How to Fill Classes Without Discounts: A Smarter Sales Strategy for Boutique Fitness Studios

In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield breaks down one of the biggest misconceptions holding boutique fitness studio owners back: the belief that discounts will fix long-term revenue problems. Spoiler alert — they won’t. 

Instead, Seran reveals how a clear, intentional sales process can help Pilates studios and boutique fitness businesses fill classes, improve retention, and grow predictable revenue without racing to the bottom on price. 

From understanding why discounts attract the wrong clients to learning how your sales process actually begins long before someone walks through the door, this episode is a must-listen for Pilates studio owners who want sustainable growth, aligned clients, and a business that feels calmer and more profitable. 💫

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Transcript

The Discount Temptation

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever caught yourself saying, maybe I should just run a discount? Maybe that'll finally get people in the door? And if so, you're not alone. And also, actually, that's not the biggest problem. Today I'm unpacking one of the biggest misconceptions that I see in the boutique fitness space. And that is that the belief that a quick discount will fix a long-term revenue problem. Spoiler alert, it won't. But you do have something far more powerful at your fingertips, even if you're not using it yet. We're talking about your sales process. Yes, you have one, even if right now it's accidental or inconsistent or hiding behind all the other things that happen in your business. And here's where things get interesting. Once you understand the true job of your sales process and why it is that perhaps it's misunderstood, you'll realize that maybe you've been solving the wrong problem all along. Let's get into it. Well, hi there, I'm Sarah Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset, and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio. This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah and Glamfield and I am the founder of Spring 3 Studio Business Consulting. I help boutique fitness studio owners just like you grow smarter, stronger businesses, ones that generate more revenue, attract more clients, and run more smoothly. How do I do it? Well, inside my Thrive Coaching program, we don't just chase trends or gimmicks. We focus on real strategies that create sustainable success for you. And this podcast is where I share some of the shifts, some of the frameworks, and some of the skills that help movement professionals just like you to become profitable studio CEOs. And I'm so glad that you are here today, because today's topic is one that I think almost everyone struggles with at some point. It comes across at some point, comes across your desks, comes across your studio, comes across your marketing plan at some point. And honestly, many never fully solve it, which is why they're often sort of constantly hustling for new clients, constantly adjusting their pricing, constantly looking for that next promotion, that next discount. What's the next hook? And often they're also the ones who are constantly wondering why it feels so hard. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about discounts. And I think the temptation is real, right? You hit a bit of a slow season, or you're worried about a slow season. Maybe you've seen other folks run some discounted promotions. Maybe there's a new studio opening that is running some deep discounts. And you're concerned or you're feeling some of a slip bit of a slowdown, perhaps. Classes are a bit quieter, and maybe your brain, and it often does, jump straight to price. What if I drop the price? That is what will motivate people. I have to share this with you guys, and and I I I feel like I say this a lot, but I feel like it's important to say a lot because the truth is that a discount will never fix a marketing problem, ever. It doesn't fix a lead conversion problem. It doesn't fix a retention problem, and it definitely doesn't fix a sales problem. And I think that the nuance in there is quite important. And I think it's what is often missed. And that is that the discount in and of itself, quite honestly, will only attract people who are looking for a discount, who are looking for a deal, who are looking for a quick fix for something. They are not often the people who are looking for a long-term commitment. They're not the people who you might be looking for, who you might want to have come into your business and be a client for not just a week or a couple of sessions, but actually for months and even years in so many of your cases. And I think that the difference between a discount and having a strong strategy in place around marketing and sales, is the difference between the people who are looking for the deal and the people who are looking for results. And the reality is that ultimately the health of your long-term success, the health of your business really depends on which group you're filling your studio with. The most successful businesses, the ones that stand the test of time, especially when they are founder operated, like so many of yours are. And you are the ones who came up with the concept, who thought about the design, who was who wanted to share what you share with your clients. You want stable revenue. You want consistent lead flow. You want clients who stay for years, who show up excited and enthusiastic about their classes. They're not relying on discounts, right? They're relying more on, or they're looking more for, I should say, a deliberate experience. An experience that has been designed by you very strategically, that turns that sort of interest, perhaps that curiosity, into a commitment, right? Without feeling pushy, salesy, gimmicky, manipulative, coercive, and all of the feelings that we dislike and all the things that we hate about sales, frankly. And I think the good news is that when we shift from one way of doing things to the other, you know, it's not about overhauling your marketing. You don't need to lower your prices, and you definitely don't need to become someone you are not. But what we do need is clarity around your sales process. And frankly, before we even get to your sales process, about what a sales process really is and how it truly shapes so much of what happens between that I just found you time in the customer journey and I'm now a long-term member, and I'm bringing all my friends here, and