Kilo has acquired 4 website companies over the last two and a half years. Between working our way through these acquisitions and owning and selling my own gym, the one thing that continues to shock me is how much people lie.

Website companies will tell you that you need to add your mission, vision, values of your business to your website. They will tell you that you need to have a photo gallery of your gym so people know what it looks like inside. They will tell you that you need 5 different calls to action so a lead can choose how they want to interact with you. They will tell you that the design of the site matters more than anything. They are lying.

Your site needs one call to action. No one outside of you and your staff care about your mission and vision. You need to tell a lead exactly what to do on your website clearly and concisely. Design won’t do a damn thing if you don’t have anywhere the prospect can take action and get in touch with you.

Your gym clients will tell you that you need to offer classes at 8:30 at night or that they need mobility classes and that’s why they are canceling their membership. They will tell you they don’t have time or your service is too expensive. They will tell you they are moving. They are lying

Your clients aren’t seeing the results you promised them. You haven’t been attentive enough to their needs and your retention strategy, or lack thereof, sucks. They aren’t getting the value out of your service. That’s why they are quitting.

I have learned to never take a cancellation form at face value. Something else is usually going on, and intend to figure it out. When we get a cancelation form at Kilo, I will often reach out personally and see what happened. It’s normal for clients to not want to hurt our feelings or be embarrassed about why they are cancelling. But the only way I am going to know how to fix a problem with our service is by being genuine and authentic with people and finding the truth.

I have also learned to take every client request with the utmost of grace. Clients often don’t know any better than to ask for crazy program pages on websites, crazy workout plans from coaches, and the generally insane support requests. They’ve been taught this is normal and this is the way to do things to get the results they are looking for. “Just throw stuff to the wall and see if it sticks!” or “I saw that famous gym/instagram model doing this so I should too”. Show them the data. Show them how many leads a simple, conversion driven website gets vs the one that was built by their brother who is “certified in Storybrand”. Show them the success story of Susan who worked on her fitness AND nutrition for 12 months before she saw the results that she wants.

Lead people to truth after they’ve been lied to and before they start lying to you.