Business Contradictions: The Truth About Volume

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 308. Today we're discussing the truth about volume. Are you ready? Let's dive in.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing clay on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson. And if this is the first time you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. Can't wait to dive in today. Today we are looking at common business contradictions. The truth about volume. Okay, so this one is very. I started to talk about this on Monday's episode and I think it deserved its own episode because we have to look at volume in a couple of different contexts. Now, I know I've been riffing on these business contradictions for a while now for our Wednesdays series, but it's just that there are so many, so no wonder people are confused. So I want, I want to dive into this one because it's really important. So anyway, I started to talk about that because I don't know how much longer I'm going to be doing the Wednesday business contradictions, but it's definitely worth sorting through it because I want you to be clear on what stance is going to work best for you because one of the things that I keep seeing about the business contradictions is aside from that there's so many, so no wonder people are confused. But some of these really may have a direct impact on the profitability and revenue generating activities that are required of you to execute and do every single day. So let's talk about volume, because there are a couple of different contexts in volume that we need to look at, and the first is the volume in terms of visibility. So if we're actually going to look at the growth equation that I live by. Value and volume, right? So if we're talking about visibility, you can't buy from the Internet's best kept secret. And so you want to be number one in your niche or you want to be number one in your industry, you want to be known for something. This requires visibility, which is going to require volume. And staying top of mind. This is also going to Require volume in showing up because it doesn't matter how beautiful your offer is or irresistible your offer is. No one can buy from the Internet's best kept secret. Just plain and simple, it cannot and will not happen. How you beat the volume game is going to either be paid or at the cost of time where you're posting three to five times a day. So that's going to be time, energy and effort or it's going to be done with your ads, where you have money, revenue in your ads that are coming up behind you, doing the work for you, pushing out work that you've already created and sending it out into the ethers. Now people have all these feelings about ads for whatever reason, right? And I've been sorting through my own feelings in terms of when is a good appropriate time for people to use ads. And here's my take on it. Maybe I should create another episode of that. So if you want to hear more about should we talk about when to use ads? Let me know. But for me, people will say you can't use ads until you hit 10k months. And I'm like, well, how are you going to hit 10k months if you don't have anybody to see your offers? So really you have to look at your risk tolerance and your risk management when it comes to using ads. And then also to be kind of honest with yourself about what's appropriate to lose. Because there are so many ways that you can do an engagement ad. You could do a video view ad through play campaigns where you could spend as little as three, you know, $5 a day or $2 a day on a video if we really wanted to get crazy. But you know, a dollar or two dollars a day on a video is still going to yield thousands of eyeballs, which is a hang of a lot more time than or a hang of a lot more eyeballs than the time it would take to go and DM 100 people or comment on 100 people's things. So the thing about the volume invisibility is that the volume number of what it takes to hit a stage, a certain amount of client load like that still exists. That number's not going to go away whether you use ads or organic efforts. It is really not about what are these arbitrary rules that people put in place about when to use ads or when not to use ads. And it's more about looking at the, the law of averages and of when it comes to numbers. If you want 10 clients, then you're going to need 800 to 1200 new leads, period. Those numbers tend to not vary. Now people say oh, But I've got 10 clients with 30 people. It's true. They need to be. Then that's great because you've got a whole bunch of warm people that you haven't tapped into or connected to yet that have just been waiting for you to present the offer. But that will tap out and oftentimes it taps out quickly. So you need to have a way to bring new people who never heard of you before to get that warm. And then this is where people start to just dive into building, know like and trust. And then they spend hours and hours and hours of time of trying to get people to like them. But that's not the same thing as trying to communicate to people who need your word. People get this messed up all the time. I see it often. This is why inside of Accelerator we build sustainable sales systems so that it can withstand any and all sales system as long as they're in your world. Then you can then. Then you just do whatever it takes to consistently show up in a volume capacity within your time constraints. Because the hustle culture of just hustle, hustle, hustle, work 12, 18 hour days, just keep. That is not a sustainable life. It's sometimes required depending on where you're at in your skill set, but it's not sustainable. And if you are trying to build your business in an unsustainable way, then that's like trying to build a house on quicksand. And I probably don't have to tell you how effective that's going to be for the long term. Which is why I help my clients use ads in an effective way. But by the time they are ready to use ads, it comes to this. It comes from this place of I know that whatever I put in, I'll either make back or I'll make back fast and I'm willing to risk it. So when it comes to the volume of people that are required to fulfill on said offer, or when it comes to the volume of people that are required to hit those targets, those numbers often don't change. So if you need volume and visibility, then you can use ads or you're going to use effort and time and it's a combination of both all the time. Because the truth is, is that there is an opportunity cost. If you are doing all of the dming and doing all of the commenting and trying to post 700 million quadrillion times a day, there's an opportunity cost. So I'm going to offer you two things to look at what am I willing to invest in terms of my resources? The second thing I'm going to invite you to look at is if resources