Clubindustry

Celebrity fitness trainer Gunnar Peterson told trainers today that if they‘re in this business just to have a job, they should get out now.

Few if any left Peterson‘s keynote speech at the Javits Center, and some had to stand alongside the walls to hear Peterson, who is based in Beverly Hills, CA, and travels extensively all over the world.

Peterson did his share of name-dropping throughout the keynote address. He said he had trained celebrities from Pete Sampras to George Wendt of “Cheers” fame. Wendt was an interesting client because he was told he couldn‘t lose too much weight. Evidently, none of the “fat” jokes on “Cheers” would have been funny if Ol‘ Norm was svelte. The extensive collection of beers and meat in his house didn‘t help Wendt‘s cause, either.

“You cannot blame me for George Wendt‘s condition,” said Peterson, who got Wendt to drop almost 30 pounds.

Sampras, by the way, like to adhere to a strict routine when working out. Peterson said Sampras requested the lights turned off, the air conditioning dropped down into the 60s, and U2 or Pearl Jam had to be playing. Oh, and Pete didn‘t want anyone else in the room.

The name-dropping continued when Peterson told stories about how Alyssa Milano went on and on about her menstrual cycle in front of Peterson, who said Milano referred to him as a “Ken doll,” someone she could trust and feel safe around without having to worry about him showing any personal feelings for her.

When Peterson leaves a client for any length of time, they‘re not always happy. Peterson said that when he told Leah Remini that he was going to New York for this speaking engagement, she was displeased, to say the least. He offered to pass Remini to another trainer for the time being, but apparently she wanted to wait for him and do cardio until he returned.

“And they don‘t [do cardio],” Peterson explained.

Peterson stressed that too many trainers want to be celebrity trainers, and that‘s a mistake. He said that one bad trainer plus a celebrity equals a good trainer, no matter how bad that trainer is. Peterson told the story about how one trainer for Mary J. Blige pitched a song to her during their session.

Trainers have to be active, said Peterson, who “cold calls the hell out of people.” Like actors, trainers can‘t just rely on their pedigrees. They have to continue to leave the house. -Stuart

There were a lot of sessions at this show on the hot topic of retention. I happened to sit in on one of them, “Dramatically Increase Retention and Referrals,” offered by Jeff Masten of Sales Makers. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this session as I know Masten, but I’ve never attended one of his presentations. He’s always struck me as a quiet person, but when he stepped “on stage” this afternoon, he really came to life. He excitedly showed the 50 or so participants some industry statistics about retention, such as that people 45 years and older have an annual retention rate of 71 percent and people 16 to 25 years old have a retention rate of 48 percent. The annual retention rate for family memberships is 15 percent higher than a single or joint membership. In the third month, 40 percent of members fail to visit their club once a week. Thirty percent of members visit less than once a week in the first month. There is a close relationship between the frequency of visits in month one and the 12-month retention rate.

I thought the most important point of his presentaiton was that each club should have a retention manager–someone whose job is to focus on retaining members. In an uncertain economy where some club owners are already cutting expenses, the thought of hiring a retention manager might sound like an unnecessary expense, but Masten is a huge proponent of it. As we’ve all heard, it costs less to retain a member than to get a new one. If you can retain more members, you don’t have to work so hard to get new members.

Masten drove home the point that your sales managers must sell the value of your club to potential members. If at the time of close the potential member objects to membership because of price, then your staff hasn’t done a good enough job of selling the value of your club to them.

So, how do you sell the value of your club? You have to find out what is motivating that person to come into your club, and then show them how you can help them with that goal. Masten’s company has a whole form that they suggest their clients use to track the potential members who come into the club, and that form should include their aims for joining. That way, if someone other than the initial contact person contacts that potential member, they know how to approach them about joining.

One thing that Masten said that surprised me (even though it made a lot of sense) was the importance of sending thank-you notes after a visit by a potential member. Masten suggested sending thank-you notes to members for their referrals, to people who visited for stopping in and to people after they join. In a day and age when thank-you notes are uncommon, that little extra touch can mean a lot. Maybe even to a new member. –Pam

No one really likes confrontation, but that was the topic of my first session this morning, “How to Confront New Competition,” led by Rick Caro, president of Management Vision. Rick is not a confrontational person, so there wasn’t any need to worry about the session getting too heated. Caro’s main message was that instead of blaming any slow growth or decline on a competitor, club owners must truly look at what they are doing at their own clubs first, and they must ensure that they have differentiated themselves enough before a new competitor comes in.

Caro talked about how you find out a new competitor is coming into your market (realtors, equipment vendors, city planning and zoning boards, club members who may have received direct mail from the new club).

