Pain is the Pitch Business Logical Fallacy Ep 175

In the latest Gym Secrets podcast, the hosts emphasize the critical role of availability in increasing gym sales and marketing efficiency. They share a revelation that framing the message around the pain of overspending on advertising, rather than the opportunity for gain, significantly resonates with gym owners. By extending service hours, gyms can drastically reduce ad spend and increase customer throughput. The hosts underscore that humans are more motivated by pain avoidance than the pursuit of gain, a psychological insight that can transform business strategies and communication. They urge gym owners to adopt this mindset to optimize operational costs and drive growth, highlighting the substantial financial benefits of maximizing availability for client appointments.

• The podcast is dedicated to discussing strategies for gym owners.
• Topics include acquiring customers, increasing customer value, retention, and learning from failures and lessons.
• The hosts aim to provide valuable insights and encourage subscriptions.

Welcome to the Gym Secrets podcast where. We talk about how to get more. Customers, how to make more per customer and how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons that we have learned along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

The introduction sets the stage for the podcast's focus on helping gym owners grow their businesses and learn from past experiences. The hosts also express their desire for listener engagement and subscription growth.

• Emphasizes the critical role of availability in increasing sales.
• Data-driven insights show a direct correlation between availability for sales appointments and conversion rates.
• The speaker has been advocating for increased availability to the gym owners community.

And for the last, I would say month and a half, maybe two months, I've been trying to get across this one point, which is the importance of availability for making sales.

This quote highlights the ongoing effort to communicate the significance of being available to take sales appointments to the gym owners community, indicating a key strategy the speaker believes is essential for success.

• The speaker shares a story to illustrate a learning experience.
• The story serves as an example of the principle that people often need reminders more than new teachings.

I want to tell you a story about something that happened recently that was impactful for me and was just another one of the we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught lessons.

The speaker introduces a personal anecdote to underscore the value of reinforcement in learning and the effectiveness of storytelling as a means to convey important lessons to the audience.

• The speaker regularly shares new trainings and information with the gym wars community.
• The legacy release call is an event where updates and insights are provided to community members.

And it happened this Friday on our legacy release call. And so for those who don't know, like every other Friday or so, I kind of release new stuff, trainings, information, whatever, to our gym wars community.

This quote provides context about the legacy release call, a bi-weekly event where the speaker disseminates new content to the gym wars community, which is likely composed of gym owners and fitness professionals.

• Throughput is defined as the number of potential customers who complete the sales process.
• The sales process includes several steps from initial click to closing the sale.
• Availability increases the likelihood of moving leads through the sales process.

What I mean by that is for the amount of eyeballs, clicks that turn into customers, right? Throughput that have to go through all of the steps in your sales process, right? From click to opt in, to apply, to schedule, to show to close, right? All the way through. That's throughput, right?

The speaker explains the concept of throughput as the progression of leads through the sales funnel, emphasizing the importance of each step in converting leads to customers. Availability is crucial for facilitating this process.

• The speaker expresses frustration with the gym owners' reluctance to increase availability.
• There is a clear belief that greater availability would significantly boost revenue.

And I kept really banging my head against the wall with this because I'm like, why is no one getting this? I'm like, guys, you're going to make three times as much money if you just have full availability, right?

This quote conveys the speaker's exasperation with the gym owners' inaction despite the clear message that availability could triple their income. It reflects the challenge of convincing others to adopt new practices.

• The speaker changed the way the message about availability was presented.
• Instead of focusing on opportunity gain, the emphasis was shifted to the waste of advertising spend due to limited availability.

And so this last Friday, I framed it differently and I had a huge response to it and I had tons of people messaged me as a result.

The speaker describes a shift in communication strategy that led to a better response from the audience. This highlights the importance of messaging and how it can influence the audience's reception and actions.

• The speaker supports the argument for increased availability with data from over 100 locations.
• The data shows a significant increase in lead conversion rates with more availability for self-scheduling.

