Closing a deal when selling health club memberships is not easy nowadays. With the boom in the fitness industry, more and more health clubs are offering attractive deals and discounts to bring in more members. When making any sale, you need to have the knowledge and skills to handle any type of objections. You may not find it difficult to do this, but price objections are the most difficult to handle. Even if your prospective clients want the deal, the price may be holding them back. Here’s what you have to do to close the sale:

1) Wait for the right time – Many people make the mistake of introducing price too early in their sales conversations. Doing this means you get a lot more price objections than you’re supposed to. Before you decide to even mention it, you have to give some time to your prospect. Sell them the benefits of joining your health club first before you get on to the question of price. This can help them realize the value of the deal and make their decisions from that. If you share the pricing information too early, you immediately move on to the negotiation phase and you won’t have the chance to let them know the value of the deal.[i]

2) Take your time to respond – When you get a price objection, avoid responding then and there. First, try to get some information as to why the prospect is objecting to the price. Ask them what their concern is, so that they can let you know all the objections they have. This will help you get a complete idea about what is really going on. So, you can take some time and give an effective and positive response.[ii]

3) Give them confidence in the outcome – If your prospect is objecting to the price of the health club membership you are selling, it could be because they are still unclear as to how they can benefit from the deal. When you get this type of objection, ask them the question, "If we could help you lose 10 pounds in 1 month, wouldn’t that be worth an investment?" Putting it across like they are making an investment in the health club membership can be a good way of convincing prospects that they are doing the right thing.[iii]

4) Focus on selling the value – When you still face price objections after explaining all the benefits of the deal, it could be because you have not sold the value as well as you thought you did. Get back to what the prospect needs and hopes to get out of this health club membership. Try to help them articulate how much it is worth to them. If you can get the prospect to understand the value of the deal and put it in financial terms, they will be less resistant when it comes to pricing.[iv]

5) Avoid haggling – For many people who try to sell some product or service, haggling and negotiating are the same thing. That is one of their biggest mistakes. A negotiation happens when you make certain adjustments and changes to the terms and conditions of the deal. This means that the adjustments you make should be suitable to the value of money you are asking in exchange for your service. A haggle happens when you are asked to provide the same quality of service at a lower price. If you know that you are asking a reasonable charge for the service you provide, making adjustments in the price will also require you to make appropriate changes to the level of service.[v]

6) Stop selling out of binders and using fill-in contracts – Generally, people want to be treated equally and know that they are paying approximately the same price for a service as everyone else. Fill-in-the-blank contracts make most people feel like they are being ripped rather than becoming part of a gym. The same is true for selling out of binders. If you are a health club that still uses either or both of these methods, move on from the past! Leave little room for wiggle room for negotiations and give your prospects assurance that they are valued the same as the other members at your club.

7) Become a Sales Guru – To do so, you first have to get Guru (don’t worry, it’s free). Guru is Insight’s sales software program and it will aide you in step 6. With Guru’s software, you can visually present a sales menu on a monitor screen for your prospects to choose from. With Guru, you can edit the sales menu with the type of membership deals your club offers. Once they see the menu on screen, they will know that there is virtually no room for negotiation. This visual presents your gym prospect with the power to choose how much they want to pay. My suggestion is to make your "menu" as simple as possible, like In-N-Out. Once they choose which membership they want, the software will take you to a contract screen where information will need to be filled out. Another benefit of becoming a sales Guru, is that with one swipe of the credit card, all vital information needed to charge the membership due is automatically downloaded onto the printable membership contract without any transcription errors. Once the contract is filled out and saved, all information and payment processing will be integrated with the Insight software so there is no need for any further data entry. Thereafter, you are officially deemed an Insight Guru! Check it out in the video below!