Chris Cooper's Blog

Breakeven at 17 Members, Massive Profitability at 80

I needed about 46 members to break even in the early days of my gym.

But I didn’t know that in 2012, and I didn’t have a solid plan to get any number of members.

In 2025, Swedish gym owners Oskar Johed and Karl Solberg know exactly how many members they need to break even in their new facility, Aspire.

It’s just 17.

And they already have 25.

When I spoke to Oskar on the “Run a Profitable Gym” podcast, he told me that he and Karl want to help more people get fit, but real estate in Stockholm is hard to find—especially if you’re looking for a larger space.

They can’t just rent a giant warehouse and replicate their existing profitable gyms, CrossFit Medis and CrossFit Sickla.

At those gyms, the owners run group classes but also sell a lot of personal-training sessions. When I say “a lot,” I mean they cranked through 919 30-minute PT sessions in May 2023.

That was financially wonderful, but here’s the problem:

PT sessions require a lot of labor, and Oskar could see the strain on staff.

To prevent trainer burnout, they started grouping three to six PT clients together with one coach and delivering individualized programming. This is generally called “semi-private training,” and rates are less than those for one-on-one coaching but higher those for group classes.

At Aspire, a 1,200-square-foot facility that opened March 1, semi-private clients now pay about US$35 per session and train, on average, twice a week, for a monthly total of about $300 per client.

The cost on the Aspire real estate: about $3,000 a month.

So Oskar and Karl are covering their largest fixed expense with just 10 clients.

The cost to cover everything except running the sessions: $5,000, which is covered by about 17 clients.

Remember, they already have 25.

“And if we can go to 80, maybe 100, you know, it’s a hockey stick,” Oskar said, referring to the profitability graph for Aspire.

He added: “And obviously we can then pay our coaches far more here.”

Their marketing plan?

Some paid advertising but mostly referrals, which is completely reasonable considering they aren’t trying to find 300 clients.

Skip to the Good Part

This is all a far cry from the if-you-build-it-days of trying to pack group classes.

It’s also a long way from Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper’s 13-hour PT day, a grueling grind that still didn’t produce the income he needed to feed his family.

Oskar and Karl—both Two-Brain mentors, by the way—are skipping the hard parts in their new facility because they’ve got access to the best data, tactics and strategies in the fitness industry.

They don’t have to fumble around, make massive errors and grind their way to a few bucks.

The two can go right to breakeven, with a small jump needed for exceptional profitability.

That’s what happens when you run a business based on numbers, calculations and best practices.

I wish I’d done that back in 2011.

Don’t make the same mistake I did and waste years trying to “figure it out.”

If you’re currently struggling to get to profitability, consider working with a mentor—maybe even Oskar or Karl—to create an airtight business model that will allow you to live the life you want.

To talk about that, book a call here.

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Profitable With 15 to 20 Members: The Small Group Advantage

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Scaling Your Studio: From Big Group to Small Group

In the first post in this series, I told you about the mistake that almost bankrupted me:

I tried to jump from PT to big-group CrossFit classes.

What saved me?

A few of my one-on-one clients said, “I don’t want that.”

So I kept both services as options—and the one-on-one clients kept me afloat while I figured out how to run a business.

What should I have done?

I should have gone from one-on-one to small-group coaching. I just didn’t know the latter existed. And by the time I learned about it, I thought it was too late: I was already offering big classes and one-on-one sessions.

But it’s not too late to move to small-group training if you run big-group classes.

After helping hundreds of “class-based gyms” around the world add small-group coaching, we have a refined process to do it.

Steps to Transition

First, definitions (you can use any terms you like to describe your services):

Small-group training: Everyone in the group of about two to six people is doing the same program.

Semi-private training: Everyone in the group of about two to six people has a different program designed for them.

Step 1—Call your small-group offering “semi-private training.” You might understand the value difference between “small group” and “big group” or “classes”, but your clients probably don’t. Give it a name that’s very different from what they’re currently doing.

Step 2—Start the process with your one-on-one clients. If you’re not offering one-on-one training at your gym, start there. This will slow your progress by a few months, but you need some time to build up your one-on-one coaching skills and clientele. (Follow the instructions from the previous post to move clients from one on one to your small-group program.)

Step 3—Use Goal Review Sessions to move clients from classes to small groups. When you ask the question “are you totally satisfied with your progress?” listen for the “yes, but” and “not really” answers. These are signals that clients could use more direct coaching. Make a new prescription for your semi-private option.