are the need, how can I be more resourceful? So what can that look like? Well, instead of using three hours of time to create a post, how about I use 10 minutes of time to create a post? What would that look like? How can I make it faster? How can I get more efficient? How can I maximize my money? I'm investing? How can I maximize and leverage and be resourceful in the time that I'm investing? Okay, so I need to hire someone right now, but I can't necessarily. But now's not a great time for the business to invest money. So what are the other ways that I can be resourceful and find that spot like or. And find that person? Like a barter exchange or a partner or a best friend or something that, you know, look for the ways that you can be resourceful. Now, this is going to require you to be in a state, a mental state of, of looking at possibility instead of the problem. So, and this can be very tricky and hard for people. So just make sure that your nervous system is regulated, that you've alchemized the deep disappointments that you feel, and then start to look through and look for the ways that you can turn it around and be resourceful. And if this is what the business needs, how can I get that? And so then the second context of volume, when it comes to the paradoxes of volume, is looking at how many times you present the offer. Research has shown us. Now we hear this all the time. I went and looked for the research, but the truth is I've seen this in my own world, is that. And in my own buying expense, my own buying experiences, is that people need anywhere from eight to 14 touch points before making a buying decision. Whether it's no, not yet, or yes, I'm ready and ready now. This is why when people often launch their programs, is that. Or sometimes when I'm doing my live trainings, people will come multiple times to hear the same training over and over and over and over again. And it's not that that's bad. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Nobody squats once and then never squats again. True masters are always relentlessly executing the basics. And it's not that basics are bad sometimes. It's just we need to look at how often we are asking what is the volume of times that we are asking people to take the next step? And sometimes it might not even Be a direct ask. It could be a passive ask, a passive invite, something that's like if you like this, then you're going to Love this. Hey, P.S. when you're ready, here are the ways I can help you. If this helped you, then take this next step. So they can be passive invites that aren't direct promotions of. Click the link in bio, go to my story, watch this thing. And so the truth of the matter is that if you want to make more money inside of your business, you need to ask more people for the sale. Whether it's the same people, whether it's the same offer, that's going to be up to you. But the volume of asks, it's plain and simply not enough to ask once. And sometimes when you make your offer so irresistible that it sells itself, you'll have some people jump at the opportunity because the offer is a no brainer. But majority of times we need to remind people, hey, you were interested in this time's running out, this deadline, this deadline, whatever, whatever. So we get to remind you, remind them to take the next step. So volume of asks and staying top of mind is the most important. Think about it. There's a reason. If you've ever worked in the gym, have you ever asked yourself why is it that the last day of the month is the biggest revenue date of the entire month, when really the only difference is one is a Wednesday and one is a Tuesday is honestly the deadline. It's the reason to buy now it's the volume of asks that people inundate their clients with. Grocery stores do it. Everyone does it. It's part of what it means to understand human nature. So the volume of asks are important. So if you're coming from an apologetically asking, that energy is going to read in your content creation. So look for the ways that you could make your offer so irresistible. Put keep putting it out as often and frequently as possible. Passively invite, directly invite and increase the volume of asks. Now what's the contradiction? Okay, because I've really just educated on why volume is the most important. So the contradiction in volume is people will say things like, oh well, followers don't matter. And I've even said this like I've built 500k business on under 2000 followers. So it's like, wait, you said I didn't need the volume of people. You said I didn't. I can have a very successful business without the volume. But Beverly, you said that if your business relies on volume, then there's a profit problem. But you just told me the importance of volume. So therein lies the contradictions. So let's break this down. Okay. And why I'm saying this. So the volume and why we need volume we understand so that how do we and also not needful. So when we're talking about profit margins and when we're talking about volume, what we're really looking at is the volume of fans. The volume of potential people doesn't necessarily need to be massive. And then what happens is people will be focusing on volume and virality at these the expense of not having their back end set up. If you don't have an offer stack set up and you're going for volume, then likely you're trying to fill a bathtub up with water without plugging in the drain. That's what's happening. Or trying to fill a colander up with water. So people will think about volume in a way that's not in that's too early inside of their business when it comes to the volume of people and then the quality of people that they're trying to get in front of. And then the other thing is that if your business and we talked about this on Monday, but if your business is required in order to be sustainable volume, it's required to have volume, then likely you you have a profit margin problem and that it is requiring too much resources from you in order to fulfill on the offer, which is going to hurt your profit margin and then you won't be able to be set up to scale. So it's not that volume is bad. Volume is very good. And this whole part of the podcast at the beginning talked about why it is is it's just we need to understand the nuances and be strategic about what and why it matters and where it matters. So this is why it's a contradiction. So hopefully that helped provided some clarity. Let me know if you have any questions. As always, please take the five minutes to give us five stars and a review if if you are so moved and then tag us at Bsubs and and Fitness on Instagram on socials so that we can support you answer questions and honestly. This also helps us help more people. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you in the next episode.

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