Relationship Marketing: 101

A Guest Post By Victoria Judge

A little while back, we talked about how to avoid being treated like a cheap date by your prospects. Today I want to show you how you can take that even further – how to move away from one-night-stand territory, and into a much healthier place of long-term relationships with your clients.

What this is going to mean for you, the personal trainer, is that you escape the cycle of constantly feeling like you have to chase new clients down. You’re going to have a business full of loyal, repeat-buyers, and a full pipeline of prospects ready to buy, when you’re ready to sell.

what is relationship marketing?

The original, and not very sexy, definition of Relationship Marketing was coined by Len Barry, who said:  “relationship marketing is a form of marketing which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on point-of-sale transactions.”

Yawn. But he’s got a point. The secret to a happy business is having clients who love you, continue to buy your stuff, and rave about you to their friends.

Traditionally, marketing used to be all about attracting customers for a one off sale. The focus of all marketing efforts being directed to that one single transaction. These days the smart business owner understands the importance of building a relationship with their customer: they see a process, a life-cycle – not a single transaction.

When you stop looking at customers as one-night-stands and start thinking in terms of long and healthy relationships, when you stop focusing on the sale and instead focus on building and nurturing those relationships, the need to actually ‘sell’ at all will wither away.

Here’s how.

don’t be the sales guy

Positioning is absolutely key. You want to be seen as the trusted advisor and go-to-expert NOT the sales guy. You achieve this in three simple steps:

1.  Think like your prospect

If trainers only take one key message from anything I ever write, I want it to be this – when we market as personal trainers, or as salespeople, we don’t connect with our prospects – we won’t get their attention.

Unless you truly, deeply understand your prospect, you won’t be able to create marketing pieces that generate the direct response you’re looking for.

If you haven’t already sat down and created your marketing ‘avatar’, make it a priority this week.

2.  Get their attention

You do this with your marketing tools, and though effective copy.

Remember we’re all exposed to 5000+ marketing messages a day, so your marketing stuff has to cut through all that noise and grab your prospect’s attention. You can read about one of the quickest and easiest formulas for acheiving this here.

3.  Solve their problems

Be an educator – teach your prospects what they need to know to solve their problems (or achieve their goals). Give away your best and hottest secret ninja tips for losing weight and getting fit UP FRONT – before you’ve even MET them! And before any money has changed hands. Why? Because you’re building their trust by giving them results in advance.

When you can demonstrate that you not only understand what’s going on in your prospect’s head, but also help them start to see results before they’ve even met you, you’re positioning yourself as the trusted advisor, not the sales guy, and they’re going to want more.

create a buying process – not a sales process

Some of you will already be familiar with the 6 Step Buying Process but for those of you who haven’t seen it before, here it is:

Know – Like – Trust – Buy – Repeat Buy – Refer

Being a great trainer ONLY helps you after someone’s bought your training services – step 4 – everything prior to that is achieved by your marketing.

So start with the end in mind: forget about making a sale and think about building a relationship from the start.

Your marketing must first get you noticed – so that prospects know you exist. Next, they have to like you and trust you: this is achieved when you come from a place of genuine generosity, and give away your best information up front.

Once you’ve got them through the door, you can blow their socks off with your awesome training skills, and keep developing that relationship so they repeat buy and refer you to all their mates.

never stop studying what drives your clients

Treat every interaction you have with your clients as an opportunity to develop an even greater understanding of what drives them and motivates them. Never stop learning about what makes them tick – what their biggest pains and desires are.

People don’t remain static – we’re constantly changing and evolving, and as a business you need to be doing the same. Expand your services to meet your clients’ needs. Run surveys. Set up client councils. Don’t get complacent and let your relationship wither and die – or you might end up getting cheated on with another trainer…

flowers aren’t just for Valentine’s Day

Take clients for granted at your peril! Even those who have been with you for a long time will start straying if they don’t feel special and valued.

There are so many little ways you can keep your clients feeling special with minimal cost and effort. I’m not going to list them all here but think along the lines of:

-   rewards: for hitting goals, or reaching milestones, or training for a certain length of time

-   social events: let them bring partners and family

-   motivational texts every week

-   go way overboard celebrating successes!

-   have a client of the month

-   ALWAYS remember key dates like birthdays and anniversaries

When clients start seeing their training as a chore and an expense, they’re going to be out of the door pretty soon. Treat them like kings and queens and instead you’ll be something to look forward to, and something to rave about.

don’t get carried away

Of course you still have a business to run and money to be made – so don’t lose track of that in your quest to build relationships with prospects and clients.

Relationship marketing isn’t about having fuzzy happy relationships with everyone – it’s about getting prospects to like and trust you enough to buy your stuff, and about keeping clients happy enough that they stay with you and keep paying.

It’s entirely up to you how social/personal you get with your clients – just don’t forget about the actual marketing :-)

the magic formula

I’m lucky enough to work with trainers who for the most part have nailed relationship marketing (no pun intended) and have a business full of satisfied customers. These are the kind of trainers looking to take things to the next level through leverage: productisation, coaching and membership programs, and public speaking.

This article isn’t about leverage, but for those of you curious about how you would take this relationship marketing thing to the next level – start thinking in terms of these three pillars in your business:

content: often described as ‘king’ for a reason. Always focus on content-rich, highest possible quality content in everything you do. Set yourself high standards and stick to them.

character: less tangible but equally important. Part of your branding and USP, and how you’ll create a steady following. Be clear on who you are, how you want your market to view you: have a consistent message and voice. Stay true to your authentic self.

community: what Seth Godin famously called your ‘tribe’. People LOVE being part of something. Instead of seeing prospects as potential transactions, and clients as closed deals, start thinking in terms of building a broader community based on your core business values.

the last word

I get a lot of mail from trainers telling me how much they hate being marketed to – and hence don’t feel right marketing their own services. If you’re one of those trainers, I reckon relationship marketing is where you need to be going – because there’s zero weirdness or ickiness involved. It’s just about attracting and retaining the right clients for you.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming there’s only one way to market your personal training business – do your homework and find the method that sits most comfortably with you. You should never have to compromise your values or your authentic self for any relationship – in life, or in business.

About the author: Victoria works with personal trainers looking for leverage and lifestyle. She helps successful and ambitious but time-poor trainers build businesses where they can escape the trap of selling only their time for money, and instead develop multiple streams of income through productisation, coaching and membership programs, and public speaking. For more information visit www.theptcoach.com/mentoring

Tagged as: Business Owner, Cheap Date, Customer Retention, Definition Of Relationship Marketing, Dominant Focus, Healthy Relationships, Len Barry, Life Cycle, Long Term Relationships, Marketing 101, Marketing Efforts, Night Stand, One Night Stands, Personal Trainer, Pipeline, Point Of Sale, Prospects, Simple Steps, Smart Business, Yawn