Geoff Hampton -- A Passionate Drive to Help Others Attain Maximum Health and Fitness Success

“The health and wellness industry has always concluded that the model that everyone was following (copying one to another) was the best model that could be used in the pursuit of successful business operation. That has been proven wrong by the current economic downturn. However, by utilizing an open systems management approach like the GLH Open Systems Management Model that I created based on my research, any club or health and wellness related business can actually thrive in these conditions! Business operators in this industry need to take action immediately in order to shift their operational dynamics to a truly success based model. In developing my unique and impactive sales approach I incorporated Dr. James Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model of Change to clearly illustrate the challenges club sales teams face as they cling to the ‘old school’ techniques. By using this model business operators can clearly see the deficiencies in the sale of new memberships, personal training, massage therapy, effective utilization of Group Exercise and all its important applications and of course their retention efforts. My first regular business column (1985 - 1986) was with IHRSA (back then it was called IRSA) and was entitled, ‘Sales Training by Geoff Hampton,’ so I have doing sales and leadership training for a very long time! However, I came to recognize the flaws in the ‘old school’ approaches and made it my mission to discover and cross relate stronger methodolgies from other professions. It has been very effective. The most significant changes I've seen are mostly positive. With the National focus on exercise and better nutrition the industry has seen a large influx of sedentary types that in the past would either have maintained their poor lifestyle choices or would have simply opted for a weight loss program alone. Most of the industry has embraced these types and moved to create stronger inventories of initial new member programming to support these persons' chances for success. However, there are still unscrupulous operators who are in essence fitness predators. How would you identify a fitness predator? Not by an Association relationship that's for sure. Simply go to any State Attorneys General website for consumer complaints, or Better Business Bureaus and the predatory operators will be listed there.”

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