September 2020: Trends We Seeing in Canadian Fitness

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Matrix Fitness is part of Johnson Health Tech Canada.  JHT Canada acquired STAK Fitness in 2015 to increase its presence in Canada. In 2020, during the pandemic, JHT Canada finalized the acquisition of Fitness Experience Alberta to do the same with its presence in Alberta.

JHT Canada is now at 62 employees, with a Canadian head office in Montreal and satellite offices in Mississauga (Toronto), Calgary and Edmonton.

This evolution in Canada has occurred for a number of reasons. The biggest is the commitment to listening to our customers and what the market is telling us.  Throughout the years, this has been the one consistent in the different forms of the organization.

Being part of Johnson has also provided us with a global perspective that was not available before. Seeing what similarities we have in the Canadian market to the European, Asian, Middle East markets as well as the USA, South and Central America.

In 2020, like most industries, we are seeing quite a bit of change in the fitness market and our customers.  I thought I would share with you some thoughts with a regional, national and global perspective.

Here are the top changes happening right now in the fitness market in Canada:

  • Fitness Centers/Gym are having to go through a massive adjustment.

Fitness centers are investing a ton of resources into providing a safe and healthy environment for their patrons.  Regardless of whether they are for profit or non profit, these centers have had to re-target their spending to disinfecting and a whole new level of education. Education for the operators, the staff and of course for the people they serve.

The centers themselves have had this re-direction on their finances all the while having zero or massive reduction in revenue.  Talk about working with handcuffs on?  Needless to say, many have not survived.  Fitness centers in your region will not re-open.

 

It has been very disappointing and a massive eye opener on how the public perceives fitness centers.  When I say public, perhaps we should say government. In most regions, fitness centers have been grouped with nightclubs and other industries not focused on health at all.

 

When in fact the argument could be made that offering fitness services to the public are essential services. When we think about it, COVID 19 impacts those with weakened immune systems.  Exercise and a healthy lifestyle improve immune system.

 

This is not the perception of ruling bodies. Disappointing.

On the cleanliness side, I heard a good point the other day.  The fitness industry is the only business that has been asking patrons to clean up after themselves for years.  Think about it, we have been asked to wipe down equipment, clean our cardio machine after use for years.  That does not happen anywhere else. We don’t go to the grocery store and clean our terminal after done.

Sorry, rant over.

 

On to the next change we are seeing.

 

  • The growth of USAGE of digital services by the consumer

Yes, we see peloton at the forefront of this charge, but this is not new.  They have announced a profit for the first time just recently (been around 8 years or so).

P90x, Jane Fonda videos and exercise DVD’s have been around for a long, long time.  However, now we are seeing more people tap into the workout at home via these services.

This is forcing fitness pros to sharpen this aspect in their business model. A challenging task. Many have moved over to more online years ago, and they are winning.

Peloton is not the only group in this space.

Lululemon just invested US $5Million in an exercise mirror. This is fitness content, classes etc, delivered interactively through a mirror in your home. *

*You can read more on that in the support article below.

Johnson Health Tech, our company, is developing the same and should be ready for market shortly in Asia and other parts of the world before coming to Americas.

There are other groups. ICON is one of the top companies in the world, and they have a terrific product called IFIT for their products that delivers content through pieces of equipment other than just a bike.

Don’t be surprised if this becomes the standard very quickly for home fitness equipment, not just a mirror to Peloton.

 

  • The growth of demand for home equipment.

Not being able to go to the gym has led to growth of home workouts.  Early in the pandemic, we saw a rush on dumbbells, weight plates and accessories like toilet paper in the grocery stores.
Now the demand has evolved to higher end equipment. Treadmills, upright cycles, ellipticals, functional trainers etc.

 

For suppliers who focused on home equipment, this seems like winning the lottery.  The specialty fitness market has declined since 2008.  This is the first influx of spending we have seen since then.  The reality however, is most were caught off guard. Unless their supply chain were locked in, they were sold out in no time.  There are very few who have that supply chain locked in. Those are the specialty retailers who have probably seen in your community for years.

Are home workouts going to continue to grow?
They will level off, but the demand will remain higher than it was 6 months ago.

 

  • The influx of fitness suppliers to the market.

This is an interesting and predictable one.

With the increased demand for fitness equipment for home, we are seeing an increase in those of entrepreneurial spirit dipping into fitness equipment supply.

This is the opposite to the thinning of the heard in commercial facilities, this side of the business will expand.

Unfortunately, like most businesses, to be successful requires a little more than just timing.  We are seeing companies source out dumbbells and plates and accessories to Asia for distribution into North America, including Canada.

In theory, this is great. However, with almost all of the fitness equipment manufacturing coming from Asia, there are a number of factors that will dictate the end result when the equipment shows up.

