A Post On Getting Referrals By Pat Rigsby

As fitness business owner we all want more referrals. They’re the easiest prospects to sell, they are more likely to refer others and they’ll stay longer and pay more while they’re clients.

Unfortunately, referrals aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be. In years gone by all you had to do was offer up a prize or reward and your current clients would line up to send you new clients for a chance to win what you were offering or a crisp $50 bill.

It’s not quite that easy any more.

You can still be a referral driven business, but you need to set the stage to make that happen. Here’s a primer to get you started.

Referrals can be broken down into two categories:

1. Incentivized
2. Inspired

Inspired Referrals are the Viral payoff for giving your clients an extraordinary experience.

Inspired Referrals will come by making sure you and your team treats everyone like close personal friends, you deliver the results the client initially came to you for and make your clients feel like your facility is their home away from home.

In fact, a training business that excels in those areas alone can build a great client base with a fraction of the marketing cost typically associated with business growth.

Incentivized Referrals, however, can give your business a great boost too, especially as you’re still positioning yourself as the premier training solution in your community.

But in general, you can’t expert to build a business solely from incentivized referrals.

Unfortunately, most of the talk about referral marketing only focuses on incentivized referrals and the short-lived fireworks they can provide.

Don’t get caught up in the hype and think that alone will carry you.

So remember, the first thing you should do is focus on Extraordinary Service, and Client Experience. Once you are in a process of gradually improving those things, then add in Incentivized Referral programs in any of the following ways:

1. Point of Sale Referrals
2. Contests
3. Rewards
4. Gift Certificates / Gift Cards
5. Bring-a-Friend

Just remember that when you “bribe” your clients (let’s be honest, that’s what you’re doing here), you need to help make the experience fun for your clients and those that they refer. Referring shouldn’t be your clients pitching or hard selling your business. It should be education, shared positive experiences and an opportunity to experience what you do with as little risk as possible.

So that’s it – a simple formula for Referrals Made Easy that will send you new business month after month.

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A Post on Personal Training Sales By Pat Rigsby

For the typical entrepreneurial personal trainer sales is a hot topic. 

They want to know how to sell more. 

How to close more deals.

But in my mind, this view is a small part of a much bigger picture.

The Client Value Capture picture.

So I wanted to explain my take on Client Value Capture and how it can explode your personal training sales.

Client Value Capture – Level One

At Level One, we’re simply talking about maximizing the value of the standard personal training client program.

We can do this by:

Raising Rates – Raising rates is something that most personal trainers are afraid to do, but it’s one of the best ways available to maximize personal training sales. 

My suggestion is that you should raise rates each year, typically by an amount that will not cause you or the client much if any stress.  You could easily raise rates $1-2 dollars per group training session or $3-5 per semi-private or private training session with little if any backlash.

Let’s look at the simple math…If you raise group training sessions by just $1 per session and you have 100 clients that train 3 days per week (12 sessions per month), you’ve made an additional $1200 per month.  $14,400 per year.

Did you ever consider pricing your programs with a .99 at the end? 

Going from $179 to $179.99 per month for 100 clients will add almost $1200 to your yearly bottom line.  Maybe enough to pay for your client management system by simply adding .99.

Better Retention – Getting people to stick around longer.  If your typical client stays for 6 months, but through improved retention you can get them to stay for 9 months, you’ve increased the client value capture by 50%.

You can do this by:

• Enrolling clients in longer programs from day one.  Getting them to sign up for 6 months or 12 instead of 3 months or on month to month agreements.
• Upgrading clients as early as possible.  Magazines don’t wait until the end of a subscription to renew someone and neither should you.  Start asking for an upgrade after the client has been in the program for a few weeks and can start to really recognize the benefits of your service.
• Provide a Great Experience.  If you’re clients are delighted (not just satisfied) with what you offer – they’ll stay longer.

Reactivation – If someone leaves you, you should have the mindset that they’re going on vacation – not breaking up with you.  So with this mindset you:

• Make sure they leave happy.  Give them a gift (sounds crazy, right?) when they say they’re leaving.  Why?  Because you want their most recent memory of you to be positive and because no one else would ever do it.
• Stay in contact.  Keep them on your newsletter list and follow up with them periodically to make sure they know you care about their success.
• Win them back.  Make really strong offers at least a couple times per year that will win them back.  They may have left for reasons beyond your control – finances, schedule, etc.  If that’s the case, reactivation offers will often get them back in the door.

Client Value Capture – Level Two

At Level Two, you want to capture a bigger share of your clients’ investment in improving their health and fitness.

Level Two is an area that most fitness pros miss – and this really puts a glass ceiling on their personal training sales.

Here are some ideas as to how you can capture more of your clients’ investment in their health and fitness.