Then, Caro said that club owners must know their market and that of the new competitor to truly know whether the new club will compete for the same members. Club owners should do a “drive test” (drive 8 miles from their club in every direction for the primary market–and do the same for the competitor if you know where they will be located–and 12 minutes in every direction for the secondary market). Plot this on a map and see where your markets overlap.

Then, ensure you know who your club members are by ordering complete demographics on your market and then hiring an industry expert to interpret the data. (It’s only data until someone interprets it, and then it’s information that can be acted upon.)

Once you know how much of your market overlaps and whether your brands and demogrpahics overlap, you’ll have a better idea of whether the new club is competition.

If they are competitors, then you need to determine which members are most vulnerable to leaving. Those members would be people in the overlap area, especially if they are members who use your club less than four times a month and/or haven’t been a member of your club for at least three years.

Find out exactly who the new club is, their brand, their servies/amenities, their pricing, their facility design. Find out exactly where they will be located and whether it’s just one club or one club of many planned for your city. Find out what they will feature and what their concept is. What are their differentiating factors and how do they differ from yours? Ask yourself why they will have an impact on your club and why they will be successful. Then, find out how they will be positioned and priced.

Caro then talked about how to evaluate future competition, the criteria to look at when comparing your facility to theirs and the types of research you can do to evaluate your competition. I’d detail these gems of information for you, but considering how well received this presentation was, I have a feeling that Caro will be offering this one at a future Club Industry show, so I better leave a reason for you to sign up to attend. –Pam

It’s a beautiful spring day here in New York City, but unfortunately, the Javits Center still thinks it’s winter. Although temps outside the convention center reached the mid-70s, inside, the high never got above 60. However, that doesn’t mean things weren’t “hot.” Today, I attended four sessions, and all four were inspiring, informational and in some cases eye opening (despite the fact that I had to wear a coat and scarf while attending them.)

The first session of my day (after scarfing down breakfast at Cosi, which I really, really wish we had back home in Kansas City) was a presentation on circuit strength training with Wayne Wescott, fitness research director for the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, MA. Wescott presented the audience with many studies on the benefits of circuit strength training, including increased muscle, decreased fat, improved VO2 max, and all in a 20- to 30-minute format. Although the crowd was a bit divided (and testy, I might add) about whether we’re doing a disservice to our members and clients by not always sharing this information and research with them (and instead encouraging them to do longer, more involved strength training routines), I think everyone learned something from the presentation. And impassioned people with strong opinions are always a good thing, leading to more diversity in the industry, right?

Next, I crashed the show’s JCC track. (And when I say “crashed,” I mean it, because I actually got called out for not being with a JCC by the JCC’s head fitness person. Thankfully, I talked my way into staying.) Rick Caro, last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and Sandy Coffman, Focus On Seniors columnist, both addressed the group of JCC fitness professionals and directors about how to improve customer service, retention, programming and how to find and cater to your niche. Both speakers stressed that you can’t be all things to all people, so you need to find your bread and butter (so to speak) and stick with that. Caro suggested implementing a loyalty rewards program for your members to increase the rate of retention, and Coffman emphasized the importance of good customer-service skills when keeping your attrition low.

After a quick bite to eat at the back of the convention center (and a quick call to the husband on how he and our puppy were doing), it was back into the classroom for a session with Doug Ribley of Akron General Health Systems. Ribley gave an interesting talk about medically based wellness facilities. Ribley shared his top tips for creating and managing a medical fitness center, which included making sure medical components are truly integrated with the fitness side of things (meaning you share equipment, resources and staff instead of just dividing up all the services and then placing them under one roof and calling it integrated).

Although the content for today’s seminars was fantastic and the speakers were all very good, I was most struck with the business intelligence of attendees at this year’s show. Maybe it’s because it’s New York and the health club industry here is the most established in the country, but I’m not sure if I remember a show where the questions have been more interesting and intelligent. Session after session, attendees have asked specific , business-driven questions and received great advice for them. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings, but I do know one thing: I won’t forget my coat! –Jennipher

Late in the afternoon today, I stopped by the New York Health and Racquet Club (NYHRC) near our hotel on 45th street to get a tour of the facility and talk with J Travis, brand manager for NYHRC. The facility just re-opened after being closed for a few weeks for renovations. Not all the renovations were completed yet, but I got a good idea of how the club was going to look once it was finished. J was excited about the new stone work on the walls and how much more open the entry area was. It did look nice with some new strength equipment in the area visible as people walk into the club.

J was even more excited, however, about how the group ex instructors at NYHRC are encouraged to come up with their own routines and work with the group ex director to develop these programs. Several of their group ex instructors already have or are on their way to having book and DVD deals based on their programs. J said it was a great way to provide career growth to the people who have worked for NYHRC for years. -Pam

My first session for the show was Shayne Kohn‘s session, “Customer Service Basics - Hiring and Training and How They Affect Your Bottom Line.” Kohn is president of Spachitects, which is a spa and fitness development company. She also works for a high-end club and spa as director.