The one key word is WHEN. Lead times are at an all time high.  Asian companies are jumping into manufacturing fitness at a record pace.  (I know , I get 4-5 emails per day soliciting our group for distribution).

 

With the increased demand for equipment, and increased number of supplier

 

The reality is quality control is a massive component to providing a great product. For those whom have been in the industry for a while, it has taken years, lots of money and trial and error to find the right product from the right manufacturer with a high quality.

We are already hearing of experiences with product showing up damaged or defective in Canada without even coming off the transport container.

 

When you add that to distributors having to prepay all orders from Asia, it creates a dicey experiment.

 

In 2017, Johnson Health Tech doubled down on its USA presence into specialty retail. At the time, many thought it was a bad idea. However, in September of 2020, this has become a brilliant move.  Johnson has always had a home equipment component, since they started manufacturing in 1975.   Other global suppliers who have this diversification will weather this storm quite well.

But let’s make no mistake, as Bob Dylan said “times are a changing”

Greg Lawlor

 

Supporting information:

Here is more on the Lululemon acquisition:

https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/what-lululemons-500-million-deal-to-buy-mirror-says-about-the-future-of-exercising-at-home

We came across a really good article on Peloton:

https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-fitness-company-everyone-laughed

More on Johnson Health Tech : https://www.johnsonhealthtech.com/ca/eng

More on Matrix Fitness: https://ca.matrixfitness.com/en

Picket Lines and Protests and 7 Ideas to Get People Moving Again.

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The year was 1994.  February 1994.  On a bus from Montreal to Quebec City with a team. On a mission, and a purpose.

Similar to the bus rides from my hockey playing days, but this was different.  We did have hockey sticks, but not with the intention of hitting the ice to compete.

The sticks were posts for placards.  The placards were to be held on the steps of the National Assembly in Quebec City.  Our team of physical education teachers were on a 3 hour journey to make our voices known.  To be heard.   We were protesting the latest round of Physical Education cutbacks. Proposed cutbacks that would cost me my job.  More importantly, it was another nail in the coffin of student health and wellness.

Actually, it was more than a 3 hour journey, in fact it was more like a journey of a lifetime. Becoming a “gym teacher” or Physical Education specialist represented a lifelong goal of striving to impact others the way PE had impacted our lives.  Physical Education specialists have varying personality characteristics, however what links us all is that PE affected us positively. It might have been that special teacher.  Or perhaps the confidence gained through PE success. Or both. Or something else. But is was positive, and it was life changing. So much so, we wanted to make it our career.

University studies and a teaching degree.  Job interviews and getting a teaching job. In my case, getting a full time job as a PE teacher was no easy task. It took me part time and temporary jobs for the better part of 5 years after graduation.

My 2nd full time job landed me at Dawson College in Montreal.  Part of a staff of over 30 PE specialists. We provided a PE program for the ages. Subjects like Stress Management and Outdoor Education. Aquatics and Learning to Skate. We had many students on the ice, in the outdoors and/or in the water for the very first time at an age when most would not consider these activities.

After 2 years at Dawson, the word came down. The following August, the PE requirements would be cut by 50% for the students. Budget cuts. 50% of the staff was out.

This was not good news for my work. But the real issue was the impact on the students.  Those we had had smiling and moving and learning had their opportunities cut back by 50%.

I had just gone through a similar exercise in my first full time job, teaching PE to students K-6. After 2 years, the position was reduced from full time to ½ time.

These moves seemed counter intuitive. Daily PE helped with physical and mental health and academic achievement. We studied that in University. Was everyone not aware? This would be like stopping the medicine that was needed to cure an illness. In fact, it was exactly that.

So we stood outside protesting in the freezing cold in Quebec City to an audience that had made up their mind.  They were not listening. I remember thinking that this felt like trying to date someone who had no interest. Futile. And I was correct.

The impact is still being felt today.

Personally, I was fine.  I left school teaching after that year and pursued my passion in health promotion another way.

Fast forward to 2020, and there are very few PE specialists left. Most universities that offered PE specialist degrees stopped doing so because the jobs dried up.

And the impact on the kids without quality daily PE has not been horrific.

Participaction, a Canadian organization that promotes active living issued their 2020 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth and  gives a grade of D+ for overall physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

Less than 1 in 5 children (5-11 year-olds) and youth (12-17 year-olds) in Canada are meeting national movement behaviour guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviours and sleep.(2014-15 CHMS,Statistics Canada).

Recently during the pandemic, the conducted as study on physical activity and our youth:

  • Only 4.8% of children (ages 5-11) and 0.8% of youth (ages 12-17) were meeting 24-hour movement behaviour guidelines during COVID-19 restrictions, compared to the 15% (5-17 years) prior to the pandemic.
  • 62% of kids and teens were being less physically active outdoors.
  • 79% of kids and teens were spending more leisure time on screens.

