by cabelmcelderry | Jul 23, 2013 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
By now I think we’ve all heard of the plastic gift card but just in case you haven’t let me first briefly explain what they are and how they’ve been used.
There are a number of manufacturer’s online that can produce a plastic gift card for you that looks and feels like something you would buy at any local chain store. Many savvy fitness pros may first have heard about this from guys like Steve Hochman and Bedros Keuilian. Using a high value amount like $100 having these cards made in the image of your business has proven to be a sound awareness and lead generation tool. The key is to give plenty away through any channel you can. Lead boxes, silent auctions, gift bags at events, in addition to your business cards, with partner businesses as a way to appreciate their customers with a thank you gift and so on. We’ve even seen our cards become a traded commodity in classifieds and on Facebook, talk about free awareness and branding!
While attending a mastermind weekend an idea was born on how to take this whole plastic card marketing tool a whole lot further. A method that not only practically guaranteed redemption but also allows you to generate revenue from them directly. Let’s have your clients refer their friends and family and pay you to do it!
Let’s face it our services are expensive, no matter how good you are you are going to face the resistance of price at times and even if you don’t we can both surely agree that everyone likes an opportunity to save money and get a deal.
When you sign up a new client I’d suggest the following strategy. Immediately give them a thank you card with your gift card inside, explain how it’s used. Next explain that today they can buy one additional card for a nominal amount and if it’s redeemed in the next 30 days in addition to the person they refer they will also receive the full amount of the gift card credited against their account. In addition explain if they meet this in the next 30 days you will add them to your VIP referral list meaning they can continue to buy cards at a nominal rate for anyone they wish to refer and basically get their own training free!
You’ve now incentivized a whole new sales team for pennies compared to traditional marketing channels. By simply paying even a few dollars for the gift card it’s almost guaranteed to be redeemed because we’re all pre-programmed to try to avoid wasting money. Additionally if I can get my own training for free I’m first wondering what the catch is, yet buy buying the card you eliminate this natural defense mechanism because I have now made an active decision to invest in an opportunity to earn my own training for free.
Now this may not appeal to everyone but it absolutely can predictably and repeatedly generate a few more quality referrals each month and that is the whole name of the game. Eliminate the need for a crystal ball with multiple predictable strategies that make reaching your business goals simply a product of execution.
by cabelmcelderry | Jul 9, 2013 | Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
Being a successful and profitable fitness professional will take more than being educated and certified. Whether you like it or not you will need to be proficient at selling your services. If this makes you cringe it may be because you associate sales with the practices of the bad sales people you’ve been exposed to.
Selling your services is never about desperation; it’s never about manipulating someone or forcing them to buy. Your job is to simply facilitate the right questions and information for the prospect to decide that your services are the answer.
Like everything else in your business your sales processes need to form a system that you can follow and repeat each time allowing you to become more and more proficient. Here are some of the highlights of our sales system to give you examples of how you might create your own.
Greeting the prospect – Upon meeting and welcoming the prospect our first initiative is to tie their emotions to why they are there. Their emotions were involved when they first made the decision to seek out a fitness professional but as time has elapsed they may have become desensitized to the feels that sparked the idea of change. We would ask questions like, “when was the last time you were happy with your body?”
Touring the prospect – In our case we have a studio of a few thousand square feet, we tour the prospect stopping periodically at certain areas to talk about the features and benefits of the studio. Each point we stop at has a purpose in the information that is delivered. This information could range from the education and credibility of our team, to our various service models ensure we can meet any budget, to specific features that are unique to us and design to improve your overall health. Not only is the information at each point of the tour valuable to the prospect but the practice of moving and stopping allows the person to be more comfortable in our environment. Their level of comfort is paramount in their decision to purchase.
