Studio Sales Process IRL with Chris Appiah & Stephanie Breaux Bradley

0:24 Oh my Where's my flap? Is that started? Okay, welcome everyone to our Walla webinar series. for those of you just joining, I mentioned it once, but don't be alarmed. We're doing this webinar style so you will not see yourself on the screen, just us. it's to help, you know, keep everybody focused and not distracted and just in case people forget to turn off cameras. It keeps us from having to explain awkward situations. but we're really grateful you're here and I am so excited that we have these guests here today. our wall a webinar series this month is all about the studio sales process in real life. And the reason I wanted to do this or bring this conversation up is because we've been spending a lot of time talking about what's happening behind the scenes in your sales process. So the automated text messages, the automated emails, the you know the marketing that's happening and kind of the nurture campaigns that are being pushed out to clients. But at the end of the day, we are in a people business. We are in actually a very emotional business in studio, fitness, yoga, breath work, meditation, all of these services. people are having a physical experience and they're connecting with an instructor of some sort. So I brought in two people that I know I am confident can speak to the in real life and the humanto human interaction side of things probably

2:08 better than anyone else. Chris and Stephanie from the sales arms. So just quickly if you have not met them before, Chris started out in sales or prior to starting this company started as the VP of sales for Exponential Fitness and one of their brands, Cycle Bar, and has lots of sales experience in the fitness industry. He was doing just membership sales, then a sales manager, then a general manager, regional manager. the end of the day, he knows how to climb a ladder and be really successful in sales. so I would listen to what he has to say. And if you weren't here at the very beginning of the call, he's also competing in nationals for powerlifting this weekend. So, thank you for being here. We're excited. Yeah. And then we also have Stephanie who has been working with Chris as well. And Stephanie owned a daily method or multiple daily methods. A single one location of daily method. Very successful. Has been consulting in the industry since then. teaching many a studio how to grow sustainably and become profitable. And honestly, she makes me laugh harder than almost anybody. So you have to have humor in this industry.

3:29 100%. so thank you too for joining us today. before I kick it over to you. I know we've got a lot of people from studios all around the country on the call. just a couple of quick notes on how we run these webinars. I love we love in real time questions. I think it helps with the conversation. It makes this really contextual and makes it really helpful for you guys to take action right away. And that's the ultimate goal to be able to leave this 45 minutes and take something right into your business and move the needle. So, we have the little Q&A button at the bottom of your Zoom screen. And when you click on that, you'll be able to ask a question in there and that will pop up for us so we can make sure to answer it live and in real time. So, in other words, please do not save your questions all for the end of the call. Let's, you know, pipe in, have a conversation here.

4:29 we've all gone to college ready or sat through school. We don't need lecture style the whole time. We're we're trying to make this conversational and as helpful as possible. but if you want to chat amongst yourselves, the little, you know, chat window is fine for that. But if you do definitely want a question answered, please make sure to pop it in that Q&A as we get going. okay. I know we've got some Walla and nonwalla clients and you know people in the industry on this call. So I may call out specific things in our software that will help you guys accomplish what they're you know what Chris and Stephanie are talking about. but you know please know that if that doesn't make sense in your software you know maybe Chris and Stephanie can offer insight on how you can accomplish certain things. All right. I think I can shut up now and turn it over to you guys and let you start talking about what you see when it comes to success and in selling to our clients in real life.

5:37 Yeah, I think just to kick it off, thank you Laura for having us on. really appreciate it and love every opportunity we get to just share our knowledge and our experiences that we see on a day-to-day at the sales arms, you know, working leads for our clients. but this is about the in real life experience and the one thing that has really changed over the years and through all the modalities that I've seen is that it's really about connection and community being authentic and genuine these days. you know, with so many people opening fitness studios these days, there's so many more modalities that people can take advantage of within a five mile radius, you know, of where they work or where they live. and what sets studios apart and really helps drive that revenue and experience is the connection that people are getting with the team in real life in their location. So, like you said, fitness is a very emotional buy.