Supporting studies:

https://www.participaction.com/en-ca/resources/children-and-youth-report-card

https://participaction.cdn.prismic.io/participaction/f6854240-ef7c-448c-ae5c-5634c41a0170_2020_Report_Card_Children_and_Youth_Full_Report.pdf

Despite these worrying trends, Physical Education continues to be treated as expendable, experts say.

It was not always this way.

Physical Education was a staple branch of the educational curriculum dating back to the 1800’s as governments looked to prepare young people for military service. As far back as 1909, Physical Education started to become a standard in the North American curriculum to varying degrees. Over time, it moved away from militaristic drills and calisthenics to more of a play based focus.

By the 1930’s this play based focus took over and in the 1940’s university degree programs in Physical Education were launched

The momentum grew from there with physical fitness and health promotion becoming a bigger and bigger part of the school focus across North America.

In the United States, John F Kennedy established the physical fitness program in 1961 to delivery on the priority of strong body and strong mind.

Here is the JFK message on physical fitness of the time:

https://youtu.be/WUnxrCcQQv0

Here is great 5 minute clip on JFK sample school PE program in the early 60’s

https://youtu.be/fISgKl8dB3M

It was in the 1980’s that Physical Education started to get on the radar of budget cuts, and marked a decline that we are still feeling today.

It is perhaps not a coincidence, that the physical and mental health of our society has never been worse than it is currently, with it being especially harsh impact on our school age children.

So how do we climb back?

It would start at the grass roots level with the parents. As parents we have the biggest role to play in the role modeling and promoting of healthy habits.

Without role modeling of parents around activity, our youth are in for a tough go.   Reducing screen time, coming up with scheduled family activity time is a great first step to getting back on track.

Parental groups must also advocate for PE to come back into the schools. At least push them to implement what is in the curriculum.  If the schools are not going to budge, then opportunities for outside of school activities are essential.

Advocating community driven play times and areas as well as schools need to bring pact, as John F Kennedy said “ Do not have the majority of our population sitting on the sidelines”.

That is what we have now.  The fear he had in the 1960’s is the norm in 2020 in most of the western world.

Yes, schools have a role to play. But it won’t happen with parent apathy.

Perhaps COVID and the issue of re-opening schools will push parents to speak up more on curriculum and what is important for them.

Understanding the PE curriculum would be the first step and making sure that your local school board is implementing the requirements would be essential.

Schools in some countries have reversed the trend to cutbacks and inactivity.

In 2010, Finland embarked on a national action plan to increase physical activity in schools. The Finnish Schools on the Move program – a suite of measures, from peppering 15-minute breaks throughout the school day to conscripting older kids to lead games and activities at recess – has been adopted by 90 per cent of Finnish municipalities and is having a gradual but positive impact on activity levels. The initiative was the government’s response to reports that only half of Finnish youth were meeting the World Health Organization’s guideline of one hour of moderate to vigorous activity a day. In Canada, the figure is a dismal nine per cent.

More on the Finish program here: https://liikkuvakoulu.fi/english

Recreational opportunities accessible to all need to come back to the communities.

Communities can incentivize organizations to make healthy living opportunities available to more than just those who can afford it.

#1. Gyms could be given tax breaks in return for offering basic fitness classes. After 25 years working with gym owners, I don’t know many who would pass up having an impact in the community by serving our next generations, especially if their time was valued with some financial incentives.

 

#2. Performance centers (every community has a few places where athletes train) could be provided the same for offering movement ed courses to the community.

 

#3. Each community center with a pool could offer free learn to swim in return for operational incentives. Same applies to martial arts classes and self-defense and stress management courses.

 

#4. Arenas could be incentivized to offer learn to skate classes for individuals of all ages. Less and less Canadians are skating.  If not in an elite sport, then chances are they are not learning to skate.

#5. School gyms could be opened and funded with tax incentives to the school or the qualified PE teacher. The PE teachers should not have to provide their expertise for free. IF budgets are tight, give them a tax break.

#6. Most communities have companies who would be open to incentives in return for contributions to program funding.

#7. Companies themselves could be incentivized for employee wellness. (Some of the biggest employers in our communities are municipalities). A tax break in return for participation or volunteering opens the door to that role modeling mentioned earlier.

Community leaders need to adopt a framework that will cut through the bureaucracy and effect positive change.  There are success templates to support just such an execution plan.

The best execution plan I have seen is Matt Young’s program:

Documented here in The Physical Movement July 26, 2020: https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/fixing-the-broken-youth-sports-system

If community leaders, who rely on votes to be in this position, does not feel the pressure to demand this, it will not happen.

If the community leaders do not know WHAT to do, this will not happen.

