True communication goes beyond talking and listening, it is about understanding.
There’s no denying that communication can be difficult. Imagine a world with perfect communication. There’d be fewer family dramas, less ‘office politics’ and barely any complex marriage breakdowns. It would ultimately change the world we live in today.
What about if communication was a walk in the park for your Health Club? You’d probably see your sales figures soar through the roof and as for your customer satisfaction levels – they would be second to none.
While communication might not be easy, improving how you communicate is possible.
If you stumbled upon my most recent article about the concept of the ‘Emotional Bank Account’ and acknowledged the worthy advice, your Health Club may now be more conscious of your customer happiness levels at each stage of your ‘member journey’. This itself may have improved the manner in which you communicate.
However, if you still feel like there is just that little something missing which is preventing your Health Club from delivering the most optimised personal experience possible, fear not, today I may just have the answer.
The Colour Code Personality Profile (CCPP)
If you want your Health Club to truly understand your customers from the moment they walk through your door, it may be wise for your members of staff to be aware of The Colour Code Personality Profile, a concept founded by Dr Taylor Hartman which divides personalities into four colours.
Why do I believe you can benefit from this?
If you’ve worked in the fitness industry for longer than a week, you’ve probably realised that not all Health Club members are homogeneous.
There are many differences between gym enthusiasts which set them apart in not only the way that they train but the way they behave.
Some of your members may record their progress, others may not. Some of your prospects may ask a dozen questions at every stage of the signing up process, others may ask hardly any.
It’s these behavioural nuances that I want to put the focus on today.
Within the CCPP there are four basic personality types; Red, Blue, White and Yellow and within each colour category, people possess one of four driving ‘core motives’. Those who are viewed as ‘red’ are driven by power, ‘blue’ are motivated by intimacy, ‘white’ are spurred on by peace, and ‘yellow’ are stimulated by fun.
When people interact with organisations, especially fitness brands, their personality traits do often shine through, and that’s why I believe it’s essential for anyone working in a customer-facing role within the fitness industry to have a reasonable understanding of these four basic personality types.
Let’s take a closer look at each colour, with some application to the fitness world as it is today.
Reds
The Red Driving Core Motive is power. Red personalities are strong-willed, resolute, proactive and decisive. They may be powerful and assertive, however to some they can appear self-centred and lacking in empathy.
Reds are logical creatures. They have a need to be right and respected. They have a desire to conquer challenges and are passionate about leading. Many people who work at the top of organisations are ‘red’.
The issue with reds is when faced with adversity they can become very controlling, and lose patience very quickly. They may prioritise ‘progress’ over personal relationships and become poor listeners.
When communicating with Reds, you should cut to the chase and get straight to the point. They don’t want to hear you ramble on. Being logical, reds appreciate solid facts, if you hit them with opinions, they have a tendency to be argumentative.
Hopefully, you now have a person in mind and can picture what a ‘red’ personality is like. Now imagine them as a member of your Health Club. They are likely to behave very differently from others.
This type of member will be results-oriented in the gym and will want to achieve those results as quickly as possible. They may want to take control of their own fitness programme, certainly at the beginning. In the event of any problems, they will want immediate resolution and won’t expect to hear any excuses. As short-fused and temperamental characters, one mistake from your Health Club and it could spell the end.
So with Reds, it’s important your Health Club is transparent, factual and concise in the sales process. Above all, it’s crucial that you provide an environment that allows such individuals to succeed and achieve their goals in a time-frame that suits. While they may prefer to take the lead on their fitness journey, the need to achieve results quickly may still mean they take up Personal Training, as long as they are pushed in the right way, with no waffle.
Whites
Those who have a White personality are also logical, but aside from that are pretty much the opposite of their robust, Red counterparts. The White personality Driving Core Motive is peace. Conflict is not on their agenda.
Whites are pleasant, agreeable and resourceful. While they don’t need to be right all the time, they do need to be accepted and respected. Whites tend to do things behind the scenes, they don’t shout from the rooftops about their achievements, even if their output is amazing.
If Whites are not given their personal space and the opportunity to work at their own pace, they can become slightly unwilling and demotivated. However, don’t expect any confrontation – they’ll avoid it like the plague.
When communicating with a White, it’s important to be kind and at the very least civil. As they are good-willed people and devoid of ego, they cannot relate to mean-spirited comments so this type of interaction will not elicit the appropriate response.
Again, I’m sure you’re able to think of someone in your life who embodies the White personality profile. Consider how they may behave in a Health Club environment.
This type of member may appreciate that it takes time to achieve results in the gym. They won’t want to be rushed into joining your facility through any 24-hour sales offers, and should they join – they won’t want to be pushed and pushed by a Personal Trainer who tries to make them achieve goals beyond their limits. While they are unlikely to kick up a fuss if they are treated in this manner, you must understand this approach won’t get the best out of them.
Whites may want to spend as long as it takes to achieve their desired outcomes, and are likely to favour a long-term, sustainable approach to weight loss or muscle gain. As a Personal Trainer, it is good to get a ‘White’ client on board as long as you appreciate their personal space and make the sessions inspiring and engaging, rather than ‘hardcore’ and ‘gruelling’.