6:48 Still, people have a lot of different reasons as to why they're, you know, attempting to get started or why they train at a specific facility. But when it's all said and done, that connection that's made with you know, a general manager or a instructor or the owner is really what is pushing people over the edge to make that commitment to a specific facility. Agree. Yeah, absolutely. I'm I'm definitely interested to hear some of the tactics there, but I think at the end of the day, authenticity is the name of the game, right? I think that when Chris mentioned connection, I think that's the most important thing to take through it. I think when you hear the word sales, sometimes it kind of stops you in your tracks. And the bottom line is you just want to ask questions. You want to ask questions to the person coming in to see what it looks like, whether they're a fit for you or you're a fit for them.

7:46 And it's all about just finding out that information. Chris and I were speaking yesterday and we were talking about like the differences between what makes a boutique a boutique because it used to be where it was very rare and where now it's all over the place. And I started going back and thinking something must have happened in my younger years with my mother because I don't like going to the mall because it's too overwhelming and I have to do everything myself to find stuff and I am not necessarily a fashionista. So going to a boutique where you might spend a little bit more money, but having someone curate the experience specifically for you, I liken that to what also, because we talked about this being an emotional buy, what the experience of walking in to a facility is. And to caveat that, I think we as studio owners forget how knowledgeable we are at the level that we're at. And kind of bringing it back to the new person who's walking in and what exactly they're feeling and what questions they might have is a really good way to start off curating what you want your sales process to look like.

8:53 Yeah, I love that. To, you know, continue on with what you're saying, Steph, right? a boutique. It's a higher level experience. It's more curated. It's a little bit more personal. Even though we have group classes where you know there may be five, 10, sometimes 30 people in a class, it's still a lot more personal than doing things on your own, right? And if you have a great instructor, that instructor can still connect with multiple people, although there's a group in there. And that gives a big difference in feeling and experience to clients coming in. So we love to break the instudio process into a few zones, right? one zone one being, you know, when a client's walking through those front doors of your facility. zone two, your front desk or you know where people congregate and have conversations most often, you know, with you or your staff in house. Zone three being the actual classroom where they're going to get the full experience, meet their instructor, and then going back, you know, having a transfer of trust from dealing with the instructor and having that entire experience, going back to the front desk, prescribing what's going to be best for the individual that is new to your facility, and then essentially closing them and hopefully them becoming a part of your community, right? So, if you can break it into a few areas, it makes it a

10:36 little bit easier to handle, digest, make sure you have the right people in place to be successful, right? So, we can go into, you know, what we're doing in those zones a little bit deeper so that people have, you know, things that you can really take away from this. so starting with zone one, right? It's it's really important to have that great energy, right? When people are walking through your door, there's so many times, and I'm sure, you know, we've all experienced it where we walked into a store or a, you know, a facility for that matter, and it's like crickets. There's nobody there. You're looking around. You're like, hm, what should I do first? Right? You want to have somebody, you know, ready for the clients that are coming into your facility where they can open the door for them. Greet them with a smile, be excited, you know, that they're there and give that excitement to somebody when they're walking in initially because it's hard for a lot of people to take that first step into a studio. And often people are, you know, second guessing themselves if this is going to be right for them or not. And they're very nervous. And when you have somebody at that entrance that you know gives you that good feeling, it helps disarm them, make them feel a little bit better and more comfortable right at that right at that point. and then it's important to really make a connection, a true

12:03 connection with that individual, right? And this is really where the process starts, you know, when somebody's inside and that's getting to know them, right? So I always say think of three questions that will allow you to understand where your client or prospect is at the time. My first one is, you know, what drove you to, you know, creating account and even booking, you know, with us today. You know, how often do you see yourself trying to take class or how often do you like to work out in general, right? And then why is it important to you? Right? Because those first questions are a little bit surface, right? It get gives you an idea of exactly where somebody stands, but when you ask why, it really gets into the deeper emotion of what's driving them to really be the best version of themselves or attempt to be the best version of themsel. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And I'd be curious for those of you on the call, does anybody have a question that they are they know every time steps through somebody steps through the door, their front desk, their teacher is asking? And if you do, would you mind putting it into the chat down below? I think it would be really interesting to see verbiage that we all use. I know I'll type mine in, but my staff I always had them use some version of, "So tell me what brought you in today." like in a really just disarming, light, comfortable way, tell

