Increase Retention Using Data

hello everyone and welcome to the golden Playbook of retention part one in this small video series we're going to be talking about every single part of retention how to track retention why retention is so important in your business um basically how to increase it how to improve it and really the core fundamentals of retention as retention might not be as sexy as slick as marketing or sales or anything other in your business but it is the true um it really is sort of the health indicator of a business business as you can have everything perfectly

you can have everything perfect but if your retention isn't there if it isn't great if it isn't good you're not going to build a 7even figure business and also the other way around if your retention is amazing you can slack on other parts of the business right so it is such an important and key vital part of this of this business and the industry that we're in that it's worth a you know pretty amazing series and this is the golden Playbook of retention and it should be spread out until like five six parts um and

just watch it watch it um watch it from part one to part five or part six and you're really going to learn a lot and make sure that you do the action required as we can give you all the amazing strategies all the worksheets everything that you need to know to you know increase your retention but eventually it's going to have to come down from yourself and it's going to have to it's going to have to um be used with a little bit of action from your side so here's what want to go for improving

retention using data this is the first part as you need to know your numbers as you need to understand the the key um the key indicators the the most important data to watch for retention before we can actually start talking about how to improve retention and the strategies with that first we need you need to understand why retention is so important and what you need to track before you really start improving okay so retention using data what data points are so important with attention retention and you know what do we track how do you do

it and how do you use it to improve your business so retention using data whether you sell CrossFit boot camp Pilates nutrition coaching personal or group training or something else your product is diet and exercise it's that simple you know you can build an entire sort of an entire presentation around what really you know what industry we're in what we're selling what we're doing here but at the end of the day what we're selling here our product is diet and exercise as that is what gets our clients results it doesn't matter if they're trying to

lose weight just get healthy increased strength it all comes down to diet and exercise that is what we're selling and that is eventually the quality that you know depending on those two factors is eventually going to be the quality of your product and how well those two systems are in place and how you know how your clients are using them to get results that is important so what diet and exercise program gets the best results that is basically that you that that should be a in um work in progress for the rest of your career

you should always be searching for what gets my clients the best results and the question is the one your client will stick with the longest that is the only thing that we're looking here looking for here your client success depends on their long-term stick rate to your plan right more than anything else your clients need to show up often enough and long enough or they will fail which means you will too we're set we're what we handle in the sales module as well is we're set problem solvers here we're trying to fix a problem that

a client has that's the only reason why a client join up because they have a problem a problem big enough to spend money on a problem that they need fixing right and we know that this is a this is a long-term problem this problem isn't just um you know you fix it and you're done this is a thing that needs to be worked on especially in our industry on you know on a consistent basis so our product needs to be something that um a client can stick with for the long term and I'm not talking

6 months or 12 months I'm talking 5 years to 10 years is as diet and exercise is going to be something that is that has to you know that needs constant attention so our product needs that too and our product needs to be good enough um to actually get people results our clients results um so our clients can stick around right because that is the only thing that we're trying to do here we want to sign up clients you know we spend a lot of money on marketing we spend a lot of you know we

invest in in teaching programs like these all to Market and sell people but eventually the thing that is actually going to grow your business is going to to be the retention so your product has to be topnotch otherwise you can sign up a thousand people but if they leave within 6 months you're in a continuous loop and cycle right and eventually you're just burning out your audience your location right with retention we don't even need massive volume to really build something here okay so um because when people stop showing up right so the important thing

about this is right um especially for physical fitness is yes okay okay we can have a great product and you know a great nutrition coaching and all that but then the another step is going to be actually getting people to show up for one two three times a week depending on what they need to get results right that is a very important part of it um so how do we do that that's what we're going to discuss as well in this entire the golden Playbook of retention right now we're just going to talk about the

numbers but we are going to discuss um that in this entire Series right because because when people stop showing up they will eventually cancel as we didn't fix that problems right um we call this churn rate you probably call this churn rate this is just an industry standard terminology CH red is the speed at which people opt out of your program right how long before people opt out but the better thing to measure is how long they actually stay right because it's always interesting to look at okay so 10 months and then they leave but

um it is better to look at it from a way like okay how long do they actually stay instead of looking at the the leave rate look at the stay rate it is basically looking at the same numbers here but having a sort of a psychological outlook on those numbers um and looking at them instead of you know like okay when do they leave to how long they actually stay is a much more important factor um because when you have an average on that you can really sort of build something and you'll really know the

numbers for the next 3 years or four years when you know those sort of those numbers and they stay consistent right um so because when people stop showing up oh yeah sorry sorry actually yeah so but the better thing to measure is how long they say length of stick rate right which I'm going to be mentioning and which you know if I talk about length of stick rate you'll know what I'm talking about right it's one of the two key things to measure in this business average retention length of stick rate this can be 10

