Are You Using a Ranking System in Your Camp? PART 1
Hey guys and gals, Sgt Nick Rians here. If you are running Boot Camps or Group Training Sessions, then I have a little secret to share with you.
First off, I want you to imagine you are on a Marine Corps base. I want you visualize seeing these warriors running obstacle courses, hiking 80lbs packs up vertical cliffs, being nearly drown in pool training because they are pushing their bodies beyond what they thought was possible.
Now there is a reason all these Marines are out here getting yelled at all day and PT’d till they can’t stand up anymore, and a lot (but not all) of that has to deal with rank.
The military has been using rank structure to keep their troops motivated for centuries. I should know I spent 4 years of my life in an infantry unit. If I didn’t have that motivation of reaching my next rank, I don’t know if I would have made it through all those freezing nights and long hot days in the field.
So lets talk about how you can use this to motivate your clients and go over some tactics that will help your fitness business really grow.
I don’t know about you guys, but when I first opened up my own gym, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. I already had a huge following; everyone had been with me for over 3 years or more. Most of my clients had been with me for over 7 years. It would be no sweat, just find a great location and workout a good lease and everyone would just pile in the door.
Man was I wrong!
I was spending over $30,000 a year in just marketing expenses to try and drive in new clients.
It was killing me!
I started getting worried. I even looked into bankruptcy. Now one thing I am not is a quitter. I don’t know about you, but when my back is up against the wall, and there’s no place to go, that is when I produce some pretty amazing shit.
Now lets talk about using rank structure in your fitness business. Once I started running a ranking system with all my clients, my retention rate jumped up to 90%. Plus the amount of money I was spending on marketing dropped 60% because I was doing something no one else in my area was doing and that made my gym stand out from all the rest.
You may be asking yourself why would a ranking system motivate my clients and get them better results.
First off, it gives them a realistic goal. Not just your “I want to loss 50 pounds in the next 3 months and get my body fat percentage down to 15%.”
Those are all great goals, but how often does your client fall off the wagon on the way to these goals? Most likely a lot. They need to be constantly reminded why they are there to keep them motivated.
If they had a set list of things they needed to accomplish to get to the next rank, and they should be able to accomplish those goals within a month or two, then it becomes less about the dreaded scale and more about what they need to accomplish.
Now the great thing about this is, your clients will drop that weight and get to their body fat goal and not even realize that they were doing it.
Plus the Testing Days. No matter if you run a ranking system or some other system that you could have a testing day for your clients. This is huge!
If you do it right and build up your clients anticipation. Testing days can be jam packed with energy. The last testing day I ran we had over 30 clients testing. Their families came, their friends came, their friends friends came.
We had people cheering and clapping. It was amazing! The energy was so high! Not only did the clients have a great time, they walked away with a sense of accomplishment, and the families and friends were so impressed; they wanted to be a part of it. We had 15 new sign ups that day.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog. I will be going over how this concept will bring your fitness family closer together, give them an experience no ones else gives, and how a ranking system tackles a common problem of training beginner clients with advanced clients.
In the meantime check out Nick’s cool way of testing your clients, progressively ranking them by fitness levels and rewarding them for their improvements It’s called FitRanx and you can learn all about how it works here:
The FitRanx Progressive Level Fitness Testing and Ranking System FitRanX
exclusive discount use promo code: GEO247 Special link FitRanX