13:44 me what brought you in today. And you would get everything from like just wanted to try yoga to a story about their mother who told them about hot yoga that she's convinced cured her psoriasis and now she tells everybody in the world about, you know, like you can get everything on the grand spectrum of responses. But it starts to give you those hints about who the person is, how driven they are. Is there something that's emotionally connecting them to this experience? So, I don't know. Pipe in K Jessica. Anybody? My favorite one. My favorite one is really understanding when somebody was at their best, right? So, in the past when you were at your best with fitness, how many days a week were you, you know, were you exercising or taking care of yourself? And I love that one because in most cases our pricing and our membership models are set up for, you know, coming two, three, four times a week. So when you get that answer from somebody, it makes it so much easier to figure out, you know, what's going to be best for them at the highest level and at the lowest level. So you can suggest or prescribe what's going to fit them best from what you've just learned.

15:07 Yeah. And I find, you know, I'd be curious to hear how you guys I feel like Chris, I saw you post something like this. What gets accomplished is what you actually measure and watch. What's the quote that you use? But how do you make sure your staff is doing this? Yes. Your team doesn't do what you expect. They do what you inspect. Inspect. There you go. Thank you. Yeah, that's why and that's why it's really important to continue to have continued education to have a processes in place to go over what they're doing. You know, with the high level of communication that's happening with all the different people, you want to make sure that all the messages and all the language that's going out is in your brand voice. something as simple as there's not a lot of typos in those in those messages, right? So, so it feels professional, but also, you know, more of a genuine sound because with a lot of the a lot of the automation technology that's out there now, people when they, you know, they get a text message, they get an email, you know, they often think that it's just, you know, a robot doing that, right? You want to make it feel in your messaging and in your conversation genuine and that somebody really is on the other side of it. Because again, people don't want to talk to a computer about, you know, that one time that they couldn't lose, they tried to lose

16:36 weight and they couldn't do it and they failed, right? They want to talk to a human, somebody that possibly has gone through the same thing and has a level of understanding of where they are in their fitness journey right now. So, while automation is great and you want to make sure you use that kind of stuff in your business to be efficient, you always want to make sure there's somebody behind it because again, we're we're dealing in personal stories, events, and feelings with all the people that are coming in. And that's what's going to set you apart from your competition really actually being, you know, that boutique high-end service with somebody there to court you, so to speak, right? So, really important that you know you're you're taking that boutique aspect to the highest level you know within your business. But back to you know the zones and you know the client experience. So we talked about when somebody comes in you know greeting them and giving them that great energy and now making sure you're asking questions. big important thing when you ask those questions, stop and listen. Don't just wait to ask your next one or say the next thing in your script or your spiel, right? make sure you're listening and so that you can really reiterate the information that they share with you in that experience because what's going to happen is that person is now going to

18:08 go into the class and meet the instructor. And in most cases, instructors are dealing with a number of people. So to make that transition smooth and easy, you know, for your instructor to be the best version for this client, you want to set them up for success by sharing the information that you just learned about that prospect with that instructor, but the cliffnotee version, right? A little bit shorter. So it's not like a whole repeat of everything they said, but it guides that instructor to know exactly how to continue the conversation with them and get them motivated maybe and excited within that class. So being able to repeat what you learn to that instructor is a big step in the transfer of trust from the front desk to the instructor in the cla in the classroom. And I think that go that's one of those areas that people often let fall by the wayside, right? It's just like, "Hi, this is your instructor.