• Offer a Done For You Nutrition Solution – Your clients are eating.  That I’m pretty sure of.  So offer them something like Personal Trainer Foods where you can capture some of the investment they’re making in supportive nutrition. 
• Offer Nutrition Education - Clients know (at least most of them) that exercise alone won’t get them to their goals.  They’re likely buying diet books and trying to figure things out on their own.  They may even join something like Weight Watchers.  Offer a Nutrition Coaching or Weight Management program that educates them on supportive nutrition rather than letting them try to sift through the overwhelming amount of information out there.
• Sell Supplements – They’re buying supplements whether they’ve told you or not.  So choose some that you believe in (we recommend Prograde) and capture some of the investment they’re making and save them from buying things based on hype and sizzle.
• Sell Equipment - If you talk about the importance of foam rolling, they’ll buy one.  Better they buy it from you than from a local sporting goods store.  If they get the kettlebell bug or fall in love with bands – they’re going to buy some for home.   Let them buy through you.  Plus – you can offer workshops to help them derive more value from these tools – another way to capture value.
• Serve Their Family - If they have a child that is enrolled in a youth fitness or sports performance program – is it with you?  They already know you, like you and see you as an expert…so why shouldn’t it be?

Client Value Capture – Level Three

Now the goal is to capture more of the market.  This means capturing more leads, having more front end offers and a broader array of programs.

Here are some examples:

:: Getting More Leads – If you do private or semi-private training as your primary offering, you need to be getting a minimum of 20 leads per month.  If you do more bootcamp / group training, you need to be getting a minimum of 30 leads per month.  If you’re not hitting this number then you’ve already made it tough to reach your personal training sales goals.

If you aren’t hitting those numbers consider:

• Stepping up your referral systems
• Contacting your network more regularly and working to grow it
• Employing more external lead generation strategies like public speaking or direct mail.

:: Expanding Your Offerings – If you’re all bootcamps, considering adding semi-private.  If you don’t offer weight management, tap into the Weight Watchers market and offer that program.  Look into Corporate Programming or Youth Programming.  Offer some niched programs for moms or some other group.  Create some programs for people trying to derive a specific benefit. 

There are people currently in your area who are:

• Using P90X
• Going to a big box health club
• Using a different trainer
• Participating in a corporate driven program
• Working out at home on their own
• Dieting
• Thinking about getting started

How can you win some of them?

And to make sure I’m not confusing you – this doesn’t mean that you should do all of these things – just pick one or two crowds to go after.

So there’s a different way to look at improving personal training sales.  A way of thinking about things that I’m guessing is a little different than what you’re used to.  So start looking at ways that you can increase your Client Value Capture and watch your personal training sales go through the roof.

Tell me what you think below…

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

A Post On Fitness Business Income Generation By Pat Rigsby

Since I’ve been on the business coaching and franchising side of things for fitness business owners, nothing has surprised me more than the number of business owners who fail to maximize the value of their personal network and their client base.

This is amazing to me because those same fitness business owners will spend piles of money to market to people that they have no prior relationship with.

The truth is, the biggest opportunity for an influx of income into your fitness business is right in your own database. When you make an offer to members of your personal network or existing and past clients, it’s not only easier to sell them something (versus new prospects off the street), but your business actually become more profitable because you don’t have nearly the cost of client acquisition.

The other benefit to this is that it really is providing a better, more complete solution for your existing clients and it’s helping those people in your network achieve their health and fitness goals.

A true win – win.

Your Fitness Business Database

What do you need to get started generating a surge of income for your business?

First, you need to create your Master Networking List.  This is a database of everyone in your area that you know.  You can start developing it by creating a spreadsheet and list the following people:

• Everyone in your cell phone that is local.
• Everyone in your email address book that is local.
• Everyone on Facebook that you actually know and lives locally.
• All of your clients, former clients and prospects.

List everything you know about them.  If you have any of the following, list it:

• Email
• Phone
• Occupation
• Birthday
• Address
• Hobbies / Organizations / Interests

Once you have this list started – and understand now that it’s never finished as you’ll be adding people each and every week (won’t you?) – here’s the next step…

Fitness Business Income Booster #1 – The Master Network Push

For all the members of your network – friends, family members, neighbors and more – you need to start reaching out and personally inviting them in to experience what you have to offer.

This is an easy one – but I’d bet it goes overlooked 98% by fitness pros trying to grow their business.

Send a personal email or make a personal call and let them know what you offer and invite them in for 2 weeks worth of free training. Here’s what will happen.

• Some won’t respond.
• Some will be polite, but they won’t be interested.
• Some will take you up on your offer and come in to try out your programs.
• A few will really be excited about your offer and become your biggest advocates.

Assuming that this list is a minimum of 150 people (except in rare circumstances, if the list is less than 150 people – you’re not trying), then you should be able to get through it in about 6-8 weeks if you’re contacting at least 3 people per day.

The added bonus to all this is that you’ll find doors opening for you based on this outreach.  Your friends will know people that can get you public speaking opportunities, PR opportunities and any number of other things.

Treat your Master Network like gold and focus on growing it – you may find that along with the referrals from your existing clients – that’s all you need to get the number of leads you want for your business.

Fitness Business Income Booster #2 – The Reactivation Campaign

You’d be surprised by how many past clients have no idea why they stopped using your services.  Or maybe they do know – but their reason for leaving was temporary. All they need is a reminder of why they liked working with you…and perhaps a special incentive to come back.

What could you do to reactivate past clients?

You could start with a simple email or personal card with copy something like this:

What else works well for reactivating past clients?