Step 4—Add your small-group option to your pricing binder. Present it as the option to new clients. My pricing binder has three options: one on one (highest price), semi-private (about 10% less, with fully customized programming and individual accountability), and group (the budget option for a client who wants a preset program and coaching in a fun environment with up to 12 others).

Step 5—Talk about your small-group or semi-private training option in your blog, on your YouTube channel and to your email list—but don’t run ads to “semi-private training” or “small-group training.” People buy results, not your method. They don’t need to know if they’ll be working out with you one on one, in a small group or in a big group until they’re in your gym and you give them the option.

Step 6—Give them the option! Remember: Just because you and I like working out in a group doesn’t mean everyone does. Different people prioritize different things.

Here’s a breakdown of benefits—not features—of one on one, semi-private, small group and big classes:

 Schedule FlexibilityProgram CustomizationSpeed to ResultsPrivacy LevelSupport LevelExciting Group AtmosphereOne on OneYesYesHighestHighHighNoSemi-PrivateModerateYesHighMediumMediumModerateSmall GroupModerateNoMediumMediumMediumModerateBig GroupNoNoLowerLowLowYes
Need Help?

Whenever you offer something new, always start from the inside out:

First, your clients who want something new.Then your clients who need something new (but don’t say it out loud).Then your new clients who don’t know what you currently offer.Then future clients.

Look, you’re going to have more questions.

I flew Two-Brain specialist Brian Bott up to my gym from New Jersey to show me exactly what to do. Mentorship makes the process fast, easy and super effective, and it helps you avoid critical mistakes.

This one big mistake—a poor transition from PT to big groups—nearly bankrupted me.

I made many more costly mistakes, and I can tell you there’s a limit to how many you can make. At some point, the business starts to sink—fast.

Can you really afford not to work with a mentor?

To take the first step and find out how a mentor can solve your business problems, book a call here.

The post Scaling Your Studio: From Big Group to Small Group appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Scaling Your Studio: From 1:1 to Small Group

My biggest mistake almost bankrupted me back in the day.

I’d been a personal trainer for 12 years. I loved my clients, and most loved me—and they were getting great results.

But I was tired. Good Lord, was I tired!

I thought the best way to “scale” was to run big groups. I’d been reading about CrossFit and following its message boards since 2006. In 2007, we tried a free “crossfit” group for our 1:1 clients.

The first class took place on a Tuesday night; we did “Lynne” as a workout. I remember turning to Mike, my other full-time trainer at Catalyst, and saying, “This is awesome. I only want to coach like this for the rest of my life!”

And it was fun. Our clients loved it. With that tiny little trial group, I made a huge decision:

I signed a lease on a new location and prepared for the masses. We even knocked out a wall to accommodate the teeming hordes of people who were sure to love CrossFit classes.

Because if I built it, they would come.

Right?

Well, that didn’t happen.

My “big group classes” had two to three people in them. I was making less running the classes than I earned as a personal trainer. The extra expense nearly bankrupted me. The extra time and work forced me into a deep depression.

One bad guess nearly killed the business and floored the family.

Why did I make that bad guess?

Overconfidence and ignorance.

Nobody was telling me not to try it, and everything I read on the gym-owner message boards said that every group-coaching gym was super successful and fun to run. Some of the CrossFit gym owners even had a beer fridge and let their clients pull a can out anytime they wanted.

What should I have done?

I should have gone from one-on-one to two-on-one training, then to three-on-one training, and then to small-group training.

Here’s how to do that, so you can avoid the mistakes I made.

Steps to a Transition

Step 1—Make a list of your one-on-one clients.

Step 2—Find two who like to train around the same time. Put a checkmark beside their names

Step 3—Start a conversation with each one individually. Like this:

Step 4—Go back to your list. Identify eight more people who like to train around the same time. You don’t have to sort them by fitness level, experience or goals. You can train multiple people at the same time. And if you find a third person who would fit with the original two, invite them into your little “group” session. Repeat the process until you have at least 20% of your clients doing two-on-one sessions.

Step 5—Add a “small group” option to your sales binder. You don’t need to discount it because you’re probably undercharging for PT already. Instead, make your current PT rate your new rate per client in small-group training and raise your PT rate by 20%. This will encourage even more people to join your small group.

Common Mistakes

1. Treating small-group training like big-group training. Don’t open up specific hours of the day and try to fill them. Instead, group clients together. And don’t call them “classes”—Rick Mayo of Alloy doesn’t allow his franchisees to run “classes” because they devalue the product by creating confusion with large-group classes.

