Leisure centres have a way to increase their sales, income and reach
without any financial outlay. Alliance Leisure’s client support manager,
Paul Woodford, explains how the company’s ‘No Risk’ package works
The Alliance Leisure team have refreshed the branding across BCC’s fitness gyms
What does your No Risk, Performance-based support package entail? It’s something that’s unique to Alliance Leisure – you won’t find it offered by any other company. We bundle all our products together – anything from training courses to e-marketing software – and the client benefits from a huge amount of resources, which represents a great saving.
The package we offer to leisure sites is a true partnership where we take all the risk upfront, meaning there’s no upfront costs for the operator. Also, we are in the partnership for the long haul – usually around five years. It’s certainly not just a question of sending a sales team into a facility for a short while or doing some one-off training.
But of course, we’re not just there to create savings for them, but to actively grow their income.
Why should a leisure site employ your services? In the current financial climate many facilities, especially local authorities or trusts, simply don’t have the budget to develop their businesses. Even if they did have a budget to begin with, marketing and training budgets are the first things to disappear in a cost-cutting exercise.
We only take an income when we hit and exceed the target that we’ve set within the partnership with the client for income growth.
It sounds perfect – so why wouldn’t a business want to take up this kind of offer? Obviously if a site is performing well they wouldn’t want to bring us into the mix. But the reality is that most of these businesses need some help. Also, it’s not just a case of us coming in to bring revenues back up to sustainable levels, but about creating fresh income sources that the site would never have achieved on its own.
Apart from your complete bundle of products and resources, what else do clients receive? The first thing we do once the contract is agreed is to assign them a dedicated account manager who becomes like one of their permanent members of staff. This account manager might attend the site or sites several times a week or several times a month, depending on the scale of the contract and the requirements of the client.
It’s important to note that our representative is certainly not a threat to the existing staff or there to make any cuts to the current operations.
They’re there to coach staff and mentor them, and to co-ordinate and ensure the correct implementation of our marketing strategies and the required training, etc.
What percentage of Alliance Leisure’s business does income share represent? As we work with many local authority leisure sites, just about half of our business is now conducted on an income share basis. We don’t currently work with any private operators in this way, but that’s not to say we wouldn’t consider it if approached by an appropriate client.
Can you give us an example of successful income share project? Birmingham City Council approached us. It had 10 constituencies where all the leisure sites across those constituencies were operating quite independently, and the branding also needed refreshing across all their leisure offers. The council decided that it needed to change that culture, as well as boost its income. Three years after Alliance first became involved, we’ve now grown that income by 130 per cent.
How did you achieve this? We used a variety of methods, which of course included drawing on our whole portfolio of resources.
Our starting point was to go in and thoroughly train all 800 members of staff over a four-month period.
We also gave them an impact sales team consisting of four people, not just to assist with sales in the early stages but also to facilitate ongoing sales training where it was needed across the organisation.
To boost marketing, we ran five big city-wide campaigns over a year, using local radio and press, banner advertising and social media. These types of large campaign may typically cost around £10,000 a time to run, but they were all included in the contract. Alliance Leisure’s in-house designers also worked with Birmingham City Council’s central team to come up with refreshed branding.
The whole contract has been a great success, and the client is delighted with the sustained rise in income.
1. Scoping/investigation 2. Conceptualisation 3. Viability assessment 4. Site investigation 5. Fixed price contracts 6. Overseeing the building work 7. Ordering phase 8. Client support (part 1) 9. Client support (part 2)
View from the floor
Helen Morris, Alliance Leisure account manager, Birmingham City Council (BCC)
Helen Morris, Alliance Leisure Account Manager
“When I joined the Birmingham City Council team two years ago, there was lots of negative feedback on their own ability in increasing membership sales and income.
I’ve worked for Alliance Leisure for 12 years, and the 20 sites across the city of Birmingham are the most diverse I’ve ever experienced. When I started there were very large sites with lots of casual usage traffic, as well as very small sites with relatively few members.