• A phone call from you the owner. People want to be treated like VIPs.  Make them feel appreciated and give them a special offer to come back.
• Invite them back to special client appreciation events. Make them feel like they’re still part of the community.
• Invite them to enroll in one of your Transformation Contests or attend a Charity Workout.  These are relatively small commitments compared to a longer term membership and might be just what they need to come back on board.

Fitness Business Income Booster #3 – The Triple Threat

The next Income Booster is a favorite of mine called the Triple Threat Money Maker.  It’s something we’ve used in our businesses – both training businesses and online businesses actually – and always enjoyed great success.

And the best part is that the Triple Threat Money Maker is super simple to execute – so you have no excuse not to put it into action asap.

Here’s What You Have To Do:

Step 1: The foundation of the Triple Threat Money Maker is raising your program rates.  You should be raising your rates periodically and there is no better time to do this than now as most fitness pros don’t raise their rates often enough. A rate increase of 5% is very reasonable – even conservative for group training or bootcamps.  For 1 on 1 or semi-private, adding $3-5 per session is easy and will virtually never be met with even a hint of a complaint.

Step 2: Notify your current clients that the rates will be increasing on the first of next month by whatever amount you determined was right – however, they can lock in at their current rate by committing to a 12 month membership (6 months is fine too if you’re only selling month to month memberships now).

Step 3: Contact all of your former clients in your fitness business and your prospects, and tell them about the upcoming rate increase.  Let them know that they can lock in at the current rates if they enroll in a 12 month program before the year’s end.

That’s it.

Well, that’s not exactly it…here are some details that we’ve used to make this work like crazy:

• Use a variety of means to contact your clients.  For our clients, we’ve sent letters and emails as well as making personal calls and in person notifications.  We wanted to make sure that all of their questions were answered and they were not only willing to make the long term commitment – but they were excited about it as they felt like they were getting a great deal.
• We used the same type of approach for former clients and unconverted prospects.   We sent letters, emails and made phone calls.  We’ve also even used voice broadcasts to remind people on the final day of the offer.
• It’s always worked best when we’ve intensified the push during the final days of the offer leading up to the deadline.  People are procrastinators so we always make sure that we hit everyone with a call during the final 48 hours and at least one email the last day.

With this approach you’re personal training business is going to make more money in 3 different ways and none of it is a short term boost:

• You’re going to get current clients to commit for 12 more months – which is longer than the membership lifespan of the average bootcamper.
• You’re going to get a surge of former clients and unconverted leads who don’t want to miss out on the deal – and they’re all committing for a 12 month term too.
• All your new clients – and the current ones that don’t want to commit – will be paying you more each month.

Not to mention that when you get the new surge of business you’ll have more people to get referrals from and make back end offers too…

So there you go – the Tripe Threat Money Maker – Income Booster #3.

Fitness Business Income Booster #4 – The Complete Solution

Offering upsells and back end sales to your current clients is simply trying to provide a more complete solution for the people you serve.  Whether that is giving them an opportunity to buy bands so they can workout on the road or offering them supplements (we recommend Prograde to address some of their nutritional needs – you’re simply better assisting them to achieve the goals that led them to you in the first place).

Nutrition is an easy solution to add on as it’s usually the biggest challenge you face when trying to keep your clients compliant.  The best solution we’ve found that you can add into your business to address making eating supportively easy for your clients is Personal Trainer Foods.

For you it’s great because it doesn’t require a significant investment of time or money and it doesn’t require any inventory.

For your clients it’s equally great as it addresses portion control and convenience – two big nutritional challenges to getting clients achieve their goals.

So with that, here’s how you can integrate Personal Trainer Foods as an upsell and a back end offer into your business.

Step 1: Enroll In The Program – To start offering this solution to your clients you need to enroll in the program so you can start selling products to your clients and receiving a commission for those sales.  If you want to enroll in Personal Trainer Foods program at no charge, you can do that here:

https://www.personaltrainerfood.com/signup.html

Step 2: Decide How You Will Promote The Products – We set up a few different systems to promote products to our clients.  We had structured offers at:

The Initial Point Of Sale
Periodic Assessments or Meetings
Special Events

If you’re going to follow the same approach, at the point of sale you might educate them about the importance of eating supportively and introduce the solution.

During your assessments you can educate the client on what they might do to accelerate their progress and support what they were doing during their training.

You can use a simple script like this:

“Ms. Jones, you’d like to accelerate your progress, correct?

We both know that when you’re training with me you’re working hard, you’re getting stronger and you’re steadily improving.

What that tells me is that it’s what you’re doing outside the gym / camp that seems to be holding you back.  I know that you’ve told me that you seem to struggle with eating supportively on a consistent basis breakfast, so what I suggest is that you try a nutrition program that a number of our clients have had great success with called Personal Trainer Foods.

This will ensure that you are getting the right portions of protein and produce in a convenient fashion and you’re getting even better results from all the hard work you’re putting in. How’s that sound?”

Step 3: Executing The Plan Every Time – This is the one that most people miss.  So many trainers say that they’re going to make back end sales to their clients – but most never do.
You have to build these processes into your business.  If you can build foam rolling into your training sessions, you can build a simple sales script into a meeting or assessment.

