I’m going to give away the secrets of gyms that have 363 to 741 clients.
These guys:
Here’s what they had to say when we asked them how they achieved these amazing numbers.
Consistency and Selectivity
First, several gym owners said these numbers are standard, and one even expects his total to grow after a slight decline in a season that’s traditionally very good for him.
What this tells you is that these gyms are steadily adding clients and retaining them. The last part is a big deal.
In our 2024 “State of the Industry” report, we found that the average big-group gym adds five clients a month but loses three. So they’re only netting 24 clients a year. If they start with 100 clients, it would take them more than 10 years to crack our leaderboard.
Our top gyms aren’t growing at ridiculous, unsustainable rates. They aren’t piling in 50 people per month with wild marketing campaigns. But every month they are adding a few more people than the average gym, and they are losing fewer people than the average gym.
Say they add eight and lose two clients a month. That’s plus six per month, and plus 72 for the year.
Want to take the first step in that direction? Find out how many clients you’re losing each month and reduce the number—even by one or two people. (We can help you with marketing, too. But start with retention.)
Here’s a very interesting quote: “We lost some members that didn’t align with our values. It’s been a hard transition, but it looks like we are at a good spot right now, hoping to start growing again.”
If a gym has 700 clients, you might think it’s taking everyone. But that’s not the case. This owner is looking for the right people, and that’s a great business plan.
When you’ve got “the right people,” they pay what the service is worth, and they stick around because they find commonality with “the other right people.”
Your service is for anyone, but it’s not for everyone. You need to know your niche and protect your community. Refer people out when they aren’t a good fit. You’ll grow faster if you do.
It’s like pruning an apple tree: It sucks to cut branches, but if you lop off the branches that aren’t producing as well, the other branches will flourish, grow faster and produce better fruit.
Business Improvements and Focus
“We have always been focusing on our clients ‘leaving happier than when they came.’ Now, as a Two-Brain gym, we are focusing on leveling up our coaches and prices.”
Many gym owners improve service delivery but don’t charge more for increased value. This gym owner is going in the opposite direction: He’s focusing on increasing client value by increasing coaching value. As that coaching value goes up, he raises his rates.
And think about what a $10 increase in average revenue per member does when your gym has 500 clients. That money drops right to the bottom line.
“We’ve been focusing on retention, improving our churn rate for the whole year.”
As I said above, retention is critical. Most people don’t have a marketing problem. They have a retention problem. They’re pouring water into a leaking bucket. The gym owners who plug the hole in the bucket and keep the tap on add members fast. And they make it onto these Top 10 leaderboards.
“We’ve been changing our approach to the business over the last couple of years, implementing lots of Two-Brain stuff. We got a CSM (client success manager), one in each location, and we have changed our focus to retention. We’ve been trying to define our avatar, and we’ve been moving to higher value services.”
Here’s the key to this quote: This gym is using a systematic approach to growth. They aren’t madly swinging at every pitch.
They’re not just learning something and quickly moving on to the next thing. They are working with a mentor who helps them focus on core strategies, and then they double down on those strategies. That’s virtuosity in business. You don’t skip from one thing to another. You try one thing, and you measure the result. When it works, you get better and better at it.
Virtuosity in Business
No one on our leaderboard said, “We used an earth-shattering marketing campaign to add a host of clients overnight.”
Our leaders instead attribute their huge client counts to a focus on business basics and steady improvement month after month.
And they have help: Their mentors tell them exactly what to do. In one month, it might be “hire a client success manager.” In another month it might be “use this marketing campaign to add clients now that your retention is amazing.” And so on.
I can’t see into your business right now, so I’ll give you something very general to do today:
Take a minute and run an attendance report. Who’s been missing for one or two weeks? Take 10 minutes and call every person on the list to see what’s up. Leave a message if you don’t get an answer or follow up with a text.
If you do this, you will retain more members this month.
And your client count will start to grow.
