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A
Welcome back to the game. In this episode, I had a conversation with a swim school business owner. They're currently doing about $300,000 a year and spending about 1,400 bucks a month on ads and getting leads for about $12 a pop. Their problem was that they never sold to cold leads before since their business grew entirely by word of mouth, something that's very common. So here's what we broke down on this call. Number one, how to pre sell the customer before presenting the offer to maximize the likely they buy. Number two, how to create time urgency on a live sales call without being pushy or really having some real urgency behind it. Number three, how to take payment over the phone and stay on the call until the signup is complete. Hope this is super valuable to you. Enjoy. Because what we want to do with the O is we want to close all the other doors, because right now, you're leaving a lot of doors open in the sales process. So you have to say, hey, if you're not going to do this, what would you do? Well, I would. I would do it at home. Well, do you have access to a pool? No, not really. Or I do, but it's like when they say, yes, you're like, okay, well, when would you do it? Would you have time to take them three times a week? And they're going to be like, well, no, I don't have time to take them three times a week. And you're like, all right, so is it safe to say that there's no reasonable alternative for you right now? And be like, yes. It's like, honestly, you're the perfect fit for what we have. Can I tell you a little bit about it? Yes. Okay. So no one's ever walked you through the process of teaching a kid how to swim before? Right. Right. Okay, cool. So I'm making myself the authority right now. So there's three things that you have to do to teach the skills. So every kid needs to float, get to the wall, and learn how to do help. That sounds obvious, but there's a big difference between people who succeed at doing that and the ones that don't. And the ones that do have three things in common. Number one is the right environment. So right now you're at home, it's distracting. Or you go to a public pool, there's big kids doing cannonballs next to you. Doesn't work. Right, Right. The second is you've got people who are just lifeguards off duty, have never really done this before, and they're not actually Experts at training. Right. You can imagine. Let me think of an analogy. If I've got a high school kid who's just drawing and then I've got a master artist, who do you think can teach someone how to do it better? Well, the master artist, of course. And not only can they do it better, they'll do it faster. And the third thing is, if you have the right environment, you have the right expertise, the next thing is you need the right process. Right. You don't want to have somebody who's doing this willy nilly. Instead, it's like a repeatable system to get someone from never been around a pool to you being a stress free parent so you don't have to worry about doing a good job. Does that all make sense? Okay, great. So when did you want to have Timmy come in?
B
Summer. But yes.
A
No, no, you want him ready by summer. Right. So it'd be like you saying, hey, I want to be 40 pounds lighter by summer. And I'm like, right, so we gotta start now. Yeah, okay. Honestly, the best time to start would have been last month. So you're a little late. So we got. So again I'm trying. We gotta move the anchor. So if someone says, hey, I'd rather come in the summer, it's like, honestly, sweetie, it's February. You should have been started in December. If you want him to miss the summer, he needs to start coming like tomorrow. So it's like, what's the first day this week? You can bring them in.
B
Absolutely right.
A
And she says, whatever. And you're like, great, what card do you want to use?
B
Yeah, perfect.
A
And then they're going to, you say Visa or MasterCard, whatever. And they're going to say one of the two. You say, great. And then what's going to happen is they're going to start reading the card number and you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Actually don't read the card number. It's fine. Let's just keep it safe. I'm going to send you a link right now. I'll stay on the phone line to make sure everything works out. Did you get it? Okay, cool. Click that link, go through there. Okay. You said you wanted to do four little time. Great. One o'. Clock. Let me make sure that I see it on my end because the times go quick when you've got a huge amount of students that are actually just scheduling this on their own. Okay, I see you through. It's awesome. Can't wait to meet you. I'll send you a text. A couple reminders before then, make sure to bring floaties. Nice to meet you, Sarah. Can't wait to meet your kids.
B
Yeah, awesome. That's perfect.
A
It's just a sales issue, so you need to close on the phone. So take them through closer every step. Why are you here? This sounds like the problem. We close all the doors in overview.
B
We.
A
What else have you done? Why haven't you done it? Everything that they're gonna say, why is it not okay for you to wait? Why can't you do this on your own? What are all the things they're gonna say? Well, my cousin could do it. No, he can't. Okay, cool. I think you're a good fit because you need to do it now. And the thing that you're missing is you need the environment, you need the expertise, you need the process. I don't like process. It's not my favorite. We need a third thing. It'd be nice if it was an E, but, like, you wanna have three things that everyone needs, and when you have those three things, you can't fail. Make sense? Great. Let's get you going.
B
Okay, awesome.
A
It's just a sales problem, man. I wouldn't, I wouldn't. What's your lead cost?
B
Probably like 12 bucks right now.
A
Okay, got it. And what's your average price?
B
100 bucks a month.
A
And you're. Are you doing 100 bucks? Is the. Is what is the offer?
B
We've always just done month to month with a registration fee.
A
What's the registration fee?
B
Yeah, what is it? 40 bucks, man.
A
In 12, how long does it take you to get a kid to be able to, like, float and not, you know, sing? I really shouldn't laugh. How do you get a kid to be proficient?
B
Usually a few weeks or so. Just because it's 30 minute lessons and once a week for most parents.
A
Okay, can we just say 12 sessions? Can we say 12 sessions?
B
12 sessions? Yeah.
A
I mean, would you feel confident saying that you let like 90% of kids to be totally good in 12 sessions?
B
Absolutely.
A
Okay, great. So let's just charge $600 to make sure that you don't have to worry about your kid drowning. And if your kid has. If you. If you attend all the sessions and your kid has any issues at the end? I'll keep. Stay. I'll keep working with them until they float. Okay, that's your front end offer.
B
Perfect. Okay.