Step 4: Making It Part Of The Culture – For our Wall of Fame and Testimonial books, we not only posted the successes of the client (Ms. Jones lost 27 lbs and dropped 2 dress sizes), but we also shared how frequently they were meeting with their trainer or what program they were in and we shared what ancillary offerings they were using.

You can do things like that when you highlight your client or camper of the week / month, provide the solutions they are using as handouts or in newsletters and have links to your store in every newsletter, on your website and anywhere else you’re share online information.

A few other tips for more Back End Sales:

• Make it easy to buy.  Keep your laptop around so you can help the client make their initial order – or, if you can’t do that, keep initial order forms handy and process the initial order for your clients.
• Educate your clients.  Provide them with articles, offer good content in newsletters and educate them on the benefits of everything you do or endorse.
• Practice what you preach.  It’s much easier to endorse something you believe in enough to use yourself.
• Only sell what you really believe in.  I’d never tell you to sell something that you’re not 100% behind, so do your homework and pick the products you truly believe will help your clients.

There are 4 Income Boosters for your Fitness Business.

Start down the list and start generating more cash for your fitness business today.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

Here’s something for you to think about with your personal training sales.

The Front End: the amount of money someone spends with you on their first transaction.

Back End: the amount of money they spend with you over their lifetime as a client.

Which is larger? The back end.

But which does the typical fitness professional focus most of their efforts on?  The front end.  Big mistake.

If you want to build your business to that $20,000 or more per month level, there must be a focus on building the back end.

As you know by now from reading this blog, there are only three ways you can possibly grow your business.

1. More Clients – You get more clients.
2. More Often – You get them to see you more frequently or for a longer period of time.
3. More Money – You get them to spend more each month with you.

That’s really it.

Now – out of those three – where do you think 90% of fitness pros spend their time?

More clients.

Most fitness pros just touch on #2 a little and almost completely ignore #3. To their detriment.

If you’re a brand new business – by necessity you need to focus on getting clients. But if you already have an established client base – I encourage you to consider shifting an increasing portion of your time and energy to getting them to come back More Often and spend More Money.

One of the first things you want to look at doing is to take care of the people already on your list. Before you go to find new clients and use personal training sales techniques, let’s think about how you can start generating more from your own list.

Here are some ideas for that:

• With your current clients, start including an offer in every newsletter you send out.  Prograde, Meal Movement, Nutrition Coaching, Upgrades to their own program, etc. If you are sending out newsletters every 2 weeks, that’s 26 opportunities to soft sell to your list.
• Make sure that your clients get special deals. That may be a discount, a special bonus, it might be that they get first pick or ‘dibs’ on an offer you’re about to release to the public. You might invite them to private ‘client only events’ or to be part of a pilot group for a new program.  Make them feel special and they’ll spend more.
• Find ways to get more from Deal of the Day leads.  We had a really successful fitness pro disappointed that he ‘only’ got 175 buyers on a recent Groupon promo.  (I’d have killed for 175 leads in a month at any time… Groupon spoils us.)

Instead of wondering how to get more than 175 leads, maybe the better question is how to get more than the initial $29 from those trial clients.  Maybe he closes 20% and get’s 35 new long-term clients.  That leaves 140 to try to get something more out of.  Is there a $99 fitness coaching program that he can sell half of them?  If so, that’s an additional $7000 and more opportunity to build value in his expertise and make them more offers.

• If you have a list of your former clients, reactivate them.  Run your own in house ‘Groupon’ deal and offer $29 for a month to all your former clients… except you get to keep all the money. If you spend $100 to send postcards to your former clients there is zero chance you won’t more than make your investment back.

• Make point-of sale offers.  Offer something like an upgrade, Meal Movement or Prograde at the point of sale and you’ll get at least 20% of your new clients to spend more money.

• Get clients to commit for longer terms.  Someone committing to 12 months at $200 per month are worth a guaranteed $2400.  Drastically different than someone only on a month-to-month membership at that same $200.

• Create workshops that will better educate your clients on things you can’t cover in detail during typical sessions.  A percentage of you clients will always want more and are willing to pay for it.

• Develop an accountability group.  It’s basically a Mastermind Group for your top clients.  Offer more access to you and some content that is beyond what you typically cover in their training sessions and you’ll easily fill up a group.

• Create personal training sales bundles.  Bundles your training with stuff like Meal Movement and Prograde and offer a complete fat loss system.
• Continually offer things that are complimentary to your core programs to your current clients. Anything that will help them reach their goals faster and more easily are great additions that your clients will buy.
• Communicate outside of sessions frequently.  The stronger your relationships are with your clients the more likely they will be to invest in the new things you offer.

Generating more personal training sales isn’t all about get more leads.  Once someone has already become part of your business family they’re predisposed to leaning on you for more of their health and fitness needs.  It’s just up to you to make the offer.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

A Guest Post By Paul Reddick

Last month I spoke at Uncle Mike Stehle’s certification at The World Famous Training Room in Avon, NJ. It’s always an awesome event.

But something strange happens every time I speak about business with fitness professionals.  It’s what I call fitness malpractice.

There seems to be a big old road block when it comes to selling.

Most trainers have a problem selling more services to their clients cause they didn’t want to appear to be a “salesman” or looking like all you care about is the money.