Defined presentation of services – Now everyone has a different opinion but I prefer to have a defined presentation of prepared materials to show my prospects. We have nice full color slides printed in a nice leather binder. These slides allow us to walk the prospect through exactly what it is we do. Some would argue that by writing this out on plain paper for each person you provide a deeper personal connection. I think that’s a valid argument and for someone new to selling fitness services you may want to try both and see which works best for you.
At the conclusion of our service presentation something very important happens, we don’t immediately offer any package or pricing information, but rather simply ask the prospect if they have any questions about what was presented. This may seem small and insignificant but I would argue it’s one of the most important steps in the system.
Remember as a consumer we always have our guard up, we are always sceptical of each new thing and particularly of anyone who’s asking us for the money we’ve worked so hard for. To really become effective at selling your services you must always keep this in mind. Be the facilitator asking the right questions and offering the right information to help your prospect decide that your services are right for them.
When you do present pricing and package options it’s also important that you only present a couple of options to them that are the most relevant to their situation. Having a whole list of available programs will only frustrate and discourage them from making a decision. You are the expert; don’t make them feel like they need to be in making this decision.
In a nutshell that’s the big take away. Don’t sell anyone, be the assistant buyer. Ask emotional questions and facilitate the information that helps them realize you are the answer. Most importantly try to systemize the process so it’s basically the same each time so you become more proficient.
If you’re looking for a good product to follow along and learn from (and also a little different but very complimentary to the above) I highly
recommend you grabs Close Clients from my good friend Bedros Keuilian.
by cabelmcelderry | May 21, 2013 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training, Success Mindset
The wellness business is much like the fitness or personal training business; the clients have the same behaviors and concerns. Usually you’re not their first attempt to overcome their present challenge and a healthy level of skepticism has them reluctant to commit to anything long-term.
As a result many wellness professionals (like personal trainers) find themselves selling short-term programs, small packages of sessions, and are frustrated because they’re business barely generates enough revenue to be considered a part-time “hobby.”
Don’t you think that our noble purpose is to help people? Yet traditional weight loss programs are far more profitable than those of the typical wellness professional or personal trainer and attracting thousand more people than we are, does that seem wrong to you?
Truly the missing component has more to do with us than a problem with traditional weight loss. As caring and compassionate professionals we’re good at helping people; that is until money is involved. We somehow think by not asking people to commit to long-term care, or leaving it up to them to self-direct the time we have to modify their behaviors that we are providing them the best service. Can you think of one instance where the people that communicated with you the most, on a regular basis, for an extended period of time didn’t get the best results? Of course not, so why would we ever think it was ok to reinforce the idea to our clients that a long-term commitment isn’t required? They clearly don’t know or they wouldn’t have sought us out.
This is what traditional weight loss is good at. They have taken a system or set way of doing things (hey we have that) and they’ve packages in a way that helps the customer long-term, and it just so happens that’s more profitable too. So if you can maintain your noble purpose, help people and live a good life too any reason not to?
That’s what I thought…
So here’s a little wellness promotion to get you started. The goal is to show you how we can engineer a method to use normal consumer behavior in a predictable format to drive people to take action on goals that they’ve been putting off for far too long.
As people we work off inspiration, without inspiration we will forever remain inside our comfort zone, we can help a lot more people if we can predictably inspire them to take the first step to help themselves.
It follows a consistent email promotion sequence to grab the attention of the impulse buyer, the analytical consumer and the procrastinator.
The final sold out email should be a valuable component of most if not all of your campaigns, if things fall short of plan and it’s not any where near full (doesn’t happen often but can) then don’t send the sold out email otherwise we may as well end on a note of conditioning the consumer to more promptly respond to the next promotion.
I’ve written the emails in a way that I hope most people can use them as is, just a simple cut and paste. It can always help to add more personal relevant details so don’t be afraid to edit those areas as well.
How to Run This:
Send out the emails on the days indicated one week before the official start date. Be majorly enthusiastic.
