I’ve received a few e-mails from owners and managers who have recently invested in lead boxes and have expressed their concern that they may have wasted their money based on my last post.
So if you already have lead boxes what should you do? What is the secret to getting the most out of them?
Well, the secret to lead boxes is a bit like the secret to weight loss… most people already know what has to be done but they just don’t want to do it. There are no secrets you just have to do the right things… all day, every day.
Popular Australian fitness industry consultant Amanda Bracks is a big believer in lead boxes so if you have them and want to get the most out of them she basically sums up everything you need to know in the following two videos…
Just to follow up on a couple of points that Amanda makes…
First, she makes the point, very early on, that she doesn’t know one club running lead boxes well. Of course the reason for that is with lead boxes you have to work them hard to get results. They are definitely not a set and forget proposition.
Second, she stresses the critical importance of relationship building to successfully running lead boxes. Lead boxes work best when the store is invested in your success and they will only invest in your success if you are invested in theirs.
Finally, she acknowledges that leads are increasingly difficult to come by and so it is essential that you manage those you do get effectively through the sales process.
Let me say that, although I am not a big fan of lead boxes, in my view Amanda’s advice is 100% correct. If you are going to use them work them… and work them hard.
Now Amanda is an, obviously enthusiastic, advocate for lead boxes, however, she demonstrates in her videos the difficulty most owners and managers have to deal with when it comes to lead boxes… no one runs lead boxes well (i.e. no one has the time, patience, energy, commitment to work them hard enough to get a reasonable result)… relationships with stores need to be developed and maintained over time (i.e. it’s an asymmetrical relationship meaning that you need them more than they need you)… when you do get leads treat them like gold because they are getting harder and harder to get (i.e. have a process to integrate them into the club effectively).
The natural tendency is blame your staff for not being effective, or efficient, enough and so it becomes necessary to monitor and performance review them… it becomes a never-ending and, often, losing battle that takes up your time and de-motivates and demoralizes your staff.
The fact that so few owners and managers get lead boxes “right” suggests to me that the problem is not with staff but with the lead box concept itself… which is why we have reinvented it.
For those of you with lead boxes out there keep them in place because it will make it a lot easier for you to transition into the iPOS Advertising System when it become available in a few weeks… stay tuned.
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