Another component to getting our health back  is increasing health promotion and awareness. One of the mistakes that PE teachers made in my day is assuming the good work within the PE setting would be enough to make it sustainable.

Not true.

Whatever the initiative to get people moving needs to be promoted and held up as the new standard. Social media have provided the tools to get the message out quickly.

Parents, educators, community leaders the time is now.

It starts with good role modeling and can evolve to change the status quo.

After 35 years of decline, let’s step up and forward to make the difference so we can all benefit.

No amount of protesting with posters on hockey sticks will work.

Getting the family out for a walk will work.

Opening up our gymnasiums and pools will work.

Relying on our local health and wellness experts will work if we help them help our communities.

Getting 15 minute hourly activity breaks during the school day will work.

We need more but these are strong steps forward.

There is a lot at stake.

The Best Coach I Ever Had Stood Out From the Others with This 1 Skill

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The role of building trust and a bond as a leader is probably one of the most difficult things to do in sports or work environments.  Getting it right has huge payoffs on multiple levels. The physical movement explores why and how.

August 6, 2020 would have been my Dad’s 83rd birthday.

I miss him.

He passed in 2016. He had a saying when asked how he was doing, he would respond “better for seeing you”.

Dad had a great ability to connect with people.  He had a genuine interest in how others were doing.

This was not an accident.

Coach Bill Lawlor with Verdun PeeWee Canadiens approx 1960.

After a lifetime of coaching and teaching he developed the skill and had a genuine interest in connecting. It was important to him.

He got energy from the connection. He made people feel at ease.

He never focused on himself. It was always about the other person.

The connections ran so deep that his students and athletes often became friends for years. At his funeral in 2016, one gentleman approached me and said that Dad changed his life.

Not ever having met him, you can bet I was curious as to how.  Dad had coached him as a youngster in the 1960’s. He was his peewee hockey coach. He said that the year he spent playing for Dad changed his confidence and his overall outlook on life. Playing for Dad made him a better person.   You can imagine the impact of hearing about that impact at his celebration of life.

I have thought often of that interaction in the 5 or so years since.  To have that kind of connection and impact was something special.  The gentleman I spoke to had not spoken to Dad in over 40 years. He saw the obituary in the paper and felt pulled to attend the funeral and pay his respects. He felt so strongly that he approached his son and communicated how he felt.

We spoke for 45 minutes.

This was part of a pattern I had witnessed over my life.

Not just teaching, but also coaching.  This was the first person who spoke to me about the impact of having Dad has a coach, others approached me about his impact as a teacher.  Dad had spoken of coaching for years prior to his teaching career.  He spoke of coaching many who went on to accomplish a lot in sports, hockey specifically.  I had never thought of the potential role Dad had played in their development, perhaps as simply making sure the experience was positive.

One event as a child stuck with me all these years. At a Montreal Canadiens game in the early 1970’s Dad and I settled into our seats to watch the warmup. (This is a thing for hockey fans!).   I would have been maybe 8 or 9 years old. He suddenly said. “Hey, so and so is on this California team”. I said who is that? without missing a beat he said “c’mon!”. We scurried down the steep steps of the old Montreal Forum and made our way to visiting team’s players bench. (Imaging trying to do that today?).  Under the watchful eye of the local constabulary, he proceeded to lean over the boards and call out the name of the player in question.

The player stopped, came over, saw Dad and had a big smile.  The experience was surreal.  Dad had a 5 minute chat with the Craig Patrick, who was very gracious, introduced me and before I knew it, we were heading back up to our seats. All during the player’s warmup?

Without announcement. I was stunned. 45 years later I still think about the connection that led to the Mr. Patrick coming over with a smile to talk to Coach Bill Lawlor.

(Craig Patrick played for the California Golden Seals from 1971-1974. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 as a builder, was GM of The Penguins during their cup run in early 90’s and assistant GM of Gold Medal Winning USA Hockey Team “Miracle on Ice” in 1980 Olympics.)

Going through university towards my Bachelor of Education, a teaching degree, my family name was often recognized because Dad had taught in that same faculty of education for over 25 years.  The name was recognized not only as I went through university, and once I started my career as a teacher,  but it started many years prior in high school where teachers would stop and ask if Dr. Bill Lawlor was my Dad?

Once I acknowledged that he was, the person asking would go on and on about how good a professor my dad was, how much they enjoyed him and the impact he had on their development.

Every time.

Every.

Time.

When I think how many times this had happened.  I lose count.  It got to the point as a teenager where I kind of wanted to be a little more under the radar in school, you know what I mean?

Of course, that was short lived,  and I learned to appreciate how powerful that was as I got older.

The ongoing connections did not stop in the classroom for my Dad. They were a springboard for many friendships that continued. I got to meet some awesome people who first connected with Dad as one of his students.

Getting to know  Dad as a professor was one of the highlights of my life.