As you will read in the emails, there doesn’t have to be any big crazy difference, in fact the difference from what you’re doing now is likely that you have an ongoing commitment to these people in a set pattern of frequency for the next four weeks. With all that predictable and regular accountability just imagine how great the results can be…now imagine if they committed to you for 6-12 months?
About 2 ½ weeks into this program you should be talking to all of your clients about continuing with the same services on a monthly basis at the regular price. I suspect like personal trainers many wellness professionals are about a $1/min for service, or $60-70/hour on average. (If your more than be more, it’s good to be expensive.)
Assuming that you see your clients for 30-minute appointments we’re talking about 1.5 hours/week X 4 or 6 hours a month or approximately $420 month. I recommend offering them a deal to continue if they commit before the end of the program, like 25% off the first month and 10% off each extra month as a VIP discount. If you’re not comfortable with this then repeat this chant 10 times: “I will raise my prices because I am totally worth it.” Seriously though that’s the answer. If they say, “I’ll think about it.” Be sure to follow up, I’ll think about it is typical consumer fear that it might not work, you and I know better.
I know many of you will read this, get set to run it, and then start to lose your nerve and find all kinds of “reasons” why it won’t work, seriously just do it, hit send and say a prayer. I did the same thing, and this is why we need coaches and mentors too, but that’s another story.
Your awesome, you can do this and if you need more or need someone to push you in the pool come back to www.ProfitablePersonalTrainer.com or www.facebook.com/ProfitablePersonalTrainer as that’s what I’m here for. J
Always here to help,
Cabel “The Mechanic” The Profitable Personal Trainer
Email 1: Monday AM week prior to start.
Subject: Secret BETA Project (Are you in?)
I’m writing you today to let you in on a little secret. As people we’re all the same we all want the best results in the shortest time and we’re always looking for an easier way still.
As a wellness professional I’m always learning, and just like you I always want to figure out how I can help you get “there” faster and easier.
Recently I stumbled across something that will do just that. In fact I began applying it with a few of my clients immediately, the improvements were noticeable almost instantly.
(If you can include names and results of recent clients here could be even more powerful.)
I’m so excited about this I want to give it a real unbiased test (you know very scientific and all) so I need your help!
In fact I need the help of a small group of people to help me fully test this idea. Are you in?
All you have to do is be excited about losing between 5 and 15 lbs in the next 28 days, willing to follow my specific instructions and really put this new little secret to the test, I’m calling it my Secret BETA Project.
Can I count on you?
I mean really what do you have to lose? Maybe a dress size?
Wouldn’t it be great to fit into those “skinny jeans” hiding in the back of the closet?
Here’s the deal.
Since this isn’t 100% tested and proven (that’s what you’re gonna help me do) that’s why I need people not within my current training program. Additionally to make it a win-win you won’t pay my regular price, instead it’s only going to cost you a measly $97 bucks! Just like everything I do it’s guaranteed, so if it doesn’t work or your not happy with the result I’ll 100% refund your money.
Now because this is a BETA project I’m going to keep the group small so you can have my maximum attention. I’m looking for only 9 committed individuals that are serious about losing 5-15lbs in the next 28 days.
- We’ll be meeting 3 days a week for the next 4 weeks. ***NOTE: Your services may not function like this please revise****
- You may be required to complete additional workouts on your own that I’ll provide.
- You must be super committed.
- You must not have any specific travel plans that could cause you to miss sessions or make eating consistently really difficult.
- You must not be a current client.
- And to be fair to everyone so I can help as many people as possible you must not have taken advantage of any sale promotion in the last 60 days. (Sorry.)
If this sounds like you then hit reply right away because my Secret BETA Project is going to start next Monday and I suspect these spots are going to fill pretty quickly!
Always here to help,
(your name)
Email 2: Send Wed morning.
Subject: BETA Project Nearly Full! (wow!)
Wow! Ok I didn’t quite expect that kind of response.
Within a few hours a had a whole bunch of replies for the Secret BETA Project idea it seems a lot of people are really curious…and willing to be human guinea pigs!