2. Underpricing. Your one-on-one clients aren’t there because it’s cheap. These people value coaching, schedule flexibility and having their own programs. You might think small-group training is worth “less” than PT, but you’re probably already undercharging for PT. Make the small-group rate the same as your current PT rate and raise your PT rate by 20% instead of discounting your rate for small group.

3. Running “small group” training and “big group” training concurrently. Your clients can’t see the difference in value—especially if your “big groups” have three people in them.

Small Groups: Profitable and Fun

After collecting data from tens of thousands of gyms for our “State of the Industry” report over the last seven years, I can tell you this: The small-group training model is emerging as the most profitable with the least work.

I kinda wish this wasn’t true (I do love training a big group!)—but it is.

And I have to tell you this: After nearly 30 years of coaching fitness, small-group training is a lot of fun to coach.

You want the ultimate irony?

I used CrossFit as the methodology in my big-group classes. But going from one on one to two on one to three on one to small group is actually how Greg Glassman scaled his original PT practice. He did not jump right to the big-group classes that became associated with CrossFit.

You can shift the right way, too—even if you fell into the same trap that I did back in 2008.

In the next post in this series, I’ll tell you what to do if you’re currently running big-group training and want to move to the higher-value small-group offering.

The post Scaling Your Studio: From 1:1 to Small Group appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

How to Scale Your Gym Without Going Broke: Moving to Small Groups

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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AI and Liability for Gym Owners: What You Need to Know

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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The Legal Risks of AI Use for Gym Owners

You use AI at your gym, right?

We all do.

It’s great for idea generation, clean-up, busy work and systemization.

But it’s not a risk-free reference bible or a replacement for your expertise as a coach.

To ensure you’re using AI the right way, I had Matthew Becker of Gym Lawyers PLLC lay out the risks.

Becker, the former owner of Industrial Athletics in Pittsburgh, pointed out three main areas of concern:

1. Going outside your scope of practice.

2. Accidentally increasing legal exposure.

3. Losing the ability to pass off liability.

Let’s dig in.

1. Working Outside Scope of Practice

AI knows all, so it’s very tempting to use it to solve problems and get answers. But if you start working outside your scope of practice as a qualified fitness pro, you can get into trouble.

For example, you should not use AI to assess injuries and create rehab programs if you are not a licensed therapist.

You can run into similar issues when it comes to nutrition, medicine and so on. AI is a great resource, but be very careful what you do with the info you acquire.

“It’s fine using it to educate myself, … but the moment that I start holding myself out as the person who can help you fix your ruptured disc, now I’ve exceeded my scope of practice and we’ve got a problem,” Becker said.

In short, scope of practice for fitness coaches remains the same as it was before AI appeared:

Do not do things you are not qualified or licensed to do (even if AI makes it very easy to overstep these boundaries).

2. Increasing Legal Exposure

AI’s unending flood of instant info can increase your risk even if you are working within your scope of practice.

In simple terms, the more “expert info” you use from AI, the more liability you take on if something goes wrong. Even if you stay within your scope, increasingly detailed advice could make you more vulnerable to negligence claims.

In the past, a client might ask a question past the edge of your knowledge as a coach. Example: “What percentage of my max should I use for accommodating resistance as part of a Westside Barbell-fueled focus on my back squat?”

You could say “I don’t know” or refer that client to an experienced powerlifting coach who has the answer. Or you could dig in, do some research yourself, get the right answer after careful evaluation, and frame your answer with your detailed knowledge of the client’s training history and goals.

With AI, you can literally find the answer for the client during a fake bathroom break and spout it off casually when you return. That insta-fix makes you looks smart but increases your legal exposure.

And that leads to the third issue.

3. Losing the Ability to Pass off Liability

If you rely on AI instead of licensed professionals, you can’t shift responsibility when something goes wrong. It will all fall on you.

For example, a waiver written by AI and later invalidated in court leaves you fully liable. If an attorney wrote it, malpractice insurance would cover you.

Same deal in your personal life: The government won’t hold ChatGPT responsible if you used it to file a completely flawed tax return. You will get the blame and the bill.

Don’t ever think “AI told me to do it” will get you out of trouble if something goes wrong in your gym.

