How to Deal With Serious Fitness Equipment Sales Obstacles

In April 2020, Yelp found that there was a 500% increase in the interest in fitness equipment in the United States since the previous month.

Another study in the e-commerce trends in March 2020 found out that “weight training” is the eighth fastest-growing category.

This seems to be all good news but there still remain unique challenges that the fitness equipment industry is facing.

This includes obstacles in fitness equipment sales in the modern era.

Technology is fast-advancing and the fitness goals and needs of consumers are ever-changing.

Fitness equipment manufacturers are trying to keep up with the changes and demands of consumers.

But as long as people want to lose weight, stay in shape, or simply live a healthier lifestyle through regular exercise, fitness equipment sales will stay alive.

How do you rise above the competition if you belong to this industry amidst the obstacles?

Dealing With Serious Obstacles in Fitness Equipment Sales

When you belong to the fitness equipment sales industry, the only way to achieve your business goals of supporting your infrastructure and maintaining or scaling your enterprise is through sales.

Learning how to deal with the biggest obstacles in fitness equipment sales will help you prevent unnecessary losses and recover from a past loss.

You are dealing with a specific set of demographics

Fitness equipment sales is a niche that is focused on large-scale buyers of fitness equipment to be used in fitness gyms and office complexes.

These customers are looking to buy many machines to be used for long-term purposes.

Because they belong to a specific group, there aren’t many of them, and they’re not always easy to find.

Having this niche-focused demographic has the following effects on your sales management:

• Laser-focused marketing and sales campaigns
• Very limited use of general or “blanket” sales strategies like the way most companies can for their digital marketing strategies
• Utilizing long cycle sales
• Need for intensive processes to filter your leads
• Demand for one-on-one interactions to close your deal
• The need to know your target market, inside and out to make the sales process easier

Fitness equipment industry competition

Similar to other businesses, you will have to compete with other fitness equipment sales companies in the industry.

What makes the competition difficult are these factors:

• Same brands and models of equipment that you offer along with your competitors
• How you can distinguish yourself different from your competitors
• Proving that your sales prospects are better than your competitors
• Making sure that your sales proposals are more polished and professional since it forms the first impression on your buyers and will serve as a reminder of who your brand is.

If you need help with making your proposals as professional as they need to be, you can use the configured price quote (CPQ) software.

CPQ is a sales tool design used by companies to produce accurate and highly configured error-free quotes.

Price flexibility

Many of you in the fitness equipment sales industry will be offering the same brands and models of fitness equipment as mentioned earlier.

Hence, most customers will largely depend on price in their decision-making.

Consider these questions in dealing with this prospected obstacle in fitness equipment sales:

• Are you willing to be flexible on the pricing of your fitness equipment?
• Are you willing to shave your profit margins to razor-thin levels to secure a big contract?
• How far are your competitors willing to go when it comes to price flexibility?

Knowing all the technical specs of every fitness equipment you offer

Buying and managing multiple machines will most likely require your skill and knowledge in learning the technical aspects.

This is a need when you will be dealing with your customers’ queries and improving your credibility in sales.
You will have a great reputation when you know what you are selling especially in generating your proposal.

A neat and organized technical specs presentation can boost your sales with prospects.

A CPQ software can also help in storing information about the technical specs of each of your fitness equipment that you can easily retrieve when you need it.

Training new sales reps

One of the obstacles in fitness equipment sales that you need to deal with is training your new sales reps.

They will have to learn the technical complexity of the machines and the complicated nature of fitness equipment sales.

Consider using CPQ software that will help your sales reps identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities on the spot especially when asked tough questions from a sales prospect.

Here are the specific ways a CPQ software can help with your newbie sales reps:

• They can start selling the day they enter your door
• Your new sales reps just need to follow an intuitive product configuration process that is newbie-proof
• Avoiding awkward sales conversations and expensive configuration mistakes that is equal to weeks of extra training for a new sales rep

Service and repair plans

Fitness equipment machines have a certain length of life.

Your customers will be asking how fitness equipment will last long enough, so they will know if it is worth the value they will be paying for.

You will have to be able to deal with this concern by determining these factors for each fitness equipment that you offer:

• The level of service and repair you are willing to offer
• The guarantee for each fitness equipment
• Discounted service plan
• Regular maintenance

Incorporating this in your sales proposal will increase your credibility but you should be able to balance it with the overall sales price.

It should not cripple your productivity and earnings even when the price is the major determining factor of your prospects’ decision against your competitors.

A recommended solution to this obstacle is that you create and offer a suite of different service and repair plans that your prospects can choose from.

This will give your sales prospects more flexibility and help you in balancing your service and repair plans with your cost basis.

Manageable Fitness Equipment Sales Process

Even if you have to deal with obstacles in fitness equipment sales, there are ways that you can handle and manage them with the help of sales tools like the CPQ software.

With the increasing demand for fitness equipment worldwide, proper knowledge, sales planning, goal setting, and sales management strategies should be on your priority list so that you can stay ahead in the race.