So I posed this question to the group…

What would someone need in order to lose 50lbs.?

We made a list on the whiteboard. The list looked something like this:

1. Education about the reality of the process
2. Eating plans
3. Workout plans
4. Support
5. Updated eating plans
6. One on one training to get started

and I’m sure there’s probably a dozen more things you could add.

This is what all the trainers agreed their clients would NEED in order to lose the weight.

So, I ask you this:

Are you selling your clients all of this?

Are you just selling them workouts when you as an expert know that’s now enough.

You are doing your clients a major disservice by not providing them what you, as an expert, knows they need to achieve their goal.

What if you broke your leg and the doctor who set the leg said “We just set the leg. You can go to a cast guy to get a cast and then find a PT to rehab, then let me know how it goes.”

That would be fitness malpractice

You would want the doctor to provide you everything that you need.

Not providing your clients with everything they need to achieve their goal is fitness malpractice.

The definition of client is: One that depends on the protection of another.

The other day someone asked me what the top 10 traits of a successful fitness professional are. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to answer. There are so many things that go into being a top flight personal trainer – I had trouble narrowing it to 10. Below is what I came up with – but I’d really like to hear your thoughts. So review my Top 10 and then let me know what traits I missed in the comments area below.

1. Education: The fitness pro’s education is not only extremely important, but it should be continual. Great personal trainers and coaches keep learning because they have a passion for knowledge, are driven to help the people they work with and want to stay ahead of the competition.
2. Integrity: Integrity is vital for the fitness pro. Integrity is a concept of consistency of values, actions, methods, expectations, outcomes and principles. It’s sense of one’s truthfulness and honesty in relationship to one’s motives and actions. Without integrity you really don’t have anything.



3. Experience: There are many factors that go into developing a great program for clients. The more experience you have, the more effective you’ll be in developing a program and an environment that maximizes the likelihood of success for each and every client.
4. Teaching Skills: There are plenty of people out there that can get themselves in great shape and perhaps they have the knowledge necessary to be a top flight personal trainer or coach – but unless you can teach, it doesn’t matter.
5. Communication Skills: Good communication is good business in fitness or any other industry. Good communication skills are necessary throughout the entire process of bringing a client into your business and throughout the entire relationship.
6. Passionate: Great fitness pros must be passionate about who they work with and the service they provide. I truly believe that if you are coaching people or working in a business that you are not passionate about, it will show through in everything you do.



7. Organized: A successful fitness pro should be organized. They have to manage dozens of clients’ programs, but equally as important – they have to manage the same number of client relationships. Successful fitness pros also have to manage the operations side of the business, fitness marketing and all the other details that come with running a successful business.
8. Great Motivator: As a fitness pro, it’s your job to bring out the best in people. You have to get them to step out of their comfort zone on a regular basis. This only happens if you’re a great motivator.
9. Work Ethic: Having a strong work ethic turns average trainers into great trainers. Someone that is continually about to improve, get things done, exceed expectations, and push themselves, will always stand out from the crowd.
10. Enjoys Helping: Great trainers and coaches genuinely enjoy helping others. Gaining satisfaction out of helping others reach their goals is a trait that all great fitness pros have.

So there are 10. I’m sure that I missed some critical traits because a great fitness professional wears a lot of different hats and it requires a number of characteristics to be a truly great fitness professional.

So with that in mind, do me a favor and tell me what I missed – or share your Top 10 Traits below:

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

A Post On Personal Training Sales By Pat Rigsby

Sometimes becoming better at personal training sales is not about the presentation.  Sometimes it’s not about the offer.  Sometimes it’s about you.

When I first left coaching and took over running a personal training department, I didn’t instantly start closing deals at a high rate.

Actually, I was pretty pathetic at closing and only generated any sales at all by being willing to get in front of more people than anyone else did.

I remember that during my first pay period, my closing percentage was 12%.  Yep – 12%.

And honestly, it was just a mental thing with me.  My own personal hang ups about money.  I’d never made more than $30,000 in a year and the thought of someone investing $300 or $400 a month on personal training seemed pretty extreme to me.

I tried to sell in spite of this hang up – but I’m sure that it showed in the way that I presented our programs and in my lack of confidence.

But then after reading a couple sales books and going back through Think and Grow Rich, it finally hit me: selling should be easy.  You’re just helping people get what they want.    I was getting caught up on dollars, but I’d spent the previous 7 years convincing parents to spend tens of thousands of dollars to come play baseball under my guidance at a school they’d never even heard of before I started recruiting them.

If people really want something they’ll find a way to make it happen.

As soon as I got that through my head, personal training sales became easy.  I instantly went from a 12% closer to a 60-70% closer. Once I lost the head trash I was able to sell to anyone.  In fact, though I wouldn’t recommend them as your target market, I’ve sold training to people that were unemployed, cashiers at McDonalds and any number of other people that I’d have never guessed could or would be willing to invest in training.

But if people want something bad enough, they’ll often find a way.  So don’t let your hang ups about money prevent them from getting what they want.

Once you’ve gotten out of your own way when it comes to personal training sales, here are a few other tips that will help you sell more:

Have The Right Attitude. The first thing that you can do to separate yourself from the average fitness professional is to control your attitude. The attitude you project, both verbal and non-verbal, is a direct result of your beliefs and perceptions about your profession. If you think of yourself as a “Fitness Professional” instead of just a trainer, this will have a huge impact on the attitude you project.