But seriously, it seems a lot of people love the idea of testing out this new belly-busting secret to lose between 5 and 15lbs in the next 28 days.
I did get a couple of questions though…
Many people are wondering if they have to have tried a special diet or used any of my nutritional programs before. The answer, no, it’s good for anyone, regardless of what you’ve previously tried.
Others have been asking what exactly the secret is. Honestly, I’m sorry I can’t tell you; it would actually ruin the test. It’s 100% safe no crazy gimmick, not a supplement or anything like that. In fact it’s so simple you may not even realize it’s different at first so you just have to trust me.
In 28 days I promise you will both see and feel the difference.
So here’s the skinny, at this point 6 of the 9 available spots for the Secret BETA Project are full.
If you missed the last email definitely hit reply right now or call (your number) and let’s get you registered before the last couple spots are gone.
If you did miss the last email here’s the details again:
- Starts next Monday (insert the date)
- Runs for 28 days, 3 appointments a week.
- You may be required to do a few additional things at home, which I’ll detail.
- You must not be a current client. I need this to be independent of my current methods to really judge its effect.
- You won’t pay anywhere near full price, it’s a fraction of the normal cost at $97 and still covered by my full money back guarantee for the whole program. (What on earth do you have to lose?)
- You must be excited about the idea of losing 5-15lbs in 28 days.
- You must not have any specific plans that will cause you to miss appointments or make it difficult to eat consistently. (I understand things can change so just no 2 week vacations please.)
- If you were part of a recent promotion (in the last 60 days) sorry you’re not eligible, I want to help as many people as possible.
So with just 3 spots remaining hit reply or call (your number) and I’ll get you setup right away.
Always here to help,
(Your name)
P.S. (Add a comment about timing, as I write this we’re heading into EASTER so my PS might be “The Secret BETA project is the perfect solution for eliminating the guilt of an indulgent Easter, keep the family memories and forget the weight concerns! (oh and it’s guaranteed, are you crazy? What are you waiting for? Just kidding, hit reply if you’re ready for change.”)
Email 3: Send Thursday afternoon.
Subject: Last chance (Urgent, attn. required)
There’s just 1 spot left in my Secret BETA Project for some dedicated and determined person to lose 5-15lbs in the next 28 days. Is that you?
I need just one more person to add to my special test group for this new strategy that I’ve already seen melt fat like crazy in some of my current clients.
Here’s the details of the program from the last email one more time:
- Starts next Monday (insert the date)
- Runs for 28 days, 3 appointments a week.
- You may be required to do a few additional things at home, which I’ll detail.
- You must not be a current client. I need this to be independent of my current training methods to really judge its effect.
- You won’t pay anywhere near full price, it’s a fraction of the normal cost at $97 and still covered by my full money back guarantee for the whole program. (What on earth do you have to lose?)
- You must be excited about the idea of losing 5-15lbs in 28 days.
- You must not have any specific plans that will cause you to miss appointments or make it difficult to eat consistently. (I understand things can change so just no 2 week vacations please.)
- If you were part of a recent promotion (in the last 60 days) sorry you’re not eligible, I want to help as many people as possible.
With just one spot remaining this is totally first come first serve, so hit reply immediately, I’ll be looking at the time the email came in to see who gets the spot or you can call me directly at (your number.)
For everyone else already registered I’m pumped to see you on Monday!
Always here to help,
(your name)
Email 4: Send latish Friday evening
Subject: Secret BETA Project Sold Out!
It’s official the Secret BETA Project is totally sold out! Thank you to everyone who has jumped on board, I look forward to seeing you all next week and we’re gonna kick butt!
If you missed out on the Secret BETA Project I am so sorry (I had a few additional emails after that were sent after the final spot was filled) but don’t worry I’ll be in touch.
