THE INVITATION PROCESS

The second Vital Behavior is ‘Invite, Invite, Invite’. Inviting is the core activity that produces growth and rewards in your business and it is through inviting that the most rewarding benefits of Coaching are realized. Whether it’s increasing your income or helping someone better their life, it all starts with your decision to invite. But, even with all these benefits, many Coaches feel very intimidated to invite and, as a result, do not invite consistently enough to get the results they want. The purpose of this guide is to review some best practices around inviting. It will help you become more effective and confident by helping you understand the simple process of inviting and what skills to focus on developing. This guide is broken down into three sections:

1. Nurturing Your Network 2. Key Inviting Principles 3. The 4 Phases of Effective Inviting

Each section has a specific role to play in successful inviting, so pay close attention to each section.

1. NURTURING YOUR NETWORK Next to you, your ‘network’ is your most valuable business asset. Your network is the people you interact with on a regular basis, either online, or in person. The more it grows, the more your business can grow and the more engaged you are with your network the more responsive they’ll be to your invitations. As a Coach, it is important to start seeing your network as an asset to your business and to treat it as such.

Expanding your network When you start off as a Coach, you’ll share Beachbody with the people in your network that you had before you were a Coach. Some call this your ‘warm market’ because it is typically comprised of family and acquaintances who know you. This is a great place to start your business…but, the greatest growth in your business will be found as you expand your warm market to include more and more people. Each week, more people should be exposed to you and your business than the week before.

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Start and Continue Expanding your Network by:

Identify five interests other than fitness and join related groups on social media Start three new conversations with people, online or in person, every day Track new contacts and message them directly to thank them for connecting with you Create experience opportunities daily with fitness tips, recipes, clean eating ideas, fit clubs,

run free groups that add value to your network and ask people to share your content to attract more people.

Often, frustrations with a lack of success inviting have very little to do with how you’re inviting and a lot to do with your network. Consistently adding new people to your network will give you new people to talk and increase the number of people seeing what you offer as a Coach. Done consistently, this creates a stable pipeline of people to work with for you as a Coach. A good rule of thumb is to get to the point where you’re consistently adding 3-5 people a day to your network.

Create Experience Opportunities Because your network is such a key business asset, investing time and resources into it is worthwhile. Specifically, you should continually be creating ‘experience opportunities’ with your network that add value to the people who are a part of it. These opportunities allow people the chance to experience a sample of what it is like to have you as their coach, which will open up inviting opportunities for you. It also adds value to the people in your network that keeps them engaged with you and your business. Some simple ways to create experience opportunities are:

Fitness tips Recipes Clean eating ideas Fit Clubs Run free groups

2. KEY INVITING PRINCIPLES One of the things that can make inviting intimidating for a Coach is the unique elements that each prospective customer brings to the table. But, if you understand some key principles of inviting, you’ll be better prepared to handle any situation you come across while inviting.

Intent matters more than technique While skill still remains important in the inviting process, it is your intent that makes you effective. Your coaching business is a relationship-based business and people will respond to your sincere intent to help them more than anything else. How do you feel about them on the inside? Are you sincere? Sincerity will show and that is what people respond to when they consider your invite. If you’re skilled but lack intent, then you will come across as a salesperson chasing numbers and points.

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If you’re skilled with good intentions, then you will come across as an effective problem solver and now you can build an ongoing relationship.

People change for ‘pain’ or ‘gain’ Change isn’t easy for people. For every change, there is a cost. It could be a financial cost, an emotional cost, a cost of convenience or comfort…or usually a combination of those things. This cost is why people resist making changes in their life. What this means for you is that until the negative consequences (the pain) of the situation or their enthusiasm about a potential outcome (the gain) is greater than what is required to join your Challenge Group they’ll have a low-level of motivation to accept your invitation.

Your discussions with people about their needs and how your Challenge Group will benefit them helps lower their perceived ‘cost’ to get started while also increasing their motivation. These discussions are best driven by your ability to ask good questions.

Ask Questions Asking questions communicates a sincere interest in your prospective customer’s life! So, be curious!

