July has finally ended! Most would agree that July is likely the slowest month of the year in the fitness industry. This is the time for many of us to slow down, wind down, relax and rejuvenate, but it’s also the time to be working on the systems of your business.
The reason many personal trainers continue to struggle week after week, month after month is that they never really take the time to develop the systems that run their business for them, rather than just making decisions or working to solve the same problems over and over and over. I’m sure you know what I mean and likely agree that your career as a personal trainer is a bit of a rollercoaster; you go from being busy to realizing you need more clients, to finding ways to attract those clients, to being busy, to needing more clients. You might say sometimes it’s like feast or famine.
Since we opened One-to-1 Fitness in 2007 I’m continually amazed by how much has changed, I can’t even imagine being the solo personal trainer I was a few years ago, and the times I find myself reminiscing I usually end up wondering how on earth I ever managed to stick it out? I mean we all strive for our lifestyle of choice which usually includes a healthy dose of financial security in one fashion or another. So my question to you today is; is your business on the road to delivering the lifestyle you want it to? If not, why?
If you answered no consider the following:
1) Are you selling sessions or results? (You might rephrase this as do you count reps or do you actually train people?) You see the truth is the idea of selling someone 10, 20 or 30 training sessions really implies that what you do has limited or short term value, that it’s a casual endeavour, and to me the idea of “buying a few personal training sessions” equates to, “I’m bored of my exercise plan and I’m too lazy to look at the latest issue of Muscle & Fitness for new ideas.”
The truth is someone looking to lose weight, feel better, improve health or overall well being is never going to achieve any of these things with a package of sessions. We’re usually talking about a major overhaul of lifestyle habits and this can only be achieved by a long period of accountability. So why would you confuse this issue by suggesting someone buy a handful of sessions? Sell the lifestyle, explain the importance of long term accountability, and stress that there is no such thing as a diet or exercise “program,” your body’s very adaptive nature requires the continual evolution of your nutrition and exercise habits to be continually effective.
2) EFT/Continuity, the foundation of your security. Now that you understand that sessions by nature are ineffective in delivering the results your clients are seeking; you need to be reminded of the importance of using an automated billing process. Continuity is both critical to their success and yours. By conditioning your clients to understand the importance of being committed to an ongoing monthly program you will improve their results by continually reinforcing the idea of accountability as well as ease your stress with the financial security of predictable and repeatable revenues. We could argue all day about the frustration of the bank fees that go along with but at the end of the day there is still no doubt having an automated (electronic funds transfer) billing program will be the cornerstone of your business.
3) Go with a giving hand. The thing trainers struggle with the most is gaining the initial momentum of their business; you know the ability to go from zero clients to not only a reasonably full schedule and a steady stream of new clients beyond. Let me ask you something, if you regularly attended a health club where 2 trainers worked, appeared to have the same credentials, experience, were equally personable and charged the same rate. The only difference you could see is that one was there with clients 7 hours a day while the other you only seen for an hour or so a couple times of week, which one would you naturally lean toward contacting or hiring? If you said the busy trainer than you would be part of the majority, but what you don’t know is that the busy trainer was training the majority of those clients at a deep discount and some even potentially for free! My point is there is some truth to the old adage of, “fake it until you make it.” Now I’m not saying it’s ok to pretend you have more knowledge than what you do, but what I am saying is that in our free market economy the consumer always has a choice and will usually choose the item or service that is: the most trusted, been on the market the longest, appears to be liked or valued by others.
Obviously when you are new to the industry it can be difficult to gain this credibility if this is the general attitude of your most likely customers, so your opportunity is to go with a giving hand and often invest more of your time for less compensation and in exchange they provide the credibility you need to quickly attract more customers.
4) The art of retention. Once you’ve gained the trust and loyalty of paying clients, how long can you keep them? It seems like this is a huge fatal flaw amongst new trainers entering the industry. Go stand in front of a mirror and think about the last really big purchase you made in your life, maybe you bought a brand new car, a house or something else that required serious thought and attention because it was going to have a long term financial impact on your life. As you think back to that transaction begin to speak out loud about anything that was really positive or negative about your experience in terms of dealing with the sales people that helped you along the way. Go a step further and begin to think and speak out loud your expectations if you were to make another similar purchase.
My point is in most major transactions these days, in our fast paced society, it seems like our expectations are often never met. In my opinion one of the major reasons customer service seems to be on the decline is because we’re all constantly so distracted by so many other things.
Don’t forget the little things:
- Confirming your client’s next appointment at the end of every session.
- Acknowledging their achievement past and even of that very workout.
- Making an effort to call, email or text them randomly to tell them how great they are doing.
- Send thank you and birth day cards.
- Acknowledge their successes publicly (yet carefully as not everyone feels comfortable with this.)
If any of this seems weird please revisit the mirror and repeat the exercise above, what you should start to notice is most often our most positive experiences are the ones where we felt: valued, appreciated, respected or a sense of achievement that was noticed by others.
YES! Contact me today to schedule a FREE no obligation consultation and trial workout.