With the assessor at the wheel, let’s start at the beginning of the sales journey.

As well as direct conversions through your website, you’ll be getting enquiries from prospective customers who want to know more about your gym and your product.

Every gym will have certain trends here: a city-centre operation should get a high percentage of walk-ins, whereas a gym with a strong online training element may push enquiries towards email and social media messaging (for example).

You also want to make sure that you have systems in place to drive consistency in each and every interaction. This is about giving the client a consistently outstanding service, a reliable and distinct business brand, and precisely the right information at the right time.

The key to doing this well is to establish a process for fielding enquiries that is part of your overall sales systems. This will often take the form of a script and/or template that you can use to guide the style and tone of your communications – and that can be adopted by every single person that fields these enquiries, from your front of house staff to your coaches.

Don’t forget to track your KPIs across each of these enquiry channels. By recording your metrics, you can work out which channels are working best; where you need to improve; and how to adjust your overall sales and marketing strategy to play to both your strengths and the habits of your target audience.

In the following exercises, you’ll create a template or script for each of the main enquiry channels. Here are some principles to follow:

• Keep it simple

Too much detail is an immediate turn off for prospects. Focus on adding value upfront.

• Be responsive

Listen more than you talk. You want to leave space for the prospect to speak about their situation and needs, allowing you to serve them in a personalised way.

• Stay on brand

Keep your core values in mind at all times. This will help you position the tone and approach of your scripts, as well as what you focus on.

• Know your CTA

It should be crystal clear what the action is for the client in every situation.

• Don’t micromanage

Whether it be for yourself or for your staff team, too much detail in these scripts and templates is overkill. There needs to be enough to drive your house style and to make sure that every prospect gets a high quality, consistent experience. But making your staff read every word will come across robotic and characterless; it will also disempower them as meaningful contributors to your team. Leave space for individual character and ability.