19:11 Bye." Right? But if it's, "Hi, this is your instructor, Laura." Right? Laura, this is Steph. Steph has hasn't been working out recently, but she really wants to get back in it. She said that two, three times a week is probably going to be what's best for her. I told her, "You're going to have a great class. When you meet Laura, you let her know as well." And she'll make sure you're set up for success, right? Just so you know, it's more of a conversation. And now Laura could take those little tidbits of information and run with the conversation that's going to continue to build rapport with that client. Remember, you know, this could be something that's making them really nervous. So just feeling like they're being heard by the people that they're speaking with is one of those great ways to disarm them, make them feel a lot more comfortable, and it makes it easier on your instructor now to really set the, you know, the stage for building the real trust that's going to come in the next 30, 45 minutes to an hour in that class with that person when you're telling them, you know, what to do. And sometimes, you know, say it's a cycling.

20:21 Yeah. And it's hard. Yeah. Exa. Exactly right. You know, it's like sit down, stand up, do this, do that. Don't worry, you're doing great. Right. You're doing all these things to just continue to build that confidence in that in that new client that's in your class. but at the end of it is really where you know the magic is going to happen in the process, right? So often you see people, you know, this is one thing I see often in studios, you know, instructors have their click, they have their group of people who are like their dieards, right? And they always connect with them. but often they forget about all of those newer people who are in that class because they're just so used to talking to their regulars, right? It's really important to make sure you have a cadence to address all of those new individuals. And one that I've seen that's worked really well is, you know, in the beginning of the class, just letting anybody just announcing, hey, anybody that's new in my class or that isn't a member of ours, can you stay after class just for a quick minute? I would love to just give you a little bit more information on me and how you could be successful. Right? Because in most cases some the people are going there because they have a goal. There's something that they want to achieve. So when you say that right I just want to give you more pointers on how to be successful.

21:48 You have a higher chance of somebody saying okay I'll stay for that minute after class right you'll always get people that run out but it helps set the tone to once you're done once this is all over come talk to me as opposed to just leave. And I've seen that work really, really well in regards to the conversion that happens later because believe it or not, most people don't really care about the front desk employees, you know, the people that are, you know, talking to them in lead management. They care most about the instructor. That's the person that's really going to get them to their goals. So when you have an instructor, you know, suggest or prescribe what they believe is going to be best for that new client, that client is way more receptive to it because they just spent an hour doing everything you told them to do, right? So now you're suggesting what's going to get them to their goal. And you could tell your front desk, "Hey, Stephanie did a great job. I know she said she wants to come forward, you know, three or four times a week. I said, Steph, don't be a world beater. Let's start small. I think what'll be best for her is either our four class monthly or our A class monthly so she can start coming out, you know, one to two times a week and build from there. Hey, Laura, can you get her set up with that? Right now, you're the client is like, "Oh,

23:24 okay. this is what the doctor ordered essentially, right? I should start small, come in two, you know, one to two times a week and that means I should do either this or this a pack, right? So now your front desk employee doesn't have to list off everything that you guys offer, right? You're going to just you're just going to present the two packages that were suggested by your instructor as if it was like a doctor's office, right? The doctor said, "This is the prescription that you need. So, as a front desk employee, I'm just going to write that and you're going to take that." Right? So, it makes the price presentation part of the process that much easier, right? So, it's really important that you're having these transfers of trust between your team members, right? because that's going to allow you to really be efficient and effective in what you're presenting to the client in terms of where you want them to go in becoming a member.

24:26 Yeah, I think a couple quick things there and maybe Stephanie, I'd be interested to hear your feedback on this. It's really a challenge to balance efficiency and the genuine connection, right? Because this isn't happening in a vacuum. you have, you know, maybe 20, 30, 15, however many other people in the studio at the same time and the front desk might be helping somebody get their new account set up or, you know, and then at the same time somebody is walking out of class. So, I love that idea of, you know, hey, if you anybody who's new, this is your first class, stay if you wouldn't mind, just stay after class for a couple minutes. I just want to check in and make sure you know see how the class felt but also you know talk a little bit about how we can make this sustainable for you. So I think that really could help. Steph I'd be curious to hear how because honestly I was going to mention this at the beginning one of the businesses I have had the best experience at is the daily method. When I went into my first bar class at one of those studios, they the teacher knew my name when I walked into the classroom and I was like, "I've never met you before. This is awesome."

