Wie Alex verkaufen gelernt hat

0:00So, I wonder what was your experience sort of on the ground in the gym? How did you quit learn how to sell? Yeah, I hated everything to sales and the side story on that was that when I quit my job, my dad's buddy was a uh or my dad my dad's financial his investor dude, right? The guy who manages his money. Uh was like, "Dude, you should just come work for me." He's like, "You can sell." And I was like, "Me?" I was like, "I'm an academic." All right, I'm a I'm a cerebral thinker. I'm a management consultant. Like that I am known for you know, I am not a salesman. Like that was my thing. And so, I was like I was I thought it was beneath me. I really did.

0:31And so anyways, I got the job. Um I got I I did the interviews, got the job, and I ultimately like they told me what it was and it was like, "Here's the phone. Here's names. Bang." And I was like, "Oh, I don't want to do that." So, then I started my gym and I realized that I had to pay $5,000 a month and then it was like the first day and I was like, "Oh, [ __ ] How do I get people to give me money?" I was like, "Oh, sales." And so, it was a it was a forcing function. So, I had gone to a uh weekend workshop that I spent $3,000 for, which was a tremendous amount of money for me at the time. Um to go learn how to to run Facebook ads.

1:03It's 2013. So, I learned how to run Facebook ads that weekend. Um and I ran Facebook ads for my gym. And that was when people came in. I signed up 27 people the first 2 weeks. Uh I charged 300 bucks a head. Uh I think I spent 1,000 bucks on ads. So, I made you know, spent 1,000, made 8,700 or whatever it was. Um and that was that was how I That's how I paid my first month's rent. And my my selling was just literally I had an empty gym with no equipment. It was literally turf and a table.

1:34>> [laughter] >> And they were like, "Are you going to be here? Is this like a scam?" I was like, "No." And people just believed me. I was like, "I promise I will do everything to get you in the best shape ever." And they were like, "Are you sure?" Like I'd have some people come back like 2 days later like make sure I was still there um in the 2-week period. And I also didn't understand a lot of stuff. Like I I thought I had to open as fast as possible cuz I want to I thought that opening meant that I would make money when really I should have had a really long pre-sale just collected cash the whole time. Like I didn't know how to do that stuff work. So, I just tried to open as fast as I could. That was it. I started I had my first 27 clients. And I and I taught all the sessions. So, I was doing six sessions a day. Um and then I would run ads, I'd have sales appointments, then I'd clean the gym, and then I would do all my billing at night. Um and I'd work the lead Like it was I was I was it was the hardest I've ever worked time-wise. Like I've never I've still to this day never worked that hard. It was uh

2:25>> Okay. Let's let's zoom in to some of these. So, you had the idea of like, "I want to start a gym." You worked in a gym for free for a then minimum wage for a while. So, you understand how how a gym works. And then you were you just like roaming around looking for a warehouse that you could convert into a gym? Yeah. And then you signed a lease for $5,000 a month and you're like, "All right, cool. I know I now have a box. I need to put some gym equipment in there." So, you put some gym equipment in there. You take a Facebook ad workshop over the weekend. You spent three grand on it. Um and that helps you run ads in your local area that says, "Hey, by the way, new gym opening Yeah.

2:55something or other. And then people walking through the door. And then what happens when people walk in through the door? Do you just say, "Hey, this is this is a gym. Can you give me your money?" Or how how does that process work? >> I had an offer which was a 6-week challenge. I said if you lose cuz it was similar to my whole charity thing where I wanted people to like have skin in the game. So, it was uh if you lose 20 lb 6 weeks, I'll give you your money back. So, people would bet It was 300 bucks. I'd train them for 6 weeks and if I if they lost 20 lb, I'd give them their money back.

3:21So, that was the schtick. So, are you relying on then people not completing it to make money or >> No, the the real real is that Yeah, so So, you've got you've got three buckets, right? You got people who don't hit it, right? Which is actually not the bucket you want people in cuz then they're not happy. Um the second bucket is people who hit it and then have more weight to lose or want to keep working out cuz they just started this habit and want to keep going, which is the vast majority. I think we had just under an 80% success rate. And then the third bucket is people who want to lose the weight and then say, "I'll take my money, please."

3:50Right? And the sales actually very easy. I mean, you're just like, "Hey, do you think that working out 6 weeks and then going back to not working out is uh is going to be a good long-term solution? No. Okay, well, why don't I just take your 300 bucks? I'll credit towards the next year staying at the gym because now you've started this habit. You don't want to lose it when you have the momentum." They'd say, "Sure." Cool. And I had people commit to the year before they even finished the challenge. Halfway through, I'd be like, "You like everything? Everything cool? You're 10 lb down. Awesome. You're halfway there.

4:17So, I mean, how much weight do you want to lose? Cuz I promise you, once you're 10 lb lighter than you are now, you're still going to want to look different like you're not going to be perfect. I've yet to meet somebody who has a perfect body. You're still going to have stuff you want to work on, right? They're like, "Yeah, yeah, of course." I'm like, "Okay. So, question is do you want to do it on your own cuz that's what you were doing before this and that wasn't working, or do you want to do it with me?" They were like, "I want to do it with you." And I'm like, "Cool. I'll take the money. I'll credit it for it. So, you won. Congratulations. High five. Big hug. You won it. You get it cuz the point of the challenge is not for you to actually lose the weight. It's for you to understand this is a lifelong process, not 6 weeks. Done."

4:43That was it. That was the whole process. How did you do the transformations? Like how do people lose 10 20 lb in 6 weeks? It's all food. Okay. So, you're giving them meal plans or what? >> Yeah, I would give them meal plans, grocery lists, food preparation instructions, eating out guides, the whole thing. I'd give them a whole custom thing. And then they'd work out at the gym. Uh originally it was 5 days a week and then I switched to 3 days a week. Um but yeah. And so, that's your offer. So, the So, the offer isn't like a monthly gym membership. It's just like, "Hey, get into the weight loss challenge. You do the thing and then you're signing up people as they walk through the door.

5:14Yep. I and what what happened is I like and I still do like this in terms of businesses in general is I do like having defined end programs on the front end because it gives a very specific outcome for someone on a specific timeline. And what it really becomes is your onboarding process. So, you can typically charge more for a one-time expense, usually three or four times more than you can on a recurring basis. And so, what that affords you is the ability to liquidate acquisition costs more easily. And so, it's like if I can charge four times more for the first 6 weeks of service with somebody, I should do that cuz it cost me more A to onboard someone and B to acquire them. And so, I should make more money in that first period of time. It makes sense. And so, structuring business models that way is I I've almost done that in every business I have. Got it.

5:55Um Did you feel weird about selling initially? No, I was begging for money. I needed the money. Right. >> I got over it very quickly. I mean, it was just like I had this ethical I had this like uh I'm I'm superior. I'm not going to lower myself to selling. And then I was like, "Oh, [ __ ] I'm going to lose all the money I have." And so, I didn't even know it was sales. I just said like, "I will help you. I promise." Yeah. Please. >> [laughter] >> You know what I mean? Like I didn't know what I was doing. But the thing is I had you know, I I'd done 4,000 sales consults before I ever consumed a piece of sales training.

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