A
Now what you do, though, is that halfway through the front end offer, you say, hey, listen, Sarah's been amazing. I don't know If. Have you noticed that she can cry for help, she can float, she can get to the wall. She's amazing. They're like, oh, my God, she's amazing. You're like, great. So the thing is, there's a very big difference between not dying and being good in the water, right? And so we accomplished level one. But what I want to show you, and this is now, when you open the door, you say, she's at phase one of our six phase process of kind of water mastery. And this is one of those things that if you've ever seen people who are just afraid of the water and they can't get used to it, we can take her from phase one to phase six, where she can have something she can have for the rest of her life and her ability. And she can play, you know, she can go to parties. She can go to the ocean. Like, how long does it take him to get, like, ocean ready? What's that? How long does that take? Genuinely? I have no idea. I'm sure it's a long time.
B
Like 30 to 50 hours.
A
So that would be perfect. That'd be exactly 30 to 100 sessions or 60 to 100 sessions. Love that for us. And so it's like, great. We're gonna. That's what we sell. Halfway through, you take your 5 or 600 bucks and you credit that towards the next 30 to, you know, whatever however many sessions you want, and you take it off the top. So. So that becomes the $2,500 offer on the back, and you credit your 5 or 600 onto it, and then just downsell time from there. And so if they're like, well, I can't do the whole thing, it's like, no worries. Why don't we just get you through phase two? That makes sense. Yeah.
B
I'm safe. Yeah. That is all amazing. Perfect. Thank you, Alex.
A
Do you think you can do that?
B
Yep. And I will make it happen.
A
Okay. Say back to me what the changes are.
B
We're going to make sure I'm going through the closer framework and everything, which I think part of it was that I'm used to, like, very hot leads who are calling us instead of the fake leads.
A
Oh, dude, you've never worked. You've never sold before, man.
B
No.
A
Yeah. You've never sold. Referrals don't count. You've never sold. It's okay. The fact that you got five is still great. I think you honestly. You think you'd be a 15 or 20, and that would. And if you got 600 on all those, you'd love life, right? You'd be making 12 grand on your $1,400 ad spend. That's up front. That doesn't even include backend. Now when they come in, do you sell them anything? Do you sell them floaties or kickboard or like any of that other goggles? Any kind of special stuff.
B
We basically have to pick up our stuff every day at the end of class and so we have to pack everything away so we don't have anything.
A
Well, I want you to have something. So think about kids. Karate, right? They've got a gi, kickboxing has gloves, they've got belts. I want you to have something. So maybe it's like swim cap, a couple pairs of shorts that are like branded for your thing so they feel like they're part of the group. And then you can have them buy that, you know, as a one time thing because the kid might want it. It'll just give you an easy upsell on the way to offset some cost of acquisition. So you're going to take more phone sales. You're going to try and close them on the phone. You're going to send them the link and tell them that you're going to wait until they buy and make sure you confirm it on their side. When you're going through the sales process, you go clo s e r clarify whether they're. You'll label them. Hey you, you need this or your kid's going to go away. We have to anchor around time. Hey, you should have done this. Should have started two months ago. So now is already late. So we gotta get going. How soon this week can you come in? So we anchor around urgency. Oh, we have to close all the other doors. We gotta say you can't do it on your own. You can't do it with your sister. You can't do with all these things because none of them are gonna work. Cause you've already said you haven't done it. Great. I think you're a good fit. There's three things you need. Environment, expertise and process. That's what we're gonna do. And you said you wanted to get your kid floating. I'll guarantee that they're gonna not float by the end of the 12th session. If they're not, I'll keep working with them until they do. All you got to do is show
B
up,
A
which means that when you. And you can translate. Which means that when you pay this money, you don't have to think about it again. You're going to float as long as you show up. Cool.
B
Yeah? Yep.
A
Don't worry. You can watch the recording. All right. All right. I'll get you later. Appreciate you.
B
Appreciate you say.
The Game with Alex Hormozi | Ep 953 | March 17, 2026
Host: Alex Hormozi
Guest: Swim School Business Owner
In this episode, Alex Hormozi conducts a practical coaching call with a swim school owner struggling to convert cold leads from paid ads, as their business previously grew only through word of mouth. Alex breaks down a step-by-step phone sales process focused on closing deals live, creating urgency, taking payments efficiently, and packaging offers that maximize revenue. The episode serves as a live demonstration of sales tactics for small business owners or anyone handling cold leads in a service business.
Objective: Pre-sell by eliminating all other alternatives before presenting the primary offer.
Method: Close ‘all the other doors’ by asking probing questions, exposing the limitations of every other option.
Position yourself as the authority:
Handling stalls:
Anchoring urgency:
Closing and collecting payment live:
Memorable closing script:
Framework: CLOSER (Clarify, Label, Overview, Secure, Explain, Respond)
Quote:
"Why are you here?... We close all the doors in overview… Everything that they're gonna say—why is it not okay for you to wait? Why can't you do this on your own? What are all the things they're gonna say...I think you're a good fit because you need to do it now." (Alex, 03:49)
Old pricing model: $100/month + $40 registration fee
New front-end offer:
Back-end offer:
Physical upsells:
Quote:
“I want you to have something...they feel like they're part of the group...It'll just give you an easy upsell on the way to offset some cost of acquisition.” (Alex, 07:56)
Process summary:
Empowering the business owner:
Alex’s approach remains direct, energetic, and solution-focused—he persistently guides the guest while giving actionable, concrete scripts and frameworks. The call feels like a sales masterclass, packed with practical examples and memorable lines to use immediately.
If you want to confidently close sales on the phone—even with cold, ad-generated leads—this episode arms you with actionable frameworks and real-world phrasing you can adopt today.