25:40 And I felt like my props were laid out for me. They had an explanation of how to use the props. It was a very, very curated new client experience. And I feel like that took some of the load off the desk during the busy time. I think that you bring up a great point and I think when you decide what your avatar client wants or needs, you curate it. But something that I took away from you, Laura, which gave me pause to think is that we're so ingrained as studio owners and amazing experts in the fitness industry that we forget what questions we have as a new beginner walking into the studio. like you're ready as a teacher to go into the four layers of the abdominal wall and the person walking in is like are my pants too tight? is this woman going to encroach on my space kind of thing. And you brought up a great suggestion which I have used with all of my clients is go to a new facility, a new modality and walk in and see what the experience is bringing you back to what the beginnerness is so that you can curate a what your experience is and what questions you want to ask or what information you want to provide ahead of time. So that experience is amazing.

26:54 Yeah. The other thing that I learned because I have to write my notes down when you talk about memory so that I don't forget what it is that it is human nature to always want to be invited to the party. As studio owners, we don't get to decide which invitation you take, but we always want to be invited to the party because I know as a studio owner and the clients that I work with, they're like, "Am I emailing too much? Am I calling too much? Am I reaching out too much?" If they have not said stop or unsubscribe, they're still open to whatever it is that you have to say. And all you need to do is to keep showing up consistently and with value, whether that's buy this or here's a quote I love. And when that person decides they're ready to take the step, it's a no-brainer that they're going to entertain whatever it is that you have to offer. Yeah, I love that. So, always invite me to the party, even if I don't want to go, is the message.

27:49 Yeah, I the I'm glad you brought that up, the beginner mindset. I if you've never taken a boxing class, go take a boxing class for the first time and watch yourself try to wrap your hands and be completely mortified that everybody else in the class is like and you're holding this giant piece of cloth there like an idiot. Like exactly like where what do I is this about? I don't know. Anyway, I always think back to that because I was I have done most modalities of fitness and I walked into a boxing studio and I have never felt so dumb. but what is really cool about being a beginner is you yes, it gets you to think about the questions and the kind of the little pieces of whether it's props or whether it's the setup of the room or how much you're going to sweat. It gets you out of the mindset of saying, "Oh, you'll be fine." Because I hear that a lot when I walk into studios and somebody's like, "Oh, I'm nerv I haven't done yoga in so long or I haven't done Pilates. I forget what the springs are on the machine." They're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, you'll be fine."

28:51 I hear that all the time from front desk staff and teachers. And it gets you out of the mindset of you'll be fine and into, yeah, you're right. I'll go over that in a little more detail this class so everybody can have a good refresher on how the springs work or whatever the thing might be that's that's tripping them up. I think just to go back to you know what started this and you were speaking about your experience you know going to the daily method right it all goes back to having processes in place you know it you know within your business and making sure that you know your sales process which could be meshed in with your marketing process depending on how you want to look at it right is all set up for success right what you desribe described was, you know, proper preparation, right? So, they know that they have four or five first timers coming in, right? They know where they're going to be. So, they're prepared their front desk staff to say, "Hey, look out for these four people." Set up these people here, here, here, and here so that when they come in, you know exactly they know exactly where they're going to be. They're going to be more comfortable, right? That's that's a part of that process. And one, it helps, you know, the organization for, you know, the front desk and the instructor knowing, you know, what to expect, but it creates a memorable experience, right? And

30:23 something that you were able to, you know, articulate just now, you know, to everybody about how that experience was. You know, without that, without a process, without something in place, you don't always you're not always able to leave that lasting experience. we tend to try to fly by the seat of our pants too much, right? And where it's so much easier for you as an owner, for your staff, for instructors to just create a process that is easy to continue to replicate on a day-to-day basis. so that everybody's doing the same thing and the experience is elevated, you know, through that. It's just it's just really important, right? So that's why I love, you know, sharing all this information because there's so many ways to do this, but as long as you're consistent in the process that you that you set, you're you're you're most likely going to be successful when you have that there.

