Finding Assumptions in Our Questions
When I was 25, I took a break from personal fitness. Like, an 8-year break.
During those 8 years, I lived in too many places and had too unstable of an income to join any gym. But maybe the strongest disincentive—and probably one I didn't fully recognize—was that I just never felt like a gym person.
Then one day I realized I worked near a gym, I was earning enough for a gym membership, and I wanted to start a healthy workout routine. The gym had an ongoing discount for first-timers. But I waited three months before going. Why? Because I was not a gym person.
When I finally entered the gym for the first time, I was paired with a personal trainer, who would assess my needs and help me come up with a fitness plan.
I did not want this kind of attention. I wanted to quietly explore the equipment, blend in with the walls, and slowly make friends with the treadmill, my most familiar foe. But I was told the trainer was my only option.
Not a typical gym person.
When I met that trainer, I was horrified. He was a beefy, athletic DUDE. A gym person.
The beefy athletic dude trainer took my weight (WHAT IN THE FUCK) and my BMI (NOT COOL), sat me down, and asked me what my fitness goals were, in numbers. I struggled to produce anything of substance here. My only goal was to not die prematurely. This goal didn't work for him, so he just entered some arbitrary numbers into his chart. I impatiently waited until the pointless meeting was over and found a treadmill.
I did not feel seen as a person. I felt dismissed and forced through an inflexible framework...ahem...sales funnel...that frankly humiliated me. Fear of this exact feeling is enough to keep a LOT of people who struggle with weight or body image from ever setting foot in a gym. The very place that could be a total game changer for this untapped customer pool was pushing them away with their rigid, unempathetic system.
Not a typical gym person.
So, what's going on here?
Their intake system made an assumption about their clients — that most of them had fitness goals AND wanted to talk about them with a stranger. The assumption was that they were gym people. As in, the type of person who already has spent a lot of time at a gym and enjoys discussing their weight and BMI with their gym people friends. Probably a lot like whoever owned that gym.
But, gyms aren't just for gym people! Gyms can be enormously beneficial to EVERY HUMAN WITH A BODY.
Just imagine how many people that gym wasn't reaching because they made that fateful assumption. Imagine if they spoke to the needs of people who wanted to try it for the first time. They'd win fans and advocates, instead of dragging reluctant people in with cheap discounts.
Not a gym person. Not even a person.
As strategists, we have to challenge assumptions. Instead of asking "How can we best meet our clients' fitness goals?" ask, "Do our clients have fitness goals?" and "What motivates our clients to come in for the first time?" "How are they feeling when they arrive?" Find the assumption in the question, and challenge it. That's where we'll find our best insights.