. You have to
actually coach them, and thatmeans you are going to have to
take them by the hand after theinvitation and lead that into a
conversation, okay? Becausewhen your clients know that
(05:53):
they need your help, you'llnever have to sell anything
again. And the way that we helpthem best, or we help them
more, is through conversation.
So what you wanna do here afteryou've posted the media or done
the seminar or given thepartner workout or whatever, is
that you have to lead that intoa conversation. And so what I
(06:15):
always ask myself is, how can Ihelp this person get what they
want faster or better than whatthey're doing right now? And
that's what's in my brain thewhole time I'm having a
conversation with them. So forexample, if , uh, somebody
comes up to you after a seminarlike they just did with me
yesterday, I was presenting,and they're like, Hey, I've got
this quick question. The thequestion that should be in your
(06:37):
head is, how can I help thisperson get the result that they
want faster? The answer isalways gonna be the same. It's
always going to be the nextstep in this funnel. It's an
invitation. You know, why don'tyou come into the gym and let's
talk about this in private. Whydon't you come into the gym and
I'll show you what to do? Whydon't you come into the gym?
I've got this great habits planthat I can show you there,
okay? It's an invitation. Andan invitation flows naturally
(07:01):
into a conversation if that'swhat you think of it as. If you
think of it as a sales pitch,you'll feel awkward about it.
Like you're asking somebody outfor a first date that you've
just met. That's not what thisis. This is an invitation to
join a party, an invitation tojoin the community that will
actually help them . When I hadthat epiphany, I started
(07:22):
getting really excited aboutinviting people into my gym.
Okay? Now, the invitation, itstill feels hard the first few
times you do it, but here's howto do it anyway. Most gym
owners struggle here with, Hey,why don't you come into my gym
and let's talk about it?
Because it feels like you'reasking somebody on a date and
you're scared of rejection.
Subconsciously your ego is atrisk, and your ego is like, no,
(07:45):
no, no, no, no. Protectyourself. Don't take risks. You
know, don't invite them out.
Don't be the first to introduceyourself and say hello. And
instead, what you have to do issay, do I care enough about
this human being to show themhow to solve their problem?
Years ago, I was down inMinneapolis and we were there
for a , a nephew's hockeytournament, and they had this
(08:08):
kind of room for people in thehotel where you were staying,
and you could go in there andyou could get snacks, you could
watch tv. It was quiet. I wouldgo in there and do work for a
couple of hours in the morningbefore the kids got up. And uh,
one day in this room comes thisguy who, you know, he's walking
with two canes and he is barelymobile. He's dramatically
(08:29):
overweight. He's probably earlysixties, but he walks like, you
know, he's on death's door, hiswife is there, she's small kind
of bird-like, you know, she'sfluttering around him, helping
him out. Let me get you this,let me get you that. He's
drinking a coke for breakfastat 7:00 AM He's also having
like a yogurt. And so, becauseI saw these people one day, two
(08:51):
days, three days in a row, itwas awkward not to start a
conversation because we werethe only ones in this little
room. And so I was like, Hey,what are you guys doing in
Minneapolis? And it turns outthat he was there to have his
leg amputated because he's sodiabetic. He had lost feeling
in his toes, and the doctorswere gonna take his leg. And
his fear was that they weregonna take his second leg a
(09:14):
year later. And his wife evensaid something like, they can't
take both at once. And so onthe third day, I was like, oh
man, I , I really feel for thisguy. Oh, I can't imagine this,
but here he is, drinking a cokeat 7:00 AM eating this sugary
little thing of yogurt forbreakfast, sitting down. He's
(09:35):
not moving. The , the wife islike, you know, fluttering
around doing everything forhim, man. And that really sat
with me for the rest of theday. And so on the fourth
morning, my last morning there7:00 AM Alan like clockwork,
they come tottering into theroom and she's holding the door
and you know, he's working hisway toward the chair and she's
going up to the breakfast barto get him his cup of coke. And
(09:57):
I was asking myself, Chris ,like, do you really care enough
about this human being to tell'em the truth? That was an
enormous ego risk because Iknew that they probably
wouldn't hear what I had tosay. They might get offended, I
might get embarrassed. Theymight tell me to f off. And I
realized like, I, I just caretoo much to not say anything.
