TakeAways From Our 30k Mastermind Ep 18

Alex emphasized the critical importance of retention in the fitness business, highlighting the success of gym owners who've significantly increased their revenue by utilizing his system's strategies. During a gathering of gym owners, known as "gym lords," impressive revenue gains were showcased, with the top earner reporting an additional $234,000 over four months. Alex underlined that there are only two profitable gym models: those focusing on semi-private studios or large group training, both with a strong emphasis on customer retention. He advised gym owners to know their retention rates, understand customer attrition, and focus on delivering value to ensure client loyalty. Alex also encouraged word-of-mouth promotion for the podcast, stressing the importance of over-delivering to customers to maintain their business. He offered a free case study for gym owners looking to reach full capacity, available at GymLaunchSecrets.com.

• Alex hosted a weekend event with gym owners, referred to as "gym lords."
• The event lasted for 20 hours across two days, focusing on the fitness gym business.
• Participants showcased their financial success since using Alex's system.
• The highest reported additional revenue was $234,000 over four months.
• Several others also reported over $200,000 in additional revenue.
• The event provided an opportunity for community building among gym owners.
• The "gym lords program" is a premium offering for successful gym owners to learn advanced business strategies.
• Alex emphasized that the key takeaway from the event was the importance of retention in the gym business.

"All my gym lords came into town and we had to spend twelve straight hours, two days, actually, I guess it's 10 hours both days, so it's 20 hours or whatever."

This quote explains the duration and intensity of the event, highlighting the commitment of the attendees.

"The highest one was $234,000 in additional revenue. Second highest was 220,000. We had another couple that was over 200,000."

The quote showcases the significant financial gains experienced by participants using Alex's system, emphasizing the system's effectiveness.

"Our gym lords program is our highest program, where all the guys who absolutely crush their launches and understand the need for more levels of service and basically want to learn the rest of the secrets of how to run their gym."

This quote describes the exclusive nature of the gym lords program, designed for those who excel in their business and seek further advanced strategies.

• Retention is identified as the central theme and most critical factor for success in the gym business.
• Alex interacts with hundreds of gym owners and recognizes only two profitable gym models.
• Both successful models rely heavily on retention: semi-private studios and large group training models.
• The only sustainable business model is one that focuses on obsessing over client retention.
• Three ways to build a business are acquiring more customers, increasing purchase frequency, and raising transaction values, but retention is emphasized as the core strategy.

"Retention is everything. Retention is the game."

This quote serves as a mantra for the event, stressing the paramount importance of keeping clients in the gym business.

"There are only two types of gym models that make money."

The quote identifies the two successful gym business models, both of which prioritize client retention as a key to profitability.

"There's really just one business model that was kind of what I did there, and it's people who obsess about retention."

Alex simplifies the message by stating that regardless of the type of gym model, the ultimate successful business model is the one focused on retention, making it the central theme of the event and his advice.

• Discusses the importance of using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for customer acquisition.
• Emphasizes the need for internal strategies to ascend customers through different service levels.
• Highlights giving samples at a discount to entice customers to desire more advanced services.
• Stresses the significance of providing excellent service to retain customers and encourage them to purchase longer service durations.

The way that that works is you have your Facebook marketing and. Right, or Instagram marketing too. So all three of those as the ways that you acquire customers.

This quote explains that Facebook and Instagram are key platforms for acquiring new customers in the gym business model.

And then you have all of the internal plays, warm traffic plays, to ascend customers up, get them to spend more money with you, give them samples at a discount of the higher levels of service internally, so that they desire higher levels of service because they actually know what it's like.

The quote describes strategies for increasing customer spending by offering them samples of higher service levels at a discount, which can create a desire for those services.

And then how do you give them amazing service so that they will stay and not leave. Right. Which is getting them to buy more times. Right. Getting them to buy more months of service with you.

This quote emphasizes the importance of providing exceptional service to ensure customer retention and encourage them to commit to longer service periods.

• Speaker B emphasizes the growth of the podcast through word-of-mouth, without the use of ads, sponsorships, or sales.
• The speaker encourages listeners to share the podcast in the same way they discovered it, whether through a review, post, or personal recommendation.
• The speaker suggests that sharing the podcast is a way to generate good karma for other entrepreneurs.

The only way this grows is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads, I don't do sponsorships, I don't sell anything.