While Whites are unlikely to become serial complainers, they will silently stop attending your facility and move on if things turn sour. As a Health Club Operator, you may never know the real reason why a White has decided to call it a day with you, but if you do what you can to deliver the best experiences possible, you will minimize the risk of this happening.
Yellows
Yellows are a fun-loving bunch. After all, the Yellow Driving Core Motive is fun. Yellows are cheerful, untroubled, gregarious and friendly. They can appear to be a little self-absorbed and uncommitted at times.
While Reds and Whites are logical creatures, Yellows behave emotionally, they crave praise and need to be noticed. All they want is to be happy, they are ‘here for a good time, not a long time’.
A limitation with Yellows is that they struggle to form meaningful relationships, they are often social butterflies but with no core friendship group. In life, they may struggle to take tasks too seriously.
While communicating with Yellows, it’s important that your words are positive and hopeful. When faced with negativity, Yellows can be very sensitive. Offer compliments where possible even when offering constructive feedback.
So now that you are familiar with a Yellow personality, let’s consider how they may manifest themselves in a Health Club setting.
This type of member will base their sessions on having as much fun as possible. They may be attracted to Group Exercise classes and the quirkier pieces of equipment as opposed to taking on a conventional gym floor routine. As they crave praise, they will be motivated to achieve transformational results so providing lessons are fun, they may go the extra mile to get the body they want. It would not be unheard of for a Yellow to attend 3 classes per day, as long as there is enough variety.
As Yellows are emotional, they won’t want an old-school, over-bearing Personal Trainer but instead, they may benefit from having one who centres their sessions around having fun. Small-Group Training Sessions may get the most out of a Yellow personality as this also offers the most sociable setting.
The danger with Yellows is that they become bored, they are very spontaneous in nature and are always looking for something new to do. If that new trampoline park opens down the road, they may trade their sweat in the gym for this new venture. To keep Yellows motivated you to need to constantly mix their sessions up to keep them coming back. Continue to shower them with compliments and use your social media channels as a platform to showcase their awesome achievements, they’ll be the first to share and will be your most effective brand ambassadors if you keep them on your side.
Blues
Finally, we have those with a Blue colour code. The Driving Core Motive of the Blue personality is intimacy.
Blues, like Yellows behave emotionally. They are empathetic, passionate and committed, but to some, they can appear overly sensitive, insecure and moody.
Blues thrive on building relationships, they need to be appreciated and understood otherwise they can become insecure. They are very complex and intuitive. They can be very opinionated and often struggle to see the positive side of life but the reality is they just want to be loved and accepted.
While communicating with Blues, you must be sensitive, otherwise, you can hurt their feelings. Blues are similar to Whites, but they are more emotional rather than logical, therefore, they may be more unforgiving and opinionated when faced with meanness.
Now let’s consider the behaviours of a Blue in your Health Club and why it is important to recognise this persona.
This type of member will want to build a relationship with your Health Club, they are likely to be incredibly loyal providing you don’t hurt their feelings. It’s worth taking the time in the Sales Process to build up an exceptional bond with this type of person, and if they do join your facility, make sure you remain in contact throughout their journey and introduce them to other key members of staff. As Blues are often highly demanding perfectionists and thrive on relationships, they are likely to want a Personal Trainer from the get-go.
As with Yellows, Blues won’t want the domineering, pushy type of Personal Trainer, but they will want someone who invests time and care in their sessions. While Yellows may favour Small Group Training for the sociable element, Blues may lean towards 1-2-1 Personal Training or Couples Personal Training as that’s the environment where the most personal relationships can prosper. Bear in mind that if a Personal Trainer leaves your Health Club, it’s likely their Blue clients will go with them.
It’s important the communication you have with Blues does not hurt their feelings, consider how your marketing messages may feel to this cohort of people, they will not appreciate any form of guilt-tripping marketing, and maybe over-sensitive around certain body types constantly being portrayed within your imagery. Tread very carefully when it comes to communicating with Blues, their loyalty is worth a lot so don’t break the relationship you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
Closing comments on the Colour Code
I opened this article with some comments on communication. I said that communication wasn’t easy, but you can always improve how you communicate with your members. Now you’ve been given a little insight into four very basic personality types, I hope that’s given you plenty of food for thought.
The focus of this article was on how your members of staff, particularly Membership Consultants and Personal Trainers can alter the ways they speak to members if they are more conscious of each members personality profile.
If you are forward-thinking on this, you may now be left scratching your head thinking, how could a Customer Relationship Management System learn the Personality Types of my members in order for me to personalise my Marketing Communication? It’s a great question and I believe that assigning a current member to a personality profile is only possible right now via some level of human intervention. Even then, you are relying on your staff to get this right 100% of the time, which may not be possible.
One way you can attempt to collect personality data is by conducting a gym-related personality survey to members upon sign-up, however, the uptake may not be significant unless it’s a mandatory requirement.
Whatever steps you take next, make sure your content, imagery and messaging are in no way alienating or antagonising towards any particular personality type and who knows, in the not too distant future, maybe Artifical Intelligence systems and devices will be able to recognise, interpret, process and categorise human emotions better than we can today?