If you want more personal training clients and don’t have a defined customer Avatar this article is absolutely step one for the future success of your personal training business.

When I first started as a personal trainer I would hear from successful business owners all the time that I needed to know my niche but for some reason I really struggled to understand what it really meant. Maybe because I was analytical, methodical and task oriented I insisted on overthinking what it meant to know my niche or my customer avatar, I struggled for a long time as a generalist. Because I didn’t know specifically how to communicate to my Avatar getting more personal training clients was slow, difficult and unpredictable. I seemed to think I needed to understand demographics or that I was looking for people with a certain income and things like that. I didn’t understand why it was important to know where these people hung out, what activities they enjoyed, what items they might purchase, what their hobbies, fears, goals, and favourite thing to do on Sunday was.

Over time I really began to understand that using demographics and local statistics was only a means of validation for confirming my Avatar. You see it’s a very important two-step process and for the longest time I was hung up on step two and had never really completed step one.

You need to be able to close your eyes and see your Avatar in front of you, give them a name. The stronger the image the more you can identify with them. Imagine talking to your spouse and a local politician though at times we might debate that both conversations may carry a political tone I can almost certainly guarantee the language used in each conversation will never be similar.

Once you have described and written the story of your Avatar every word, image, offer and idea pertaining to your services should be presented in an effort to speak to them. You might think this sounds ridiculous, I know I did, but it will completely set you apart from your competition. The effectiveness of your marketing will significantly increase and you’ll still continue to attract those outside your Avatar, often with a greater credibility because you are now looked upon as a sought after expert. If this still sounds weird you’ll just have to trust me, but I can guarantee at some point you will realize this is one of the biggest steps to creating a successful personal training business.

Below is one of my favourite examples of a customer Avatar by one of my former coaching clients.

Adam business owner  (39) +, +

Name: Adam  Age: 39
Single, No Kids, Wants to have a family FAST
Main Problem Area: Belly, Abs, Low Energy Tired
Income: 150 to 250K/year
Training Experience: Beginner, Never consistently
Biggest Fear: He is never going to find  a quality women  that finds him attractive.
Frustrations: Loneliness, Constantly gets distracted from his diet and training, skips meals.
Biggest Motivator:  Become more physically attractive to women, have more Energy so he can make half a million $, No more belly so he can be more confident around women. 6 pack Abs, toned biceps, Ripped Chest
Personality: Social, Talkative, Questions every thing, Leader

Adam is 39 years old, he is single and he has a successful real estate business. He has been working for himself since he was 18 years old.

He lives in _______________________ and usually spends most of his days in front of his computer at his home office or at various coffee shops and clients places.

Adam is single and has been in 3 longer relationships, he wants to have a family as soon as possible. He feels tired and his energy is low especially after lunch and he is not happy with the way he looks in front of the mirror. He wants to look good and wants to get rid of his hanging belly fat.

He is always in rush, He is financially well off and makes an average of 150K per year income and he only has to support himself but he is very motivated to get to a half a million dollar income like some of his friends.

Adam has tried weight training before but always gets too busy to be able to stick to his program, he knows he wants to have a nice body but other things constantly take up his time and other important things always come up. Though he doesn’t remember much about how to weight train, he is confused about what to eat and how to train, how long cardio should be and doesn’t have time to research this topic. He’d like to just hire someone who he can trust to do this for him.

Adam goes out on weekends with his friends to lounges and friends places, he likes hockey.

Adams biggest fear is that he is going to be single for the rest of his life and that he is not going to meet high quality women who will like him for him. Adam Is lonely, he knows he can get rid of his belly he is just looking for an expert to guide him one he can rely on and commit to.

He loves the idea of having more energy so he can do more work, make more money and, to increase his confidence with women.

Adam wants to make sure that his trainer is on time, professional, produces results. He does not want to waste his time or money and most importantly he wants to LOOK GOOD FAST, he wants his results tracked he wants to be shown that this plan is working and that he is becoming fitter, looking better and more girls are starting to notice it.