(10:19):
Like, what if this person is inthis position? Because nobody's
ever told them the truth in away that they understand it.
And so I sat down, looked himin the eye, and I said, Hey, my
name's Chris , by the way. Iown a gym and I work with a lot
of people who are diabetic.
There are some things that youcan do to make your life
(10:39):
easier. Would you like to hearthem? Now, it felt like I was
trying to hand out Bibles onthe street corner, I'll be
honest. But he said, yeah, Iwould. And maybe it was just
because they were from theMidwest and they were polite,
but maybe they actually hadnever heard this before. And so
we started talking about sugarand we started talking about
(11:00):
carbs and we started talkingabout insulin. And I resisted
the urge to sit down and drawpictures of insulin spikes, you
know, on a piece of paperbecause they didn't need to be
lectured. They needed somehelp. And so I said, if all you
do is you get a little bit ofprotein at every meal, you get
off the Coke, you move as muchas you possibly can. There's a
(11:20):
way that you can avoid losingthe second leg. It's probably
too late. You're already herefor the surgery. And this guy
had tears in his eyes and hedidn't praise me. He didn't
say, oh, nobody's ever told usthat before. Of course not. But
hearing it from a stranger whogenuinely wants to help might
have been different. And Ioffered him to stay in touch. I
(11:42):
gave him my cell phone number.
I never heard from him again.
Did I make a difference? Maybenot. Did I just do that to make
myself feel smart? No, I did itwith the honest intent to help.
So for you to be comfortablemaking the invitation, just
remember you're not invitingthem to a sale, you're not
trying to trick them, you'reinviting them to a party. And
(12:05):
usually it's your own ego thatstops you. Okay? Just remember,
like people are too scared tobridge the gap. They're not
gonna invite themselves to yourplace. They're not gonna invite
themselves to dinner. They'renot gonna invite themselves to
your party. They're waiting tobe invited. And the reason that
they haven't signed up yet isbecause they don't feel like
they have been invited. Alright? The fourth stage here is the
conversion. What you have toremember in this stage is that
(12:28):
sales is the first act ofcoaching. You have to coach
them to sign up because youknow, and I know that if they
don't sign up, nothing is goingto change in their lives. You
can give them all the freeresources in the world, but
knowledge will not solve theirproblem. They can find a diet
online in 30 seconds. They canfind a new workout program on
YouTube in about four seconds.
(12:50):
They have access to all theknowledge they need, and it's
not making a difference. If youown a gym like I do, people are
coming in your door to becoached, not to be sold, but to
be coached. And so you have tocoach them, tell 'em what to do
based on what's best for them,not what's cheapest for them.
That's honesty. And the nosweat intro process is all
(13:12):
about honesty. Telling peoplethe truth. Here is what you
need to do, not sugarcoating itto make it sound easy, not
sugarcoating it because youthink, well, I know what they
can afford or what you canafford. Not putting those
limitations and filters onpeople. They deserve honesty.
They expect honesty. That's whythey're there. And if you
(13:33):
aren't honest with them, that'swhen it will feel like a sales
pitch. If you are saying inyour brain they don't let ,
like they can afford it, itwill feel like a sales pitch.
If you're saying in your brainthey're a teacher, I should
give them 20% off, it will feellike a sales pitch because it
is sometimes just becauseyou're desperate and you need
this sale so bad, it will feellike a sales pitch. But I
(13:55):
promise you the cure for thatis an honest intent to help you
know what is actually gonnahelp this person. It's personal
training and reps, reps is theother thing. You have to
practice this. My close rate atmy gym is very close to a
hundred percent because I don'tfeel any pressure to close
anybody. I do feel a lot ofpressure to tell that person
(14:16):
the truth, because best case,they sign up for my gym and we
help 'em . Worst case, theyleave with the truth and maybe
they come back to my gym, maybethey don't. But now somebody in
their life has told them thetruth. And there are probably
very few people who are tellingthem that, okay, use the
prescriptive model. So in theprescriptive model, if you just
(14:36):
follow this, you won't feellike you're selling, you'll
feel like you're prescribing.
So you tell 'em where they'restarting from. You show them
what's realistic, you give themtheir options. Would you like
to do this one-on-one with me?