31:23 Awesome. so when I'm thinking about some of the takeaways in the different zones and how we can, you know, really take action on something right away, the first thing that you mentioned was, you know, the questions, the first questions that you ask and engage. So, you know, Tita had a really good one. Looks like Cat, you know, just are you new to us or new to yoga? one of the things I would say coming out of this is define those questions for yourself and your staff and have a way that you document them. Stick to the same ones. All right. Once you establish which ones you guys like as a group and as a team, stick to those same questions so that it becomes second nature as time goes on. Yeah. And guys, those of you who are in W using Walla, we have, you know, the notes section in the client profile. And one of those notes sections is called check-in notes. So, they actually show up on the roster when someone is checking into class. So that way, you know, if someone says something that really sparks interest or it's it's a really great conversation starter for the next time a teacher sees them or the front desk staff sees them, pop those notes into the check-in notes so that information is not just in the front desk brain and lives there and nobody else gets to benefit from it. So there are behindthe-scenes notes you can have in their profile, but those

32:46 check-in notes can really be valuable. And maybe it's, you know, they jumped on the four times a month initially, but she was eager to see if she could go to eight or whatever it might be. it's a it's nice to leverage that so it's visible. Wonderful. Which means you need to listen. You need to listen to the answers to the questions. Correct. Correct. Big biggest thing is make sure you're listening. Right. We can ask a million questions, but if we're not listening, it's not going to do us any good in the long run. So, big takeaway there. I would say in, zone three, what when you're in the when you're in the studio, my biggest takeaway, the one thing I want to make sure everybody's doing is setting up a separation of new clients from the overall member base in the class, right? I was saying if you can get your instructor to at the beginning of class say, "Hey, if you're new, if you have any goals, I would love for you to just stop at the podium or come to the front of class at the end so I can go over, you know, what the best course of action for you is to reach those goals, right? So, separating the regulars from the newbies really works well in one helping to prevent people from running out, but also it is going to allow for an easy hand back to your front desk staff.

34:21 because they're not running out with all of the regulars now. They're going to be the last people leaving the class. So it makes it a lot easier to catch the people who you want to try to convert into membership. Yeah. And I really liked what you said at the end of that conversation is making sure that your teachers feel confident giving a prescription. so maybe it is you talk to the teachers about what are you know three different versions of our prescriptions at the studio. So it could be, you know, the person who's a total newbie who is maybe going to be making it one time a week, is dipping their toe in for the first time versus the person who's been doing, you know, beer yoga for 8 years and goes 5 days a week. Like your prescription for each one of those people is going to look very different. But giving them a few different outlines of prescriptions so they don't have to, you know, come up with something on the fly every time.

35:18 It's, you know, maybe the same as those same mindset as those questions. When you walk in, have three questions, have three prescriptions, and then this is something that's scalable, replicable, and you can make sure that you inspect. In most cases, that I've seen, especially for membership, it's always good to set up your membership packages where you can correlate it to how often you can come in a week, right? So, four classes, you could say once a week, right? Eight classes two times a week. 12, three, and then unlimited from there. If you're not going to unlimited from eight, right? What have you. But what this allows you to do is essentially once you understand how many days a week you believe is best for the client or the person that's in front of you. Now all you have to do is choose the two options. That's the low end of it or the high end of it. Right? So if you believe that person is going to be most successful with two to three times a week, it's like I think you're going to be successful two to three times a week. R8 is perfect for only coming two times. But if you think you want to, you really want to, you know, go for it, you could do our unlimited. That's going to allow you to come, you know, three, four, as many times as you want, right? And then vice versa if it's somebody on the lower end.

