Table of Contents
Rewriting the Fitness Playbook
The fitness industry has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last decade. Once driven by foot traffic and old-school sales tactics like street marketing, fitness brands now face rising expectations from digitally savvy members who want instant access, personalized experiences, and seamless communication—before they ever step foot in a gym.
Consumers today expect convenience. They research online, expect tailored outreach, and judge a brand’s value not just by the equipment on the floor—but by how easy it is to sign up, stay engaged, and feel supported. For gym operators, this has flipped the script. It’s no longer enough to wait for walk-ins or rely on grit and elbow grease from a sales team pounding the pavement.
Gold’s Gym SoCal recognized this shift early—and leaned in. A long-standing leader in fitness with roots tracing back to the legendary Venice Beach gym of the 1960s, Gold’s Gym SoCal now operates 23 clubs and represents the brand’s largest group in North America. But to grow at scale—and deliver the kind of easy, fast, and connected experience modern members expect—they had to reimagine their systems and strategy.
The Challenge
Disconnected Systems, Fractured Experience
When Brian Morris joined Gold’s Gym SoCal as VP of Sales in 2015, he had one clear mission: sell more memberships. But it quickly became clear that selling more meant marketing better.
At the time, the team relied on outdated tactics: door hangers, direct mail, and a lone Facebook page. Lead volume was low. There was no marketing engine. And the CRM didn’t talk to the marketing tools.
“We had 12 clubs and 750 leads,” Brian recalls. “There was no structure, no automation, no digital momentum.”
That changed with the adoption of HubSpot’s Marketing Hub. Overnight, leads jumped from 750 to 4,000—but the excitement didn’t last. The CRM (first Club OS, then GymSales) struggled to integrate reliably with HubSpot.
“It worked great—until it didn’t. Leads fell through the cracks, sometimes delayed by weeks. Suddenly, I was playing IT guy instead of focusing on strategy.”
Without a single source of truth, reps lost trust in the system. Sales slowed. And opportunities were missed.
From Frustration to Full Integration
While attending INBOUND with his marketing director, Brian explored HubSpot’s Sales Hub more seriously for the first time. At first, he was skeptical—worried that it wouldn’t be customizable for the fitness industry. But after a chance conversation with a fellow fitness operator who had successfully implemented it, he saw the potential.
“I had to see it for myself,” Brian says. “So we flew to Chicago, spent three hours with their sales team, and asked the tough questions. What we heard was overwhelmingly positive. The reps loved it. The systems worked. We left that meeting with a clear path forward.”
That buy-in, both from frontline reps and leadership, made all the difference. When they returned to SoCal, they brought together sales managers, marketers, general managers—even accounting—to co-create the new system.
“Everybody had a voice,” Brian says. “The sales team shaped the messaging cadences. The GMs helped define lead flows. We made it ours—and that’s why adoption took off.”
The Solution
Easy to Use, Fast to Act, Unified to Scale
With Sales Hub fully integrated alongside Marketing Hub, Gold’s Gym SoCal built a truly unified platform that gave their teams the speed and clarity they needed to thrive.
- Easy onboarding and rep adoption: “Our team actually enjoys using the platform,” Brian says. “They helped build it. And now they can see their impact in real time.”
- Fast follow-up with centralized data: No more toggling between systems or chasing lost leads. Reps now receive clean, actionable data immediately, with automated workflows tailored by persona and source.
- Unified dashboards to drive insight: Sales and marketing work from the same dashboards, with visibility into lead source, conversion rates, and club performance. “The dashboards are my best friends,” Brian says. “We can spot issues fast—and solve them faster.”
- Automation that feels human: From abandoned cart workflows to referral flows, the team co-designed communication that feels personal, not robotic. “We don’t want just speed—we want personality,” says Brian.
The Transformation
Best Six Months of Sales—Ever
Since implementing Sales Hub and unifying their marketing and sales systems:
- Lead volume has more than doubled
- Reps are closing faster with fewer drop-offs
Internal collaboration has never been stronger - And the last six months have been the best sales run in company history
Equally powerful is the cultural shift across the company. Sales and marketing no longer operate in silos—they move as one team, with shared goals, shared data, and shared wins.
“Our people are growing with the business,” says Brian. “And the systems we’ve built are helping them do it. We’ve gone from 12 clubs to 23—and we’re just getting started.”
Looking Ahead
AI, Agility, and Ambition
As Gold’s Gym SoCal looks toward the future, Brian is focused on keeping momentum high—and exploring new ways to use AI to support his team without replacing the human touch.
“Before, AI was just buzzword. Now, it’s about action,” he says. “We’re looking at how we can plug AI into our process in a smart, human-centered way that helps our reps close more and grow faster.”
_logo_2018%20(3)-1.png){kind=logo}
-1.png)
