How CrossFit Union booked $20,000 of new revenue in two months

Ian Hutchinson spent six months researching gym management software before he opened CrossFit Union in Perth, Australia in April 2021. He had reason to be thorough. The platform at his former gym was, in his words, "absolutely awful from a member point of view".

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He picked PushPress. A year and a half later he ran the PushPress x LASSO MRR Challenge and stopped discounting for good.

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The two months that followed brought 11 new members, then 13 more, and $20,000 of new revenue.

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The Problem

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He had already lived with software members hated

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Opening a gym while coaching most of the classes leaves little room for admin, and Hutchinson knew exactly what the wrong platform costs a member.

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"I was looking for a system that would be easy to use for our members and that would save us as much time as possible, given I was going to be busy enough with opening a new gym and coaching."

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Growth capped at word of mouth

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For the first 12 months, CrossFit Union grew on word of mouth and social media. That let him, as he put it, "get a really strong core group of members, most of whom had already done CrossFit, and build a great reputation". Once that base was there he wanted to cast the net further and add personal training and nutrition coaching.

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A year of special deals with nothing to show for it

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"Since opening, we had spent 12 months offering special deals to get people through the door. But when we actually looked at that data, apart from getting a bit of front end revenue, the actual sign up rate after the trial period had finished was so small. It just wasn't worthwhile and wasn't giving us any growth."

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The Solution

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Take a run at the MRR Challenge

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In early 2022 PushPress teamed up with LASSO, a marketing company that builds lead and sales systems for gym owners, and the two launched the PushPress x LASSO MRR Challenge. Hutchinson signed up with reservations.

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"The Lasso Challenge just came at the right place and the right time. Although I was apprehensive about the cost and whether we would see results, we decided to give it a try."

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A month later the apprehension was gone.

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Sell the premium service instead of the discount

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The challenge changed who CrossFit Union talked to. Rather than pull everyone in at a lower price, Hutchinson charged more for a premium service and aimed his marketing at the people who wanted that.

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"Everyone at Union knows that we are the best gym in the area by far and that we can change people's lives given time. We tailored our marketing toward that and it instantly worked."

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Put the follow up on rails with Grow

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In January he added PushPress Grow, the CRM and lead gen add-on to Core, and pointed the LASSO workflows at it.

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"I was really struggling to stay on top of our members and leads, and to have that all taken away from us and automated has been an incredible help. Bringing LASSO on board for our marketing, combined with some of the work flows they have integrated with PushPress Grow, has been a total eye opener."

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Keep members supported without adding admin

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The point was never to remove the human. It was to stop the human being the bottleneck.

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"Now our members have full follow up and accountability with us and it's 90 percent automated. We just jump in here and there when we need to so it has been really great from a member experience perspective and it's keeping our members engaged and feeling supported."

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Result

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$20,000 of new revenue across two months

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Hutchinson called the total "pretty incredible". Unlike a lot of challenges, this one did not spike and fade.

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11 new members in month one, 13 in month two

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Month one on its own beat the previous three months combined. All 11 signed up for the premium intro program, which carries a higher ticket than a standard CrossFit membership, and many of the month two signups also took nutrition coaching.

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Follow up running about 90 percent automated

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Members get consistent contact and accountability, and Hutchinson and his team step in only where a person is actually needed.

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Conclusion

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Hutchinson spent a year discounting to fill a room, looked at the data and stopped. What replaced it was a premium offer, marketing pointed at the right people, and follow up that ran itself.

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"When you love something so much it's easy to sell it to people looking for a solution to their problems."

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Ready to stop discounting to fill classes? Book a demo and see what PushPress Grow can do for your gym.