If he gets injured doing an AI-created workout, you can’t just blame the bots.
Other Concerns

Becker also laid out a few specific scenarios that can create problems:

AI-generated waivers or contracts can be full of errors and may not comply with local laws.Insurers may deny claims if your AI-generated documents are flawed.Uploading medical data, injury info or credit-card details into AI systems creates the potential for HIPAA violations or privacy breaches.Anything generated by AI isn’t truly “yours”—it can’t be copyrighted—and it might even infringe on others’ intellectual property (e.g., images or content).
Safe and Smart Uses of AI

Don’t misunderstand: Matthew isn’t saying, “Don’t use AI.” He’s just pointing out areas where it can get you into trouble.

It can be very helpful in many ways. Such as:

Education and research—AI is great for learning more about a topic. Example: “Review the available research and give me the top five exercises for glute activation.” You can then apply what you learn within your scope of practice.

Content creation—Use AI to brainstorm ad copy, newsletter ideas or blog structures. Always review outputs for accuracy and tailor content to your business and audience.

Ops work at high speed—AI is great for document formatting, organization and systemization. For example, you could dictate your SOP for cleaning the gym into your phone and have AI produce a polished page for your staff playbook in seconds.

Efficiency in working with professionals—AI can help outline agreements or ideas before your speak to an expert, such as an attorney or CPA. You’ll have the lay of the land before your meeting, which saves time and money while keeping legal protections intact.

Phrasing and communications—Have a tough conversation coming up with a client? Why not role-play with AI to work on calm, clear communication in an emotionally charged situation. I’m not saying “parrot the bots”; be yourself, but go into your meeting prepared.

Used wisely, AI is an incredibly powerful tool.

“‘Hey, Chat, can you give me some ideas here?’ And then you take that information, that education, and you turn around and you fit it in with your scope of practice, and you become a better business owner or a better trainer,” Becker explained.

“And there’s nothing wrong with doing that as long as you’re staying in your scope of practice, as long as you know that you’re increasing your exposure, and as long as you’re not absorbing liability that you could push off onto other professionals.”

Key Guidelines

Here’s a list that will help you use AI wisely as a gym owner:

Stay within your professional scope of practice.Trust but verify: Review everything AI produces before using it.Don’t substitute AI for professionals (lawyers, CPAs, care providers, business mentors).Protect sensitive data (avoid putting confidential info into AI).Beware of IP risks (AI-generated material might infringe on others’ rights).

We teach gym owners exactly how to use AI in their businesses. To hear more about that, book a call to talk about mentorship.

The post The Legal Risks of AI Use for Gym Owners appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What’s Replacing CrossFit?

CrossFit changed the fitness industry. There’s no denying it.

I remember walking through airports in 2011, spotting CrossFit T-shirts and walking right up to strangers to say hello.

I remember seeing people walking into local gyms in board shorts and knee-high socks, and I knew what they were about. I knew they were serious. I knew they weren’t in the gym to gossip or flex in the mirror.

CrossFit made working out cool again.

It reintroduced intensity, function and, to a large extent, fun.

But as the number of CrossFit affiliates now dwindles, we wonder, “Where did they all go?”

First: Why Affiliate Numbers Are Decreasing

Over 10,000 former affiliates are gone.

Some disappeared—mostly because few of the owners were good at business, while they were all great coaches.

Some have just left CrossFit—and not as a group. Some became Hyrox gyms, Mayhem affiliates or PRVN affiliates, and some attached themselves to another similar brand that seems on the rise.

Some tried to go solo. Many deaffiliated, and some have thrived. Others found themselves brandless and drifting without CrossFit in their logo. Some went back to affiliation, but, overall, the number of “CrossFit” gyms keeps going down.

What’s interesting is that many of the “alternate brands” are very much like CrossFit: They borrowed at least one facet of “constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity.”

Others are almost entirely derivative: Even seasoned CrossFit veterans wouldn’t be able to tell the difference without looking at the sign out front.

But they appear to be winning anyway, and CrossFit purists like me don’t get a vote.

Unfortunately, as these gyms rebrand and rehome themselves in other affiliate programs, they’re very unlikely to go back to the mothership again.

It’s not a mass exodus.

It’s a death by 1,000 cuts.

Old-school vibes circa 2013.
Why Affiliates Leave
The Pursuit of the “New Thing”

The affiliate numbers follow the interest of clients. Clients are sometimes attracted to novelty, and that gets them in the door—but it’s the job of the coach to keep them once they’re inside.

Just like clients, business owners don’t want to miss out on the next thing: Hyrox, Alchemy or something else. They’re in this for the long term, even if the current owners of CrossFit aren’t.

And let’s face it: New stuff is exciting. Sometimes it’s even an improvement on the original.