Or in a group setting? Youprescribe the best path. Here's
what should happen. And youdon't project anything else
onto them. You don't assume youknow what their wallet is.
Like, you don't assume you knowwhat their schedule is. Like
(14:59):
you don't assume that they wantgroup coaching or that they
want one-on-one. You don'tassume that they're gonna hate
this. You don't assume thatthey're gonna ask for a
discount. You don't assumeanything because you can't read
their mind. You don't projectany of these limitations onto
them. You tell them the truthand then ask them how they feel
about it. Now, look, caveat,you're probably underpriced
(15:19):
already for the value that youprovide. And the reason that
you're underpriced is all aboutyour confidence, not about what
they can actually afford.
That's in your head, not intheirs. So before you go any
further here, remember that theclient's sense of value is not
the same as your sense ofvalue, especially if you're a
broke gym owner. You have noidea what they value. You know,
(15:40):
there's this old story by ZigZiglar. Uh , when I was trying
to sell treadmills, my bosswould get me sales coaches and
she'd give me books. And one ofthe books that I really liked
was , um, the Art of Selling byZig Ziglar. And he told this
story , uh, he was going doorto door in the Great
Depression, and he was sellingpots and pans and you know, he
had this really amazing , uh,frying pan that people could
(16:01):
use to cook just aboutanything. And it , it was easy
to clean. And so he'd go doorto door to door and he would
knock on the door and peopledidn't have television or radio
back then, really? So just forthe entertainment, they'd
invite him in and he'd pitchand pitch and pitch, and they'd
ask questions just to string upthe conversation. And finally,
they would not buy anything.
And so he is down in ruralGeorgia, he's exhausted. It's
(16:22):
the end of the day. He's dry,he's in this family's living
room, they are broke. I mean,they are poor. And he's
pitching this frying pan andhe's like, they're, they're not
gonna buy this frying pan . Andhe's right. And at the end of
the pitch, they're like, wedon't have any money. Sorry,
thank you for your time.
They're kind of embarrassedthat they've kept him there for
an hour. He's kind ofembarrassed that, you know,
they have this clear poverty.
(16:43):
And as he's packing things up,he is putting his like
brochures back in his leatherbriefcase. And the mom of the
family says, what's thatbrochure there? And he says,
oh, it's, it's fine China. Wealso deal in fine China. And
she's like, let me see that.
And so she opens it up andshe's looking at the fine
China, like, wow. And you know,he's kind of humoring her and
(17:05):
she's like, I'll take a fullset. And he said, well man,
that's amazing. But a full setof fine China, even in those
days was, you know, hundreds ofdollars. And she said, that's
okay. I don't have any moneyfor a frying pan, but I've been
saving money since I was alittle girl for a set of fine
China. I have money for that.
And what you need to understandis that when somebody comes in
(17:25):
your door, maybe they're notdressed in the newest Lululemon
because they don't have moneyfor that, but they do have
money for their health. And wecannot project our feelings
about, you know, money orpriorities or value onto our
clients. Now , uh, we've gonethrough kind of like the help
first sales funnel, right?
We've got introduction. You doa help first marketing strategy
(17:46):
to be introduced to morepeople. You turn that into a
conversation by askingyourself, how can I help this
person even more? And thatconversation should lead to an
invitation because that is howyou help people more. You coach
them. That invitation shouldturn into a no sweat intro. You
do the prescriptive model andthat should lead to a
conversion because you'recoaching them to take the next
(18:07):
step. But what I want you toremember here is that one of
the things that we teach peopleis to have a lot of social
proof. So in the office whereyou do your nose , sweat
intros, you wanna have lots ofpictures of help happy clients.
You wanna have pictures of themholding up whiteboards and
saying, I did it. I lost 20pounds. I did my first box jump
. I rode my bike 30 kilometers,I ran a five KI didn't think
(18:27):
this was possible, but it was,my life has changed. I'm
happier, I'm healthier, I'mleaner, I'm smarter, I ,
whatever that is, right? Youwanna have these pictures and
testimonials all over youroffice, but it's not just for
your clients. The reason thatyou want these client success
stories in your office is foryou. Because yes, the client
(18:49):
will see these and they willimagine their own success, but
even more importantly, itreminds you that your service
works. That you're not trickinganybody. You're not selling
them an old lemon that's gonnabreak down when they drive it
off the lot. Your serviceworks, it's so valuable that I
guarantee you it's alreadyunderpriced. And so the no
sweat intro is just your firstact of coaching. It's not a
(19:13):
bait and switch. It's not atrick. It's not convincing
somebody to buy when they'renot comfortable or pushing them
or you know, having them spendmore money than they planned.
