Don't confuse CFM with others mate. Yes, they do discount but not that heavily. We reduced my monthly on a 24 month contract by £2.71 a month and just did close on £100,000 trade over 5 weeks.
That money comes in over the next 2 years.
The £20,000 is a typical figure - paid for out of any paid in full up front memberships they sell. It covers the campaign costs. Not sure of the crew you talk about but CFM lays this out of their own pocket and recoups it AS the sales progress.
Worst case scenario - they're down £20k and you've lost some TIME.
Telemarketing sales account for 6% of all our sales, referrals are 43% and leaflets 51%.
As for collection agencies chasing - we have over a 70% year-on-year retention rate - 10 times the national average and we use collection companies. The difference however is that we also offer a very personal service at the gym and retain our members by use of interpersonal skills.
The d/d agencies aren't aggressive chasers and you can set "the pace" with Ashbourne. I only get them to heavily chase the assholes who use the gym for 3 months, bouncing every payment along the way, then disappear.
Perhaps it's different up by you but the majority of members here don;t feel it's an imposition when Ashbourne write and say "you owe us". Afterall, they KNOW they're in a membership agreement with the gym (never use the word contract, always membership agreement. equals treble the sales through next to no objections
).
Anyway, you'll do as you see fit mate and I'm sure you'll get it spot on. I just posted to try to put the point across that marketing companies don't have to equal huge discounts and d/d agencies aren't all bad news though I can think of one that I'd never use again.
You'll spend hours every day chasing your own d/ds Paul.