I got to see firsthand what so many people were raving about as I attended many courses/lectures he led during my time at university.  I was curious, even then.  What was all the fuss about?

In university, I had some experience with other teachers and professors. I had experience with coaches in youth sports.  Very few, if any, had the impact on me that I was hearing about from others about Dad.

Bill Lawlor was outstanding at connecting with his students, his peers and all the support staff at McGill.

There was an ease about him. He was genuine. He communicated well. Him being at ease made everyone else around him feel at ease. When I looked at him with the backdrop of my other coaching/teaching experiences, I was in awe.

He communicated so clearly, without confusion and knew his material so well.  He interacted with students, asked them terrific questions, listened carefully, challenged them, made them  think, was patient and addressed their answers in the context of the material and life in  general.

He connected the material to real life.

He did not dismiss the student answers, even if they were not on point.  He addressed them.

He made a point of knowing everyone’s name and referencing it in conversations, even casually.

He had a sense of humor and was not afraid to share some laughs with students.

He had skills that connected with his group.

He provided feedback that was constructive, never demeaning, but always meant to address the point in a context that was supportive.

He was sharp. When faced with a challenging situation, or being challenged, he was able to disarm the situation rather than escalate.

This took tremendous energy, as I observed when he came home at the end of the day when I was young.

He obviously worked on those skills over many years.  He spent so much time studying and preparing the topics he was teaching. He had a big responsibility, preparing young adults for a career in teaching, propelling them to working with the next generations.  He was devoted to his craft.

I think back to all those experiences. The funeral, the hockey game, high school, university.

What creates that kind of impact?

Connection. 

When I think back to the coaches I had as a youth through university, the teachers and professors in school & university, the colleagues I worked with as a teacher, Dr. Bill Lawlor stood out even more.

In watching my son go through high school and his sports programs, the same pattern emerged.  The coaches/teachers that he really enjoyed connected with him.   One of his favorite teachers shared his thoughts on music and those insights connected with Jamie.   The teams he played for where he did not have a good experience, the coach did not connect with him well at all.

I got my teaching degree. Taught school for 8 years. Went into business, and have evolved into an educator within business. I have coached for over 30 years across multiple sports at multiple levels. In hindsight, I am thinking there was never another path that would have made sense considering the modelling I had during my formative years.  Seeing that level of connection firsthand over many years could not help but attract me to trying to do the same.

That level of connection is so special.

We documented John wooden’s definition of success here:

In building connection as coaches and educators, there are number of things that come to mind:

The #1 thing valuing how important connection is for the experience to be positive and productive.  Making this a priority in the youth sport experience cannot be understated.  Connection is a skill. Like any skill it needs to be understood and practiced.

This is a leadership staple for anyone who works with or is surrounded by people.  The modelling of connection spills over to the experience of the students and athletes.  The importance of these young people feeling connecting to their team and/or coach is imperative.   Connection, the building of trust and bond with the students/athletes and amongst the group is a determining factor in the quality of the experience for them.

Organizations need to have this on their radar when it comes to establishing performance criteria and skill development for their leaders.

#2 thing to making sure to maximize the connection with those around you is to establish what tools or steps allow you to make the connection. I have highlighted many of the skills that establish a connection with someone.  Many would call them soft skills or leadership skills.

They include:

  • Valuing the people around you. Getting to know them and being genuine. This is not something you can fake, so if this bores you, then you should not be coaching. Their goals, dreams, and purpose. What is their family life? What do they enjoy? What is important to them?

This is not a tactic for better performance, this is an actual perk to the work.

 

  • Building communication skills. 1 on 1 , in a group, in writing and in person. On the phone and via email. To parents, peers, and your athletes. Improper or Lack of communication are toxic. A good communicator stands out from many and enhances the experience multi fold. Knowing the names of those you spend time with is important and part of being a good communicator.

 

  • Sense of humor is a powerful thing. The ability to laugh at ourselves is the great icebreaker and a sign of ego in check. This is also a skill.  An opportunity to exhale and perhaps even a pivot point to resetting.  Sense of humor without putting others down is also a skill.  Understanding where the line needs to be drawn and holding others accountable is a skill. This is another skill that needs to be valued and practiced.

 

  • Be patient. Nothing worthwhile is built in a day, a season or calendar year. In a drive through world, patience is valuable. The process of getting better as a leader takes time and experience.

 

  • Have your priorities in check and strong sense of purpose. The purpose of being a coach or educator is ____________. Write that down somewhere.  Don’t forget it, and do everything you can to get better at it. For those of you thinking the purpose is to win, well that is off the mark. I would make the argument that connecting puts you and your team in a better position to win, but that is not the purpose of being a coach.