It's coaching them into takingthe first step, the first real
step, not the first discountstep, not the cheapest step,
not the easiest step, the stepthat's actually going to change
their lives. That's what goodcoaching is, alright ? Helping
(19:36):
first is the beginning, butit's not the end. You have to
invite people, you have toconvert them because if you
don't, you're not truly helpingthem. Helping doesn't feel like
selling to you and it doesn'tfeel like selling to the
potential client either. Help,first could be called
marketing, but you can alsocall it generosity. And so this
(19:59):
is your invitation. I'm givingyou this to invite you into a
conversation with my teambecause I know that while the
knowledge is helpful andvaluable, and that's why I
deliver it to you, it's onlythe first step in a
conversation. You can find meon Facebook, you can send me a
DM and continue theconversation. But I wanna take
(20:20):
this opportunity because I careenough about you, even though
it feels kind of awkward toinvite you into what will
actually change your life. Thisis me getting over my ego,
having done this thousands oftimes, putting in the reps to
be at a point where I want toinvite you into mentorship
because I know the programworks. So you can click a link
(20:44):
below this video to book a callwith my team and let us help
you help more people. I'm ChrisCooper, this is Run a
Profitable Gym and I reallywould love to continue the
conversation with you. Book acall with my team and that's
how we progress to help youhelp more people.
If you own a gym, you have to sell. I know that
makes you uncomfortable, and itdid me for many years too. But
here's the truth. Selling isactually the first act of
coaching, and today I'm gonnashare some lessons about
selling to make you comfortableselling without feeling pushy.
We're gonna be using someexamples from my book, help
First, and I'm also gonna bewalking you through the
(00:23):
process. This is Run aProfitable Gym . I'm Chris
Cooper, and if I hadn't gottenover my fear of selling way
back in 2008, I wouldn't behere talking to you right now.
Ever since I wrote this bookHelp First in 2017, a lot of
people have quoted it, I've gotit on t-shirts and some people
even mis explain it. And sotoday I want to just quickly
(00:45):
walk through what Help Firstactually means. It's not just a
marketing tactic, it is aneffective marketing strategy,
but more than that, it's aphilosophy of generosity and
service. Every gym owner wantsto help. Uh , you know, and
that's why we got into thisbusiness, but if somebody
doesn't sign up for yourservice, you can't help them
(01:05):
helping starts withconversations, but it has to
end with conversions. If youtruly wanna help somebody, you
have to invite them into yourservice. But the difference
between helping and sellingcomes down to one word, and
that is intent. If I wanna helpyou get what you want, then I'm
not selling. If I'm trying toget only what I want, then I am
(01:28):
selling. Let's talk about theHelp First strategy here,
because some people who havereally adopted this believe
that helping first just meanshelping period or helping for
free or helping at a discountor just producing a lot of
content. Here's what itactually means. I wanna give
you a new perspective on amarketing funnel that's built
(01:50):
around helping. First, if youthink back to all of the
marketing that you've everlearned, the books, you've
read, the podcast, you'veheard, maybe you took a course
in marketing in college like Idid 30 years ago. You were
taught that funnels basicallyguide a broad audience of
people down into the one personthat you can help and then
sell. Here's how this looks ina help first context. First
(02:14):
off, you're going to introducepeople through providing free
seminars, free content, helpingonline groups. I'm gonna give
you a few examples in a minute.
And there, there are literallydozens in this book. Help first
, you know, running free, freeseminars at your gym, going
into the workplace, et cetera .
The second step though isconversation. And the point of
(02:35):
that help first marketingstrategy is to start this
conversation, okay? It's tomove them down the funnel. You
are showing up at theirworkplace to start a
conversation. You arepartnering with the bridal shop
so that you have an opportunityto start a conversation. They
are making the introductionsfor you after that conversation
or , or the point of thatconversation is to work toward
(02:57):
an invitation to your service.
