Nobody clicks aspirationally

Picture the person who filled out your form last night.

They're on the couch. Phone in one hand. Bag of Cheetos resting on their stomach. They caught sight of themselves earlier in a way they didn't enjoy, and something in your ad made them think maybe there's a way out of this.

Then they tapped a button and Facebook autofilled everything, because Facebook has had their information since they were eleven. The whole thing took under a minute.

That's who is on the other end of the phone when you call. Not a prospect. Not a lead. That person, on that couch, a little embarrassed.

Almost nobody clicks on your ad aspirationally. They click because they want out of where they are.

I used to call people like they'd been sitting by the phone waiting to hear from a gym. Cheerful, a little formal, working off something that sounded like a script even when it wasn't written down. It went about how you'd expect.

Here's the test I ran on my Tuesday call. I had everybody open their text messages, right then, and look at what's in there.

Mine is wall-to-wall garbage. And I don't read any of it, because the odds any given message actually helps me are basically zero. The only things I open are the ones that sound like an actual person. My GM Val texting "hey dumbass, check your messages" gets read instantly.

So if your outreach doesn't sound like one human talking to another human, it gets filed with the spam before anybody reads your second sentence.

Which is why I say "dude" on the phone. I say dude in person. I type "ya" instead of "you," because that's how I type. None of that is a technique I picked up somewhere. It's just the absence of a technique.

If it doesn't sound like a person, why on earth would they respond to it?

Two physical things that sound stupid and aren't, because tone travels down a phone line whether you want it to or not. Stand up when you call. And smile while you're talking, even though nobody can see you. You can hear it. Everybody can hear it.

The other thing I'd stop doing is opening with a goal question. One of the guys on the call opens with "what's one fitness goal you want to hit this year." That's a GREAT question for a member sitting down with you for a goal review. It's a terrible one for a stranger, because they don't have fitness goals yet. They have a situation they don't like.

"What made you reach out today?" gets you an answer. Every single time.

They're not buying a gym on that call. They're deciding whether you're a person worth driving across town to meet.

Nick

Nick Habich owns Shark Bite Fitness in Cape Coral, Florida, and coaches gym owners in Pathfinder Collective. These notes go out to his email list on Tuesdays and Thursdays.