Use questions to get to find common ground with someone you just met or to catch up with someone you haven’t spoken with in a while.

Use questions to discover if there is a need that you may be able to help them with as a Coach.

Use questions to understand their enthusiasm for the Beachbody solutions you’ve recommended to them.

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A simple way to think about using questions effectively is to understand the 4 Phases of Inviting and how questions work in each phase of the process to help someone get started with you in your Challenge Group.

3. The 4 PHASES OF INVITING The majority of people that you’ll speak with as a Coach will struggle to make positive choices regarding their health and fitness. That is why they need you as their Coach! You’re the difference maker because you will be the one person in their world who helps them believe they can change and it all starts with their decision to start. When you invite, you’re helping someone make this critical decision. With that understanding, you should start looking at inviting differently. Inviting IS: matching needs and solutions then HELPING make the decision to start Inviting is NOT: convincing someone to do something that they do not want to do To help you develop the skill of asking effective questions to identify and create a prospective customer who is motivated to buy, look at the process of inviting in four phases.

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Inviting in your ‘Warm Market’ For people in your warm market that you know well, Phases 1 and 2 of the inviting process may be unnecessary. Depending on the person, you may be able to just reach out to them and go right to Phase 3. The important thing to remember when working with your warm market is to stay true to the style you already have established with them and then talk to them that way. Be yourself in how you share your excitement about Beachbody solutions with them. When you start working with people that you don’t know very well, including people you used to know well but have fallen out of contact with, you should go through all four of the inviting phases.

PHASE 1: F.O.R.M. a Relationship The first phase is to find common ground and establish a relationship. This is important because it establishes your intent (remember the principle: ‘intent matters more than technique’) by focusing on the person before the Challenge Pack or the Challenge Group. When you are talking with people in your warm market, you will already have a foundation of common ground to initiate a conversation. With people in your cold market, you’ll use some simple questions to find common ground. The different ways to reach out:

People you Know People you know, but not well

People you don’t know (you reach out and contact)

People you don’t know who contact you

Examples: family, coworkers, friends

Acquaintances, coworkers,

Friend requests, daily invites you send,

Followers,

“How’s the family doing?”

“Saw you on Facebook, we haven’t chatted in a while, how have you been?” (FORMing)

“Hey, I just saw your post and just wanted to say thanks for sharing that….” (FORMing)

“Thanks for reaching out! Always like getting to know new friends. Tell me about yourself.” (FORMing)

For people you don’t know well, you can use an method known as F.O.R.M. that will help you find common ground and establish a relationship. Find out more about the F.O.R.M. method by reading ‘How to Build Relationships’ guide in your Training Library found in the backoffice.

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PHASE 2: Identify a Need Now that you’ve broken the ice and found common ground you’ve established your intent by putting the relationship first. This will have opened up opportunities for you to explore if there are needs they have that you can help them with as a Coach. Don’t overthink or overcomplicate the transition into Phase 2. Focus on what you know about the person and why joining your Challenge Group would be a benefit to them. Then, keep the discussion simple by letting them know that you think you have something that would benefit them but you’d like to make sure it’s the right fit by asking a few quick questions. Use questions that will help you:

Identify a need (or goal) Understand how significant the need (or goal) is

and how it is impacting them. Identify issues that have kept them from solving

the need in the past (or reaching the goal) Create initial excitement about solving the problem

(or reaching the goal). Here is a sample flow of questions to identify a need that you can use to develop your own. Focus more on the ‘Purpose’ shown than the question itself to help you understand what the question is trying to achieve. Sometimes, asking just a few questions will trigger a discussion where they’ll share really everything you need to know to understand their need and match it to the appropriate Beachbody solution. Remember, the idea is to know how you can help someone before you try to help someone.

PURPOSE QUESTION one or all of the questions may apply and remember to put these in your own voice

1. Frame the Discussion

From a health and fitness standpoint, what are you facing right now?

2. Know why it’s a problem & how big

How is that a problem for you? –or- Why is it a goal for you?

3. Understand the internal impact

How is that impacting you?

4. Understand the external impact?

Who (or what) else does it impact?

