Today’s message is about how to keep clients for life. If you show clients love on a regular basis, sending them cards or doing some kind of wow campaign, then they’re more apt to stay with the business and not the individual trainer. The value that you provide has to be five to ten times the cost of them coming to you and your service. That cost isn’t just what they pay to you, but also the time that they spend getting ready, coming, traveling, going, doing the training session, and then going home. That’s all time, and time is money, and that has a value to it.
There’s also a secondary cost that they have to buy new shoes or workout clothes. All of that is the cost of doing business with you. Not just what they pay you, but all the ancillary things that go into training with you. The value that you provide to them has to be four to ten times what that cost is. What is that value? It’s making sure that you understand what they need to help them achieve their goal.
Showing the love can be sending a handwritten thank you note to your clients when they sign up for your program. It should be physically sent to them, not emailed. Then, you can do a gift bag with water bottles, t-shirts, samples of supplements that you provide, possibly in the mail, but maybe when they show up for their first training session. They’ll always be appreciative of that.
Or, you can do a drip of gifts over time because the honeymoon will wear off in the first couple weeks. We’re big on doing a drip campaign over three months. That’s how long it gets people to get to a result, but we want to make sure that they are continuing on with the program.
Those are for new clients, but what do you do for long-term clients? You want to make sure that they feel as appreciated as when they first joined. Maybe do a client dinner for those that have been with you three years or five years, or give them a special mug or a special t-shirt. Do what makes sense for your business.
If they spent $20K, $30k, $50K over the course of their training with you, sending a $20 or $50 gift is a drop in the bucket. This is especially important when you are the business owner, and you have trainers delivering the service. That relationship can get very close, and often times if the owner is absentee and doesn’t really do a lot in terms of thanking the clients, then the client may leave with a trainer eventually. However, if the owner is showing love to the client, there’s a relationship there. If the trainer leaves, the client is more likely to stick with the company and not to go with the trainer.
You might offer a lifetime membership. The way this worked for me is, I offered a three-year prepaid membership. At the end of the three years, I discounted their monthly rate about 30%. They got quite a bit of savings for prepaying for three years, but they kept the same rate after the three years for life, and it would never go up. If you get somebody to prepay for three years, they’re with you for life.
So here are your nuggets for today. If you’d like to contact me about keeping clients, please feel free to contact me at TomJackobs.com. Fill in the strategy call form there, or just send me an email at Tom@TomJackobs.com. I’d love to talk to you about your business and how I can help you achieve greatness.
