B.L.U.E Questioning Sales Model

Ask any sales novice what it takes to be a salesperson and you will hear phrases like ‘gift of the gab’ or ‘silver tongue’. Ask any expert sales veteran the same question, the answer will most likely be ‘listening’, ‘empathy’, ‘patience’, ‘resilience’ and ‘asking the right questions’. The unfortunate reason that salespeople have such a bad reputation, is that you only notice the bad ones. If you’ve ever had a great buying experience, you feel like you’ve really been listened to and you feel good about the decision you have made! Even if that came with a big price tag. A great buying experience begins with a great set of questions. Our B.L.U.E. questioning model, that

we will unpack over the next few pages, provides a simple structure to follow that will help YOU understand and qualify your prospect, and get right to the heart of their needs and motivations, so you can present your service in a way that resonates with THEM.

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B... is for BACKGROUND

L... is for LOCATION

U... is for URGENCY

E... is for EXPECTATION

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BUT FIRST... THE ‘EASY OPENER’

The same way you need an easy opener to break open the conversation over the phone, you also need something similar when someone walks in the gym. Our recommendation is simply… 

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“What has brought you to our gym?”

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B.L.U.E. QUESTIONING MODEL

‍B is for BACKGROUND (& BUDGET!)

The early part of your conversations with a new prospect is all about creating some rapport, making them feel comfortable, and most importantly, finding out more about them and their relationship with fitness. But this is also where you can start to establish if you’re going to be a good fit for each other and how HOT they are as a lead.

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TIP: LOOK BACK BEFORE YOU LOOK FORWARD.

Instead of diving right into your prospects goals, start by digging into their past and current situation. Learn about them, build a better understanding of their relationship with fitness and what’s brought them to this point. This will not only be important to help you frame your service later, in a way that resonates with them, but this is also the part that makes your prospect feel understood and let’s them know you are actually interested in them.

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TIP: THINK LIKE A DOCTOR.

The job of a doctor is not just to tell their patient about what medication you can give them, it’s to properly assess their symptoms and lifestyle so they can properly diagnose condition and prescribe the correct treatment. Asking the right questions here and listening with intent, will instantly set you apart from the competition without even beginning to talk about your product. After you’ve built some rapport and dropped in your EASY OPENER, here are a few questions to help you build a picture of your prospects journey to this point.

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• “Where do you currently train?”

• “What have you tried in the past?”

• “What has worked? What hasn’t’?”

• “When / how often do you exercise?”

• “Any injuries / medical conditions etc?”

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If, like most people, you find it really awkward and unnatural to start getting into ‘money talk’ straight away then guess what... you don’t need to. A good set of questions about your prospects' past and current fitness habits, along with things like their job and lifestyle will also provide some solid indicators of their probable budget. If digging into their training doesn’t give you enough clues, then you can also try the following lines of questioning...

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• “What do you do for a living?”

• “Have you ever tried PT or small group training?”

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If your prospect is already training at a similar facility, or they have been working with a PT, then you can probably be confident that budget shouldn’t be a huge barrier. However, if you sense budget could be an issue, rather than breeze past this and hope for the best, a statement like the following can help you tactfully address this right away...

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“I notice this is a significant step-up in cost for you, I’m interested to know

what has made you decide to properly invest into your fitness.”

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TIP: ‘PRICE-TEST’ EARLY

There is an age-old debate about when to price-present to a new prospect. We’re not attempting to solve this here (this is ultimately down to what works for you). BUT, avoiding price altogether can lead to problems and frustration both ways further down the line. To solve this, and to help deal with any early stage price questions or push backs, we recommend having a well practiced ‘PRICE-TEST’ in your locker.

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A ‘PRICE-TEST’ is a carefully engineered statement, that benchmarks your price point early in the process, whilst cleverly positioning the value you offer, without the need to go into a full price presentation.

