How To Hire A Nutritionist For Your Fitness Business

How To Hire A Nutritionist For Your Fitness Business

By Lori Kennedy

Today I have a really great article for you written by my friend and colleague, Lori Kennedy RHN, CEO of WOW! Weight Loss Inc.

If you made it to the Fitness Business Summit this year you got to listen to her talk about how us fitness people need to step it up a notch and start offering turn-key nutrition programs in our businesses. She talked about the trend of turning your fitness business into a one-stop health shop.

I was actually just in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with Lori where we co-hosted the Wellness Business Summit. Together we taught over 170 alternative wellness practitioners the fine art of marketing and business.

If you ever thought of hiring a nutritionist or implementing a nutrition program you MUST read this. Lori gives away her best do’s and don’ts when it comes to hiring a credentialed nutrition professional.

Take it away Lori…

Hi everyone! Thanks Cabel.

Here’s a secret about Cabel. If you didn’t already know his nickname is, ‘The Mechanic’.

He is the fixer.

He puts the pieces together. He rocked the Wellness Business Summit!

As Cabel mentioned I gave a presentation at the Fitness Business Summit. After FBS I got a lot of questions asking about what to look for when hiring a Nutritionist.

Here’s an insider secret that I shared at FBS… Students in nutrition or Dietetics programs work for free!

Yup. Free.

They all need to complete a certain number of internship or practicum hours. My advice is to contact the nutrition schools and universities in your area with your offer to take interns. They will be grateful and refer loads of people to you. Create a job description and give the interns some direction. Remember they are students so don’t throw them into the deep end right away.

There’s a lot to know when it comes to hiring nutrition professionals. Here are my top do’s and don’ts.

Let’s start with the don’ts.

1. Don’t expect them to feel comfortable or confident selling nutrition services. Most nutritionists have a ‘save the world Norma Rae’ mentality. They have never had to sell anything before so it’s scary and overwhelming for them.

2. Don’t expect them to have any experience in marketing. Business and marketing is not a subject focused on at length in any nutrition program or certification.

3. Don’t expect them to come with a done-for-you turn-key nutrition program. It takes a long time to build up client materials. Most nutrition professionals are taught to create personalized plans on an individual basis.

4. Don’t underestimate the nutritionist’s capacity to work their asses off for you and your business. The ‘Norma Rae save the world’ mentality traits are amazing when it comes to providing superior customer service and support.

5. Don’t devalue the time you will spend training the nutritionist. Even though it takes time to build up the nutrition program, you will benefit in the long run. Adding nutrition services will bring non-fitness related leads into your business. It will separate you from the rest of the plain old fitness facilities in your community.

While I didn’t start off painting my fellow colleagues in the best light, it’s the truth. I experienced this myself when I was first starting out. I learned the hard way and experienced big failures when I first started out.

Now let’s move onto the positives. There are so many do’s to think about when hiring a nutrition professional. Nutrition is a value added service. Your clients are most likely already spending money on the food side of fat loss somewhere else… why not have them spend their fat loss dollars in your facility?

1. Do spend the time to train them like you would a personal trainer. Run them through your sales processes. Provide them with the same expectations you would a personal trainer.

2. Do look for a nutrition professional that has graduated from a 1 year program instead of just taking a 2 day course.

3. Do evaluate them based on their look and personality. Unfortunately the phrase don’t judge a book by its cover doesn’t apply. It will be hard for your clients to take a nutritionist seriously when they don’t look the part. Hire someone who is bubbly, outgoing and isn’t afraid to talk to strangers.

4. Do have them come in for a trial run. When I hire a nutritionist to fulfill WOW! contracts I always have them come in to do a free seminar for clients. I am able to better gauge their ability to build rapport, their knowledge and confidence level.

5. Do make sure you offer a short-term and long-term weight loss program. Your clients are looking for weight loss advice and a structured program. They are not aware of or really ??? care about their health issues. Market weight loss over health.

Cabel here again. Thank you Lori for sharing!

If you want more information on how you can create your own turn-key weight loss program for your fitness business CLICK HERE.