Another element of attitude is how you perceive your prospective clients. Because you earn your income from the fees a client pays, over time you may stop thinking of prospects as human beings with needs and wants and start seeing them in terms of how many dollars their purchase will net for you.

Care About Your Prospects’ Goals. Remember – if someone takes the time to come in to an introductory session or do a trial at your bootcamp, they probably have at least some interest in buying.

Learning about what motivates them – what their goals are – provides the foundation for personal training sales success.

So in general, what motivates human behavior is actually quite basic – the desire to gain pleasure or avoid pain. As you go through the sales process, remember that you are not selling a workout, you are selling a better quality of life, a way to feel better. Seek to understand what changes in the prospect’s life would allow them to feel better and show them how your offerings can help them accomplish this.

Provide solutions.

Listen. If you want to be successful at personal training sales, talk half as much as you listen. This is because if you say it, they can doubt it … if they say it, it is true. An effective salesperson doesn’t tell people things – they ask questions. You need to develop a comfortable questioning style that allows you to maintain CONTROL while the prospective client makes the decision.

Use Open Ended Questions. Use open ended questions to get a prospect to open up and share their needs. Stack open ended questions together to really gain a clear understanding of how you can help someone.  Instead of settling for asking someone what their goals are and then how much weight they’d like to lose – go a step further and ask “Ms. Jones, tell me how weighing 30 lbs. more than you want to is affecting you?”

Once you asked the right questions and know the prospect’s needs – selling simply becomes matching the right solution you provide to their needs.

Know Your Numbers. One of the biggest mistakes that I see fitness professionals make is paying little if any attention to their closing percentage. They work hard on getting their website up and running. They send out postcards and hold seminars – all in the hopes of generating leads. But the real name of the game is turning those leads into high paying clients.

Do you know what percentage of prospects you convert into clients?

Don’t guess.

Do you know the exact number?

If you don’t – start tracking that TODAY! Only then can you test other approaches in your quest to close more prospects and know if the changes you made are paying off.

Define Your Uniqueness. You have to let prospects know EXACTLY why they should do business with you instead of the trainer at the big box club, do P90X, enroll in Weight Watchers or buy the Ab Circle. Saying you get results isn’t enough. Do you think your competitors say they don’t'?

Have Social Proof. If you have a facility, put up a ‘Wall of Fame.’ If you run a camp, make sure your website showcases your success stories. Use testimonials in your marketing so prospects are pre-sold. Help people feel confident that you are the solution to their problem(s) by showing them you were already the solution to other people problems that might have been similar.

Use a script. Once you find the best way to sell your service, why change it? You don’t necessarily have to say the same thing word for word – prospects are all different. But have a scripted format that you follow with a logical sequence of questions that get the prospect talking.

Shut Up. Let the prospect do 75% of the talking. Ask lots of open ended questions and let the prospect reveal their ‘pain’ to you.

Sell on Value. Not price. People want a good deal and to be treated fairly – but they don’t mind paying for results (you do get great results, right?) If you’re the cheapest alternative – raise your prices or look in the mirror and ask why you aren’t worth more. Once you recognize the value you deliver – then raise your prices.

Become an Expert. You don’t get many objections if you’re perceived as the pre-eminent expert in your niche – regardless of your rates. You can position yourself as an expert by doing more public speaking, writing more articles, releasing a book (even if it’s self published) or a DVD and doing more publicity work.

Dominate A Niche. Targeting a specific market pre-sells those people because you’re now their specialist and everyone generalist has to justify how they can serve the prospect as well as you can… and of course they can’t so you’re the obvious chose.

Focus on Referrals. Referrals are pre-sold on what you have to offer and usually provide little if any sales resistance.

Sell More to Your Existing Clients. If someone has already said yes once, they are far more likely to say yes again provided you haven’t given them a reason to do otherwise.

Personal Training Sales really shouldn’t be something you dislike.  It should actually be something you enjoy because it allows you to help more people and it allows you to grow your business.

Because of that, I’ve decided to put together everything I know about effective selling into a resource that is surely the most complete resource the fitness industry has ever seen when it comes to sales.

I’ve compiled all of the following into one package called Fitness Sales Formula:

Fitness Sales Formula Module #1: The BIG 5 Closing System

In Module #1you’ll be taken through the 5 Step Fitness Sales Formula Closing System.  This simple 5 step system will allow you to instantly build rapport with your prospects – then systematically determine their needs – those critical hot buttons that turn prospects into paying clients.  Then you’ll discover EXACTLY how to build MAXIMUM VALUE in your program so that when it comes time to ask for the sale every objection has been eliminated and your prospect is eager to say ‘YES.’

The BIG 5 Closing System will guide you every step of the way, guaranteeing that you never stumble and ensuring that every Sales Presentation is YOUR BEST PRESENTATION. And to make absolutely certain that you’re able to master the BIG 5 Closing System, I’ve broken each of the 5 steps down into separate presentations so you can grasp every little profit producing nuance.