You're not just having aconversation as a getting to
know you. There's a point tothe conversation, and the
conversation should lead to aninvitation, and that invitation
should lead to a conversion. Ifyou are having trouble
remembering this, here's what Ido. I remember I-C-I-C-I-C-I-C
(03:21):
, introduction, conversation,invitation, conversion,
introduction, conversation,invitation, conversion. Now
here's how that looks inpractice. The help first
strategies that you'll find inthis book, get people into the
conversation stage. They makean introduction for you. So
here's some examples from thebook , um, telling client
(03:42):
stories, people share thesestories online, other people
comment, and that is anintroduction to you. Next,
offering free seminars, goinginto the client's workplace
and, and telling them how tode-stress at their desk. That's
an introduction to you. Yourclient is introducing you to
their coworkers , uh, founders'club launches where you're
talking to local businesses andputting up signs outside your
(04:04):
gym about your founders' club.
These is are introductions toyou , uh, giving help in
occupational or social bubbles.
So for example, hey, I knowthat you're golfing next
weekend. Why don't you bring inall of the women that you're
golfing with and we'll do asession together. Or, Hey, I
know that you're in thiswedding, let's bring in the
wedding party and start asession together. That's a
social bubble. Uh , media andnewsletters are an introduction
(04:26):
to you. Podcasts like this oneare an introduction to you
thanking everyday heroes. Sothanking up, you know, sharing
posts about people who aredoing amazing things in your
community. These are anintroduction to you team
building and community events.
Going to the clients who ownbusinesses and saying, why
don't you bring your your teamin here and we'll do a team
building night? Or going to ,uh, the clients that you have
(04:47):
who are on sports teams andsaying, why don't you bring
your team in here for a funlittle combine or a year end
party. Uh, these areintroductions to you. Another
one is something like a wineand wad, where on a Friday
night you tell your clients,bring in one friend, we're
gonna have a little , uh, funlittle workout, and then we're
gonna just drink some winetogether and just have a fun
little party or a Christmasevent or whatever you want.
(05:07):
These are all introductions toyou. It's usually your clients
introducing you to theirfriends, right? The goal of
these introductions is to startconversations. This is why just
doing a free trial group atyour gym doesn't work because
it's just an introduction, butit doesn't lead to a
conversation. Well , you haveto keep in mind in what some
people miss in the book HelpFirst is that they just produce
(05:31):
content, but then they neverfurther the conversation. If
you really wanna help people,remember, you have to get them
into your gym. It's not enoughto give them education.
Education will not change theirlives alone. You have to
actually coach them, and thatmeans you are going to have to
take them by the hand after theinvitation and lead that into a
conversation, okay? Becausewhen your clients know that
(05:53):
they need your help, you'llnever have to sell anything
again. And the way that we helpthem best, or we help them
more, is through conversation.
So what you wanna do here afteryou've posted the media or done
the seminar or given thepartner workout or whatever, is
that you have to lead that intoa conversation. And so what I
(06:15):
always ask myself is, how can Ihelp this person get what they
want faster or better than whatthey're doing right now? And
that's what's in my brain thewhole time I'm having a
conversation with them. So forexample, if , uh, somebody
comes up to you after a seminarlike they just did with me
yesterday, I was presenting,and they're like, Hey, I've got
this quick question. The thequestion that should be in your
(06:37):
head is, how can I help thisperson get the result that they
want faster? The answer isalways gonna be the same. It's
always going to be the nextstep in this funnel. It's an
invitation. You know, why don'tyou come into the gym and let's
talk about this in private. Whydon't you come into the gym and
I'll show you what to do? Whydon't you come into the gym?
I've got this great habits planthat I can show you there,
okay? It's an invitation. Andan invitation flows naturally
(07:01):
into a conversation if that'swhat you think of it as. If you
think of it as a sales pitch,you'll feel awkward about it.
Like you're asking somebody outfor a first date that you've
just met. That's not what thisis. This is an invitation to
join a party, an invitation tojoin the community that will
actually help them . When I hadthat epiphany, I started
(07:22):
getting really excited aboutinviting people into my gym.
Okay? Now, the invitation, itstill feels hard the first few
times you do it, but here's howto do it anyway. Most gym
owners struggle here with, Hey,why don't you come into my gym
and let's talk about it?