Lack of Clarity From Leadership

Imagine your landlord listed your building for sale. Would you wait around to see if you liked the new owner or would you start looking around at other options?

After six months of this—with the landlord no longer making any upgrades or improvements—would you start looking around even more?

How long would you wait?

The Tipping Point

Some affiliates are excited to be the only CrossFit gym in their town. But others remember carrying that burden alone: being the only one to explain what CrossFit is, how it’s not harmful and that it won’t make you a beast overnight.

But this is my greatest fear: The primary marketing source for CrossFit (the method) is CrossFit (the community).

Every time a gym leaves, the marketing engine gets a little smaller. HQ isn’t running ads or asking for referrals or producing meaningful content anymore.

First growth slows, then stops. Then the movement begins to shrink, and then it gets smaller very quickly.

CrossFit’s first “tipping point” was around 2007, when there were around 5,000 affiliates.

What happens if we reach that level again on the way back down?

Where Are Affiliates Going?

In 2014, affiliates were truly ride or die: They either hung in as affiliates or they went out of business.

Now there are other options—many, many other options. CrossFit’s being cut up into little bits and replaced, piece by piece.

Here they are:

1. CrossFit Competition

The smallest part of CrossFit has been replaced by Hyrox. Hyrox has over 7,000 “affiliate” gyms paying about $130 per month. Clients are coming in to do Hyrox.

2. CrossFit Community

Rogue has taken the lead here. If you go to a Rogue event, it feels like CrossFit circa 2014. Rogue is probably the best friend CrossFit has. It’s keeping the community together, for now. But I don’t see CrossFit acknowledging that friendship publicly at the level it should.

The high days of the global CrossFit community are over, though Rogue events are filling the gap to some degree.
3. That OG Vibe

Iron Tribe—ironically, the gym that many called a “knockoff” of CrossFit a decade ago—is now “more CrossFit than CrossFit” in many cities.

4. CrossFit Classes

In a recent edition of Men’s Health, the “Best Fitness Classes” were listed as:

MADabolicCorePower YogaF45 TrainingSolidcoreCyclebar Performance Life Time Alpha Mayweather Boxing + Fitness Equinox’s Fully VestedRowHouse
Orangetheory Fitness

“CrossFit” only appeared once in the article—in a sentence warning people not to “run out and join a CrossFit class.”

What’s interesting to me—and infuriating to longtime CrossFit affiliates—is that many of these programs are CrossFit derivatives. They’re CrossFit … but without muscle-ups. Or they’re CrossFit … with kettlebells instead of barbells.

They’re constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity. No credit given.

5. CrossFit Methodology

The “class options” I listed above lack a distinctive CrossFit element: The workouts look the same every day.

And, in full transparency, a lot of CrossFit gyms run this way, too: Every class is lifting plus HIIT. This wasn’t the original methodology.

Instead, the original methodology covered all the bases, including aerobic training, weightlifting, gymnastics and HIIT.

The original gym didn’t have the “go hard every day” mentality that many facilities now have. That mentality is potentially harmful long term: It’s tough on clients. Ironically, the chains listed above adopted that mentality.

To counter the obvious problems with “crush yourself every day,” Men’s Health recommends—you ready for this?—that no one buys a membership at any one gym and instead uses ClassPass to “mix and match” classes every day.

As if clients are going to research every possible training option every day, change their commute, sign in on time and properly coach themselves to optimal fitness.

It’s crazy and random to think this would work even for elite athletes with unlimited time to train and a desk job that allows them to browse five different websites every day.

Men’s Health goes on to recommend a few different prescriptions:

If you want to build muscle, do three “strength-style workouts,” one “cardio-style workout” and “one mobility or recovery-style workout” each week.If you want to improve your “cardio,” do two “cardio-based workouts,” two “strength-based workouts” and one “recovery-style workout” each week.If you want to lose weight, do “one or two strength-based workouts per week,” “one cardio-based workout” and one “wildcard” workout, as well as one “recovery-style workout per week.”

Sounds a lot like the Prescriptive Model to me—except in Two-Brain gyms, the coach makes the prescription. Here, the reader is left to kinda wing it.

Of course, regular people don’t know how to make a good plan.

Which five classes should they pick? How do they know which gym to go to on Monday?

This is solved by the Prescriptive Model and a little bit of variation in your class options.

If you tell clients “just do CrossFit three times a week,” they’re going to start hunting for novelty themselves.