This quote highlights the reliance on word-of-mouth marketing for the growth of the podcast due to the absence of traditional advertising methods.

My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast, that you do the exact same thing.

The speaker requests that listeners promote the podcast to others as a way to support and help it grow.

• Speaker A discusses the limited importance of contracts in retaining customers.
• The speaker argues that the true reason customers stay is due to the continuous delivery of value by the business.
• It is noted that selling is easier than retaining customers, which requires ongoing attention to customer needs.

Contracts I don't think mean a ton. I mean, we definitely have people use six month and twelve months contracts, but the only reason someone will stay is if you're continually delivering value.

This quote suggests that the effectiveness of contracts is secondary to the value provided to customers, which is the main reason they remain with a service.

• Speaker A emphasizes the necessity of knowing retention and attrition rates within the gym business.
• The speaker points out that not knowing these numbers is likely the root of customer retention issues.
• An anecdote is shared about gym owners not being aware of their retention statistics, with a promise to change that in the next meetup.

The first thing here, and this is the first thing that I want everyone who's listening to this to do, is go now and calculate what your retention rate is.

This quote underscores the action item for listeners to determine their retention rates as a critical step in understanding and improving their business.

If you don't know what it is, I guarantee you that's your problem.

The speaker guarantees that not knowing retention rates is a fundamental problem for businesses struggling with customer retention.

Like right off the bat, it's because you don't even think about keeping your customers.

This quote implies that ignorance of retention rates reflects a lack of focus on customer retention strategies.

• Customer retention is crucial for business growth beyond a core group of customers.
• Retaining customers should be prioritized over cold market acquisition.
• The effort and resources spent on acquiring a customer should be matched by efforts to keep them.
• Providing an exceptional customer experience is key to retention, more so than just delivering results.
• Businesses should fulfill the broader human needs of their customers, such as connection, significance, growth, contribution, variety, and routine.
• Measuring retention metrics is essential to understand and improve customer retention.

"And so what can we do to get people to stay? A lot of people try and blame their customers and be like, oh, no, you know how people are. They're wishy washy, blah, blah. If you can really, really over deliver to your customers in such a way, from an experiential standpoint, it has nothing to do with results."

This quote emphasizes the importance of the customer experience in retention, suggesting that businesses should focus on exceeding expectations in service rather than solely on the end results of their product or service.

"But what they really want is they want the rest of their human needs satisfied, connection, significance, growth, contribution, all right? Variety and routine."

Here, Alex points out that while customers come for the results, their long-term commitment is tied to having their broader human needs met, reinforcing the idea that customer experience goes beyond the tangible outcomes of a service.

"Once you do start measuring your numbers, then you can actively start implementing things to try and keep people."

This quote underlines the necessity of tracking retention metrics to identify when and why customers leave, which allows for targeted strategies to improve retention.

• Businesses often struggle to grow beyond a certain point due to a lack of focus on expansion.
• The fallacy that a small loyal customer base is a sign of success can hinder growth.
• Growth requires a shift from solely acquiring new customers to also retaining existing ones.

"But if you can't grow past 100 efts, it's because you don't think about growing."

Alex suggests that stagnation in business growth is due to a lack of strategic thinking aimed at expansion and not just maintaining the current customer base.

• Acquiring customers in niche markets, such as gym owners, is more challenging than in broader markets, like individuals wanting to lose weight.
• Once a niche customer is acquired, they become even more valuable due to the difficulty of replacing them.
• The strategy for retention should be tailored to the type of customer and their respective market.

"How hard do you think it is to acquire a gym owner versus acquire someone who wants to lose weight? Everyone needs to lose weight. How many gym owners are there? Not as many."

This quote highlights the relative difficulty of acquiring customers in niche markets compared to broader ones, implying the increased value of each customer in a niche market.

• Over-delivering to customers can lead to higher retention rates.
• The experience provided to customers should exceed their expectations.
• Blaming customers for being "wishy-washy" is a misguided approach to explaining customer churn.

"If you can really, really over deliver to your customers in such a way, from an experiential standpoint, it has nothing to do with results."

Alex emphasizes that the key to customer retention is to provide an exceptional experience that goes beyond the basic delivery of results, suggesting that businesses should aim to impress customers with the quality of their service.