I always want to help everyone if I can and though this program is completely full I might be able to squeeze a few more people into my other programs. I’ll be in touch with something special for you or if you thinking now you’d really like to get started just hit reply and I can fill you in on the details.
Thanks everyone, you’re awesome!
(your name)
by cabelmcelderry | Apr 25, 2013 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training, Success Mindset
400 Square Feet, 20 Clients, $48,000 (Case Study)
I have a really inspiring story to share with you today. This story is personal for me
because I know how hard it can be to achieve success, especially when you have
very limited resources.
It was Lori who introduced me to Misty who has since become one my top coaching
clients.
Misty is a WOW! Practitioner.
She owns TM Training and Nutrition and a Fit Body Bootcamp, which she is in the
process of opening.
She is also 6 feet tall. Think of how I feel when standing beside her 🙂
Lori introduced me to Misty because she knew I could help her. After all, I am ‘The
Mechanic’. I fix broken fitness businesses.
She was struggling with her personal training studio. I started working with Misty in
June 2012 and was making generating $6,000 a month in revenue. As of March she
has tripled her revenue to $18,000 in fitness sales.
The story I want to share isn’t about how Misty is kicking ass with her personal
training studio. It isn’t about how she started her Bootcamp and quickly filled all the
spots.
The story I am honored to share is about how anything is possible, even when you
have to run your nutrition business out of your living room.
Take a couple of minutes and watch this video.
Lori Kennedy, CEO of WOW! Weight Loss Inc. interviews Misty about her additional
revenue stream that has allowed her to bring in an EXTRA $48,000 per year in
profit.
You don’t want to miss the part where Misty shares her #1 tip for generating loads
of new leads.
After you are done watching, send me an email and let me know how you plan to
make extra money this year.
Click HERE to find out more information about the upcoming WOW! Certification
and how you can bring in $48,000 in profit from a turn-key nutrition program.
by cabelmcelderry | Mar 19, 2013 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
I believe that developing strategic partnerships is one of the fastest and most cost effective ways of building your business. It should be one of the foundation elements that receive continual focus with direct goals in every quarter.
Now one of the big problems with strategic partnerships is that local businesses are constantly approached or solicited by others to do things, display things or post things that help other people grow their business. For the business being approached this generally just takes up valuable space and is a waste of time with little to no reciprocal benefit which is why so many businesses won’t talk to you or have a standard practice of saying no.
Here are my five steps to overcoming this. Go with a giving hand and deliver real value that leads to mutually beneficial relationships.
- Interview the Expert
- Sponsor Your Community
- The Charity Lunch & Learn
- Cross Promotion
- Revenue Share Programs
In this post we’re going to cover the final step, which is Revenue Share Programs.
Well this is it the end of our journey, the easy part.
At this stage you now have a great mutually beneficial, lasting relationship with likely some of the best of the best practitioners in your community. You’ve established yourself with them by showing them real value. If your community is like mine you’ve likely taught them all kinds of new concepts towards the whole approach of attracting customers, these are all good things.
With your strong relationship in place it now makes perfect sense to directly ask them to promote you, but we’re still going to do it in a fashion that’s win-win.
Create an exclusive service package for them. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel to do this just simply re-package and re-name a trial service or group of services you’ve used in the past for client attraction.
I recommend developing some sales materials to go with, perhaps a nice sales letter, a plastic card that can be sold or a combination of both.
Create a program that appeals to their customer, validates the practitioner and ties your relationship to them as the greater good of a mutual passion to help people. The goal is to make a product they are proud to promote and one that will surely yield easy sales.
The offer that comes to mind is the one I mentioned in a previous segment of this process. We created a (name) Chiropractic & Wellness Fitness Assessment. This included two appointments where we completed a variety of assessments, compiled the results and demonstrated individualization through a one-on-one workout. In addition we offered Infrared Therapy sessions as bonus value and the best part was the programming was always developed based on recommendations from the practitioner to ensure there was a high degree of overlap and reinforcement.
