Who Sells?

The next time you’re in a staff meeting, look at the faces around you and ask, “Which of these people is in charge of sales?”
 
If you can’t name the person responsible for selling, bad news: it’s you.
 
There are between 12 and 15 roles in every gym. But there are three “META” roles that really make the business run:
Finance
Operations
Sales.
 
Finance is your accountant and whoever sets your goals and targets.
Operations is how you coach your clients and clean your bathrooms.
Sales is how you keep your business alive.
 
Gino Wickman writes about these “three chairs” (which I call meta roles) in his books “Traction” and “Get a Grip“. Other authors have said the same.
 
Sales includes offering your services to past clients, current clients, and future clients. When you’re selling to strangers, that’s called marketing.
 
Most business owners don’t hire salespeople.
 
Gym owners hire coaches. Butchers hire assistant butchers. Chefs hire prep cooks. Instead of hiring to fill the holes in their business, they try to duplicate themselves. And that’s okay–IF they plan to take the sales role themselves. But most never do.
 
If selling is “everyone’s job”, it’s no one’s job.
 
Someone has to get good at this. Now, that doesn’t mean they have to be dishonest, or slimy, or greedy. It means they have to do their client the ultimate service: they must discover how they can help FIRST, then help MOST, and then help FOREVER.
 
I certainly want someone to tell ME what to do most of the time. I don’t want to figure out how to change the oil on my new truck. I don’t want to repair the roof on my cottage, or change the chain on my chainsaw. I want someone to say “I’ve got this. What’s your credit card number?”
 
If you own a gym, your clients don’t want to figure out nutrition on their own (they’ve probably already failed at it.)
 
They don’t want to figure out how to avoid an injury. They don’t want to figure out how to do a power clean correctly, or how to climb a rope. They want you to solve the problem. That, my friend, is selling.
 
And it’s your job.