Because it feels like you'reasking somebody on a date and
you're scared of rejection.
Subconsciously your ego is atrisk, and your ego is like, no,
(07:45):
no, no, no, no. Protectyourself. Don't take risks. You
know, don't invite them out.
Don't be the first to introduceyourself and say hello. And
instead, what you have to do issay, do I care enough about
this human being to show themhow to solve their problem?
Years ago, I was down inMinneapolis and we were there
for a , a nephew's hockeytournament, and they had this
(08:08):
kind of room for people in thehotel where you were staying,
and you could go in there andyou could get snacks, you could
watch tv. It was quiet. I wouldgo in there and do work for a
couple of hours in the morningbefore the kids got up. And uh,
one day in this room comes thisguy who, you know, he's walking
with two canes and he is barelymobile. He's dramatically
(08:29):
overweight. He's probably earlysixties, but he walks like, you
know, he's on death's door, hiswife is there, she's small kind
of bird-like, you know, she'sfluttering around him, helping
him out. Let me get you this,let me get you that. He's
drinking a coke for breakfastat 7:00 AM He's also having
like a yogurt. And so, becauseI saw these people one day, two
(08:51):
days, three days in a row, itwas awkward not to start a
conversation because we werethe only ones in this little
room. And so I was like, Hey,what are you guys doing in
Minneapolis? And it turns outthat he was there to have his
leg amputated because he's sodiabetic. He had lost feeling
in his toes, and the doctorswere gonna take his leg. And
his fear was that they weregonna take his second leg a
(09:14):
year later. And his wife evensaid something like, they can't
take both at once. And so onthe third day, I was like, oh
man, I , I really feel for thisguy. Oh, I can't imagine this,
but here he is, drinking a cokeat 7:00 AM eating this sugary
little thing of yogurt forbreakfast, sitting down. He's
(09:35):
not moving. The , the wife islike, you know, fluttering
around doing everything forhim, man. And that really sat
with me for the rest of theday. And so on the fourth
morning, my last morning there7:00 AM Alan like clockwork,
they come tottering into theroom and she's holding the door
and you know, he's working hisway toward the chair and she's
going up to the breakfast barto get him his cup of coke. And
(09:57):
I was asking myself, Chris ,like, do you really care enough
about this human being to tell'em the truth? That was an
enormous ego risk because Iknew that they probably
wouldn't hear what I had tosay. They might get offended, I
might get embarrassed. Theymight tell me to f off. And I
realized like, I, I just caretoo much to not say anything.
(10:19):
Like, what if this person is inthis position? Because nobody's
ever told them the truth in away that they understand it.
And so I sat down, looked himin the eye, and I said, Hey, my
name's Chris , by the way. Iown a gym and I work with a lot
of people who are diabetic.
There are some things that youcan do to make your life
(10:39):
easier. Would you like to hearthem? Now, it felt like I was
trying to hand out Bibles onthe street corner, I'll be
honest. But he said, yeah, Iwould. And maybe it was just
because they were from theMidwest and they were polite,
but maybe they actually hadnever heard this before. And so
we started talking about sugarand we started talking about
(11:00):
carbs and we started talkingabout insulin. And I resisted
the urge to sit down and drawpictures of insulin spikes, you
know, on a piece of paperbecause they didn't need to be
lectured. They needed somehelp. And so I said, if all you
do is you get a little bit ofprotein at every meal, you get
off the Coke, you move as muchas you possibly can. There's a
(11:20):
way that you can avoid losingthe second leg. It's probably
too late. You're already herefor the surgery. And this guy
had tears in his eyes and hedidn't praise me. He didn't
say, oh, nobody's ever told usthat before. Of course not. But
hearing it from a stranger whogenuinely wants to help might
have been different. And Ioffered him to stay in touch. I
(11:42):
gave him my cell phone number.
I never heard from him again.
Did I make a difference? Maybenot. Did I just do that to make
myself feel smart? No, I did itwith the honest intent to help.