• Addressing customers' human needs is a powerful retention strategy.
• Needs such as connection, significance, growth, contribution, variety, and routine are fundamental to customer satisfaction.
• Businesses should understand and cater to these needs to retain customers effectively.

"But what they really want is they want the rest of their human needs satisfied, connection, significance, growth, contribution, all right? Variety and routine."

Alex indicates that while customers may initially engage with a business for its promised results, their continued patronage is dependent on how well the business fulfills their deeper human needs.

• Regularly measuring retention metrics is critical for understanding customer behavior.
• Without tracking data, businesses are likely unaware of their actual retention rates and patterns.
• Analyzing retention data enables businesses to implement targeted retention strategies.

"When it comes to retention, if you're not measuring your numbers, I guarantee you're losing tons of people."

Alex asserts that businesses not actively tracking retention are likely losing more customers than they realize, stressing the importance of data in managing customer relationships effectively.

• Importance of tracking customer retention metrics.
• Identifying specific times when customers are more likely to leave.
• Understanding the reasons behind customer cancellations.
• Strategies to over-deliver to customers before the "hump of attrition."
• The significance of customer retention in business growth.

ack that as well. Because if you start seeing that there are blips, right? Like, let's see, at month three, month six, month twelve, that's when people leave, right?

This quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing patterns in customer departure times to implement retention strategies effectively.

Then you can start over delivering in the month prior and getting them through the quote hump of attrition that people sometimes experience.

Here, the speaker suggests proactively enhancing customer experience before the identified periods when customers are likely to leave, in order to retain them.

So first thing, track the numbers. Second thing, track the people who are leaving, what month of service, or how long they've been with you.

The speaker is highlighting the two fundamental steps in customer retention: monitoring retention metrics and understanding customer lifecycle stages.

And it's not just when people cancel, it's obviously when people card stops working or a decline happens and then you don't recover it.

This quote points out that cancellations are not the only form of customer loss; failed payments that are not followed up can also lead to attrition.

Okay, so it's important to track that because that's actually usually where more than half of the declines come from. Or, sorry, more than half of the quote cancels come from is from people who decline and then don't give you new payment information.

The speaker is stressing the significance of tracking failed payments, as they account for a significant portion of customer cancellations.

• The concept of "holes in your bucket" as a metaphor for customer attrition.
• The comparative ease of cutting attrition rates versus attracting new customers.
• The scarcity mindset's effect on customer retention focus.
• The competitive advantage gained through customer retention.
• The relationship between retention and marketing effectiveness.

If you could think about conceivably if you could never lose a customer, you would always grow and your business would be thriving.

This quote captures the ideal scenario of perfect customer retention leading to continuous business growth.

And so it's the fact that you continue to have holes in your bucket, which is the reason that you can't grow.

The speaker uses the "holes in your bucket" analogy to illustrate how customer loss prevents business expansion.

And cutting attrition percentage, believe it or not, is significantly easier than attracting new customers.

Here, the speaker asserts that reducing customer attrition is easier than acquiring new customers, highlighting a strategic focus area for businesses.

They're only thinking about when can I get my next hit of new people? But as soon as they have them in the door, they don't even pay attention to them and look for the next group.

The quote criticizes the common approach of prioritizing new customer acquisition over nurturing existing relationships.

And if you can retain customers, then it means that you will be able to outspend everyone else and then your cold traffic marketing, ironically, will be the easiest thing in the world to do.

This statement suggests that successful customer retention allows for more aggressive spending in customer acquisition, ultimately simplifying marketing efforts.

• Offering a free case study for gym owners.
• Providing a pathway for gym owners to reach full capacity.
• The no-pressure approach in initial consultations.

If you are someone who has never gotten your gym to full capacity, I would love to show you how we get gyms from zero to full capacity in 30 days.

The speaker is addressing gym owners who struggle with reaching full capacity, offering a solution through their case study.

We have this free case study. You can opt in for it@gymlaunchsecrets.com.

This quote is a direct promotion, inviting gym owners to opt-in for a free case study that could help them grow their business.

Quiz quiz on the thank you page. You can schedule a call if you feel super ambitious, and we will hop on the call with you.

The speaker encourages proactive gym owners to engage further by taking a quiz and scheduling a call for personalized consultation.

And we do not take money on the first call, so no pressure.

This quote is reassuring potential clients that the initial consultation is free of charge, aiming to reduce any hesitation in scheduling a call.