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

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.

Personal Training Business Success. A Post By Pat Rigsby.

By now you may know that Nick and I, along with Brian Grasso and Sara Nylander, launched a youth fitness & athletic development franchise called Athletic Revolution.

We’ve been very deliberate with our expansion (we have 7 locations so far) because we are committed to building the premier youth fitness & athletic development franchise in the world – and we can’t do that haphazardly

Because we spend a lot of time focusing on building Athletic Revolution the right way, we put a lot of thought into what goes into a successful fitness and personal training businesses. While I can’t share the details of everything we’ve uncovered as some of it is proprietary and exclusive to AR franchisees – I can share the key components that go into any successful personal training business.

To build a successful personal training business, you need:

1. A training system. If you don’t have a training system you’re not going to be able to build and maintain a successful business. Ever wonder why no one else talks about that? I do.

Kind of like telling someone to market the heck out of a restaurant – but who cares if the food sucks.

2. You need operational systems. No operational  systems mean that you’d better plan on running your personal training business, camp or facility until you’re 80.

No vacations, no sick days – no expansion.

If you want to ever grow beyond trading time for dollars – operational systems are a must.

3. Fitness Marketing & Sales Systems.  This is the one that gets the most attention from everyone else, but without the other two – it can’t create a successful personal training business.

But if you have the foundation of the other two in place – the right marketing and fitness sales systems are what propel you to a 6 or 7 figure business. The reason you’ve not seen tons of marketing for Athletic Revolution yet is that we are committed to making sure that #1 and #2 are just as ready to handle 70 or 700 franchisees as they are 7.

Honestly, most people don’t do things that way.

Lots of sizzle – not so much steak.

Heck, we had to fire some ‘advisors’ of ours because they were entirely focused on #3.

To heck with #1 and #2.

But I *promise* you…if you slight training and operations you’ll be looking for the next fad or new get rich scheme before long and the trainers that mastered the ‘trifecta’ will be thriving.

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.

Fitness Sales Secrets. By Pat Rigsby.

Recently I’ve been getting a number of questions regarding fitness sales, so the follow up on my recent blog post sharing 3 sales tips I wanted to go ahead and share a small sales manual that I provided to our training staff. You can download it below (click on the image or the link):

Click Here to Download

Enjoy the manual and be sure to tell me all about those deals that your closing!

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.

Fitness Sales. A post by Pat Rigsby.

Fitness sales for personal training, bootcamps, youth fitness programs or even health club memberships – that’s the foundation of your business.

No sale – no client, camper or member.

But most fitness pros I know hate selling.  But that’s only because they’re not comfortable with it yet.

Here are three tips to change that and make closing sales much, much easier.

Fitness Sales Key #1 – Everything Leads To A Sale

Sometimes I have to remind the trainers we work with that while sending press releases, getting on TV, making blog posts, writing articles, creating product and all the rest are great…they’re all just a means to lead to you selling something.

See, sometimes we have to keep our eyes on the prize. If you don’t have enough clients or campers are you waiting for something to happen…or are you making it happen.

When Holly & I were living in the basement while we were getting our training business and health club ramped up – I was laser focused on selling training. I didn’t leave the gym without getting two new clients.  It meant some late nights, like they say – if the want is strong enough you’ll find a way.

Even before that, when I was first running a training department in a Gold’s Gym, the company had a bonus of $250 if you sold 12 deals in a pay period.  My goal every pay period was 36 deals and I considered that $750 part of my regular income. I knew I needed 3 deals a day to make it happen – and was relentless on getting my 3.

So keep doing all those things…

Keep blogging, sending press releases, writing articles and the rest. But don’t lose sight of the fact that selling is what pays the bills.

Fitness Sales Key #2 – Proper Framing Leads To Bigger Sales

Want an easy way to selling bigger deals? It’s two simple steps, but I’m not sure you’ll believe me if I tell you.

Here goes:

Step 1: Offer no more than 3 potential options to a prospect. Something like this:

1 Session Per Week

2 Sessions Per Week

3 Sessions Per Week

It could be 2, 3 and 4 or 3, 4 and 5…makes no difference to me. You know what you’re currently selling. Just reduce it to 3 options.

Step 2: If you’re most popular program is 2 sessions per week but you want to sell more 3 session per week packages, add a package bigger than that to your price sheet.

If you already have:

1 Session Per Week

2 Sessions Per Week

3 Sessions Per Week

Then switch to offering:

2 Sessions Per Week

3 Sessions Per Week

4 Sessions Per Week

You’ll immediately sell more 3 session per week programs. It’s all simple psychology.  Too many choices have been proven to cause indecision and high priced offerings make offerings priced lower seem more reasonable.

That’s it…two easy steps to more sales bigger packages and programs sold.

Fitness Sales Key #3 – Sell Something

Get small commitments first.

There was a time in my personal training career that I’d average three closed sales a day.

Unfortunately many trainers don’t do 3 a month.

But the trick was to close the ones that weren’t ready to commit to bigger programs on something.

Or, if I was doing a speaking engagement, close the attendees on something small. Get a ‘yes’ first.

Once someone has invested a little with you it’s much, much easier to get them to invest more.

But only if you deliver great service during that initial purchase. So if you’re having trouble getting people to enroll in ‘big ticket’ programs, get them to at least invest in something small first.

Then after you’ve built a little more rapport and have delivered great service and value, present your bigger offerings.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how little resistance you get then.

I hope this helped you get a little more confident and comfortable with fitness sales. If it did, leave me a comment below and let me know.

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.