36:46 You know, coming two, three times a week is what your goal is, but let's start you with coming one to two times. So our four class monthly or eight is going to be best for you have perfectly set up to coming one to two times a week which works best for you, right? That being able to serve an alternate choice makes it way easier for the client to decide what's going to be best for them. not getting confused with all the other offerings that you have. And like I said, you're prescribing. You're not asking which do you know which of all the things that we have do you think is best? It's they're coming here because you're we're the fitness professionals. They have a want. They have a need and they believe that we're going to get them there. So, we have to speak confidently in what we believe is going to be best for them. And in most cases, people are going to say, "Yeah, okay. If that's what you believe makes sense, then that's what I'm Yeah. I want to jump in here real quick about this prescription of success because it brings back some fellow some studio owner stuff that I didn't do correctly. and if we're being honest, that's been what helps a lot of studio owners nowadays. When I had my studio, I priced and I was on a sole purpose. You came to my new client and you were going to unlimited. Like, that's what it was. That was my agenda.

38:05 Not realizing that there are different mindsets for different people when it comes to how they purchase or where they are in their journey. And what I mean by that is, and this is something that I've really learned from working with Chris and the team, is if you sell me an unlimited month, I might come 12 times and I'm probably getting my money's worth, but in my head, there were 18 times I didn't go. And so, I'm not feeling set up for success. Like Chris said, if I have someone that's ambitious, that's great. But if I set you up on a lower tier package and help you on that journey of feeling success, not only am I with you on the journey, I've retained you and your lifetime value with me is going to increase that much more also. So if you're liking it back to the doctor thing, what happens if a doctor prescribes too much medication or not enough medication? I don't trust you anymore. So, I think it's important to kind of stick to what's best for the client and not necessarily what's best for your bottom line, which I think is where I was coming from in the mindset when I first started my ownership journey.

39:10 So, that's a really good point and I think too it's going to help with Megan's question here. Megan popped in and said, you know, how do you overcome reluctance to participate in this process? So staff really buying into it, especially the instructors who are popular, strong teachers like maybe don't believe that this is their responsibility. talk to us about that. Yeah, that's that's one of those that's one of the hard parts, you know, that a lot of us as studio owners experience, right? But they're the one of the most important people in the entire process, right? So instructors are often paid for the class that they're given. I always say to get the most out of them, incentivize them, you know, through the growth of the business as well, right? Like you often commission the front desk person if the if somebody signs up, right? Or a general manager or something like that. figure out a commission structure for the for the instructors as well, right? So that they're incentivized for people signing up, you know, not just for how many people are in your class, right? You can have a pay structure for that, but then also have a pay structure for how many people sign up from being in your class, right? that would really help, you know, obviously get them bought in because in most cases people want more money, right? If they're going to be asked to do more work. And what I found is,

40:54 you know, while you need to you need to grow your membership and you need to sell for the studio to be successful and to grow, it's not always that doesn't always matter to the instructor if they're a, you know, a popular instructor that's doing well within your business, right? They think that everything is great with them, right? But you can get them to do more through incentivizing them. I think it's it's always the best one. One big thing that I have shifted when coaching clients in how to incentivize the team members the front desk staff I we I always coach to incentivize them on getting people in the door, right? So incentivize them for lead generation. in most cases, people that work at your front desk love the brand. They like working there. enjoy it, right? So, it's easy for them when they're out within the community, when they're at school, when they're at the bar, whatever it is to talk about where they work, right, and get somebody invited in, right? If you can incentivize them to get more people in one, now you're getting more people through the door. And now you take the incentive of sales and you and you give that to the instructors. Now the instructors are take are incentivized to get all those people that your front desk are bringing in to actually convert. So in most cases I don't see a commission structure that the instructors get to be a

42:30 part of when it comes to sales. So to bring it full circle and answer your question, incentivize your instructors for sales success, right? and incentivize your front desk for lead generation. And that really has been a model for success that I've seen work very well. I would also add that a lot of times people aren't open to doing something new because they don't feel comfortable. So it could all go back to the preparation, the deciding on the questions, the having that, you know, because when you go to first teach a class, you feel uncomfortable until you keep doing it and then it is. So I think by bringing it, like you said, full circle where it's not sales, it's a connection. And making people feel more comfortable with the process by knowing the questions and knowing what the recommendations or the prescription are could help to alleviate some of that not wanting to do.