 

The Physical Movement explored why winning does not equal success here: https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/why-winning-does-not-always-equal

 

  • Know your subject matter. Competency in teaching skills towards development is another staple to building trust and a bond. Similarly, not knowing your subject matter can destroy it quickly. Continue to learn everything possible to stay current in the subject at hand. If it is a sport, continue to learn about the game. If it is a school subject, then knowing the material very well.  This includes being prepared and attention to detail as cornerstones to knowing your subject matter.

 

  • Your ego goes to the back seat. Needing to be the center of attention is the role of the performer. The coach is not the performer.

 

  • No room for insecurity. Very difficult to coach or lead effectively if everything that goes wrong threatens your sense of self. Coaching at a high level can come with minimal job security, but that can not be the driving force behind coaching.

 

  • Ongoing learning. Never stop learning. Kids are different in many ways today vs 30 years ago. One of our first interviews, with Jerry Weinstein (60 years in baseball) kept coming back to the importance of ongoing learning.

Here is the Jerry Weinstein interview:

https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-jerry-weinstein

 

A coach is a teacher.  A coach can make an impact positive and negatively to those under his/her watch. A coach needs to do everything possible to make that connection and impact with their students and athletes.  That is part of being a coach.

If you think back to the coaches/educators that influenced you, what did they have in common?

Chances are they made a connection, just like Bill Lawlor did with me and so many others.

Call to Action: Organizations, you need to add this to your coaching certification curriculum. Guide and show your coaches the importance of connection in developing good people.  Explore why so important and hold them accountable on the HOW. Your organization will flourish where it matters as a result!

Like this?
More articles like this here:

https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/

25 Lessons from 25 Years in the Sales Trenches

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I left teaching 25 years ago to take a position selling fitness equipment to gyms and commercial settings. 100% commission at the time, 30 years old, mortgage, hoping to start a family. 2nd career. Never did sales.

Since that time, I have sold in a small territory in 2 languages, sold in a big one in 1 language.

Managed a small team while selling and managed a big team.

Worked on very small transactions, been a part of some very large ones.

I have met many very interesting people,  travelled to many interesting places.

I have been disappointed and lost many times, however, my wins overshadow those losses.

I have lost money but overall made a good living.

The bottom line is that I have had the privilege of supplying lots and lots of exercise equipment to organizations that focus on creating healthy communities.

I don’t think there has been 1 day when I have not learned a lesson, and maybe that is why I have survived 25 years.  25 years x approx. 300 working days a year = 7500 lessons!! (on the low end!! )

For you, I have narrowed it down to my top 25 .

These are the 25 lessons from 25 years in sales.

  • Have a passion, or at least an interest in the product you are representing. There is a reason most sales business cards say “sales representative”. We are being paid to represent the company for whom we work.  Being passionate about exercise, it was a good fit to represent companies that created tools to help exercisers.
  • Believe in your organization and the people who run it.  Without that belief, it is very difficult to speak confidently about the equipment you represent.
  • As a former team sport athlete growing up, I was always more comfortable in a team. That worked out because to be efficient and productive in sales, you need a supporting team. In our industry, that team included administration, logistics, technical support and finance.  Without that support, you risk becoming a jack of many trades, and master of none.
Team!
  • Understand the business you are in. How does your organization compete, be profitable, win and lose.  While working with a team, and specializing in 1 aspect of the sale (the front end), understanding the business side became a massive asset.  My first organization were stickler for inventory control. In big pieces of exercise equipment, 1 mistake around inventory costs a lot. Getting on an installation and being a part of the last touch point to a customer was also a valuable perspective.
  • Understand the customer.  The customer is not always right, but putting yourself in the customer position is a good start to making a connection and getting towards a sale. What are their concerns, fears, challenges and worries? Without understanding this, you are playing roulette instead of establishing a starting point to enter the conversation.  The entire point of sales is to knowledgeably offer a product that solves a problem for the customer.
Many customers have been disappointed before ever meeting you!
  • Have a USP.  Early on I learned that having pieces of the puzzle others could not compete with was critical.  Being unique. Unique selling proposition.  USP. What makes what is being offered unique? Different? Worth a 2nd look by your customer. A unique selling proposition is taught by every business school from here to the north pole.  Being able to transfer that to traction for your offer and your customer is a direct link to your sales success.
  • Be of “service” mindset. Sales is another term to be of service.  To get someone to write a cheque for something you offer and be excited to do so, comes from creating something of value for someone else.
  • Study and master lead generation. This has changed a ton over 25 years. Social media, email marketing did not exist when I started.  However, the phone did and so did the standard mail. These are still so valuable. What’s working and how is a big part finding those interested in what you offer, or perhaps more relevantly in an information age, have them find you!   If consistency is the goal, then lead generation is the skill that sets you on your away to achieving the goal.
  • Understand your industry: growth trends, top players, best practices. You can learn a lot from what the best are doing.  How can you learn from top performers. When I say industry, I refer to sales, not just your product category.  I have been in business to business sales for most of my career, so this is the industry I study.
  • Understanding how your competitors sell and market is a good idea. (Your customer options) Most important lesson here, to do something different.  For sure, important to know best practices, and integrate into some of your offering. 
  • Professional development. Never stop learning. 25 years ago it was reading. Still is. Today,  podcasts, webinars and seminars. Focusing on getting better everyday.  As John wooden said “it is what your learn after you know it all that counts”.
  • Use the products you sell.  This is linked to a passion for what you represent. Also, Use the products you compete against.  This is especially relevant for me over the years, in fitness equipment.  But this applies to many products. If you don’t use your products, you are not the advocate you claim to be for your customer.
  • Get good at listening. Really listening.  The more I listened and observed, the more consistent I got.   Simple. Not easy.
  • Practice communication skills.  A good doctor can communicate medical speak into terms the average person understands. They do so with compassion and with humility. Same with a financial advisor taking complex financial information and converting it into terms we can understand. A good salesperson does the same.  The communication of message needs to be customized to the person being addressed. This is a skill that can only be developed through practice. Just like an actor with a script.
  • Don’t let numbers scare you and don’t be a slave to them.  Numbers in business and sales are how we keep score. It is how we get paid. They scare many. However, they are a guide on performance and validation of your skills. They don’t lie. I always loved the picture numbers can provide. In my business, B2B sales, numbers paint the picture for the customer as well. Best embrace them and use them to your benefit.
  • The work expands to the time you have : if you are good, you will be in demand : don’t let that take you away from what’s important to you.  I have not always been good at this. Many years, I worked long hours to learn a craft that was foreign to me. Very few people are good at a skill early on. As I started I got some advice, don’t let the company and their interests take you away from what’s important in your life.   You only have 1 chance to raise your kids and be home for important events.

