Winning the war against a low priced competitors!

It’s the nightmare of all fitness professionals and personal trainers: One day you find that a mega gigantic cooperate health club is coming to town and offering memberships as cheap as chips! Way below your rates.

Matching the lower price would destroy your business and would just be impossible to do, but ignoring the threat may cause your members to leave. Breathe. Don’t panic too much. Taking on a competitor whose prices are lower than yours requires a careful think of how your company is operating.

Nine of out ten times, the reaction of many fitness business owners is to immediately slash their prices below the competition, believing buyers will beat a path to their door. However, this strategy will only land you in a price war and nobody wins in a price war.

Even if you win the price war and put your competitor out of business, chances are your business won’t be very flush when the battle is over.

The good news – there are some things you can do to compete without draining your profit margin and having to live off peanuts for the rest of your days. The bad news is that things will need to change, some quite drastically. You will need to rethink how you communicate with members and clients. Some of these changes won’t be pretty, but trust us; they’re better than the alternative.

Provide More Value

Sometimes the client chooses the lower priced option and this is usually because they believe the cheaper item is of better value. To begin competing, you need to get the client to value your product above the competition’s, regardless of the cost.

People will pay more if you convince them that what you have to offer is better than your competitor. Determine what it is that sets you apart from the competition and tell everybody you can about it!

Focus on Relationships

If there was ever a time to build a relationship with your clients, that time is now! The days of unenthusiastic receptionists and managers hiding in the back office are history. The warmth of personal trainers and fitness professionals towards clients can now sway their decision whether to choose you or your competition.

It’s simple really, your clients and members need to be blown away and more importantly, they need to feel that their monthly payments are buying them more than just the ability to work out. They want to be appreciated by you and feel that you genuinely care about their fitness goals and want to generally feel good about the experience.

Take Ownership of the Member’s Results

Let’s be realistic here, there will always be people out there who simply just want the best price, those people will join will join your competitor’s company. However, there are a large amount of customers who will always pay extra if you take responsibility for ensuring that they achieve the results they seek. If you provide the better service, they will choose you.

Startup Active Tips To Win The War:

• Survey your members to find out what they feel is most important and implement accordingly.
• Perform a SWOT analysis to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your new competitor
• Evaluate your own prices. Make sure your price matches the value you offer. You might even consider increasing prices to present a higher end option
• Sign members onto new term agreements (perhaps offer a $100 gift card to incentivise them)

 

Don’t forget, it’s never too late to become friends with your clients.

There are so many aspects that can set you apart from your low cost competitor; the experience, the staff, the results, the programs and many more! Plan early, work as hard as you can, and make your clients and potential clients understand that your business offers the most value for money spent.

Do you currently compete with a low cost competitor?  What have you done to overcome the challenge?