So for you to be comfortablemaking the invitation, just
remember you're not invitingthem to a sale, you're not
trying to trick them, you'reinviting them to a party. And
(12:05):
usually it's your own ego thatstops you. Okay? Just remember,
like people are too scared tobridge the gap. They're not
gonna invite themselves to yourplace. They're not gonna invite
themselves to dinner. They'renot gonna invite themselves to
your party. They're waiting tobe invited. And the reason that
they haven't signed up yet isbecause they don't feel like
they have been invited. Alright? The fourth stage here is the
conversion. What you have toremember in this stage is that
(12:28):
sales is the first act ofcoaching. You have to coach
them to sign up because youknow, and I know that if they
don't sign up, nothing is goingto change in their lives. You
can give them all the freeresources in the world, but
knowledge will not solve theirproblem. They can find a diet
online in 30 seconds. They canfind a new workout program on
YouTube in about four seconds.
(12:50):
They have access to all theknowledge they need, and it's
not making a difference. If youown a gym like I do, people are
coming in your door to becoached, not to be sold, but to
be coached. And so you have tocoach them, tell 'em what to do
based on what's best for them,not what's cheapest for them.
That's honesty. And the nosweat intro process is all
(13:12):
about honesty. Telling peoplethe truth. Here is what you
need to do, not sugarcoating itto make it sound easy, not
sugarcoating it because youthink, well, I know what they
can afford or what you canafford. Not putting those
limitations and filters onpeople. They deserve honesty.
They expect honesty. That's whythey're there. And if you
(13:33):
aren't honest with them, that'swhen it will feel like a sales
pitch. If you are saying inyour brain they don't let ,
like they can afford it, itwill feel like a sales pitch.
If you're saying in your brainthey're a teacher, I should
give them 20% off, it will feellike a sales pitch because it
is sometimes just becauseyou're desperate and you need
this sale so bad, it will feellike a sales pitch. But I
(13:55):
promise you the cure for thatis an honest intent to help you
know what is actually gonnahelp this person. It's personal
training and reps, reps is theother thing. You have to
practice this. My close rate atmy gym is very close to a
hundred percent because I don'tfeel any pressure to close
anybody. I do feel a lot ofpressure to tell that person
(14:16):
the truth, because best case,they sign up for my gym and we
help 'em . Worst case, theyleave with the truth and maybe
they come back to my gym, maybethey don't. But now somebody in
their life has told them thetruth. And there are probably
very few people who are tellingthem that, okay, use the
prescriptive model. So in theprescriptive model, if you just
(14:36):
follow this, you won't feellike you're selling, you'll
feel like you're prescribing.
So you tell 'em where they'restarting from. You show them
what's realistic, you give themtheir options. Would you like
to do this one-on-one with me?
Or in a group setting? Youprescribe the best path. Here's
what should happen. And youdon't project anything else
onto them. You don't assume youknow what their wallet is.
Like, you don't assume you knowwhat their schedule is. Like
(14:59):
you don't assume that they wantgroup coaching or that they
want one-on-one. You don'tassume that they're gonna hate
this. You don't assume thatthey're gonna ask for a
discount. You don't assumeanything because you can't read
their mind. You don't projectany of these limitations onto
them. You tell them the truthand then ask them how they feel
about it. Now, look, caveat,you're probably underpriced
(15:19):
already for the value that youprovide. And the reason that
you're underpriced is all aboutyour confidence, not about what
they can actually afford.
That's in your head, not intheirs. So before you go any
further here, remember that theclient's sense of value is not
the same as your sense ofvalue, especially if you're a
broke gym owner. You have noidea what they value. You know,
(15:40):
there's this old story by ZigZiglar. Uh , when I was trying
to sell treadmills, my bosswould get me sales coaches and
she'd give me books. And one ofthe books that I really liked
was , um, the Art of Selling byZig Ziglar. And he told this
story , uh, he was going doorto door in the Great
Depression, and he was sellingpots and pans and you know, he
had this really amazing , uh,frying pan that people could
(16:01):
use to cook just aboutanything. And it , it was easy
to clean. And so he'd go doorto door to door and he would
knock on the door and peopledidn't have television or radio
back then, really? So just forthe entertainment, they'd
invite him in and he'd pitchand pitch and pitch, and they'd
ask questions just to string upthe conversation. And finally,
they would not buy anything.