Here’s the opportunity:

Offer the Prescriptive Model at your gym.Make your new clients a tailored prescription at your gym (i.e., coach them—tell them what to do, which classes to attend and how often to show up in a given week).Don’t just try to sell them on coming to CrossFit classes two, three or four times per week. That’s not the same thing.Every three to six months, meet with your clients and update their prescription. If you don’t, they’ll “tweak” it themselves and try to slap together a fitness plan based on novelty and wild guesses.

You can also add some of these options to your gym without a total rebrand or deaffiliation:

You can add Hyrox and still do CrossFit.You can add CNU Stretch and your clients won’t need a StretchLab membership.You can add a Parisi affiliation and coach youth athletes for performance.These are collaborative affiliations, not competition outside your walls.
Summing Up

Many, like me, are keen to see what will replace CrossFit—or if the brand can revitalize itself under new leadership.

But there’s no need to wait to see if the landlord is going to sell the building.

You can decide to keep your CrossFit affiliation, or not, and still compete with some of these options—or all of them—yourself.

To talk to a mentor about the Prescriptive Model and the method that will support your fitness business, book a call here.

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Beyond CrossFit: The Gym Model That Wins Every Time

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Free Training Plans Earn an 80% Close Rate in Maryland

Kevin Munoz is helping first in a big way, and he’s being rewarded for doing so.

The short version:

He gives out a 100% complete training plan in free consultations with prospective clients.It takes about an hour to create this plan—and he will literally implement it if the client joins.The clients can leave without committing and take the plan with them.

Sounds scary, right?

You’re taking a ton of time to use your coaching skills to lay out the “secret formula” for fitness, and then you’re handing it to the client.

What if I told you Munoz closes 80% of sales?

At Peak PT in Maryland, Kevin is using Two-Brain’s Prescriptive Model.

Step 1: He meets with clients.Step 2: He finds out what they want to accomplish and takes measurements so he has a starting point.Step 3: He tells them exactly how to reach their goals.Step 4: He shows them the price and signs them up.

Kevin goes very deep in Step 3 because he has a clear understanding of his avatar and he’s selling two very high-value services.

On a recent episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” he laid out his entire business for me in a few sentences:

“We’re just one on one and semi-private, and we serve busy professionals and take the thought out of fitness. You come in here and you know the plan’s made for you. … Busy professionals don’t want to think about reps or weight or whatever. We take care of that for you.”

It takes Kevin about an hour to meet with a prospective client and make a full plan, which includes Inbody data. But his average revenue per member per month is over $500, so that hour is a great investment.

Kevin isn’t terrified that people will scamper off with his master workout plans because his avatar is after coaching and accountability, too.

He knows ChatGPT and other AI platforms can crank out all the fitness plans in the world, so Kevin isn’t trying to compete. He’s trying to show value and start a relationship with the person in his office.

“We basically say, ‘If you sign up one on one today, this is your plan. I just built your plan here with you. Nothing changes. So if you don’t want to sign up, this is for you to keep. Take it with you. You go do it,’” Kevin said. “And people are like, ‘Well, what the hell? Everywhere else I go, I just get sold.’”

Right away, Kevin is standing out in the market because he’s helping first in a big way and delivering incredible value, not just trying to get a credit-card number.

Yes, a few people leave with the plan and don’t come back, but his close rate—80 percent—is excellent.

And he also gets referrals from unclosed leads who tell their friends about the amazing experience, so he’s generating more at-bats in the sales office with his free plans.

Overall, it’s a huge value play.

“I just took a look at the people that I follow on social media—I haven’t bought anything from them until I bought everything from them.

“So it’s like they give you so much value, so much value, so much value, and you’re like, ‘Damn, so good, so good, so good, so good,’” Kevin explained. “And then when they drop something paid, you’re like, ‘Well, they’ve already given me this for free. What could be on the other side  of that paywall, right?’”

Your Plan

Kevin’s approach is not a one-size-fits-all solution for every gym, but I present it because it shows what can happen when you create a help-first sales plan with a mentor, tailor it to your target market, measure results and optimize the plan.

If you don’t have a clearly documented sales plan, you need one yesterday.

If your sales plan isn’t set up to show value and solve problems for your perfect clients, it needs an upgrade.

And if your close rate is below 80%, you need to adjust your plan and practice selling so you can hit or exceed this number.

Your starting point: Dig into the Prescriptive Model. It’s been proven to increase sales, revenue and retention in gyms.

Want to go further? Check out Two-Brain’s sales process. It’s a lot like Kevin’s. We’re all about value, and we’ll tell you exactly how we can help you build a better business.

To hear more about that, book a call here.

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