5. Know the desired outcome

What would success with this look like for you?

6. Identify the constraints

What has stopped you from succeeding with this before?

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7. Create vision and excitement

If you were successful with it, what would you gain?

Before you move to Phase 3, restate what they’ve said to you so that you communicate your sincere intent and then ask if you’ve missed anything important to them. Example: “Thanks for sharing that with me! Just to make sure I understand, what I heard you say is that…[repeat back the problem they’re trying to solve, the impact it’s having on them, any constraints they mentioned, and what they hope to achieve].” “Did I miss anything that’s important to you?”

PHASE 3: Share Information and Get Feedback After you’ve identified a need, now it’s time to share the information about the Beachbody solution you feel would best help them.

Do’s Don’ts

Focus on how it solves their need

Talk about benefits

Make it sound effective, but fun!

Encourage them Share your

experience and results

Try to prove that to them they should buy it

Overwhelm them with features and information

Debate Add pressure

Share Information There is a wealth of resources, everything from Challenge Group Guides, videos and marketing tools, and of course, the most powerful tool is your experience and journey…so, tell your story! When you share information, think about answering these questions the customer may have:

1. Can I do this? (Do I have the physical ability, the time and dedication to complete this?) 2. Do I really want to do this? (Is the solution appealing to me?) 3. Is this worth it to me? (Will the benefits I get be worth the cost?)

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Get Feedback After you’ve shared the information with them, simply ask: “Do you see this as something that would address ___[whatever the need or goal is]___? If you get a positive response, move to the next phase. If don’t get a positive response, ask something like: “What do you like the most about it? What appeals to you the least?” Then, based on their answer, recommend another solution that would work better for them based on the information they’ve given you.

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PHASE 4: Assume Success

Giving them information and knowing their feedback on your recommended solution isn’t the end of the invite process, you’ll need to help them get started. At this point, you’ve got a prospective customer who is very motivated to buy, so make that decision easy for them by assuming success. You assume success when you talk to the prospective customer like they’ve already made the decision to get started. Example: Not Assuming Success: “Great! It sounds like this Challenge Pack is a good fit. So, I just want to make sure you don’t feel like I’m giving you any kind of pressure to buy it, it’s totally your choice, so if you want some time to think about it that’s ok with me.” Assuming Success: “Great! This sounds like a great fit for you! I know you’re going to love it and I’m excited to work with you. Click on this link here and I’ll help you get started!” When you assume success, you lower the pressure and you communicate confidence. If the prospective customer still has questions or isn’t ready, they’ll tell you so don’t worry about feeling ‘pushy’ at this stage.

Follow up As you are working with prospective customers through the phases of inviting, you’ll need to be following-up frequently. In fact, it’s been said that 80% of ‘sales’ are made after the third contact. So, don’t worry if they don’t say ‘yes’ right away when you want to see if they have a need or if they don’t respond immediately after you’ve shared information with them. Following up with people is part of the process! There are primarily three scenarios for following up:

1. Help someone make a decision to start-be there to answer any questions, and calm any customers that may have got cold feet.

“I’ve got that group we spoke about starting soon and I’ve still got that spot for you and I’m pumped to help you get those results we spoke about, did you have any other questions?”

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2. Re-establish/Re-engage/Re-affirm the relationship- fitness is not one and done, and you have to re-establish that you will be available for their needs in the future.

“Hey! Just saw something on Facebook today about _____ and it reminded me of you. Hope you’re doing well and we can catch up again soon!”

3. Keeping a commitment- Coaches are successful to

“Hey! Just had a reminder pop-up to touch base with you again real quick. We’re you able to talk things over with your spouse?”

And remember, don’t take inviting too personal! Other people’s decisions isn’t your responsibility. As a Coach, if you’ve done your best to really help them solve a need they have and they don’t respond like you hope, don’t be hard on yourself! They may come back to you at another time and, besides, every time you invite you’re gaining valuable experience and skills that will make you even more effective.

Next Steps Congratulations! You have a new participant in your Challenge Group! Now that you have their trust, create the best Challenge Group experience and team culture you can. Keep your Challengers accountable and motivated to get results!