Fitness Sales Formula Module #2: Eliminating Objections

In Module #2 you’ll discover the truth about objections and how you can eliminate them 98% of the time.  And in those rare instances you’re do encounter an objection, this module with teach you the Step-By-Step System for turning the occasional ‘I need to think about it’ or ‘ I need to speak with my spouse’ into an opportunity to build more value in your programs and connect with the prospect in a way that readies them to buy.

Fitness Sales Formula Module #3: Maximizing Sales

In Module #3 you’ll learn how to make the most from every selling opportunity.  You’ll discover things like:

• A simple technique that will instantly make you a 200% better closer – and you can start using it immediately!
• The right presentation format for maximizing every minute you spend meeting with prospects.
• The secret to selling bigger programs – and it’s easier than you think.
• One simple tactic that you can integrate into your presentations that will allow you to easily close 30% more sales.  This one thing allowed us to add $10,000 a month to our bottom line in our training business.
• And much, much more…

Fitness Sales Formula Module #4: Selling Through The Trial

Module #4 might just be the most valuable sales resource every presented to the fitness industry.  Right now, with so many bootcamps and group training based programs utilizing marketing tools like Free Trials, Low Cost Trials and Deal Of The Day sites, selling personal training has changed.  Getting prospects in the door with tactics like these might have gotten easier, but almost all fitness professionals are struggling to turn a respectable percentage of these Free or Low Cost Trials into long-term paying clients.

In this Module you’ll discover the first ever comprehensive system designed to close a MAXIMUM number of these Trials.  The 7 Step Trial Conversion System will be your blueprint for turning things like Deal of the Day promos into Game Changers for your business instead of just being what they are for most trainers – a overwhelming influx of low paying people that are gone within a couple of weeks leaving nothing other than anger from your current paying clients for watering down their experience with tire kickers.

Fitness Sales Formula Module #5: Sales Presentation Video Library

In Module #5 you get video examples of EVERY sales presentation you’ll ever need to build a multiple six or even seven figure fitness business. All you need to do is model the presentation you want to use and you’re ready to start closing sales. These videos will guide you every step of the way, so you never need to struggle again.

Just check out the 7 example presentations you will have at your disposal:

• Example One-On-One Sales Presentation
• Example Semi-Private Sales Presentation
• Example Bootcamp Sales Presentation
• Example Group Selling Presentation
• Example Referral Request Presentation
• Example Up Sell At The Point Of Sale Presentation
• Example Back End Sale Presentation

All you need to do is practice the presentation you plan to use a few times and you’re ready to start closing more sales!

Fitness Sales Formula Module #6: The Fitness Sales Toolbox

In Module #6 you’ll receive all the scripts and tools you need to execute the Fitness Sales Formula System.  Here are the tools you’ll receive:

Ready To Use Sales Scripts:

• One-On-One Sales Script
• Semi-Private Sales Script
• Bootcamp Sales Script
• Group Selling Script
• Referral Request Script
• Up Sell At The Point Of Sale Script
• Back End Sale Script

Ready To Use Sales Tools:

• FSF Prospect Questionnaire
• FSF Example Personal Training Agreement
• FSF Program Presentation Sheet
• FSF Sales Tracking Sheet

I’ll be launching Fitness Sales Formula tomorrow for $97 – $100 off the normal $197 price. You’ll learn how to convert Groupon & Living Social leads.  You’ll get exact scripts to use to close every type of leads from 1 on 1 to bootcamps.  You pretty much get everything you’ll ever need to know about selling training.

So be sure to check your email or come back here tomorrow to grab your copy of Fitness Sales Formula and take advantage of the huge $100 discount.

If you have comments or questions – let me know below:

Dedicated to your personal training sales success,

Pat

Right now there are probably just one or two things that you feel are standing between you and that multiple six-figure fitness business you’re building.

Well I’m here to help, so tell me what that thing or two you need help with is and I’ll do my best to help with it in an upcoming post or newsletter.

So do you want more help with:

• Offline fitness marketing
• Online fitness marketing
• Closing sales
• Running bootcamps or large groups
• Integrating semi-private or small groups
• Creating multiple streams of income
• Developing an infoproduct
• Opening a facility
• Public speaking
• Publicity
• Anything else…

Whatever you feel like you need help with – let me know. Just post it in the comments section below and I’ll add it to the content schedule.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

A Post On Fitness Business Insights By Pat Rigsby

Over the weekend I read a lot – and when I read I usually make notes. So here are 13 random insights – in no particular order – to help you improve your fitness business:

1. Success Habits happen through repetition, NOT all at once. If you do something like call members of your network on Monday, don’t skip Tuesday and Wednesday – then make a few more calls Thursday.

It will never happen on Thursday.

Better to make 2 calls a day every day and be consistent instead of 10 calls once a week.

2. Every week you should be spending at least 15 minutes just brainstorming how to make your business better. Write down what you come up with. If you can get 2% better each week, you’re 104% better in a year.

3. The question that you ALWAYS have to ask is “Am I getting the MOST impact out of EVERYTHING I do?”

4. Write down the 3 highest compliments you’d like to hear from each client… then figure out what you can do to start GETTING those compliments from every client.