In this situation rather than sharing the revenue we just gave it all too them, this allowed them to sell more than $1000 in 24 hours and generated more than 20 leads for us.
Once in place these programs take no effort on your part the business can keep selling the product you keep validating them and supplying the service. Imagine if 10 different businesses we’re doing this for you? If they only produced 1-2 leads a month even that would be an average of 3-5 new prospects for you every single week.
It shouldn’t take much to see why Strategic Partnerships should be a foundation element of your business. Start every quarter with a list of 15 and work through all the steps with all those that will respond, if by step 5 you’re developing just 1 new revenue share program each quarter it will still be easily worth the investment.
Best part, after completing this process train a member of your team to do it and pass it off.
by cabelmcelderry | Feb 26, 2013 | Personal Trainer Marketing, Personal Training Business Tips, Selling Personal Training
Over these next few weeks I’ll be posting this entire series detailing my strategies on effectively developing strategic partnerships in your community.
I believe that developing strategic partnerships is one of the fastest and most cost effective ways of building your business. It should be one of the foundation elements that receive continual focus with direct goals in every quarter.
Now one of the big problems with strategic partnerships is that local businesses are constantly approached or solicited by others to do things, display things or post things that help other people grow their business. For the business being approached this generally just takes up valuable space and is a waste of time with little to no reciprocal benefit which is why so many businesses won’t talk to you or have a standard practice of saying no.
Here are my five steps to overcoming this. Go with a giving hand and deliver real value that leads to mutually beneficial relationships.
- Interview the Expert
- Sponsor Your Community
- The Charity Lunch & Learn
- Cross Promotion
- Revenue Share Programs
In this post we’re going to cover the third step, which is the Charity Lunch & Learn.
Ok this step is really critical and is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to organizations that can bring groups of 10-20 or more people together.
Every business in the community quickly realizes that part of their brand or community perception will be as a result of charitable contributions or their efforts to give back to the community. This is especially true in smaller markets like mine.
You know have a budding relationship with some great strategic partners. This time I suggest you contact them and attempt to learn what charitable organizations they like to support. Once this information is know suggest to provide your time and knowledge in the form of a charitable event that both your and their audience could attend. It’s always better to encourage this even be held at their location (if that’s at all viable) to ensure they see how they would be getting the maximum benefit.
Essentially you want to give them a reason (and preferably all the done for you tools) to promote this event internally. As the sheer virtue that they are hosting a charitable event lends to their brand, credibility and reputation in the community.
People will attend the event for just a donation. Your job is to deliver highly valuable content, information that they might use and take away immediately. I suggest nutritional lectures with easy recommendations to immediately implement tomorrow; or home or office workouts with demonstrations and the reason why it’s important.
What you’re not going to provide is handouts.
Always educate, and in truth we all need to make an attempt to be more eco-friendly. You must never attempt to sell your services at an event like this. Instead your goal is to make it easy for people to want to receive more CONTENT from you, not necessarily information about your services (that comes later.)
Sure some will immediately ask and of course treat these like the warm leads that they are but your primary mission is to educate and most importantly leave people wanting to opt-in.
Leave a clipboard and a pen at the back of the room when you conclude your only offer should be things like electronic handouts or the promise of a bundle of more great content if people will leave you their name and email. Your goal is to leave with contact info of at least 65-70% of your audience.
These people are now part of your marketing funnel and you can directly warm them up to qualified leads that become customers. In two such events last fall I had a combined audience of about 65 people over the two events and this lead to well over $30,000 in new programs within out studio in just the days that followed the events.
In the format of the charity lunch and learn you majorly enhance your relationship with your strategic partner, value to them, you and your audience and ultimately position yourself for a stream of warm leads (and grow you contact list.)
Speaking engagements are incredibly powerful in this format they can be a game changer for your business.
Next time we’ll talk about finally establishing direct cross promotion.