Because they're a, more likely to schedule and b, more likely to show at a time that's more convenient. And I have the data to support that now because we've done this across 100 plus locations and we've tracked appointments correspondingly to different levels of availability.

The quote underscores the effectiveness of using data to inform business decisions, in this case, demonstrating the positive impact of availability on lead conversion rates, thereby justifying the speaker's advice to the community.

• The speaker discusses the potential for businesses to save on advertising costs by improving availability.
• By adjusting availability, a business can reduce its customer acquisition costs significantly.
• The speaker highlights the realization that businesses are spending three times more than necessary on advertising.
• This realization led to a shift in the speaker's messaging strategy, focusing on pain avoidance rather than opportunity for gain.

"Instead of spending $9,000 a month on advertising, I was like, you could spend three, have the same amount of people come in your door."

This quote explains how reducing advertising spend from $9,000 to $3,000 a month does not affect the number of customers, thereby saving $6,000 without losing business.

"You're going to not overspend on your acquisition by three x."

The speaker emphasizes the excessive spending on customer acquisition, which is three times more than necessary.

"I could spend a third of what I'm spending now to get the same amount."

The speaker reflects on the possibility of achieving the same business results with significantly less advertising spend.

• The speaker discusses human nature in the context of business decisions, particularly the preference for avoiding pain over seeking gain.
• The insight is that people are more motivated by the desire to avoid pain than by the potential for positive outcomes.
• This understanding led to a change in the speaker's communication strategy, emphasizing the elimination of pain points rather than the benefits of gain.

"Humans don't think an opportunity for gain, right? And I'm still making the same fucking mistake, all right, talking like this because I told you in my 2019 lessons that people buy pain, not gain."

The speaker acknowledges a mistake in focusing on potential gains instead of addressing the pain points that motivate customers to act.

"They're so much more pain avoidant than they are desiring for gain."

This quote underscores the human tendency to prioritize pain avoidance over the pursuit of benefits.

"Try and talk in terms of pain avoidance, not opportunity for gain."

The speaker advises that communication should focus on how a product or service can alleviate current pain rather than on potential improvements.

• The shift in messaging strategy from highlighting gains to focusing on pain avoidance is seen as a breakthrough.
• The speaker suggests that this new approach can lead to better communication with customers and more effective persuasion.
• The goal is to encourage customers to change their behavior by addressing their immediate pain points.

"That if you're trying to communicate to someone to get them to change, try and talk in terms of pain avoidance, not opportunity for gain."

This quote encapsulates the speaker's new messaging strategy, which is to communicate in a way that resonates with the customers' desire to avoid pain.

• The speaker invites listeners to connect on LinkedIn and engage with their content.
• The goal is to build a network and community around the podcast and its topics.

"Just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you."

The speaker is reaching out to listeners for social media engagement and networking purposes.

"Send me a connection request, a note letting me know that you listen to the show and I will accept it."

The speaker encourages listeners to connect on LinkedIn and indicates a willingness to accept connection requests from listeners.

• The speaker reflects on the journey of entrepreneurial growth, which often involves unlearning bad habits and human tendencies.
• This process of unlearning is seen as a necessary part of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

"I feel like most of our growth as entrepreneurs is just unlearning who we are, unlearning bad habits anyway."

The speaker suggests that personal growth for entrepreneurs involves shedding pre-existing habits and instincts that are counterproductive to business success.

• Opportunity cost is equal for gain and saving/pain avoidance when time cost is the same.
• Disproportionate weighting towards opportunities for gain is suggested.
• The fallacy for business owners lies in not recognizing the mathematical equivalence of gain and cost-saving opportunities.
• Emotional decision-making should be avoided in favor of mathematically guided choices.
• Operational complexity should be the same when considering interventions that affect financial outcomes.

"And so you have to disproportionately weigh opportunities for gain, right? Because if I can make an extra $3,000 a month, it's the same as me taking effort to save $3,000 a month, it's the same."

This quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on opportunities for financial gain as being equally valuable to cost-saving measures, provided the effort or time cost is identical.