months 12 months 2 years 6 months 3 months right and the average revenue actually gener generated per customer right because if you have a 10-month stick rate and you're charging $200 a month your average is a stick rate of 10 months then you'll know that you're generating around average $2,000 per month of course you're going to have people who stick around for two years and of course you have going to people who leave for after three or six months right but it's all about the average here what's the average all right $2,000 10 months that's

the average those two those two key data points track not only the efficiency and quality of your operation but also your sales skill right because what we're teaching you here is how to sell long-term programs and the only way to sell long-term programs is to convince people that they H that they're that they're going to be in this for the long term to change the mindset for the customer to the to the to the quick uh quick results to the actual lifestyle change and building something as that's what we're trying to do here we know

as you know Fitness operators that you know we can get people very fast results but it's eventually going to be about consistency over the long term not talking about 6 months or 12 months we're talking about 10 years here right because otherwise they're just going to be back at the same problems that they were when they entered and joined up right and these two are the key indicators and that is these that this is the only data you should be looking at when it comes to retention right average retention length of stick rate average revenue

per customer that's the only thing that matters here don't get bugged down by other types of data and other key points right and engagement and you know positivity these are all sub these are all subjective look at the objective data here which is these two points right because it does track the efficiency and quality of your operation right because average retention really really does track the quality and your sales skill really and your average revenue per customer really shows your sales skill right to be successful in this business you can't only be great at marketing

and selling you have to get your client results you have to get people to show up on a weekly basis basis you have to change their habits and their lifestyle you have to change the fundamentals of their behavior regarding health and fitness these are very hard things to change but when you do you'll have clients for a lifetime right you have to get your your client's results you can't just have a fancy facility with great coaching and great equipment and it's clean you actually have to get them results you have to get them to show

up on a weekly basis as for health and fitness that is the only way to actually get results so you have to make sure and we have to find a way which we're going to cover in this series how to get them to show up on a weekly basis otherwise we're not going to get them results and we're not going to do the first part right you have to change the habits and the lifestyle right the way that they're living their life right now the habits that they have in grained in them are not the

ones that are fixing their problems right because the whole reason that they that you convince them to sign up right in the sales conversation is because their habits and lifestyle are not there so we have to change that and the way to do that is we have to change their fundamental the fundamentals of their behavior regarding health and fitness right we have to really dig in deep and really stir the pot around a little bit otherwise we're not going to get people results and you're not going to get a great retention and you're not going

to build a business and in this Playbook series I'll show you exactly how to do these four things how to get the client results how to get people to show up on a weekly basis how to change their habits and their lifestyle and how to change the fundamentals of their behavior right that is what this series is all about so retention has nothing to do with feelings and emotion right A lot of people you know they can they look at retention on how clients are reacting after a work out you know the reviews that they

have all this kind of subjective data that it can really um that that that your opinion that that opinions can really vary on per person retention is all about the core numbers right the core numbers which is average retention length of stick rate average revenue per customer that is the only thing the core numbers here as the all the other data the data parts that I hear from gym owners is all subjective and it doesn't matter right the way you feel your retention is the way you feel like um you know how satisfied your clients

are um with your product you know is such a subjective data point it is not um reliable to track right because it's all about opinion and emotion here and that is not the way to build a business you have to look at the core numbers so you have to prioritize and focus on the data that is actually important to you and the survival of your business which are like I said for a million like I said for a million times in this video already average revenue per customer this key metric usually highlights a Gym's weakness

right away right if you keep telling yourself I just need five 10 15 50 more members instead of calculating on how much revenue you need to earn per current customer to hit your goals you're doing it wrong right if you're looking to make a million dollars stop looking at a way to Market and sell to get you to that goal right stop looking at a way okay I just want a million dollars I have 100 right now okay I need another 100 members I need another 100 members with which the with the average retention I

have right now if you're looking at it that way to make that million dollars you're looking look at it all wrong you have to look at okay and how can I make the million dollars with the 100 members I have right now what do I need to improve to get me to that number without signing up a single extra client that's the way to look at retention and that's the way to truly look at your goals right because um a great business and operation with no sales isn't going to work right you know you can

have the best product but with without a great sales um sales conversation you're not going to do it and great marketing with low prices and poor retention right which I discussed in this other in this other point right isn't going to work you can work very hard on sales and marketing as it's very important but your speciality should always be your retention and good retention isn't about wishing happy birthdays and automated emails right it's about a lot more and it isn't as hard as it as it might seem but it is something that is overlooked

