by cabelmcelderry | Oct 5, 2010 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
A special guest post that will teach you how-to ensure every fitness marketing campaign is a total success. I just got back from beautiful Las Vegas for our elite live mastermind meeting. 29 highly motivated entrepreneurs sat and discussed the inner workings of their businesses and shared their top secrets for rapid growth and world domination.
Fortunately I had my handy FlipCam and cornered a few of the participants, today I want to share with you this segment from my trusted mentor Bedros Keuilian on the three critical aspects to ensure your fitness marketing campaigns are a success.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqFrTILdzKw[/youtube]
by cabelmcelderry | Sep 30, 2010 | Personal Trainer Certification, Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
Well I am just getting set to head out to Las Vegas to see all my colleagues in Bedros Keuilian’s ‘Seven Figure Mastermind’ group. It’s no secret at all that I believe a big reason my life has changed so much in the last three years is that I’ve turned to coaches and trainers that allowed me to overcome many fears, doubts, and insecurities when it comes to business.
As fitness professionals we know full well the value we provide to our clients in terms of knowledge, support, accountability and reassurance when it comes to pushing them to reach our goals. As effective coaches it’s all of those things that we then hope drive our clients into taking action, implementing immediate change into their life and voila! Each time someone does rapid physical change occurs.
After 19 years in the fitness industry, after being near bankrupt, dealing with bill collectors, wondering how I was going to buy groceries next week, to being defeated to the point of leaving the industry not once, not twice, but three times, I can tell you I have a faced fear a few times. Sometimes I’ve won, other times I’ve completely failed. Sometimes I was so dejected I would even spend a few of the final dollars I had to my name on a single lottery ticket. Not because I really believed I would win, but simply for the positive feeling of “what if?” Just that moment to dream would be enough to inspire me to pick myself up and take the next action, even just a little one.
A wise piece of wisdom someone once told me, “You know what a rut is? It’s a grave with the ends kicked out.”
I’ve had training clients and now coaching clients who have expressed to me their fears, in days past they’ve told me why they can’t do something, why now is not the right time. Next week I might be having that same conversation with one of my coaches, its human nature.
Frustration, discouragement will inevitably occur and that’s why we are needed by our clients; that’s why you need colleagues to turn to. If you are stuck in a rut now or the next time you experience that feeling remember those wise words that someone once told me, “You know what a rut is? It’s a grave with the ends kicked out.”
Fear is natural; fear prevents us from action, the number one rule of success in business: Continue to take action. It’s true, and if you doubt it for a second look at your client success stories, the biggest successes come from frequent repeat action.
As Jim Collins talks about in his book Good to Great, it’s all about continually pushing on the flywheel; inevitably momentum occurs and swiftly carries you forward. I’m off to Vegas to share the tale of the wonderful momentum we are now experiencing after months of trying to correct a few little problems, the inspiration carries and I know they will provide tonnes of new ideas that will continue to carry us all forward.
Forget your fears, push them aside, take action today. Right now make a list what are the 5 SPECIFIC things you need to complete in the next 7 days to push on the flywheel of your own business? Don’t be afraid it’s never the right time!
by cabelmcelderry | Sep 28, 2010 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
This morning I received an email from one of my subscribers explaining the classic collections situation that occurs within the big box gyms. You know the one I am referring to, member signs up, member doesn’t use membership, either credit card expires or other billing situation occurs, gym calls member and threatens to send member to collections. Pretty standard since most big box gyms have iron clad member contracts that you cannot get out of.
Another situation that was told to me recently, long term active gym members cancelled their membership at their local gym. The owner believed the cancelled their membership because of a conversation between employees, as it turns out their cancellation was due to being frustrated that the gym was always publically acknowledging the progress and achievements of all the athletes that train there but not the achievements of the every day people.
This brings me to the three little words that will make you a tonne of money as a personal trainer…
Appreciate your customers.
It’s that simple, as personal trainers we have an amazing opportunity and our industry is rapidly growing and here’s why. The classic gym is failed to realize what many personal trainers have, we are most profitable when people actually use our services and get full value for them. They then refer and send many others to use or services, it’s that simple. Our whole process of tracking goals and providing accountability is the very thing that could greatly increase revenues of any public gym but it seems far from their attention.