5. Be sure to have the right definition of what you actually are. Don’t narrowly define yourself as just a personal trainer. What’s the real benefit the client wants? If you thought of yourself as ‘only’ a personal trainer that provided one on one sessions, when the market shifted to more group training, bootcamps and semi-private you probably got left behind.

It’s kind of like railroads at turn of the century. They saw themselves as being in the railroad business, NOT the transportation business. So when other transportation options became more popular they almost were driven out of business.

So maybe you’re in the Fat Loss business. Maybe it’s the Lifestyle Improvement business. How you get people where they want is simply the vehicle – and you should always be looking toimprove the vehicle.

6. The fastest way to grow your fitness business is to ACTIVELY PURSUE your ideal clients. It makes sense, but almost nobody does it.

7. You need to put a HUGE value on EVERY lead that comes in to your business. Every lead that comes in needs to be followed up with at least 3 more times. Phone calls, personal emails, cards – If you aren’t following up you’re THROWING AWAY a TON of business.

8. Lifetime value of a client is a HUGE concept. That’s why the Deal of the Day type sites like Groupon and Living Social can be so powerful. Maybe you break even for the first short term offer, but if you keep the clients for 6, 12 or maybe even 18 months – these can be a business changer.

9. We all do it in sports, but rarely in sales – are you training for your fitness sales presentation? If you’re not practicing every week you’re leaving money on the table.

10. A member is somebody who joins a program or facility to gain access to a service or certain resources. A client, on the other hand, is somebody who is under the care, guidance and protection of an expert in the field. Treat your people as clients.

11. Get some high visibility or high influence people (celebrities, local business owners/politicians, etc) to be your client – even if you have to give it to them for free. This is great social proof anytime you need to get your foot in the door with someone.

12. Remember, you’re the expert. It’s your fitness business. You know much better than your client what you can offer them, what they need if they’re going to reach their goals. If you just take their money and give them whatever they want, without educating them as to what they need to do or invest in to reach their goals, you’re not living up to your end of the bargain. Even if the things you recommend are things you don’t offer (yet), it’s your job to educate them and make sure they’re getting it, so they can reach their goals.

13. Multitasking is terrible for productivity. Try to do 5 things at once and you’ll do none of them well. Use my 25 minute time block strategy and focus on one thing for each block.

Pick out a couple and take action on them. And do me a favor and tell me which insight you thought was most valuable to your fitness business below…

Personal Training Profits. A post by Pat Rigsby

In general, people are willing to pay more for anything just to give in to their convenience.

The old Chinese Proverb goes like this:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

But most people don’t want to learn to fish.

They want you to catch the fish, clean it, cook it and serve it.

The more you do for them – the happier they are.

They don’t want to make decisions.  They are busy. They’re bombarded with information and choices, so the simpler you make it and the more you do for them – the better your business will be.

Done For You can be as small as Lunchables at the grocery store or as big as a franchise like Athletic Revolution.

But the one thing in common is that it’s designed to make things easier for the customer or client.

So how can you integrate Done For You into your personal training business for more profits?

Here are a few ideas:

Offer More Training Programs – My friend and Mentorship client offers a running club that his bootcampers can join (for a fee) on their non-camp days.  You could offer something like this or a different type of class that compliments your main program.  Another friend and coaching client, Bob McEnaney, increased his personal training profits by creating a group cycling program because he is an avid cyclist .  Group interval training is an easy option you could add.  Just pick something that your clients would be interested in and that compliments what they are already doing.

Offer A Kitchen Makeover – Instead of just educating clients on proper nutrition, charge a fee to go to a client’s home, clean out the kitchen and restock it with supportive food and supplements.  You’re eliminating all the guesswork for them and increasing the likelihood for their success.

Offer Meal Plans – This is the easiest of the bunch and can provide substantial back end profits.

You can sell or give (if you want to build it into your program to add value) clients something as simple as a 7-14 day cleanse-type program to get clients off on the right foot or something as elaborate as a complete meal plan collection for each month.

Imagine how much easier you’re making your client’s lives (and likelihood of getting great results) if you provide meal plans, recipes, shopping lists and their recommended supplement program.

In fact, that’s an easy way to make offering meal plans much more lucrative for you: build recommended supplementation into the meal plans. If you ever saw the recommended meal plans in the bestseller Body For Life, they integrated meal replacement shakes and various other supplements – not coincidentally all from the EAS product line.

Think it sold some product for them;)

If you offer Prograde this is a no brainer to increase your personal training profits.

Offer Information Products – This past week Holly launched her new Fit Yummy Mummy Transformation Kit, which is a follow-along collection of DVDs and other Done For You components designed to make following her Fit Yummy Mummy program as easy as possible.

The incredibly popular P90X program is another example of how well received follow along workouts are.  People don’t want to learn about the ‘whys’ – they just want to be told what to do.

You could offer something to your current clients or campers that compliments what they do with you – or you could do what Bootcamp Guru BJ Gaddour has done and develop a ‘Bootcamp To Go’ for the people that want to work with you but may not be able to afford the in-person offerings or might live to far away to participate.

Basically, there are a lot of different ingredients that go into your clients (and potential clients) fitness regimen.  The more of them that you can address with a Done For You solution the happier your clients will be – and the more they’ll be willing to pay.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.