Want more gym members without slashing your prices? Discounts can undermine your gym’s value, hurt your profit margins and attract the wrong clients. There’s a better way.

In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," host Mike Warkentin is joined by John Franklin, chief marketing officer at Two-Brain and Kilo.

John shares four proven strategies to help you attract and retain new clients without offering discounts: events, holiday challenges, New Year’s Day check-ins and black card referral campaigns. He lays out examples of each tactic and offers practical tips for implementation at your gym.

John’s advice is clear: Focus on attracting high-value members who will stay for years instead of using discounts to lure in low-paying coupon clippers who won’t stick around.

For more support on running a profitable gym without discounts, get Chris Cooper’s free guide "The Gym Owner’s Guide to a Discount-Free Black Friday" by joining Gym Owners United, linked below.

Links

Gym Owners United

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01:10 - Get more clients before 2025

06:08 - Holiday nutrition challenge

09:09 - New Year’s Day check-in

12:55 - Duplicate your best members

16:05 - Execution matters the most

Slashing prices for Black Friday is a mistake if you sell coaching.

Discounts attract the wrong clients and teach the right clients to wait for sales instead of renew memberships at full price.

Worse, the discount comes out of your profit. The government still gets paid if you cut your rates, and so does the landlord. But you take home less money.

In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Chris Cooper explains exactly what to say when people ask for discounts—use his lines word for word.

He also tells you what to do instead of gutting your profit. Hint: Build value so you attract great clients who will pay full price and stay for years.

Links

Chris Cooper's e-book "The Gym Owner's Guide to a Discount-Free Black Friday" will be available Nov. 19 here: Gym Owners United

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2:40 - Stay away from discounts

9:28 - The discount snowball

13:35 - "We don’t play those games"

18:23 - Discounts can stop you from giving

24:11 - "Feeling the discounts"

Two-Brain's annual industry-defining report is out!

The 2024 "State of the Industry" guide is packed with the essential data gym owners need to grow their businesses. This year, it even contains 13 ratings scales fitness entrepreneurs can use to evaluate their businesses and target areas for improvement.

How many clients does the average gym have? How much revenue?

What do gym owners pay staff? How many classes do they run?

How large are gyms, and how much of their revenue is used to cover fixed costs?

How fast are gyms responding to leads, and how many clients are they adding each month? How long are they holding those clients, and what's the lifetime value of each one?

How much do gym owners take home each month?

Every question is answered in the guide, which is packed with data from Kilo, Wodify and a huge survey of gym owners.

The guide was released on Nov. 12 on "The Sevan Podcast." Check out this rebroadcast as hosts Sevan Matossian and Matt Souza discuss key stats with Two-Brain founder and CEO Chris Cooper.

Use the link below to get the guide and analyze your gym's performance.

Links

2024 "State of the Industry" Guide

Gym Owners United

Book a Call

1:53 - The success rate

7:27 - Political landscape and health

15:45 - "State of the Industry" report

37:01 - Shrinking the sample size

1:05 - Sales in health & fitness

1:21 - The OG spark

1:26 - Video contest winners

1:47 - Two-Brain Summit