Gyms and health clubs can be a competitive environment and a tough place to stand out as a personal trainer. However, there's often one or two trainers with a waiting list of clients who can pretty much charge what they want.
This message focuses on 7 things you can do to become that trainer.
1) Go on Great Courses
Doing a lot of high level training courses increase your knowledge and skill level to a degree that separates you from other trainers very quickly.
In any form of business having an incredible product is very valuable. As a trainer the quality and value of your product (you!), and the results you can get for your clients, goes up with every great course you do.
Some great higher level course providers worth considering are:
NASM
Precision Nutrition
Mac Nutrition University
Poliquin
CHEK
UKSCA
NSCA
Anatomy in Motion
Z-Health
I'm sure there are many other fantastic higher level courses out there as well, do your research, find the ones that teach what you want to learn and invest.
2) Be easy and fun to spend time with
If you train a client twice a week for an hour they probably spend more one on one time with you than anyone other than their partner. By being easy and fun to spend time with your clients not only get to train but enjoy their time with you as well.
Clients that enjoy seeing you will be more consistent, cancel less sessions and get better results.
If you get great results, have great knowledge and are fun to be with you will retain clients for years. This means you don't have to constantly worry about bringing in new clients week after week.
3) Get your Clients great Results
This one should be a given really but often isn't. Clients employ trainers to get a certain result and to keep it.
If you deliver great results time and time again you'll keep clients long term, and never have a problem collecting testimonials and bringing in new clients.
4) Give Clients what they want
In our industry course leaders are so persuasive that we get an almost cult like belief in new methods we learn. I think this has happened to every great trainer I know at some point in their career.
Every new methodology is a tool to get even better results but too often trainers forget the things they used before learning the latest new method.
The key is to always listen to what your client wants and use ALL of your knowledge and experience to come up with the best way to achieve that desired outcome.
After completing a number of Poliquin courses I once prescribed a female weight loss client almost all strength training. She got leaner but put on weight and gained inches around the thighs and bum. I banged on happily about the reduction in body fat% and increase in strength like it was the greatest results in the world and she rightfully fired me. It was a valuable lesson learned and she was the last client I ever lost.
Deliver the result your clients want, not the one you feel they should want.
5) Offer Hybrid Training
Hybrid training gives your clients a better service and better results. It gives you happy clients and a higher income. If you're looking for win win scenarios, hybrid training is a huge one.
6) Look the part
This one is often hotly debated in PT forums but the simple truth is this, you're a walking billboard for your skills and service. Make sure that billboard gives the right message.
Clients will always look at a PT and judge them on appearance, we can't change that fact. If you're in good shape you will get instant credibility as a trainer. If you look like you've never set foot in a gym before, clients will subconsciously ask themselves “if this PT can't get themselves in good shape, how can I expect them to help me do it?”.
This is not to say you can't be a great trainer if you're out of shape, some of the best trainers I've ever known had periods of being in horrible shape. My point is simply that clients and future clients will always judge a trainer on their appearance.
Make life easy for yourself, train hard, eat well, look good and become a walking advert for your own coaching.
7) Do Something Different to Attract Clients
Generally speaking all trainers in a gym offer the same packages and market themselves by hanging out on the gym floor. This is gym marketing 101 and can work for some. However, there are better ways to attract clients.
- Offer packages that the other trainers don't offer and publicise them wherever you can.
- Offer a results guarantee that nobody else can match.
- Write in your clubs newsletter offering nothing but great content and a tiny bit at the end saying, to work with me contact xxxxx
Put simply don't offer the same 10 pack of training sessions that every other trainer in the gym offers and do it in the same way they do. Do something a little different, make it results based, put your prices up a little, and watch how you stand out and attract people towards you.
If you have these other steps in place bear in mind that one way people naturally differentiate quality of service is on price.
So, be the best trainer, get the best results and charge accordingly.
