gym's expectations for a PT

[drive805]

Applied at a gym for Personal Trainer. I have ISSA cert. The expecations they have seem unrealistic, record a minimum $5K in clients a month and a minumim of $300 in supplement sales, or you could be subject to dismissle. Does anyone think this is out of reach? I already work fulltime, so this is a part time venture to start!

[Mighty Matt]

Interesting, I've never worked for a gym that treats the trainers as sales reps. What gym is it? What more do you know about the job? Did they give you a packet of job information?

[BrooklynFit]

Applied at a gym for Personal Trainer. I have ISSA cert. The expecations they have seem unrealistic, record a minimum $5K in clients a month and a minumim of $300 in supplement sales, or you could be subject to dismissle. Does anyone think this is out of reach? I already work fulltime, so this is a part time venture to start!
As a starting point, they may be asking for a bit too much, especially if it's from a part-timer. But, you have to consider what the clientele is like there. You might be dealing with a lot of customer traffic and little staff, so factors like that may make the quota seem a bit more realistic.

Usually, most gyms give you a couple months to settle in before they start drilling numbers at you, so either way, good luck!

[KyleAaron]

Sounds like a dreadful place to work. If you want to work in sales, work in sales. If you want to be a PT, be a PT.

Yes, being a PT has some sales aspects. But $5,000 in packages and $300 in supplements is sales, not PTing. Especially the supplements.

Tell them to fck off, go to a community gym instead, like a YMCA.

[BrooklynFit]

Sounds like a dreadful place to work. If you want to work in sales, work in sales. If you want to be a PT, be a PT.

Yes, being a PT has some sales aspects. But $5,000 in packages and $300 in supplements is sales, not PTing. Especially the supplements.

Tell them to fck off, go to a community gym instead, like a YMCA.Exactly. On top of that, they take a percentage off of your hard earned sales? Give me a break. You're basically a personal trainer/sales manager/GNC employee.

[CPRinNY]

The gym where I work at part-time, not as employee but as an independent contractor, wants to start incorporating this as well for us trainers. I just get paid for sessions done and taxes don't get removed from my paycheck.

The quota is lower. Yet, it's disconcerting, since again, we are not actually employees. And on top of that, it's a gym that has new management and was shut down for a while after a co-owner ran off with members' money. So it has been hard to get people to sign up, when its previous history is very known.

I'm a new personal trainer, too, so I wasn't sure if this is the normal or not. But, reading the replies, it seems not.

[PerFit]

Exactly. On top of that, they take a percentage off of your hard earned sales?

uhh, yea. how else does the gym make money?

[drive805]

don't want to give name because i don't want to burn bridges just in case....few gyms in my area...
the info package says ... 35 hours a week, must work one sat or sun for 4 hours ,$5k in PT sales and $300 in supplement sales. You must walk gym floor and clean up as well as solicit possible clients....
that is only part of it, but it still sounds ridiculous. I'm going to try some gyms out of my area and hope they are more sensible.

[KyleAaron]

To be honest, if you could get $5,000 in sales a month on a regular basis, you should not be working for someone else, you should be self-employed.

I suspect this gym has a high turnover of staff.

[SerpentHearted]

don't want to give name because i don't want to burn bridges just in case....few gyms in my area...
the info package says ... 35 hours a week, must work one sat or sun for 4 hours ,$5k in PT sales and $300 in supplement sales. You must walk gym floor and clean up as well as solicit possible clients....
that is only part of it, but it still sounds ridiculous. I'm going to try some gyms out of my area and hope they are more sensible.

**** that. tell them to jam it.

[PerFit]

id ask the gym how many trainers actually meet that.

[Al Shades]

Sounds like a dreadful place to work. If you want to work in sales, work in sales. If you want to be a PT, be a PT.

When working with the general public, it isn't possible to divorce sales from training.

[KyleAaron]

Reminds me of when I went to a job interview and the PT team leader claimed that 7-8% of gym members were engaged in doing PT sessions. The gym had 4,000 members... at 1.5 sessions a week each, that meant basically 2,000 sessions a month. Yet I knew they did only 400.

Sometimes when gym managers talk to you about what their gym achieves, it's like when a new client or gym member talks to you about their diet. They say they're doing it now, but really they're talking about what they'd like to do.

[kneedragger85]

Sounds like 24 hr fitness. I work for them and I absolutely love it. Expectations have always been realistic and management will bend over backwards to help you succeed. (at the one I'm at)

If it is 24 hour you'll realize they throw business at you hand over fist initially. If you are good, you'll retain people. If you retain people you will hit your goals easily. Walking the floor "soliciting" is nothing more than meeting the members and gettting to know them and their goals. Everything you do in a gym like that is an audition...all eyes are on you. Be smart, work hard, get results and you'll be fine. As far as supps...I only sell what I use personally and don't miss my goals.

