Our Gym Insight Sales Guru© software is changing for the better this season as we unveil our newest version of Insight. Soon, users will have the choice to create a membership that will auto add a scheduled payment to the new account. This will eliminate common mistakes made from entering a yearly enhancement fee by hand after the sale is complete.

Enhancement fees, sometimes also called maintenance fees, often act as a financial buffer for owners, providing that extra cushion needed between rock-bottom pricing and a well-managed gym. The money has to come from somewhere, right?

But adding those annual or semi-annual fees into a member’s account has been tricky up to this point. Owners must periodically scroll thru their database and charge customers individually when enhancement fees are due. 

Automatically add enhancement fees

Instead, with the newest version of Sales Guru, owners simply add the enhancement fee to the parameters for that membership type, and the client is billed automatically.

Additionally, hand-entering memberships is typically the point at which mistakes occur in a gym’s membership database. The employee must enter data at several steps in the program and, inevitably, little mistakes are made. These mistakes can lead to billing problems, identification errors, or contact snafus. You can’t reach a customer with the wrong info.

In the newly redesigned system, memberships are categorized by type – for example, silver, gold, and bronze – and data is entered using a drop-down box system. Once the employee chooses a membership category, the system auto-fills critical information, minimizing steps and opportunities for errors.

Raise gym rates easily and painlessly

At the same time, the new system makes it very easy to manage rate increases. Adjusting rates in any subscription-based software can be a nightmare, explains our Head of Sales, Anthony Pasquale. Typically, gym owners must call their software company and request price changes be made manually. Or, the second choice (affectionally known in the industry as the “nuclear option”), owners can modify or retrofit the database, risking information meltdown. 

Either scenario is aggravating and nerve-wracking.

Now, with the newly redesigned Sales Guru, once a gym client is signed up under a membership category, raising rates is as simple as entering the number and setting the system to automatically adjust fees in that category. 

“Faster, smoother, better,” is how Pasquale describes the software update. Once you set the parameters of the membership, all an employee must do is introduce the customer to your gym, give them a great tour, and sign them up. No more fumbling with extra data entry steps or awkward conversations about enhancement fees six months into a client’s membership. It’s all completed upfront and designed for future growth. 

So, do you believe in maintenance fees?

For a short take on the debate, read our May 2021 blog post, “What About Annual Gym Maintenance Fees.” Some gym owners love them and others think they are best left on the cutting room floor. 

Don Roberts, owner of Fit247 in Durango, Colorado, believes in “no hidden costs.” He’d rather charge a higher monthly fee and monetize other areas within his gym, such as with affiliate member punch cards.

Ryan Copeland of The Gym in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, sees the situation differently. For him, charging an additional annual fee allows him to reinvest into the gym every year. The additional $10,000 or so pays for new carpeting, equipment maintenance and replacement, while keeping monthly dues down to a minimum. For the complete read, click here.

What do you think? Feel free to call us at 855-FOR-GYMS and speak with Anthony. Perhaps you will enjoy hosting one of our Gym Owner’s Podcasts to discuss the subject.  

Gym Insight

Gym Insight provides the easiest-to-use, most competitively priced gym management software on the market. Since we are on the subject of Sales Guru, here is a quick rundown of our signature sales tool. Sales Guru byGym Insight works on a tablet or a web-enabled desktop PC and integrates fully with our backend system. 

Sign-up is simple, as each page includes just a single data point. Clients swipe through pages, adding one significant item at a time. Throughout, signatures and pictures are captured, legal and liability release documents are signed, payment is secured and, boom – it’s done. Within five swipes, all the information is completed, uploaded and ready for immediate use. The tablet can even sit in its own stand, turning it into a self-serve sign-up kiosk ready for use. 

It’s easy on employees, too. Users can design their own live documents, upload forms, and add or remove memberships in minutes. If a customer has a question, pull up a PDF and review it together. With Sales Guru, signing up a new customer will be the most stress-free part of your day! Call 1-855-FOR-GYMS and ask for our lead sales guy, Anthony.