by every gym owner right um that hasn't perfected this because amazing retention comes down to the systems you have in place for great retention it isn't about you know the way that you are with clients you know the the the feedback that you're getting you know those those birthday cards and the automated emails it's about having core systems in place that have been proven to work right which we're going to cover in this series that you can use in a very simple step-by-step process per client right um so yeah yeah that is basically it so

stop looking at it way okay I want a million dollars right I want you know I want to generate that stop looking at it from a marketing Point stop looking at it okay I need to generate 15 30 50 more members and then keep them around for 10 months look look at that goal and look at your current clients and think about how long they need to stick around to get you to that goal it's that simple right and then once you have that perfected you can start also adding on the marketing and the sales

which we obviously disc discussed in this program right because when you have that when you have the retention really locked down then you can start perfecting the marketing and sales and you can work on that on a daily basis and that's when you're really that's that's the whole that's the whole deal then you have it then you have the business that everyone wants right so we've discussed average revenue per customer now average retention per customer right you have to ask yourself what is really at stake here right because this you know um because you know

a lot of people they just think of attention yeah we lose people after 10 months right you know 12 months that's just standard right standard numbers you know there's nothing we can do about it you have to look at the numbers here and sort of looking at what you're giving up by kind of having that mindset and just thinking and accepting that your clients are going to leave after 10 months right because what you're leaving at stare can be anywhere between an extra 10 and $100,000 extra per year for you without attracting a single extra

client or generating more expenses right what a lot of people forget is by uh improving retention is a sort of way of marketing in sales but you're not actually adding on to your expense ratio you're not adding on your ad budget right you're not constantly um working on making new sales and it's actually a lot easier to grow a business by working on retention um and also lowering your expenses right because you are really leaving a lot of money on the table by instead of by constantly looking at sales and marketing instead of how instead

of looking at how to double your retention right if you're making $100,000 a year and you're Le and um with you know the client base you have right now and you know the clients leave after for 12 months you'll basically if you add if you double your retention to 24 months you'll basically be adding an extra $100,000 a year to your business right if if you look at it from that way and you can do that in basically a a basically entirely free Way by just improving your retention right and that number isn't made up

by the way the average G owner earn it's an extra $30,000 a year per year by simply increasing average retention by 3 to 4 months by 3 to four months you can make an extra 30 grand a year which can cost you $5,000 in ad spend to add onto your business right so it's so important to look at retention first when it comes to Growing your business in every way possible right because for example if you charge $200 per month and keep a client for one month then your marketing efforts were worth $200 right if

you keep that same client for for two months your efforts were worth $400 right makes sense if you keep that client for a year your efforts were worth $2,400 and if you keep that that client for 10 years your efforts were worth $224,000 and let's say you paid $150 to acquire this client which is very high by the way you know in this program we've shown you exactly and we will show you and how to do for a lot less but let's just say $150 in marketing right and commission and all that sort of the

other expenses that come with signing up a new client you will have paid $150,000 $150 to generate $24,000 right now if you can keep that consistent and you can and you scale you can spend $1,500 and make $240,000 in Revenue right and um in every case the cost to acquire the client was the same right if you can keep it at 150 bucks per acquiring client and that is standard and that is consistent then you can just keep that and start working on retention and start generating extra revenue and building your business from that right

because generating spending 150 and getting 200 in return you know yes it's profitable but it isn't a great way to build your business eventually the market is going to dry out 150 bucks for 400 bucks great you know but still not amazing 2400 bucks for 150 bucks already really good and $224,000 per 150 bucks even better right we have to realize this is all that Revenue can all be generated from one client by simply increasing retention right and that is how you have to look at this and that is why you really have to look

at the numbers here if you're losing clients um after 10 months and you're constantly looking at oh you know that's just the way it is we just need to get more members a month yes of course you need to get more members a month and yes you should be working on that on a monthly basis on a daily basis really but stop looking at only the marketing and sales and just accepting your retention rate and start putting 100% of your efforts in increasing retention first as when you do that you can start you can you

you have you can spend less but make more right 150 bucks spent $24,000 earned 10 years is a very high retention but it is actually very possible as we know that health and fitness is a thing that you have to work on for the rest of your life so why shouldn't members be with you for the rest of their lives right it's a simple question to ask why shouldn't they I know you know this problem is a thing that needs that needs to be worked on on a weekly basis it can't just be left right

otherwise the problems are just going to resurface and they're going to look for something new to fix those problems so why shouldn't they stick around for the rest of their lives why shouldn't they stick around for 10 20 years if this is a problem that needs working on on a weekly basis right so yeah all right numbers don't likee so we've worked closely with hundreds of gym owners from all over the world hundreds and we've talked to thousands and standard metrics like average revenue per customer and average retention per customer gives us critical and unbiased