Kohn started out her session by asking the room of about 30 people what they thought a brand was and whether their clubs had a brand. Not many people in the room seemed to know what their club‘s brand was. Kohn informed the crowd that a brand is not a logo, but it is what people think of when they see your logo. A brand is what your company is known for.

Taking that then to the hiring side, Kohn said that everything you do in hiring must come back to your brand. You must have a mission statement that speaks to your brand, and all your staff–from locker room attendant to the president–must know your mission statement and brand.

She then went into some details on the hiring process that her company uses. She said that the interview process begins before she even interviews someone. The human resource department at her spa uses a two-page questionnaire (a predictive index) to find out details about the person, such as will this person take up my time, will they gel with the other staff and will they gel with her management style.

Once the HR department weeds out certain people, Kohn then conducts interviews with the most promising candidates. She said it‘s important to be open and honest about the job description and hours in this interview. You don‘t want to take up your time or theirs if the job isn‘t something they are interested in or if the hours won‘t work for them. She said that if weekend hours or evening hours are required, be up front about it. Otherwise, it will cause problems later.

Providing exceptional customer service is part of the brand at Kohn’s company, so she asks questions in the interview to see how service oriented the candidate is. She asks them open-ended questions, such as what their best customer service experience has been lately. The experience the person relates tells you what kind of customer service they expect and, therefore, what kind of customer service they think they should provide.

She also watches how attentive people are in the interview, which indicates how attentive they will be in their jobs. She asks them questions about how they dealt with difficult customer service situations in the past so she can see how poised they will be in handling difficult situations at her club.

After Kohn interviews candidates, she calls the finalists in for a third interview that she calls a “trial/demonstration.” This interview is conducted with at least one other member of the staff. If she is hiring a trainer, she has the candidate train one of the trainers. That trainer may role play with them by giving them medical conditions to watch for to see how they handle the session. The staff member(s) then reports back to Kohn on how the person did and whether they think the person would fit with the staff.

Kohn said this third interview is important because it gives the rest of the staff a say in the hire, allowing them to have more of a buy-in. In addition, the staff can sometimes see things about the person that Kohn may have missed in the interview.

Once a new person is hired, Kohn said you should ensure the employee knows what is expected of them, something that is helped if you have set foundational standards. At her company, foundational standards are written policies that employees must adhere to, and they address items like facility appearance, employee appearance, acknowledgments and greetings, attentiveness, expertise and knowledge, and communication style.

Kohn also talked about how important it is to ensure that a staff member is in the right position. Instead of automatically firing someone, see if there is another position that might better suit them. If you must fire someone, make sure you have a paper trail to document why the firing was necessary.

Sounds like some good rules to follow regardless of the industry you work in. -Pam

Pam and I arrived in New York City safe and sound today. After a quiet and early flight (we left Kansas City at 7 a.m.), we ended up taking a limo with another New York City traveler (it was somehow cheaper than a taxi, go figure), and checked into our hotel. To save costs on this trip, Pam and I are sharing a room. Last year at IHRSA in San Fransisco, we also shared a room, although that room was much, much larger than our current living quarters. Thankfully, Pam and I are pretty easy-going and low-maintenance ladies, so we’ve made due with our itty-bitty room and bathroom without any incidents, except maybe bumping into each other every now and again.

After quickly setting up our magazine’s booth on the trade show floor, Pam and I both hit up a seminar. She’ll blog more about what she attended later, but I sat in on “Fitness Web Sites 101″ with Tom Perkins. Perkins is an expert on start-ups, business, Web sites and blogs, and answered numerous questions from the attendees. Although he gave tons of good tips, including the musts on a fitness business Web site (directions, contact information, services offered, etc.) and how to make your site “sticky” (lots of fresh, interesting, short content that gets people into your site and helps them stay there), he also recommended that owners shop around for the best price and quality when it comes to hiring a Web site designer. Designers don’t have to be local either, he said. Sites like www.guru.com can put fitness business managers in touch with talented people across the world to help them build their Web site. Perkins also spoke about blogs and how they’re increasing in popularity. Unlike Web sites that usually have more stable content, blogs are more personal, and you need to update them frequently.

After the session, Pam and I shared a cab back towards our hotel. Pam went to the New York Health and Racquet Club (again, more on that from Pam later), and I visited Vanderbilt YMCA on East 47th St. Adam Gruberger was kind enough to show me around the four-story facility and answer my questions. I was most impressed with the newly renovated cardio and strength areas, and the staff members’ customer service. You could tell that everyone there loved what they did and was happy to be there. Don’t get me wrong, the trade show is great, but I love getting away from the convention center and seeing what our readers are doing first-hand. Plus, it’s a good way to see more of the city and get more of an authentic New York experience. –Jennipher