What $150M in Local Promotions Taught Me | Chris Lange, Promo Engine

What we talked about.

Sunny Ray sits down with Chris Lange, founder and CEO of Promo Engine, to trace his path from personal trainer to serial business acquirer. Chris bought a Prescott, Arizona health club at 23 with no business training, then watched a commission-only mailer campaign double membership by showing how a low-barrier offer gives customers a reason to say yes. He recounts his time at Lifetime Fitness, where he helped set a national personal training sales record, managed more than 300 people, and absorbed a culture of education that shaped how he sells. After Lifetime he built a digital marketing company and bought party and equipment rental businesses, doubling revenue by installing marketing, sales, and operations systems. The conversation then turns to the August 2024 acquisition of Hound's assets after COVID derailed his Fan Pass app, and the decision to rebuild the aging 2011 code base as Promo Engine. Chris shares platform numbers, including more than $150 million in transactional sales, and urges owners to run promotions on a regular playbook and listen to the voice of the customer.

Chris Lange went from personal trainer to buying Hound and building Promo Engine, a platform behind $150M in local promotional sales.

The questions, and the answers.

Where did it all start for you?

I was a personal trainer in Prescott, Arizona around 2001 when the longtime owners offered to sell me their health club. I bought it at 23 knowing nothing about marketing. Nothing worked until a member named Sergio offered to market on commission. His low-barrier mailer offers doubled membership in about six months, and that taught me to give people a reason to say yes.

Running a huge club at Lifetime, what did that teach you about what really fills the building?

The right people. I managed over 300 staff across 11 departments, almost like running 11 businesses, so you cannot do it alone. As an athlete I believed in outworking everyone, but that fails at scale. You have to get the right people in place, train them well, and invest in them. Culture beats strategy any day when you want to fill and keep a building.

Who taught you how to sell?

Honestly, I did not know how to sell beyond working hard. Lifetime Fitness flipped the switch because they were so big on education. Senior managers went through certification courses, week-long trainings, and constant book reading. Working hard as a salesperson is one thing, but I learned most of my strategic selling approach there.

How did you end up acquiring Hound?

My partner and I built a family app called Fan Pass, and two days after our big launch event in the Phoenix area, COVID hit. We had been talking with Hound, a promotional marketing platform, and they later approached us about an acquisition. In August 2024 we acquired the assets and customer base, then rebuilt the product as Promo Engine.

How do you tell a team you are rebuilding everything?

The team was relieved and ready for change. They loved the product and wanted it to thrive. The code base dated to 2011 and was a Jenga tower of technical debt, so we rebuilt on new code and APIs. Now features that once took 90 days to six months take about four days, so we can pivot quickly to our customers' voice.

When did you first see merchant numbers and think this was the real thing?

We analyzed our top merchants and found seven businesses each doing over a million dollars a year in promotional sales on the platform, and hundreds above $100,000. Over its ten years the platform has produced more than $150 million in transactional sales, mainly in the US but also Australia and the UK. That is when I knew we were hooked.

What do you want listeners to take away from this episode?

First, if you are not strategically using promotions, you are leaving money on the table. I mean a playbook for running specific promotional offers monthly or quarterly, not just ads. Second, education. If you do not keep up with the latest tools and technology in a fast-moving business world, you will get left in the dust.