Here are7 ways to appreciate your clients:
1) Create a Facebook fanpage and acknowledge achievements frequently.
2) Send a thank you card to anyone that signs up. (Even better is to include a value add to really make them feel appreciated.)
3) If they cancel or miss an appointment always call and follow up and see how they are doing. In fact just do this seemingly randomly to really go over the top.
4) Send regular text messages or emails to acknowledge their efforts and thank them for their business.
5) Provide automatic, unpublished rewards for referrals.
6) Acknowledge your mistakes and give them extra value if you need to solve a problem.
7) Never let them miss more than 1-2 sessions without substantial follow up to make sure they are satisfied with their programming.
This may sound like a lot of extra work but the truth is it’s far less expensive and far more valuable to keep the customers you have than it is to find new ones. And the best part is if you work more on keeping them happy they will find new customers for you and everybody wins!
by cabelmcelderry | Sep 20, 2010 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
At least this is what I believe the headline would be if I ever decided to sell real estate. Right now my wife are building our one-off-the-dreamhome-home and are in the process of selling our current home in a very depressed real estate market. We’ve been fortunate, since we purchased our very first home we have always worked closely with an office known to be Red Deer’s top real estate team. What has been interesting is talking with our real estate agent about marketing and comparing that with our own successful fitness marketing strategies. There are many similarities. I believe, in many ways, selling a $3000-$5000 personal training program is similar to selling a half million dollar home. The tools and steps needed to be successful in real estate, in my opinion, are quite similar to sucessful fitness marketing in our own depressed market.
1) Identify, enhance and affirm prospect emotions – Both personal training and buying a home are incredibly emotional decisions. In either case you must listen and communicate effectively with your prospect. Identify their needs allow them to get in touch with their pain or fears of the decision that they face and provide the correct affirmations that allow them to decide your solution is THEIR answer. This doesn’t mean you should be insincere or manipulative, in fact quite the opposite the more honest and transparent you are the more effective your fitness marketing will be.
2) Provide value when none is expected – Every week I continually share content with my faithful subscribers, every week I share that same content with people on Facebook, Twitter and in person. People have come to know me as an expert within the fitness field, in many cases, long before they ever considered ever using any services that I’ve offered. (Needless to say when they did discover they needed those services they came to me.) You can advertise to create top of mind awareness or you can earn it by being the person that always GIVES the answers to the questions you didn’t even know you were asking.
3) Form strategic alliances – If you want quality leads and customers get them from people with similar quality lists. By being the person that gives the answers via content you earn influence over your readers who will trust your suggestions of other services. Imagine if other similar businesses were comfortable suggesting you to thier lists? Of course there is instant credibility and opportunity for business growth for both.
Let’s face it generally personal trainers are still many years behind when it comes to effective fitness marketing. I truly believe if I moved from personal training to another service or sales industry I could be just as successful in record time, no matter the market conditions, just by using the same steps, systems and concepts. So can you!
by cabelmcelderry | Sep 13, 2010 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
It may be hard to believe but I think you should get to know not just the complimentary businesses in your area but also your competitors. (The in-direct ones anyways and even the direct ones that you feel have the same level of integrity and commitment to our industry as you do.)
I remember way back when I first began personal training I was always nervous when a new trainer popped up. Truth is though, the more trainers there are the more awareness there is to personal training and ultimately the more targeted, warm prospects there are. When we opened our studio I recall having that same feeling of butterflies when our first competitor appeared, but well three years and many competitors later here we are and our business is still growing out of control like the clover was in my yard earlier this year.
Since forming my mastermind group and getting to know my coaching clients I see even more value of having a business relationship where there is nothing to fear in sharing your trade secrets. When I first decided to offer coaching I swore I’d never take coaching clients in my own market (currently I have 2). However even that worry was for nothing, I am watching them poise for success and by supporting and endorsing each other it’s just making all of us grow faster.
Meet the other businesses in your area, offer them value and work together to increase the volume of your marketing funnel. There’s plenty to go around and the moral of the story is that speed is required for success and a flintstone car goes better with more than one set of feet.
by cabelmcelderry | Sep 3, 2010 | Personal Trainer Certification, Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
Video should be an essential part of your personal trainer marketing strategy.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEdWHUnxIQ0[/youtube]