I cannot wait to book every single class I can book as far out as you will let me, right? So let's talk a little bit about why this matters. And I think that when, you know, we when we have, you know, we start to see the problem in the studio, and it does come up, and you should expect it to happen every, every now and again, occasionally, you might feel like your classes are a little slower than you'd like them to be, right? Or perhaps the revenue is stalling, perhaps it's dipping a little bit. You know, we always we do see these this sort of patterns over the course of the year often. And the instinct is always to go to price. Always. I don't know what it is. It's just sort of like that natural reaction, right? And it can feel quite logical. It's often what has prompted us to make sales. And it's not to say that there is not a place for discounts, there sure is. But the reality is that relying on deep discounts over and over and over again uh is not sustainable for a long-term growth strategy. And what we see often is that these discounts, and I think I've I've seen this is something that I see over and over again, which is that studios that run a lot of deep discounted promotions over the year, over two years, over the course of their whole life, they often mark a mask, I should say, a deeper problem, right? They're not solving the problem of lead generations. Discounts don't solve a lead generation problem. Discounts mask a deeper problem often. Okay. And so it's really important that we understand the role the discounts play in our business and how it sits in the entire sales kind of process that we have. Because what we see often is that the clients who are not moving forward in the customer journey are often not hesitating simply because your prices are too high, right? Which is often what we tend to think. They're often hesitating because you haven't structured the conversations on the process around helping them make a decision about whether or not you are the best fit for them. And what we see when this happens, when we lean on discounts, we rely on discounts, is that it often fills the studio with the wrong clients, bargain shoppers, people who bounce around from one studio to the next, who are looking for the discount and who won't stick around once that discount comes to an end, as it often does. And so this leaves you, as the business owner, as the studio owner, chasing volume, constantly chasing volume, chasing that next client or that next 10 clients, that next 20 clients, and relying on that sort of chase to see can try to see consistent revenue growth. And so instead of make thinking about this idea of making what you do cheaper, okay, how about thinking about it as how do I make it clearer? How do I make it more obvious? How do I make it simpler? Because the lever isn't just about price. The, the, the, the lever is how confident is your client in what you do and the value of what you do? How, how confident do they are they and and about the fact that you are going to help them get to where they want to get to? And when you're discounting, you're not creating this very confident decision-making uh pathway. We're actually creating, perhaps even sometimes, a little bit more of a sort of a facade around it, right? Um, and so I think that when we come, when we think about this as a more, and it is more than just this sort of one-time quick yes or no on the behalf of the client. We have to think about the entire journey and the customer journey and this process that we often talk about or refer to as a sales process. And many studio owners think that they don't have a sales process or may not have one yet. Um, but you probably do, um, because even if you haven't designed it, it is happening in your business. Sales are happening probably in your business right now, which means that on some level, you have a sales process. It just might not have been designed specifically by you. It's just happening by default, right? And maybe somewhat accidentally, maybe only you are the one who implements it. Whatever it is, it's happening in your business because you are making sales, right? So your website, your intro offer, your confirmation emails, your messaging, your follow-up, the conversations, all of these pieces are pieces of your sales process. And the problem is that these pieces often don't fit together very well or very intentionally. And when this process is unclear or inconsistent, or perhaps ends abruptly for your client, they will feel uncertain. They will not know what is the next step to take. Um, and what we know is that uncertainty breeds hesitation. And hesitation and uncertainty probably leads to zero decisions, which means that instead of taking that next step forward, um, it's about they're gonna pause and think about uh, they're gonna pause and think about whether or not this is the right step for them, right? Which means that you're probably losing conversions, not because people don't like your studio, but because people don't like what to do, don't know, I should say, what to do next. And I think that we have to come back to this reminder that you know, sales is not about convincing. Sales is about guiding. It's about supporting, it's about opening up the opportunity for what could be coming next. And when you shift from that push, push, push, convert, convert, convert, sell, sell, sell as the sales process or even idea of what the sales process should be to a mindset of we are guiding someone towards this incredible life that they could be having when they are moving freely and healthily and energized by it. A lot changes for you as the leader of the business, as the probably the main point person when it comes to sales in your business, your confidence, your messaging, and ultimately your results will change as well. And I think that one of the biggest shifts that we can make when it comes to our sales process is recognizing when that sales process actually begins. Because many studio owners think that the sales process starts when someone walks through the door. But by that point, 80% of the decision has already been made. Your messaging, your onboarding, the touch points, the your in-studio welcome. You know, they are, if they're not intentionally guiding someone towards a commitment, you're leaving the hardest part of the sale to the one moment where you feel the most pressure. And this creates that sort of emotional roller coaster for you and for the whole process, which is that some clients will convert, some clients don't, you don't really know