I have never heard of a club out there that doesn't expect you to sell training and supplements.

Can you make more as an independent? Heck yeah...if you have clients. There are two distinct sides of the fence in this forum. Some HATE corporate gyms...others, like me, actually love working for one for now. I'm early in my career and like the structure and security.

Mark

[McJimmie]

You must walk gym floor and clean up as well as solicit possible clients....

Tell them that is no problem, and tell them your hourly rate is the same as your hourly rate for PT

[drive805]

I will say, its a golds gym... getting clients isn't a problem i can sell myself pretty good and i know i'm a good trainer. I have a few people i can train but need a gym to train at. Thought i could get a job and be able to train there. Just thought that 5k in PT sales and 300 in their supplements is much. That's ok i have other gyms i can check out!! thanks

[bghurc]

Sounds like their more worried about sales than results. As a trainer, when you do that you become worthless. The PT manager at the Gold's I work at is a lot like that, all sales, no concern about the PEOPLE. Bottom line, if you don't care about the PEOPLE side of the business you aren't a very good trainer. Sounds like that gym has a crappy environment.

[kneedragger85]

Sounds like their more worried about sales than results. As a trainer, when you do that you become worthless. The PT manager at the Gold's I work at is a lot like that, all sales, no concern about the PEOPLE. Bottom line, if you don't care about the PEOPLE side of the business you aren't a very good trainer. Sounds like that gym has a crappy environment.

I don't know that I agree with that statement. 90% of my "sales" are people who sign up for more sessions. I don't sell these people at all. My job is to train them...revenue is a byproduct of them being happy with my services. Most new "sales" are referrals from my happy clients or members who have watched my clients transform.

If you are going to work in a corporate gym you will sell. Everyone is looking to make money. I never understood why so many people on this forum feel like they should be able to use globo-gym's equipment, lockers, showers, marketing, members, and building to train clients but seem put out that the gym has expectations for them to bring in revenue to pay for all this.

[bigw10921]

The avg profit margin on a gym membership is about 25%..they really make little money off the membership. It covers expenses..They look to us to make them profit..That's why they push so hard. They can and will make their profits off juice bar, supps and training. Unfortunately it's a fact of life

[McJimmie]

The avg profit margin on a gym membership is about 25%..they really make little money off the membership. It covers expenses..They look to us to make them profit..That's why they push so hard. They can and will make their profits off juice bar, supps and training. Unfortunately it's a fact of life

That is absolute nonsense !

95% plus of a gym's income comes from membership, and they work on the premis that 90% plus of the members never actually go to the gym on a regular basis.

They may make good margin (per unit) on supps and juice, but they sell very little of it in comparison to memberships. Why else do they appoint sales teams on commissions ?

[unauthorized]

Applied at a gym for Personal Trainer. I have ISSA cert. The expecations they have seem unrealistic, record a minimum $5K in clients a month and a minumim of $300 in supplement sales, or you could be subject to dismissle. Does anyone think this is out of reach? I already work fulltime, so this is a part time venture to start!

"Sales"

[drive805]

$5000 dollars in personal training clients and sell $300 dollars in supplements (sales)
In other words they want you to go out and sell yourself as a personal trainer and bring in a minimum of $5000 in training sessions to members at the gym or outside the gym. I can sure do that but not on a $17.50 an hour rate when the gym gets almost 3x's that much. And they have a "sales staff" that i would think would do that and let the trainers train and not have to sell the house to get work or money!!!

[kneedragger85]

$5000 dollars in personal training clients and sell $300 dollars in supplements (sales)
In other words they want you to go out and sell yourself as a personal trainer and bring in a minimum of $5000 in training sessions to members at the gym or outside the gym. I can sure do that but not on a $17.50 an hour rate when the gym gets almost 3x's that much. And they have a "sales staff" that i would think would do that and let the trainers train and not have to sell the house to get work or money!!!

In other words, they want you to step up and be proactive with your training business. Don't sit and wait management to fill your schedule...get it done. Make something happen and assert yourself as a confident and competent trainer. Wouldn't you rather have a say in who you train rather than leaving it up to some pimply faced commissioned sales kid?

Why sit and complain so much about it? Put half this effort into finding/keeping clients you'd never have an issue wtih $5k/mo.

Better yet, don't accept the job. Whew...that was easy. Go independent, pay for space to train, pay for advertisement, pay for insurance, devolop a recognizeable brand name, pay for everything you need to be successful and then go find someone and hope they will train with you to pay your bills. This is your other option.

It sounds like you already decided you'll fail at the corporate gym. If you can't have confidence in you, how will your clients?