43:26 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I would say I know we've just got a couple minutes left so I want to leave a little room for other questions, but one other thing is your teachers are really invested in your client's success and happiness. So whether it's, you know, financially motivating them yes, that definitely can work. but we have I have seen lots of teachers that don't teach at studios because they're trying to make a ton of money. Like I actually I tell this story often, but I was doing this sales glyph at my spiff at my studio where you know I was offering bonuses for hitting some membership goals and I was offering bonuses for retention first visit retention in classes for teachers and I was like how are they not buying into this? Nobody seemed to care. I was so I was focused on it. and then I put it out there cuz one of the teachers said to me, you know, like this is my side hustle. Like I have a full-time job. I am super stressed there. The last thing I want to do is think about, you know, making an extra 25 or 50 or maybe even 100 bucks.

44:37 Like that's not going to change my life. But I started talking to some other people and they were just like, "We want what's in the retail area right now. Like I want leggings." I was like, "Wait, what? you'd rather me bonus you with leggings than money. And they were like, "Oh, yeah." And so I ended up like changing my commission structure for some of these teachers to be, "You guys get a pick in the retail in the boutique area if you hit these goals." Like everybody can pick one item. Figure out what the motivation is. Figure out what that motivation is and figure out how you can work with that to incentivize. Yeah. Because you're right, not everybody is incentivized. by money, but there is but there may be something within the business that does work well for them that'll gets them to go that extra mile. Yeah, you're right, Stephanie. Love language or like a team party or something like going out. I had a bar studio client once that like all those teachers wanted to do was go out dancing together. So, I like the I told the owner I was like get a table at a club and like that's what you do for the team if they hit the sales goal. Go send him to Good Time Charlie in Austin to go honky honking.

45:53 Yeah, totally. Oh, well, thank you guys so much. I know this 45 minutes went really quickly, but I really appreciate the action items. I mean, the questions, the prescriptions, nailing your process for that transfer of trust, I think, is really going to be one of the critical parts of the puzzle. but guys, I highly encourage you, the sales arms does a lot of the follow-up work for you. So, if you are a business that's like, "Oh my gosh, this all sounds amazing, but my staff is not able to handle any more than they already do. I don't really have the capacity to hire a team." that is why Chris designed this company. They take over the communication. as soon as you get a lead into your platform, you know, they can own that and do everything they can to get them to membership. So, how do they get in touch with you guys and how do they learn more about the sales arms?

46:45 Yeah, absolutely. For all Wall clients, we do a free discovery call. So, that could be to learn, you know, how we fit well with you or just to pick our brains, right? We have a lot of people that come that listen to webinars like this and just want to ask more questions. So you can get us you can find us on our website at the salesarms.com. You can find us on Instagram at the salesarms. LinkedIn at the sales arms and you have me as well. My name is Chris Apier. You can find me on LinkedIn and all these platforms. You can book time with us just to you know get to know us, hear what some professionals think about where you are in your business and maybe there is some synergy there and we can we can work together. But at the end of the day, if you leave a discovery call with, you know, take, you know, takeaway points and things that you can do to help, you know, grow your business, we're happy there as well.

47:45 Awesome. And you can see all three of us in person at the Boutique Fitness Summit in New York next month. So if any of you guys are interested, I will put it here. We have a code wallow 100 that gets you $100 off your ticket to BFS. So those of you on the east coast, super easy. those of you who are on the west coast and want to fly out and have a fun few days in New York, I'll be there. We'll all be there. All right. Thank you so much and we'll see you next month. We'll be sharing all the details on the next month's Wall webinar series in our newsletter and on social media. So keep an eye out. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much for having us. I appreciate it. Yep. Absolutely. Bye guys. Bye.