It’s a famous plot device in nail-biting hostage movies: A stone-jawed president says, “We do not negotiate with terrorists!” — leaving the hero to figure out how the heck to get those hostages back (one of whom, naturally, is his wife/girlfriend/child) without giving an inch. In the movies, things usually work out, thanks to lots of explosives and a studio system that requires happy endings. But, in real life, no-negotiation policies don’t always end happily.
So, do you negotiate? On your membership prices, I mean. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that this was a possibility until I read a blog entry by a woman looking for advice on how to find a good deal on a fitness center membership. Her readers advised her to negotiate the membership fee, and claimed the only type of facility that won’t bite is YMCAs/YWCAs/JCCs.
Reading this, I couldn’t help but feel foolish. I’d compared membership fees before, and I always seem to get the short end of the stick. Some self-satisfied schmuck on the treadmill next to me pays half of what I do a month, making me resent him, the club and my own lousy business sense. I dread going to car dealerships for the same reason — playing hardball with a salesman is not my idea of a good time — and I don’t want to feel the same way as a fitness facility prospect. And, by the way, the enlightening blogger has a book deal, so you can bet she’ll reveal her own gym search experience in print before too long.
Interestingly, with two large chains and a YMCA competing for her business, the blogger chose the Y — and for reasons that had little to do with the membership fees. It was about the way she felt in the facility, and how she perceived the Y’s commitment to identifying and meeting its members’ needs.
So, maybe negotiating on price isn’t the answer. Maybe fitness centers can afford to play the role of stone-jawed president and focus on building an atmosphere that members want to pay to experience. And, you don’t want your members to feel like I did for not negotiating a better deal for their own memberships.
2 comments:
We have two rates, one is off the street regular rate. The other is discounted for second family members, seniors, corporate,etc. That is it. It is in print in an handout we give to prospects. There is no other rate. Period
This is one of my favorite topics in our industry. At our facility we do not negotiate on price--these are our prices and we think we are worth it. If I go into the grocery story and a loaf of bread is $3, do I ask the store manager to change the price for me? Don't we have a hard enough time in our industry getting the public to take us seriously? Do we really want to be compared to used car salesmen?
If our product is worth $50 a month, then that should be the price. If we then discount that price, I guess our product really wasn't worth that much in the first place.
These "negotiations" can also cause problems with your members, for the exact reasons stated in the article. Do you really want your members to be upset that the person next to them got a better price because they complained more? Well then, I'm sure they would be happy to bring it to your attention so you can discount their membership also.
Where does it end? When will the industry begin to put a value on the product we are offering?
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