data on the health of a Fitness business if a Gym's retention score is low we know right away that it has an operational problem and is in need of improvement right and every client we've ever talked to thinks his or her gym is nearly perfect right it's basically you know it's and that's fine too like like every business owner should think that business is perfect but it usually isn't it's very biased they usually you know I am very biased by my my business so I try to look at the numbers you know in an objective

way to actually see problems surfacing we think our systems are amazing right our clients get us we think um our systems are amazing our clients get us and we're building some kind of emotional um bank with them right and I kind of messed up that sentence but what I really meant is you know our clients get us right they're positive they're happy they leave great reviews they have amazing feedback but if your retention is still under a year that obviously is a very subjective way to look at the numbers right you're not building anything with

them you're not building some sort of emotional bank and you're not doing anything if your retention isn't actually um in the 1% of the industry right if it is around 12 months or 15 months you're not doing it right that can be improved 5x 10x really um and that's a fantasy if your service is bad your clients will leave and let's be honest they should if you are if you have a competitor around the corner you would want their clients to leave if their business isn't um you would want those clients to leave as well

if the business business isn't right for them right and this you have to look at the same way for your business look at your business as if it if as if your business was a competitor and look at the problems because when you do that because I can guarantee you if you look at 10 of your competitors um who are nearby you can probably spot 10 problems in their business right but when you look at your own you can't when you look at your own business you can't spot any or you can spot a lot

less which is obviously not true so take a step back and look at your business as if you were a competitor right and you're going to start seeing problems and especially when it comes to retention right um and sometimes we can be blind to operational problems because we think our kid is the most handsome in school right it's the same you know you you if you're a parent yourself you always think which is you know obviously you know completely fine you always think that your kid is the best because you know you're the parent but

we look at it the same way when it comes to business and that is a a completely wrong way to look at it look at business but we look at it the same way we're biased every business owner is especially when it comes to their own business we're very reluctant at looking at our own problems and accepting them and then working on fixing them right and that's why we need to need to look at objective data and we need to track it over time to see the effect of any changes we make right we're going

to make a lot of changes uh to your retention and to your to your operational B uh to your operational systems when it comes to retention to increase it and we need to look at the data and see and really track okay I've made these changes it's now four months ago have I actually seen Improvement yes you know some clients that should have that would have left the couple of months ago have actually stuck around yes this is working we need to look at the data in an objective way and a good way if you

have team members is let your team members look at this data as well let your team members watch this video let them watch this video and have them write down five to 10 problems that they think um that they think is affecting the the r the retention rate that's a way to do this and business owners can be consumed by new ideas right that came up that came up that they came up within the shower right but you need to ask yourself if those ideas are actually having a real effect on your business right we

can be very creative a lot of business owners can and have you know industry breaking ideas that they you know they think they have industry breaking ideas and they implemented the business but what a lot of business owners forget to do is actually track if the the changes that they the the ideas that they came up with actually have positive effect on the business they kind of just implemented in there and think it is going to work right and no business no successful business will ever be built this way you always have to look at

the data as you're going to have 10 ideas where only one or two of them are actually going to work but the only way to spot those two working ideas is by tracking every single idea every idea and looking at the core data right average revenue per customer average retention objective tracking of average retention and revenue per customer removes bias from your business and gives you Clarity right which I just discussed look at those two key datas over the over you know on a high level and also zooming in when you make changes to the

business right we're going to give you a lot of changes that you can need that you can make to increase your retention and actually start tracking when you made those changes and start tracking how those changes affected your retention and this can't be something that you know the changes that we're going to make in retention can't be something that can be tracked over a week or over a month but over a long term you can really see big patterns and sales and marketing are fun and sexy but without great attention you'll you won't survive period

you can sign up 100 members a month but if you lose them the next month you're not building anything you're basically just selling a one month gym membership package you can get 100 members a month and 200 bucks a month if you lose them the next month a business who has um you know a business who and you're spending a lot of money on Advertising as well a business who has 10 members but keeps them around for 10 years is eventually going to outlast you and actually survive right because you have to remember that every

time signing up new customers is costing us a lot of money while we can stay make the same amount of money by just simply working on uh keeping clients for a longer period of time all right so action items start writing down your numbers and where you would like to see those numbers 12 months from now if you're average retention is 11 months and your average revenue per customer is $1,100 start writing down where you would like to see both those numbers 12 months from now and that's what we're going to work towards and move

on to part two of this Playbook Series where we're going to be talking about the psychology of retention the psychology that actually um a client you know that is actually um you know that a client actually has and that makes them stick around so this is a very great Playbook that we're going to discuss in these next couple of videos and these are must watches and must Implement in your business all right I'll see you guys in that next video goodbye