I don’t mind admitting that I struggled with this for some time, because the ego stroke that comes from being in demand is gratifying.  In hindsight, it is not all that important. The work is there. Especially if you are good. If you are good, you can develop your own terms of work.

  • Master Sales Skills. Have a process. A musician knows what skills to practice to get better.  Many salespeople don’t.  The theory of sales and the practice of sales often get lost in translation. There are skills that you need to be good at to be better at sales.  They include many of what is shared here.  Knowledge of your customer, and market. Listening and asking relevant questions. Focus and follow up. Communication in various forms, from writing to presenting.  Most importantly problem solving. The most important skills come from practice.   But sales success starts with knowing the skills that work.
How Do You Define Success?
  • Positioning. This is a big one. Thanks Dan Kennedy! This is connected to lead generation. If you can position yourself as being valuable to your customer, sales consistency will follow.
  • Collect money. Early on in my sales career, I was at a conference and someone I struck up a conversation with started bragging about all the quotes he had out in the field. Being new to sales, I had to question whether this was important in performance.  It is. But not as important as getting orders and collecting money. Collecting money is the most important skill. Get good at it.
  • Understand & leverage finance. This is connected to knowing and understand numbers. In B2B sales, finance plays a big role. The largest sales I have been involved in were over $1M in equipment. The role of exchange rates, depreciation, interest rates, cash flow and other aspects of finance are critical in putting together a winning proposal.
  • Don’t try to please everyone.  It was definitely a process to understand that I was not going to please everyone. Problems happen. Deliverables sometimes don’t meet expectations.  All opportunities are not created equal. Being able to say no, or deal with disappointment or negative reviews is part of the job.   Especially if you experience some success, many negative naysayers will target you and try to knock you down.  Don’t let it deter you from what is important.
Best planning still results in mistakes
  • Learn from your mistakes. Oh, the mistakes. I think it was Michael Jordan who said, that he succeeded with game winning shots because he failed so many times. Not many sales trainings will talk of the journey of mistakes and losses. But they are valuable. Learn from them. I did.
  • Create goals you can be excited about.  The self-help industry will talk of goal setting. Which is fine and good. However, having goals that you can get excited about is most often connected to your why.  
  • Focus. The more success one has, the more distractions come your way. Stay focused on what’s important to you while striking a balance with what’s going on around you.  At times during my career I think I suffered from tunnel vision, and that hurt just as much as getting distracted.
  • Stand for something. How do you want to be known by coworkers and customers?  

Last, but not least, have fun. This won’t happen all the time. But if you represent products and organizations you like, work with people you enjoy, it won’t always seem like a job. This is very high on the list. The equipment industry gave me outlet to determine my income while being part of an industry that I love.  I worked hard, filled up my library and applied what could. I had some great wins, but also some devastating losses.

The more I worked in sales, the more l realized that the people were the most important thing.

It is not about product or quotas or margins or goals.