Initial responsibilities involved coaching managers on the commercial opportunities that were unique to Birmingham – citywide members, caring staff, creative classes, etc. I created an ‘inspiring change’ training module which looked at the role of a GM to inspire and change culture among staff.
I visit Birmingham weekly. At the start of each year, I create an annual support plan with the senior managers to tackle priorities such as marketing, promotions, foundation sales training, customer retention, culture change and customer service.
Tasks and activities vary from week to week. For instance, last week I went out with a small team of very apprehensive staff on an outreach appointment to promote their own leisure centre, and it was rewarding to see the team gradually grow in confidence.
My favourite sessions are still basic foundation sales training as this gives new, inexperienced staff in health and fitness a clear understanding that we’re here to help our customers achieve their goals – that staff are responsible for changing lives. Who wouldn’t want to do that as a job!”
Find out more:
www.allianceleisure.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1278 444944
Alliance has worked to grow BCC’s leisure site income by 130 per cent in three years
COMPANY PROFILES
Clip 'n Climb
Clip ‘n Climb currently offers facility owners and
investors more than 40 colourful and unique
Cha [more...]
Taylor Made Designs
Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
instantprint
We’re a Yorkshire-based online printer, founded
in 2009 by Adam Carnell and James Kinsella. [more...]
IDEATTACK
IDEATTACK is a full-service planning and
design company with headquarters in
Los Angeles. [more...]
An opportunity to reimagine one of the UK’s most recognisable towers has been formally
opened by Rivington Hark, as St Johns Beacon invites operators and partners to shape its
next phase. [more...]
Leisure centres have a way to increase their sales, income and reach
without any financial outlay. Alliance Leisure’s client support manager,
Paul Woodford, explains how the company’s ‘No Risk’ package works
The Alliance Leisure team have refreshed the branding across BCC’s fitness gyms
What does your No Risk, Performance-based support package entail? It’s something that’s unique to Alliance Leisure – you won’t find it offered by any other company. We bundle all our products together – anything from training courses to e-marketing software – and the client benefits from a huge amount of resources, which represents a great saving.
The package we offer to leisure sites is a true partnership where we take all the risk upfront, meaning there’s no upfront costs for the operator. Also, we are in the partnership for the long haul – usually around five years. It’s certainly not just a question of sending a sales team into a facility for a short while or doing some one-off training.
But of course, we’re not just there to create savings for them, but to actively grow their income.
Why should a leisure site employ your services? In the current financial climate many facilities, especially local authorities or trusts, simply don’t have the budget to develop their businesses. Even if they did have a budget to begin with, marketing and training budgets are the first things to disappear in a cost-cutting exercise.
We only take an income when we hit and exceed the target that we’ve set within the partnership with the client for income growth.
It sounds perfect – so why wouldn’t a business want to take up this kind of offer? Obviously if a site is performing well they wouldn’t want to bring us into the mix. But the reality is that most of these businesses need some help. Also, it’s not just a case of us coming in to bring revenues back up to sustainable levels, but about creating fresh income sources that the site would never have achieved on its own.
Apart from your complete bundle of products and resources, what else do clients receive? The first thing we do once the contract is agreed is to assign them a dedicated account manager who becomes like one of their permanent members of staff. This account manager might attend the site or sites several times a week or several times a month, depending on the scale of the contract and the requirements of the client.
It’s important to note that our representative is certainly not a threat to the existing staff or there to make any cuts to the current operations.
They’re there to coach staff and mentor them, and to co-ordinate and ensure the correct implementation of our marketing strategies and the required training, etc.
What percentage of Alliance Leisure’s business does income share represent? As we work with many local authority leisure sites, just about half of our business is now conducted on an income share basis. We don’t currently work with any private operators in this way, but that’s not to say we wouldn’t consider it if approached by an appropriate client.
Can you give us an example of successful income share project? Birmingham City Council approached us. It had 10 constituencies where all the leisure sites across those constituencies were operating quite independently, and the branding also needed refreshing across all their leisure offers. The council decided that it needed to change that culture, as well as boost its income. Three years after Alliance first became involved, we’ve now grown that income by 130 per cent.