• A growth mindset focuses on increasing earnings, whereas a saving mindset focuses on reducing expenses.
• Most people tend to prefer saving money rather than finding ways to earn more.
• The speaker advocates for a growth mindset, seeing the potential to triple earnings as more attractive than saving.

"But if you have to frame it to yourself that you're going to save two thirds, it's not a very big growth mindset because for me, I'm like, shit, I can triple how much money I'm making."

The speaker contrasts the growth mindset with the saving mindset, suggesting that focusing on savings alone is not as expansive or ambitious as aiming to increase income.

• Saving money and making money should be viewed as equivalent opportunities if they do not add operational complexity.
• The speaker provides an example of saving on rent versus earning affiliate commissions.
• The perception of these opportunities can be influenced by how they are presented, with some people reacting more positively to savings.

"But adding $3,000 a month of profit that doesn't add any operational complexity is the same as me getting $3,000 a month knocked off your rent, right?"

This quote illustrates that earning additional profit through means that do not increase operational complexity is financially equivalent to reducing costs by the same amount.

• Emotions can interfere with making optimal business decisions.
• Decisions should be guided by mathematical logic rather than emotional responses.
• The speaker practices checking emotions to ensure decisions are mathematically sound.

"And I do this all the time for me. Not in a preachy way. I'm just saying, like, making sure that you're not letting your emotions make the decision and just letting the math guide you."

The speaker shares a personal approach to decision-making, highlighting the importance of removing emotion from the process and relying on mathematics to guide business choices.

• Gym owners were advised to maximize their availability to increase scheduling rates.
• Starting with full availability and only blocking off necessary times can lead to a significant increase in appointments.
• This strategy can result in a 50% increase in throughput with minimal cost.

"If you just do that, you could take your schedule rates from 40% to 60%, which is a 50% increase in throughput just from that."

This quote explains how gym owners can increase their business efficiency by adjusting their scheduling practices, which can lead to a substantial increase in client appointments and revenue.

• Discusses the impact of extending business hours on client acquisition.
• Emphasizes the cumulative effect of increased clients over time (stacking).
• Highlights the cost savings and direct impact on the bottom line from reduced advertising spend.
• Compares business availability to convenience stores like 7-Eleven, emphasizing the importance of being open to do business even during off hours.
• Stresses the necessity for fitness businesses to adapt to client schedules, especially those working 9-5 jobs.
• Suggests that personal short-term sacrifices may be necessary for long-term business growth.
• Encourages gym owners to plan for growth that allows delegation of increased hours to new hires.

If you're over to three x, right? So here's me talking about it in terms of gains that if you're going from ten new clients a month to 30 new clients a month, simply by opening your availability month two and month three and month four, that shit stacks.

This quote explains the exponential growth potential of tripling client intake by extending business hours, and how this growth compounds over time.

If you're like the average gym that runs on 12% EBITDA, right, 12% take home, then $72,000 a year is a lot of money, right?

The speaker is highlighting the significance of saving $72,000 a year through reduced ad spend for a gym with an average EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) of 12%.

You don't have to sell all day, you just have to be available to sell.

This quote draws a parallel between the need for constant selling and the benefit of simply being available to make sales, akin to convenience stores.

Well then you opened a business and so you have to grow it to the point that eventually you can have someone else do it for you.

The speaker is emphasizing the entrepreneurial responsibility of growing a business to a scale where it is possible to delegate tasks and responsibilities to others.

• Advises on using pain avoidance as a communication strategy to engage communities and clients.
• Suggests focusing on the removal of current inconveniences rather than adding new benefits.
• Recommends addressing issues directly and vocally, especially for those who are the first in their field or business.

Talk about it in terms of pain avoidance. Talk about in terms of the things that they won't have to do, that they currently do.

This quote advises on framing messages in a way that emphasizes the elimination of current pain points or inconveniences, which can be more motivating than the promise of new benefits.

If you are a gen one or for God's sake open up your fucking mouth.

The speaker is urging first-generation business owners or pioneers in their field to be bold and vocal in their communication and actions.