Taking The Sales Out Of Sales

[rdferguson]

First things first, I'm not writing this as a sales expert or as someone with more clients than he can handle. I'm writing this as someone who historically struggles socially and who, like many PT's, always used to feel really uncomfortable - nay, dirty - when it comes to selling PT. I'd call myself a novice in this area (I've had a lot of head knowledge in the area for years, but had not started applying it until very recently, so I'm a bit like someone who was an exercise scientist a decade ago but only started doing squats last week), so with regards to what I'm about to write, you can take it or leave it. Okay, so now that I've completely UNsold you on paying attention to anything I have to say...

The main reason I'm writing this is because success as a PT does ultimately require you to sell yourself and the benefits of your services to prospects in order to make them clients. Unfortunately, a lot of PT's have very negative connotations about selling, which makes this feel like dirty business. That is discouraging, and makes a lot of PT's who have a lot to offer feel like they need to do something wrong (selling, perceived to be a necessary evil) in order to do something right (training, in which they help people).

Feeling Dirty About Sales

It turns out that I'm not alone in feeling bad about sales. I was recently at a PT business short course, and about 80% of the trainers in the room regarded 'sale' as a 4-letter word. I'm still not 100% comfortable with selling, but have come a long way in that area over the last few months. This is an area that requires personal growth on my part, and if you're not comfortable selling your services to help others, then I'd say you're in need of some personal growth, too.

One of the common attitudes raised by participants in the short course was that the trainer felt bad about selling, because they're here to help, and taking people's money isn't helping. I know that I felt this way for a long time. The irony here is that this isn't how we walk into most exchanges of our own money -- when we're the ones buying, we're normally quite comfortable with the idea that what we're buying is helpful to us, and it is therefore fair to help out the other party, normally by trading their product/service for money so that they can go away and feed their families.

This particular attitude seems to be most prevalent in trainers who love what they do, which I suspect comes partially from the trainer feeling personally rewarded by the act of helping, so getting further rewarded with financial benefits might seem like we're getting more than we deserve. The irony here is that the more we love training people, the more they tend to get out of it, meaning that the experience and outcome inherently have a higher value, meaning that if we're good at what we do and love doing it, then there's a good chance that our services are worth more than we're already charging.

Alternatively, many PT's are uncomfortable asking for money to do their job because they don't believe that what they're doing has much value. I went through a phase of feeling this way on the merit of "you can learn everything a PT might teach from google, so I'm charging money for something that's free." There's so much wrong with this belief, but it's easy for PT's to feel this way because we often have networks going that allow us easy access to good information, and have spent so long willfully reading up on fitness (and seeing how new information stacks up against our prior knowledge) that we've forgotten what it feels like to not know where to start and to not have a reliable source of information that's only an email/phonecall/session away. The grand irony of this belief is that when we don't place much value in PT, we don't present much value, and so prospects don't receive any information or experience that would tell them that we're offering them something valuable, so we actually end up lowering the value of training.

Cleaning Up Your Sales

The last reason that I've found PT's (again, myself included) feel uncomfortable selling PT is what we think of when we think "sale." Often we think that selling is sneaky, underhanded, manipulative and all about tricking someone into buying something. We've all had someone on the side of the street try and get our attention so that they can rope us into receiving a 20min sales spiel that makes us feel bad if we don't buy, even though we don't deem it worth our money -- on occasion I've given into those sale spiels because the one thing I did deem worth my money was not having to talk to the salesman any longer, and I knew that by saying yes I could finally leave.

All of those negative issues can be a part of sales...but they do not need to be. Selling is primarily a process of communicating value. If you are a good personal trainer, you know why, and you can express that in such a way as to make training with you the obvious best choice for your prospect, then the odds are heavily stacked in favour of them becoming a paying client. You don't need to tell any lies or half-truths to achieve this. You just need to know what's in it for them, and communicate that. Do it that way, and you probably won't feel like you're "selling," you'll just be giving a prospect the information for them to evaluate whether or not they feel that working with you is going to be a valuable experience for them.

