In The Spirit of Fear | Kelli Calabrese

Shop for New Clients at the Supermarket

By Kelli Calabrese

If you have read any of my articles, you know that I often share ideas for creative promotions that can deliver a huge marketing impact on a shoestring budget. Well, I had a revelation one day after having the opportunity to speak alongside fitness marketing guru Phil Kaplan.

The strategy he shared for turning the supermarket into a marketing venue packed a lot of punch. The supermarket shopping tour is fun to conduct and commands a respectable hourly rate, however the lead generation and conversions to paying customers is where you score the most return.

Then and there, I made a commitment to try it myself. Before I share my experience, allow me, with Phil’s permission, to share six of his rules for making this marketing venture a win-win-win.

When you speak to the store’s general manager beforehand, aim for more than mere permission. The fact that you’re encouraging everyone to eat more and therefore spend more merits management’s enthusiastic agreement.
Discuss your plan for ethically promoting those foods that are most perishable
Promote your first tour outside the supermarket entrance.
Be listening to your participants needs as the tour progresses.
Always be prepared with your “next step” offer
At the conclusion of your tour, stay away from the words “any questions” prior to giving your offer.

The grocery shopping tour gets trainers out of the gym, into the community and in front of a fresh pool of potential customers. It challenges you to polish your speaking skills and apply your knowledge about nutrition in a practical setting.

And by providing this valuable service that so many people need, you are instantly positioning yourself as an expert in the eyes of consumers.

A supermarket shopping tour is a great way for trainers to market their services. All of the attendees are qualified prospects since they made an investment in their health by signing up for the tour.

And don’t overlook the “eavesdropper factor.” You’ll find there are inevitably other shoppers eagerly listening in during your tour, and if you discreetly hand them your business card with the dates of the next tour on the back, they’ll know how to sign up for a future tour or visit your web site to learn about other services you offer.

The grocery shopping tour sets up a new model to attract customers. It goes beyond the traditional techniques that trainers often spend money on with very little to show for it, like giving away sessions for free, buying expensive ads or leaving business cards all around town.

How to do a grocery shopping tour
As attendees arrive, give them a challenge. Invite them to grab a cart and go find five foods they believe would be good choices if they were trying to achieve improved health or healthy fat loss. Give them a meeting place to gather in five minutes. (I usually choose the back of the store near the fish section, which tends to offer some open space.)

As attendees return with their five items, give them a handout to look at while waiting for the rest of the group. The handout serves as both an educational tool and marketing device. It should include your contact information on every page.

Your handout should be a quick reference guide to food labeling, including any terms typically found on food packaging, such as: net carbs, fortified, enriched, low-fat, lean, reduced, genetically modified, 100% certified organic, etc. Also include:

examples of serving sizes along with visual cues
examples of the many names for sugar
lists of healthful food choices.

The handout can also serve as a "cheat sheet" for you as you talk about the information on food labels or packaging. Each time I conduct a tour, I expand my handout as new items and terms appear on the shelves and containers.

On the last page of the handout, include information about your offer, which we’ll cover below.

When the entire group has reassembled, begin scanning the foods in their carts. Pick up one item and begin the education. Start by identifying the usual mistakes. For example someone will bring low-fat pudding or low-carb ice cream or chicken with the skin or a frozen meal in a box or a meal replacement bar. This is your chance to get people on the right track.

It could easily take hours to go through all the items in every cart, but don’t. Dedicate about 15 minutes to the most blatant mistakes, emphasizing that there are poor, good, better and best choices. Nutritionist Keith Kline has been known to say, "we must learn how to select better "bad" foods".

Then begin your tour by going around the perimeter of the store focusing on the freshest ingredients and the best combinations of foods. You only need to venture up a few of the inside aisles to visit the diet, organic and cereal sections.

This will be an enlightening experience for both you and the participants--you will probably be shocked by most people’s beliefs about what constitutes healthy eating. You will often hear the question: “what about this?” as your shoppers hold up favorite food items, hoping that what they have been eating is a healthful choice.

Address real world issues, such as time and convenience, and give them some ideas for fast and easy meals that still support their goals of healthy eating.

Watch your time and limit the tour to an hour. Finish in the bread section and close with your offer, which might be an invitation to a weight loss seminar, a transformation program, personal training session, a gym membership or a cooking class.

Your offer should include a deadline. For example, “A 12-week weight loss program begins two weeks from Monday and if you pre-register by Monday, you are invited to take $100 off of the program investment. Or invite participants to apply the $20 fee for the shopping tour towards the first personal training session or membership investment.

By the way, at some point during every tour, someone will always complain that, despite their best efforts to try new things and make healthy changes in how they eat, their children are only willing to eat a few items, such as chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and hot dogs. Comments like that give you a perfect opportunity to talk about offering children’s cooking classes, educational seminars, kids’ fitness sessions, sport conditioning, etc.

After you have given your offer, spend the last 5 minutes answering questions.

Promoting the tour
When scouting a location for your first tour, choose a store in an area where you want to attract customers.

Then I start by contacting the store manager and I have never had one turn me away when I tell him I am going to encourage attendees to regularly buy the most expensive and perishable foods in the store. The response I typically get is: "Conduct your tours whenever you like and if anyone asks tell them Mike the Manager said it was okay."

Aim for about 20 attendees, with each paying $20 for pre-registration or $25 at the door. I recommend scheduling a seminar in your community a few weeks prior to the tour, drawing on your seminar attendees to fill up your grocer shopping tour.

For 45 days prior to your grocery shopping tour, make it the main focus of your marketing efforts. Here are some ideas for promotion:

Make it a point to meet 5 people outside of the club or in your community every day and tell them about your supermarket tour
Contact prospects and former clients
Ask the grocery store manager to put a flyer in each bag with information about pre-registering for the tour
Set up a table outside the store when it’s really busy on a Saturday morning and bring some models of fat and muscle or cholesterol to attract attention to your table
Invite groups or special populations, such as seniors, new moms, teens, etc.
Recruit store employees to help you promote the tour by placing an easel strategically in the store with information about the tour.

Tips for success
Collect the money ahead of time. If you rely on people to pay at the door, you will have no-shows.

Do not let one person monopolize, sidetrack or distract the group.

If you don’t know the answer to someone’s question, have the confidence to say so and offer to research it and get back to them. This is a great opportunity to follow up with people in the group.

Here are a few more tips for success:

Collect all contact info from participants including their e-mails
Have business cards to hand out to future customers who begin following your tour.
If you have a product to sell, bring it with you.
After each tour, follow up with a thank you e-mail to all attendees and then add them to your data base for future e-mail campaigns.
Host the tour when the grocery store is busy – but not too busy. You want the freedom to roam the store as well as keep the group together and able to hear you. However you also want others in the store to notice what you are doing. I typically choose a week night around 7 P.M.

By the end of the tour, the participants have all gotten their money’s worth tenfold. They understand the basics of reading a food label, and know how to avoid being deceived by packaging. They recognize what a serving size looks like, have learned how to build a healthful meal and have become more educated consumers.

So what are you waiting for? Why not get started now by browsing around your grocery store and becoming familiar with the items, reading the labels and setting up points for “ah ha” moments on your own supermarket shopping tour.

Phil and Kelli have co-created a program called Supermarket Tours and 7 Other Profitable Promotions. Please visit www.CalabreseConsulting.com or contact Kelli Calabrese at KelliCalabrese@comcast.net or 908-879-1469. Kelli Calabrese is the president of Calabrese Fitness Consulting LLC and an 18 year fitness industry leader.