How did you achieve this? We used a variety of methods, which of course included drawing on our whole portfolio of resources.
Our starting point was to go in and thoroughly train all 800 members of staff over a four-month period.
We also gave them an impact sales team consisting of four people, not just to assist with sales in the early stages but also to facilitate ongoing sales training where it was needed across the organisation.
To boost marketing, we ran five big city-wide campaigns over a year, using local radio and press, banner advertising and social media. These types of large campaign may typically cost around £10,000 a time to run, but they were all included in the contract. Alliance Leisure’s in-house designers also worked with Birmingham City Council’s central team to come up with refreshed branding.
The whole contract has been a great success, and the client is delighted with the sustained rise in income.
1. Scoping/investigation 2. Conceptualisation 3. Viability assessment 4. Site investigation 5. Fixed price contracts 6. Overseeing the building work 7. Ordering phase 8. Client support (part 1) 9. Client support (part 2)
View from the floor
Helen Morris, Alliance Leisure account manager, Birmingham City Council (BCC)
Helen Morris, Alliance Leisure Account Manager
“When I joined the Birmingham City Council team two years ago, there was lots of negative feedback on their own ability in increasing membership sales and income.
I’ve worked for Alliance Leisure for 12 years, and the 20 sites across the city of Birmingham are the most diverse I’ve ever experienced. When I started there were very large sites with lots of casual usage traffic, as well as very small sites with relatively few members.
Initial responsibilities involved coaching managers on the commercial opportunities that were unique to Birmingham – citywide members, caring staff, creative classes, etc. I created an ‘inspiring change’ training module which looked at the role of a GM to inspire and change culture among staff.
I visit Birmingham weekly. At the start of each year, I create an annual support plan with the senior managers to tackle priorities such as marketing, promotions, foundation sales training, customer retention, culture change and customer service.
Tasks and activities vary from week to week. For instance, last week I went out with a small team of very apprehensive staff on an outreach appointment to promote their own leisure centre, and it was rewarding to see the team gradually grow in confidence.
My favourite sessions are still basic foundation sales training as this gives new, inexperienced staff in health and fitness a clear understanding that we’re here to help our customers achieve their goals – that staff are responsible for changing lives. Who wouldn’t want to do that as a job!”
Find out more:
www.allianceleisure.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1278 444944
Alliance has worked to grow BCC’s leisure site income by 130 per cent in three years
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
is preparing to open near the world-famous archaeological site in southern Italy.
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
Shedd Aquarium has opened the Immersion Theater developed in partnership with SimEx-
Iwerks, as part of a wider strategy to enhance the guest experience and create additional
revenue opportunities.
The UK government has announced a temporary reduction in VAT on visitor attractions and
children’s meals as part of a summer cost-of-living support package designed to stimulate the
visitor economy and encourage family days out.
As designer Yinka Ilori prepares for his first solo gallery show in London, he speaks exclusively
to CLADmag about his mission to spread joy, the power of play, and his bold approach to using
colour (including the colours you won’t see in his work).
The government of Thailand is exploring plans for a THB300bn (£6.3bn, US$8.3bn)
entertainment complex in the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), with officials
proposing a large-scale theme park and sports destination as part of a broader tourism and
economic development strategy.
+ More news
COMPANY PROFILES
Clip 'n Climb Clip ‘n Climb currently offers facility owners and
investors more than 40 colourful and unique
Cha [more...]
Taylor Made Designs Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
instantprint We’re a Yorkshire-based online printer, founded
in 2009 by Adam Carnell and James Kinsella. [more...]
IDEATTACK IDEATTACK is a full-service planning and
design company with headquarters in
Los Angeles. [more...]
An opportunity to reimagine one of the UK’s most recognisable towers has been formally
opened by Rivington Hark, as St Johns Beacon invites operators and partners to shape its
next phase. [more...]