why, it feels unpredictable. And when you have an unpredictable business, it is exhausting, you guys, truly exhausting. So your shape your sales process can be designed to really do the heavy lifting before you ever ask anyone to make a purchase for from you, a long term, like that next step purchase. And when your brand, your website, your messaging, your intro offer, your language, your teachers use, your front desk team uses, your client experience all work together, you stop that sort of sell, sell, sell messaging. And it feels more like a very natural next step. And this is where we start to see conversions from that just looking into the intro offer, into that next sell become much easier. And what else happens is we don't need discounts to do it. It happens because people want to be there. They're intrinsically motivated by what you have shown them as possible, right? And so we don't need to continue to be discounting throughout the entire customer journey when we have all of these pieces fitting together as well. And I think when it comes to discounting, it often feels like the fastest path to more revenue, truly. And I, you know, recently, um, you know, what the some of the questions that I get asked inside of my program and and and by my my coaching clients is, you know, I want to do a a new year or a promotion to get some new folks in, and I want to, I want to boost cash flow, right? And I think that we have, you know, people always say, like, what should I discount? How much I discount by? What should the number be? And the reality is that, you know, we often can get stuck in these questions, right, which aren't actually truly helping us get to where we want to get to. And while a discount might help to give a short-term cash influx, which is great, we just we still have to be careful about the profitability of our offers. And far too often we give away a lot in these discounted promotions. Um, when I say a lot, we're giving away a lot of our own profit that could be coming back into your back pocket. And I think that often what we're doing is sort of uh creating this sort of distraction, perhaps, um, away from some of this deeper work that probably your business would benefit from doing longer term instead. And so what we do is we often use a discount as, you know, a quick, a quick fix when ultimately it may even be hurting your business in a lot, a lot of different ways. And I think that we often give the discount because we don't want to feel like we're selling, we want to give something away. So then we're not selling. And that selling is has this, perhaps sometimes has this sort of uh bad feeling around it, like it's something that is pushy or bad for our business. But the reality is that when you make a sale to someone who really wants what you do, it is not that at all. And so instead, what folks do is instead of being in a place they feel uncomfortable about selling and feeling pushy, they put the pressure onto pricing and cheaper just always feels safer. And when we do this, what happens is you unintentionally devalue your studio and you train your clients to wait for deals and you limit your profit potential often before your clients have even walked in through the door because you've decided this is the tool you're going to use, right? And when your sales process is designed to answer questions, to motivate, inspire your clients, discounts stop being necessary, right? And this is what I've seen over and over again with that the studios that I work with, they don't have to discount their, they don't have to discount what they do, they don't have to discount what they're offering. They have clients that come every single week extremely consistently who are there, not because it is discounted, because they want to be a part of your studio. So, bigger picture here, a strong sales process is actually the key to high conversions. And that means that your business becomes more predictable and you have a lot more confidence in your business as a whole to be able to bring you a revenue that supports the operations of your business and the income that you want. And you shift from being that in that place of I just need to find something quick that's gonna fill classes and I'll figure out the profit problem later, to I am leading my business forward. I am guiding people into my business and showing them what's possible when they keep coming back. And you move towards this leadership role, this guide, this trusted advisor role. And that's the kind of energy shift that I see over and over and over again amongst the studio owners that join my Thrive program. And they are stepping into that role and leading their businesses forward with a, I am ready to do this and where do I start? And this is what we do inside Thrive. I show you how to build that sales path that doesn't require discounts, that doesn't require pressure, the way you aren't calling new clients every day of the week, begging them to come back in, but instead, you are aligning your brand, your messaging, your team, and the experience into one cohesive flow that naturally converts. So, quick recap: you don't need to discount over and over and over again, but you do need a sales process that builds trust, creates clarity, and helps your prospective clients, your leads, warm leads, to confidently choose what it is that you do and to choose you and your classes and your sessions. And what we find is that discounts create this sort of chasing uh energy, right? Whereas a sales process and a strong marketing strategy is like a magnetic attraction instead. And that's a much better energy to be in, right? So when you master this, you stop hustling, you step off the hamster wheel, you stop second guessing, and you stop reacting. And ultimately your business becomes more predictable and more profitable. And guess what? Oh, just a little bit more, more calm. So if you want a little bit of help designing a sales process that works, one that grows your revenue and drives retention and relationships with your clients and feels good to you. I would love to help you inside of my business coaching program Thrive. You can learn more at springthree.com forward slash thrive. Until next time, keep showing up, keep leading. And remember, your studio does not need to be cheaper. Just make the process a little bit clearer. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder: there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So, whatever it is that you want to do, create, or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.