Defining the Core Offer for your Fitness Business

by | Jul 22, 2015 | Articles, For Business Owners, Stage 1 | 0 comments

(Last Updated On: February 27, 2023)

Building the Foundation

Here at FR Nation, we talk alot about the 4 Sales and Marketing Pillars. These pillars are what is considered the starting point for a solid foundation. As a refresher, here are the 4 Sales and Marketing Pillars:

  1. Leads
  2. Front End Offers (FEOs)
  3. Core Offer (COs)
  4. Retention

Note: Previously the 4th Pillar was Back End Offering, but just like many of our other coaching tools and methods we found that retention was a better number to track.  It keeps business owners focused on the important stuff. 

Each of the 4 Pillars are individually important in your fitness business and they are built into the Fitness Business Alignment System™ and our KPI tracker.

Today we are going to cover the Core Offer, which is more important than leads and FEO’s.

Really!?

You probably just blurted out that question, and for good reason! It may seem like a stretch that defining your Core Offer is the foundation for creating your local marketing and sales plan.

What is a Core Offer?

A Core Offer is the service or offering that you are going to build your entire business around.

Think about it like this…

In a perfect world what is the one program that every client would be in to get optimal results? If you could offer one program that was a perfect fit for your strengths and at the same time met the needs of your Ideal Clients – what would that program be? Usually the answer to that question is the answer to “what is your Core Offer?”

This is the service that you are known for in your community, or that you would like to be known for if you’re not established (yet).

It isn’t necessary to drill down to the exact number of days that you want someone training and include that as your Core Offer, but it would be good practice to figure out where you would like your Ideal Clients to end up! Specifically you are looking to identify the result you’re producing, the type of program you’re using to get results and a short descriptor about the way you deliver results.

Why Do You Need To Define ONE Core Offer?

You need to define ONE Core Offer in order to really drill down into your Ideal Client and Local Market Positioning, to create a crystal clear message to reach those people.

Those 3 areas— Core Offer, Ideal Client and Local Market Positioning— are the key elements to your Local Marketing and Sales plan, and the Core Offer is where you create the foundation for this plan. It’s the base of the pyramid.

Think of them as The What, The Who and The Why.

  • The What— is your Core Offer or what you are using to get great results for your clients.
  • The Who— is your Ideal Client.
  • The Why— is the answer to why someone would choose you over your competitors.

That’s the bigger marketing and sales picture though… beyond what I want to cover today, but important that you understand it. You need to have alignment with your What, Who and Why to truly complete your Local Marketing and Sales Plan.

When you have all 3 elements dialed in marketing becomes much easier! Your Core Offer also helps you establish your true strengths and build your business around those. You will be able to quickly identify your competition so that you can start determining your Local Market Position.

Your core offer is the base of the pryamid.

If It’s Important, Measure it!

When something is important, especially in business, you track and measure it.  Once you have clearly defined your Core Offer you are able to establish a concrete measurable to be tracked daily.

You can stop guessing if you are successful because things ‘feel like they are going well’ and start proving it by looking at your Core Offer growth. The reality is in the numbers.  If Core Offer numbers are going up, sales are going well. If Core Offer numbers are holding steady or going down you can dig in to figure out if retention is the issue or sales is the issue.

Can You Have More Than One Core Offering?

Absolutely!  However, we recommend starting out by going through the process of finding your ONE Core Offering first. This will be the one thing you want to be GREAT at and known for in your community.  It’s your strongest offering, the result you are best suited to help your clients get.

When you’re focused on just ONE Core Offering and it truly is your strength, think about how much easier it will be to attract the right type of client, get them amazing results, get more referrals and close more sales. That level of focus is a beautiful thing!

By establishing ONE Core Offering first you can complete the Local Marketing Plan by identifying your Ideal Client and creating your Local Market Position. This allows you to tie those elements into your marketing and sales message.

Once you’ve found success with your first Core Offering you can complete the same process for another… but only if you have or need one. Most businesses would do themselves a big favor by focusing on the development and growth of just one Core Offer.

“I Already Have A Core Offer…”

Trust me, you need to go through the process of using our Core Offer Tool to help you ensure you have the right Core Offer in place. The toughest business owners for us to coach are the ones that think they already have this figured out.   You’ll gain some valuable insight and knowledge by starting over from scratch.

Challenge your current Core Offer!

If you figure out that you had it right from the start you’ll now have documented reasoning for why it is your Core Offer. If you find out that your Core Offer is different that’s okay too!  Now you can start to focus on growing the right program and slowly start to refine your marketing message.

If you do find that your current Core Offer isn’t the right one don’t drastically change your entire business.  Think about your long term vision and start planning out the steps it may take to get you to eventually be focused on your new Core Offer.


Want some additional help getting started with defining your core offer? We offer a *free* course that helps fitness professionals like yourself do just that. You’ll learn:

  • The results you are best at helping your clients achieve
  • The type of program you should offer to deliver those results
  • If your core offer is enough to build the business you want
  • A starting point for creating differentiation and establishing your business as the local “go-to” for your Ideal Client

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The Secret to Reliably Generating New Clients Every Month