Draft for working

Learn how to set up your pre-sale offers

Written By Logan Daly-Doersam

Last updated About 4 hours ago

Step 1: Select an Opening Date

Any sale you make between making your offers available online → and the opening date, will automatically be set to start on the opening date, and not before. In your users tab these sales show their status as “Pending” which will change to “Active” on your opening date.

The opening date you select is inputed by our support team, this is not done within the platform. Please ensure the support@gymflow.io team knows your desired opening date. If your launch is delayed, we can also change your opening date as needed.

Step 2: Decide when to collect your first payment


Decide if you want to collect the first payment on sign up (Recommended), or on opening date. We can help you configure your recurring memberships to support either approach.

  • Option A: Collect the first payment during the pre-sale. Member pays on the date they sign up. Their membership will become active on your opening date and bill again at the end of the first billing cycle.

    E.g. You’re opening April 1st opening date. Someone purchases a membership on Jan 18th, so they are charged immediately. Their membership begins April 1st (opening date). Because they have already paid for April 1-30th during the pre-sale, their next payment is May 1st.

  • Option B: Collect first payment on Opening date. They can sign up during the pre-sale period though their payment method is not charged until opening date.

    E.g. You run a pre-sale from January - March, with an April 1st opening date. Someone purchases a membership Jan 18th and are not charged. Their membership begins April 1st (opening date) and they are charged the same day, their next payment is May 1st.

Note: Specifically for pre-paid memberships these are always paid for on the day they signed up, like Option A above. Pre-paid memberships begin on opening date, and end when their term is completed. Remember pre-paid memberships are not recurring.

Optional Steps:

  • Opening Date Changes: If you need to delay your opening date, just notify us at support@gymflow.io and we can update the date for you. Please notify us at least one week in advance.

  • Allowing Bookings Before Opening Date: If you want to open bookings up prior to your opening date, notify us at support@gymflow.io and we can enable this for you. This is because “Pending” members by default are not able to book until the membership starts.

Collection: Pre-Sales

  • Pre-Sales Overview

    • How it works

    • explain the timeline

    • explain the investment required

    • explain the payoff (financial benefits)

  • Audience/Awareness Building

    • Talk through audience channels

    • Talk through options to build audience/awareness

    • Information on Paid Ads

    • Information on lead capture

  • Launch Offers

    • Promo Codes Vs Low Price

    • Tiered Offers

    • When to collect payment

  • Launch Week Trial Offers

    • Creating trial offers for non converted leads

    • Conversion Offers

How Pre-Sales work

The Pre-Sales phase is the period before your gym officially opens when you start building awareness, collecting leads, and selling your launch offers.

This stage allows you to generate revenue before opening day, build excitement in your community, and ensure your first week kicks off strong.

Typical Pre-Sales activities include:

  • Generating awareness in your local area (on & offline)

  • Collecting leads through paid and organic campaigns

  • Running time-sensitive launch offers

  • Converting leads into founding members & trials

Pre-sales Timeline

Most Pre-Sales campaigns run for weeks to months before opening day.
A good rule of thumb is to figure out how much time you have until launch, split that in half, and spend the first half building your lead list with the second half selling your launch offers.

Let’s say you have 8 weeks until opening day:

  • Weeks 1–4: Awareness building & Lead Generation only — drive traffic to your lead generation form to build your Lead list in Gymflow.

  • Weeks 5–8: Launch offer sales — Full steam ahead selling your founding promotional offer.

What is the Investment Required?

Your investment will depend on your local market and chosen marketing channels.
Typical Pre-Sales investments include:

  • Paid Advertising: $1,000–$3,000 for targeted Facebook, Instagram, or Google Ads.

  • Creative Assets: Photo/video content, landing pages, and printed materials.

  • Time & Effort: Following up with leads can be done in bulk or more individualized, are you sending 1 bulk email, tailored SMS messages, or is your staff calling each potential lead personally?

Gymflow helps automate much of this process providing you a lead capture form, checkout links and an automatically created app & web portal — keeping costs lean while maximizing conversion efficiency.

Payoff (Financial Benefits)

Pre-Sales campaigns often generate 5 figures in revenue before your doors even open.
Benefits include:

  • Immediate cash flow to offset startup costs

  • A base of paying members from day one

  • Reduced pressure during launch week

  • Proof of demand for future marketing efforts

When executed well, Pre-Sales can fund your launch, validate your concept, and build community momentum early.