You have covered alot of the problems with the fitness industry. I have been very successful, 1 because I love the industry and have always lead a healthy and fit lifestyle. And 2, I dont come off like Im trying to sell something. I tell my clients my goal is to show them how to exercise on their own and more importantly how to motivate themselves. Like your readers said overdeliver and educate your clients and they will stay loyal and will refer you.

Mike

If you keep it up it will overcome all the concerns people have that were caused by previous experiences.

Better yet – these people will be the ones to rave about your business once they know they can believe in you.

Thanks for this post.

Your point about ‘getting results’ is the most important issue all fitness professionals must deal with.

And it’s not just short term results that they should be concerned with either … Almost anyone can get an unfit, overweight person with a bad diet to lose weight and get stronger over a four to eight week time-span … But have they managed to help their clients maintain/improve their fitness a year later, three years later?

I’ve noticed fitness pros are fixated with goal setting and training logs for their clients … they say it’s important to measure results, keep yourself accountable etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong, I think goal-setting and training logs are important … but how many fitness pros show their clients THEIR OWN ‘logs’ related to their job performance …

How many of your clients have improved strength/gained muscle/lost fat over the last month, year, three years?
By how much?
What is your retention rate of clients of the last twelve months, three years?

I could go on with the list of important parameters, but you get the point …

I would bet that there are a lot of fitness pros who don’t even keep track of these kinds of parameters. And I would also bet that there wouldn’t be many with the guts to publicly show them, out of sheer embarrassment.

I used to be a martial arts instructor with around 70 clients in a small town. One of the (many) reasons I quit had to do with this very issue … my numbers weren’t good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I had some of the best numbers in the (national) organization, but that’s not saying much if the standard is crap. And my old organization’s standards were on par (or maybe even a little better) with the rest of the martial arts industry in my country.

Before I was a martial arts instructor I used to be a private music teacher. The way I went about things was WAY different …

I’d SCREEN clients. I only accepted clients who I believed had sufficient discipline and talent for me to work with. Then I’d provide a METHODICAL approach to learning their instrument. And finally, I’d INSPIRE my student through my lifestyle (I practiced diligently, performed/did studio work often and had a reasonably high skill-level for them to aspire to). They studied with me, they got better. NO EXCEPTIONS. The longer they studied with me, the better they got. I kept students for years, and had a very high retention rate (over 90%). Many went on to become successful performers, studio-musicians and/or music teachers.

This was NOT my experience in the fitness industry

I could go into details, looking at my own short-comings and the problems I had with the organization and the product itself. But I’ll spare you the gore Suffice to say, I didn’t get the kind of results I was used to … and given the specific restrictions I was working within, I couldn’t work out a way of getting them to the level I wanted … so I quit (actually, I got beaten up and thrown out before I could quit, but that’s another story all together)

Nowadays, I do a little private training, applying the same principles I used when I taught music … MUCH better numbers

I know my rant sounds very judgmental towards fitness pros. Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the pressures and stresses associated with the job—it’s a hard gig and I do respect those who do it … I just think too many fitness pros put any ‘failure’ at the foot of their clients whilst wear any ‘success’ like a crown. They can’t have it both ways. Fitness pros must take responsibility for the results they achieve (or don’t achieve). If a fitness pro can’t achieve results, they must either learn how, or get out. This isn’t just a business, it effects the very health and well-being of real people!

Cheers.

I also pre-qualify everyone. My pricing is everywhere and so are the benefits and advantages of training with me so by the time people call or schedule an assessment with me they are well aware of what they are about to agree on.

When they come in I just gather all the information I feel is crucial for me to get them the results they seek and they really sense that.
They understand that I am holding myself accountable to them by offering all of these great results and I show them exactly how to hold me to my word.

I absolutely love it when people come back and say “well just like you said, I am down 1.5% BF in 30 days!”.

That is why I am a trainer…….the challenge and the love of helping people succeed….not to sell memberships and training they will never use!

Very interesting responses. I agree with all the points mentioned. As a PT I have come across plenty of Gym Chain Prima Donnas. The problem with a lot of them is as already mentioned, lack of education. So they start out as a GI and progress to PT. Dependant on time frame you simply can’t buy experience. The whole body has to be taken into account, not broken down into sections as in the conventional medical approach to supposedely fixing the body.
I look at what my clients want to achieve and what is really stopping them from moving forward. Some may have had a traumatic experience, possibly going back years which they might not think of as significant.
As I mentioned in my last reply to this site, I do want to make money.
But that won’t come at the expense of delivering quality to my clients. I’m a great believer in referral as it’s better if my clients sing my praises than me singing them.
Lastly like life I see this service we provide as a lifelong learning experience, where we can educate the population as we become better educated ourselves thereby helping them lead a better more productive life.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. It’s certainly needed as quality needs to be recognised again at last instead of the pile them high and sel them cheap model.

Richie