SHOWCASE
This Month we would like to Showcase the 2009 Mr. Olympia Competition
& Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
For the second year in a row TuffTuff Fitness Equipment was invited to be the exclusive strength equipment exhibitor at the Olympia Muscle Pit, a large workout area and general-purpose meeting place for all of bodybuilding’s biggest names.
Located in the center of the Convention Hall, Athletes and spectators alike gathered at the muscle pit to sign autographs, take photos, exchange training secrets, and “pump up” on all the great TuffStuff Strength Equipment.
Our thanks to Craig Arthur, Expo Manager for the Mr. Olympia Show, for the opportunity to display TuffStuff commercial strength products in their booth, and The Team from Zero Gravity Fitness for their hard work in keeping the booth organized, and doing such a great job judging the Battle of the Bicep Competition.

For the second consecutive year TuffStuff Fitness Equipment was invited to the

Weider Extravaganza as the Exclusive Strength Equipment Provider. We shared the “Muscle Pit” booth with Zero Gravity Gym of San Dimas, California. High profile celebrities such as Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and Lou Ferrigno were in attendance for autograph and picture-taking sessions.
The highlight of our show was when Ronnie Coleman, an 8-time Mr. Olympia, graced our booth with his scheduled 3:30 pm appearance, and caused quite a stir. The place was packed, inside and outside our booth, with people waiting in line for a chance to get Ronnie’s autograph and for a chance to get their picture taken with him. What an awesome sight to behold! Just to see Ronnie Coleman get on our equipment and do several exercise movements made us proud. It was also gratifying when the people who worked out on the equipment in our booth told us that TuffStuff is “great stuff.”

EAST COAST NEWS & VIEWS by Fred Bixby
Recently Prosource Fitness out of Raleigh North Carolina participated in a local Fire & Rescue Exposition to help generate sales leads and build brand awareness in their community. During the Expo, Danny Young the commercial sales Manager for Prosource, conducted a Bench-press competition using a TuffStuff Smith Ensemble as the lifting platform. The competition tested North Carolina Fireman’s strength and endurance by measuring how many repetitions could be performed using 75% of the participant’s body weight. The winner completed 55 repetitions with 155 lbs. I would like to thank Prosource for their marketing and promotional efforts, this is a great example of what can be done at the local level to build company and brand awareness in your community.

SERVICE TIP OF THE MONTH
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Many customer service calls that come into our office are due to the fact that equipment has not been maintained or serviced on a regular basis. Problems like weight stack noise, sticky movements, guide rod vibration, and cable twisting need never occur if the customers would perform simple periodic maintenance on their home gym. Customers often tell us that no one ever told them they had to do maintenance on their home gym, and many more say they were never shown what to do. Please remind your delivery personnel to take a moment to instruct the customer how to inspect their home gyms for cable wear and stretch and what to do if they notice any, and how to clean and lubricate the guide rods. This only takes a moment, but can help you and your customer save time and money on unnecessary repairs, as well as protect users from potential injury.
For more tips on preventive maintenance please contact us at service@tuffstuff.net

SALES TIP OF THE MONTH
Are you leading or following?
It’s happened to the best of us. We start out doing a presentation on a home gym only to have our customer lead us around the sales floor for 45 minutes asking us a billion-and-one questions on everything in the store, and end up leaving with a handful of brochures and no idea what they want.
In any sales presentations the person with the power in the conversation is the one who usually ends up leading the sales process to its ultimate conclusion. So how do you maintain the power in a conversation and ensure you lead the sale process to the conclusion you want? Simple, answer every question with a question. When asked a question, do not give a simple yes or no answer, instead answer your customers question and then immediately follow up with a question of your own and you will control the flow, direction, and pace of the conversation.
For example, if your customer asks, “Is this all the home gyms you have?” you could answer,
“We have many gyms with a variety of different features and capabilities, were you looking for
something specific?”
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

DON PAYNE – SCHOOL SALES
Closing Longer Lead
Time Projects!
With schools back in session and government agencies and municipalities now on a new fiscal year budgets … a couple of common question we receive in the commercial sales department are these:
1. “Do we really need to stay on top of these longer lead time projects like construction projects, room renovations, budgets frozen, etc, won’t they just call us when they are ready?
Usually followed by …”I don’t want to bug them to much” or “We are really swamped.”
2. What interval of follow up contact should we do on these longer lead projects?
Yes … you really need to stay in touch with the project coordinators … very, very important in schools and any government project.
Why? Teachers and Administrators frequently change schools, positions, get laid off, move to different schools, etc. Budgets change … your competition may be talking to someone else in the decision making process. Yes stay in touch with these people … take nothing for granted.
Staying on top of longer lead time projects is definitely “pain” to deal with … but it truly is a necessary and important follow up task to close these type of projects. Here’s some follow up time line suggestions:
Project Time Line is 6 months to a year out … typically a call every 3 weeks is appropriate and not to “bothersome” to start with. (This reminds them who you are and allows you to know if there are any changes in decision makers or budgets).
Project Time Line is 90 or 120 days out time frame … start checking every week … (Here you are looking for a firm list of equipment, available space, confirm is the project going to bid, or you on the bid list, again any decision maker changes? Whose making the final decision Purchasing, PE, Athletics, Fitness Committee, etc.) Project Time Line is 30 to 60 days out. If you have not seen the purchase order or bid request, start calling once or even twice a week to confirm what’s happening … (Same questions as the 90 day mark) … sometimes things just drag on until last minute, but take no chances!!!
Your not bugging them, you are helping them stay on track … teachers and administrators are busy folks … help keep them on focus and moving your project along.
If you have specific questions about school sales, please forward them to “Don Payne/School Sales Guru” at dpayne@tuffstuff.net

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