Business
Our guest today on the Catapulting Commissions show is Ryan Casey. He recently retired from CutCo after 22 years, where he taught Anthony the ropes when it comes to sales. Ryan generated nearly 40 million dollars in revenue, trained, and developed over 3,000 sales representatives, 50 of which are in positions of leadership now. Now, he’s a multi-gym owner with Orangetheory Fitness, where he is consistently setting records. This guy knows how to sell. Ryan has a long track record of success. After 22 incredibly successful years at CutCo, he felt it was time to add something. He had been a member at Orangetheory Fitness, and initially, he only planned to be an investor with the mentality that this would be an additional stream of income. When he realized the process of opening a gym (opening, training, and running the location through a manager) was similar to what he did with CutCo, he applied his skills there. Over time, the success was hard to ignore, so Ryan pivoted to running the gyms full-time, even though that wasn’t the plan at the onset. Ryan developed some really influential skills that were transferable from CutCo to owning and operating an Orangetheory Fitness location. First and foremost, sales is not a talent, it’s a set of skills that anybody can learn. When Ryan got started, he was a shy kid who wasn’t especially charismatic--everything was learned. By going through that himself, it allows him to take anyone who he thinks has the drive and teach them the skills they need to be successful. As far as management goes, teaching THROUGH people is a key aspect of his success. It’s tough to set things up to run without you, but if you don’t do that, you’ll be putting out fires. Empowering people to make good choices can help your business achieve more than if you’re overseeing every aspect. There is definitely a threshold for when Ryan jumps in. For him, he operates with a development pipeline that protects him from having to do it often. There is always a backup if something happens! Creating a culture where people want to grow and advance within Ryan’s operations is crucial. He talks about not just teaching people how to do something, it’s about teaching people how to teach the task itself. The best way to learn a skill is to teach it. That way, managers don’t have to do repetitive tasks that they have moved past, but new hires aren’t losing any knowledge along the way. It takes the pressure of teaching everyone everything off one person. Working with younger people, Ryan wants to develop his staff as people, too. He focuses on retention by giving his staff value where they don’t get it elsewhere. That means developing people for their next step. No one is going to be entry-level forever, but caring for people over profit demonstrates a set of ideas that people want to be around. As Ryan said, sales are a set of skills. Ryan has a five-step process that starts with the main objective. If it’s just to make sales, you’re going to turn a lot of people off. His objective is to create longterm members. Having an objective where the sale falls within a timeline of a conversation allows for a flow of growth. There are some challenges that come up during the process of starting new business ventures. With franchising, sometimes there is a sale process in place, but there is no education on that process. Ryan’s five steps to training that sales skillset (after an objective is established), are as follows: Build a rapport, but know your timeframe and what is appropriate for the conversation you’re having. Ask the good questions. If you want to avoid objections, get out in front of them and handle them before they come up. All it takes is asking them! Educate them. You’re hitting all the points they mentioned from your questions. Your program should be designed specifically for them. No conversation is the same. At this point, they’re sold. Offer solutions to any outstanding objections. Reassure. Make them feel good about their choice and bridge them to your objective. LINKS Reach out to Ryan for individual or team coaching through LinkedIn: Ryan Casey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-casey-a80802a0/