One of my VIP clients was reviewing his intake process with me earlier today and several questions came up.
First, I applaud Colby for being a man on a mission. Like most fitness businesses, the pandemic years really had a negative impact on his business. But he’s still standing and moving forward quickly.
The intake process is critical to any small service business, especially in fitness.
The intake process is what happens from the time the prospect first expresses interest in the business until they are a customer. Remember there are only two types of people, customers, and potential customers. So even if the timing is not right for the prospect right now, we need to keep them in our system until the timing is right. The only exception would be if the prospect specifically asks to not be contacted again.
Unless they express no contact the intake process continues forever with a nurturing plan.
For the purpose of my client’s questions, though, we’ll focus on the initial contact and intake process.
The first challenge is to determine how many unique programs you have. For instance, if you have group classes and personal training, that would count as two programs.
For each program, you need to have a separate and unique intake process. One size does not fit all in this case.
Second, your intake process needs to be in writing and included in your SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures.) This allows you to leverage your time by training other people to handle this task in your absence.
Third, your intake process needs to be able to accommodate large numbers of people efficiently and effectively. A good test would be, can you handle 50 new prospects a week?
The first step is to write out what you do now and tweak it from there. Above all, don’t have just one process if you have multiple programs.
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