It is about helping people. 

That was and is fun!

The Downside To Teaching Sales Employees What It Takes.

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There are many things that sales management and business coaching books won’t teach you. 1 of them is training an employee, who does well then decides to jump ship to compete with you.

Any business owner or senior manager will tell you that grooming young talent comes with its pitfalls. It requires an investment of time and money, expert guidance and patience.

In business to business sales (B2B), the sales cycles can be as long as 1-2 years. There are lots of skills to master.

From lead generation & prospecting, to product, customer and competitor knowledge.  There is also administration of the sale and management of customer relationship management software (CRM) to increase efficiency.  Managing a pipeline, relationships, working with support personnel, leveraging finance, negotiation and follow up skills are also required for consistent success.  In addition, our top performers also understand and manage priorities, understand how to create value, are good with numbers, hold margins, have good follow up skills, and  present well in various situations.  In our fitness equipment business, knowledge of exercise science is a valued skill of our top performers.

These skills lead to an experience bank. This experience bank allows you to use the above skills for maximum performance.  Most importantly, all of this is wrapped up into a unique selling proposition, an approach that positions our solution better than the others available to the customer.

The learning curve is steep, and often takes 6 months to 1 year or more for a successful representative to hit their stride.

Performance is always the #1 objective. Results. Sales. Generating revenue. 

Therefore, supporting the new representative in these skills becomes a priority for the manager, because time is always of the essence.

With this training, performance and overall investment by the organization, 1 of 2 things tend to occur:

  1. It is not a good fit for the representative.  The activities required are not performed well and results are not there, and the contract needs to end.
  • It is a good fit and the representative builds some momentum, enough to keep going and find a rhythm.  From here 2 things can happen.
    • They settle in and have some success and nice long-term relationship gets established. This benefits the representative, the organization and, most importantly the customer. In many cases, these are the next wave of senior representatives and some start move into management.
  • The success becomes so strong that the representative starts to feel that they can get to a better opportunity. The perspective is that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and will lead to more money and freedom.  Perhaps this opportunity is one that they can run with more control and answer to less people.  The feedback has been that the new opportunity won’t have as much structure and guidelines.    Sometimes, they want an ownership stake or don’t feel the mother ship is supporting them as well, so they decide to leave.

In almost 20 years of sales team management, the most frequent result is #1 above.   In my experience, I have found 2 reasons for this.

  • The profiling and interviewing process was not deliberate enough. Hire slow and let go quickly applies here and is very true.
  • The expectations out of the gate were not realistic for the skill level of the new representative.

Both are on the hiring organization.

The 2nd most frequent result is 2a, they settle in, do well and are long term productive representatives.  This is the most rewarding part of the work, as I have been on both sides.  Representative and management. 

A close 3rd to the above is 2B. This is where the successful representative packs up and leaves for a better offer or start their own shop.

2B is every employer’s worst case scenario.

Investment into the representative, they get up and running and do well, and they leave.

In my experience, there are not many situations departing representative had as much success with the new organization.

Why would this be?

Not a clear understanding of all aspects of the business is the most logical answer.   In the industry where I have the most experience, the selling of commercial fitness equipment, the capital requirements and support expertise to prop up a representative are significant. This would be akin to a top performing car salesperson starting their own dealership.  But they could start their own brokerage could they not?

Of interest here is that yours truly departed a company in 2010 to start out on my own.  That would be option 2B.  That’s right, I was one of those people.  I learned a lot with my first organization for 15 years and then felt I had reached an impasse and had to leave.

The change, at that time, propelled me into business ownership and took my career to another level.  But that other level brought increased investment and exposure financially along with the eventual strong results. (We eventually sold our business in 2015 to the company I work for now.)

The ironic aspect of this, was that I never wanted to leave.  I understood all that my first organization had taught me. The competitive advantage it provided me so I could focus on serving customers.  That organization, however, stopped doing those things to support me and our customers suffered. Products started taking too long and other aspects required to be supported were stopped. In fact, I tried for 3 years to help the first organization get back on track, without success.

In my case, I had no choice. I had to leave.  Either the company and/or the industry.

I knew going into the new venture, what the requirements in running a business run much wider and deeper than simply sales.  I also partnered with 2 people who were very good at aspects of the business that I was not.

Conclusion:

I don’t think I would change a thing.   I think people leaving are part of the process of running a business and/or managing a team.  The key is developing a process that increases the chances of a good hiring fit and shortens the learning curve to performance.   

I have been on both ends.  The employee and employer. The sales representative being managed, and the manager.

I am teaching my son to find an organization within an area he is of interest, that has a great onboarding program.   Regardless of where you go from there, you can not lose!

Greg Lawlor is a former schoolteacher and 25 year veteran of sales, management and business ownership.  He continues to learn something new every day!