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Check out our resource on ‘PRICE TESTING’ to learn more and get our 5 most effective price test scripts you can start using today.

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L is for LOCATION (WHY HERE?)

Simple and effective. Opening some dialogue about where your prospect lives and works is not only an easy, natural way to start building rapport, it will also help you gauge how likely they are to become a member.

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There are also, unfortunately, people living among us who travel far and wide hopping from gym to studio to box, jumping on any trial they can get their paws on. Loyal, long term members don’t usually travel that far and wide, they live locally and pay happily. A dig into where they live or work, using simple questions like the two below, can quickly help you establish how convenient your location is for them, whilst presenting a chance to get to know them a bit better.

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• “Where do you live / work?”

• “How will you be getting here?”

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Dropping these simple questions with EVERY prospects will help you...

✓ Get your prospecting chatting and make them feel at ease

✓ Open up quick and easy ways build rapport

✓ Qualify your prospect

✓ Unearth any potential objections around location / travel to be dealt with early

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TIP: ESTABLISH YOUR ‘HOT ZONE’

It helps if you and your team have a common understanding of your typical member catchment area, or ‘Hot Zone’. This is going to be different for each location, in a densely populated city your Hot Zone will probably be much smaller than in a rural town where some members might happily drive 10-15 miles to get to you. Do some work plotting your Hot Zone on a map and share this with your team.

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U is for URGENCY (WHY CHANGE? WHY NOW?)

The hottest leads and most committed members are often the ones who come with an urgent desire for change. Maybe they have an upcoming event like a wedding or holiday, maybe there is a health related factor that requires action, maybe their current membership is coming to an end soon, or maybe they have just decided enough is enough and they need to take control of their fitness.

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Asking questions such as the ones below, will not only help you establish their level of urgency, therefore enabling you to qualify and prioritise them as a lead, this will also start to uncover the underlying drivers for change that have brought them here.

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• “Why do you want to make a change?

• ... Why now?”

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Why change? Why now? Why this?

When we make any significant buying decision, we all go through a fairly similar process to get there. In some case this process can be quick, in some cases this may take months or even years. There are several stages involved, (check out our resource on THE BUYER CYCLE for more on this and ways you can influence or even hijack this process.) but as a quick and easy way to way to gauge how close

your prospect is to making a decision, here are arguably the three most important

questions you need to answer about every new customer that walks in the door:

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1. WHY CHANGE?

Why are they looking to change their current situation?

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2. WHY NOW?

What’s the reason that now is the right time?

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3. WHY THIS?

Why do they feel your solution is right for them?

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E is for EXPECTATION (WHY THIS?)

Here’s where we get into the really important stuff! Every customer that walks in the door has a different set of preferences, values, feelings and motivations, that will ultimately determine their decision about whether your product and service is what they need in their life. This could be way broader than their ‘fitness goals’. It’s your job to find out what floats their boat and what doesn’t.

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TIP: IF YOU LISTEN CAREFULLY, YOUR CUSTOMER WILL TELL YOU EXACTLY HOW TO SELL TO THEM.

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STOP JUST ASKING:

“What are your fitness goals?”

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START ASKING:

• “What’s the MOST IMPORTANT thing you’re looking for?

• “... what else?”

• “Where would you LOVE to be in 6 months?”

• “Where would you HATE to be in 6 months?”

• “Why do YOU feel WE could be the right fit for you?”

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Narrowing the conversation to ‘goals’ too early could mean you miss out on some important information. At this stage, they could be more focused on features, like finding the right trainer or having a nice shower before work; feelings, like being intimidated or not ‘fit enough’, or lifestyle based motives like making friends etc. 

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The point is: YOU WON’T KNOW UNLESS YOU ASK!

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BUILD YOUR OWN QUESTION BANK

Asking great questions is just the start. Use the examples given in this guide, or write your own versions. The important part is to try them out, refine them and build a rock solid bank of questions that you can rely on.

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