And so he is down in ruralGeorgia, he's exhausted. It's
(16:22):
the end of the day. He's dry,he's in this family's living
room, they are broke. I mean,they are poor. And he's
pitching this frying pan andhe's like, they're, they're not
gonna buy this frying pan . Andhe's right. And at the end of
the pitch, they're like, wedon't have any money. Sorry,
thank you for your time.
They're kind of embarrassedthat they've kept him there for
an hour. He's kind ofembarrassed that, you know,
they have this clear poverty.
(16:43):
And as he's packing things up,he is putting his like
brochures back in his leatherbriefcase. And the mom of the
family says, what's thatbrochure there? And he says,
oh, it's, it's fine China. Wealso deal in fine China. And
she's like, let me see that.
And so she opens it up andshe's looking at the fine
China, like, wow. And you know,he's kind of humoring her and
(17:05):
she's like, I'll take a fullset. And he said, well man,
that's amazing. But a full setof fine China, even in those
days was, you know, hundreds ofdollars. And she said, that's
okay. I don't have any moneyfor a frying pan, but I've been
saving money since I was alittle girl for a set of fine
China. I have money for that.
And what you need to understandis that when somebody comes in
(17:25):
your door, maybe they're notdressed in the newest Lululemon
because they don't have moneyfor that, but they do have
money for their health. And wecannot project our feelings
about, you know, money orpriorities or value onto our
clients. Now , uh, we've gonethrough kind of like the help
first sales funnel, right?
We've got introduction. You doa help first marketing strategy
(17:46):
to be introduced to morepeople. You turn that into a
conversation by askingyourself, how can I help this
person even more? And thatconversation should lead to an
invitation because that is howyou help people more. You coach
them. That invitation shouldturn into a no sweat intro. You
do the prescriptive model andthat should lead to a
conversion because you'recoaching them to take the next
(18:07):
step. But what I want you toremember here is that one of
the things that we teach peopleis to have a lot of social
proof. So in the office whereyou do your nose , sweat
intros, you wanna have lots ofpictures of help happy clients.
You wanna have pictures of themholding up whiteboards and
saying, I did it. I lost 20pounds. I did my first box jump
. I rode my bike 30 kilometers,I ran a five KI didn't think
(18:27):
this was possible, but it was,my life has changed. I'm
happier, I'm healthier, I'mleaner, I'm smarter, I ,
whatever that is, right? Youwanna have these pictures and
testimonials all over youroffice, but it's not just for
your clients. The reason thatyou want these client success
stories in your office is foryou. Because yes, the client
(18:49):
will see these and they willimagine their own success, but
even more importantly, itreminds you that your service
works. That you're not trickinganybody. You're not selling
them an old lemon that's gonnabreak down when they drive it
off the lot. Your serviceworks, it's so valuable that I
guarantee you it's alreadyunderpriced. And so the no
sweat intro is just your firstact of coaching. It's not a
(19:13):
bait and switch. It's not atrick. It's not convincing
somebody to buy when they'renot comfortable or pushing them
or you know, having them spendmore money than they planned.
It's coaching them into takingthe first step, the first real
step, not the first discountstep, not the cheapest step,
not the easiest step, the stepthat's actually going to change
their lives. That's what goodcoaching is, alright ? Helping
(19:36):
first is the beginning, butit's not the end. You have to
invite people, you have toconvert them because if you
don't, you're not truly helpingthem. Helping doesn't feel like
selling to you and it doesn'tfeel like selling to the
potential client either. Help,first could be called
marketing, but you can alsocall it generosity. And so this
(19:59):
is your invitation. I'm givingyou this to invite you into a
conversation with my teambecause I know that while the
knowledge is helpful andvaluable, and that's why I
deliver it to you, it's onlythe first step in a
conversation. You can find meon Facebook, you can send me a
DM and continue theconversation. But I wanna take
(20:20):
this opportunity because I careenough about you, even though
it feels kind of awkward toinvite you into what will
actually change your life. Thisis me getting over my ego,
having done this thousands oftimes, putting in the reps to
be at a point where I want toinvite you into mentorship
because I know the programworks. So you can click a link
(20:44):
below this video to book a callwith my team and let us help
you help more people. I'm ChrisCooper, this is Run a
Profitable Gym and I reallywould love to continue the
conversation with you. Book acall with my team and that's
how we progress to help youhelp more people.
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