“Should I offer a free trial at my gym?”
No—I’ll be blunt even though many gym owners and industry people will disagree with me.
Two-Brain data shows that a free consultation leads to the best length of engagement, so I’ll build my business on that extensive research.
Retention in gyms is more important than just about anything else, so I have no reason to experiment and risk losing members with a free trial.
This old debate popped up again when Morning Chalk Up released an article called “Are Free Trials Helping or Hurting Your CrossFit Business?” (It’s available here, with a subscription.)
Short summary: Some gym owners use free trials and say they work.
I’ll review what they said and ask a few questions here.
Tino Hildebrandt of CrossFit Virage uses free trials but sits prospects down for a consultation afterward.
To me, that’s not a free trial; it’s a consultation preceded by a workout. There’s a huge difference—and we know consultations work, so you can’t chalk a close in this format up to the “trial” alone.
Workout plus consultation can equal success if you handle the consultation properly and help clients solve problems by providing a detailed plan.
David Israel of CrossFit Felix offers a free trial to people who have CrossFit experience—that’s a huge qualifier.
A free trial might work for someone who just moved into town and is looking for a place to do Fran, muscle-ups and heavy deadlifts, but how many of those athletes are around? The majority of people do not have experience, so we need an airtight plan to help them get into gyms. It would not make sense to create an intake plan based on the needs of a very small segment of the market.
I’d also ask this: If I have experience, do I really need to sample Cindy or Helen? I personally have 16 years of CrossFit experience. Were I to look for a new gym, I’d want to talk to the owner to get answers to very specific questions. I already know Fran sucks.
Jeremy Sims of CrossFit Bolder offers an entire free month and says seven of 10 samplers become members.
My question: Could Jeremy equal or beat that number with a free consultation and sales training? I bet he could, and he wouldn’t have to give up a month of revenue to get a member.
I’d love to see Jeremy add recurring revenue on Day 1, not Day 31, at the cost of just 15 minutes of time rather than a service package that should be valued at over $200.
Finally, gym owner Avery Jesmer of CrossFit Ravage offers a free week and has a 93 percent conversion rate. She said this: “Giving them time to experience all that your affiliate has to offer will appeal to any of the reasons why they came.”
I’d like to know more about Avery’s process. Is this really just a free trial and nothing else? I have to think that some conversations/consultations are happening during that free week. (If they aren’t, I think they should be.)
My follow-up question would be about retention and lifetime value of those who join: Could it be improved through an initial free consultation and follow-up goal reviews?
I believe the answer is a loud “yes!”—and I believe that because Two-Brain data shows length of engagement is measurably better when free consultations are used, and 30 percent of clients who do goal review sessions upgrade services by 30 percent.
Run the Numbers!
None of this is criticism of gyms who use free trials. I want gym owners to add more clients, keep members longer and earn more, so my comments all come from a place of “can we do better?” I appreciate that each gym owner shared info with the Morning Chalk Up so we can improve the gym business.
In my personal experience, free trials worked only for people who were ready to join already. They had done the research and just needed confirmation, and a good sweat with a fun coach provided it. Those early adopters filled my gym from 2011 to 2014, but I ran out of them in 2015.
So I had to start asking these questions:
What about the average person who just wants to lose weight or gain strength? How do I get that person in the gym and keep them for years? Does tossing that person into a free class answer any of their questions and help them make a life-changing decision?
I don’t believe so.
It also doesn’t expose the person to the best solutions: PT, nutrition coaching, semi-private coaching.
In fact, that’s my greatest problem with free trials: They don’t allow coaches to build value by presenting expert solutions to very specific problems.
As a coach, I want the opportunity to say, “This is exactly how we solve your problems and help you accomplish your specific goals.” If I get that chance, I’ll probably sell coaching, which is worth a lot of money.
If I don’t get to have that conversation, I’m just selling workouts and loud music—which you can get anywhere. And when you can get something anywhere, you’ll make your decision based on price.
If you’ve only used free trials at your gym, you owe it to yourself to try free consultations (instructions here). Test the process and run the numbers on sales, average revenue per member and retention.
If you do that, I’m confident you’ll ditch free trials and never look back.