Taking it a step further, not only can selling be void of shadiness, if you really are a good trainer, and specifically are a great trainer for this exact prospect, then by not adequately communicating value to them so that they can make the informed decision to sign up, you are enabling them to walk away without their needs being met. That's a disservice.

Over the last three paragraphs, I've walked you through 3 different moral levels of selling. The first is that selling is immoral. The second is that selling is not immoral. The third is that you actually have moral incentive to sell -- because without having someone as a client, you can't help them.

Sales Systems

Those salesmen on the sides of the street that manipulate you into buying something you wouldn't normally pay for are doing one thing right: they have a system. In my opinion, it's not a good system to take up, but it's there. I've known one PT who used the same system. He got a lot of clients out of it, but he also got a bad reputation out of it. Shockingly, it turns out people don't like to continue a relationship or promote someone whose system is to make you feel bad for not buying.

At the same time that I knew him, I was in a gym with arguably the least effective PT sales system I've encountered, which went something like this:

1) Member signs up.
2) Membership consultant (read: someone who actually has a good system going to sell memberships) offers them two complimentary sessions with a gym instructor/personal trainer. This is not presented as something that's used to help them get a PT, it's just presented as a gym induction. This is where things start going bad.
3) Member is scheduled for their induction with whichever trainer happens to have a shift at their chosen time. Not much attention is given to what any given trainer specialises in and how each trainer can help specific individuals. If they get a good match, it's just the luck of the draw.
4) The member shows up to the first session about 50% of the time.
5) The trainer goes through goals and a basic workout with the client. The trainer does not introduce the session as what it is: an opportunity to help the client fit into a program with a trainer, group classes and/or on their own. So the sale is never opened.
6) Book the member in for their second induction session. Again, there's only about a 50% chance of them showing up.
7) Another workout without opening.
8) CLOSE THE SALE WITH A MAGNIFICENT SPIEL THEY TAUGHT US.

Yes, that's a sales system that expects a successful close without ever actually opening. In my opinion, following this type of system correlates with having the negative connotations about sales discussed above. If you're avoiding the fact that you are a personal trainer and that you're selling personal training until the last minute, then you aren't going to be spending the time transparently building value. I won't prescribe a specific system here, but I will recommend being transparent. It helps you not to feel like you're trying to trick someone into buying, and it lets them know at each step of the process what they're in for. I'd encourage you to develop a sales system that is transparent about it's purpose and that is focused on building value at every stage. What system/s you use will depend on your context -- a different system will be needed for gaining clients off the gym floor compared to consultations. If you're in a gym with 5,000 members, your system/s will be different compared to if you're in a PT studio or training in a park.

[foodandfitness]

Great write up! My transparency and opener have always worked for me. I always start off the conversation with, "today will be broken up into 3 parts. 1. We'll do some assessments to see where you're at 2. We'll go over your history, preferences and goals and maybe even help you tweak your goals if needed based off our assessment and 3. We'll go over the best course of actions to help you achieve those goals and go over the details of my programs to see what's going to be the best fit for you and both of us as a team" and then just go from there in that order.
1. The assessment is usually a real eye opener and starts to build emotion
2. The goal setting and questionnaire starts building a relationship and heightens excitement
3. I start closing the sale once I've demonstrated value to the client and they are ready to buy aka accomplish their goals

If they don't buy something big, I at least try and get them to commit to something small and try and convert them later.

I ain't rich but I love selling. It feels really good to get someone to commit to their goals and start the process of helping them get there. A sale is an opportunity to change a life for the better.

[rdferguson]

Great write up! My transparency and opener have always worked for me. I always start off the conversation with, "today will be broken up into 3 parts. 1. We'll do some assessments to see where you're at 2. We'll go over your history, preferences and goals and maybe even help you tweak your goals if needed based off our assessment and 3. We'll go over the best course of actions to help you achieve those goals and go over the details of my programs to see what's going to be the best fit for you and both of us as a team" and then just go from there in that order.
1. The assessment is usually a real eye opener and starts to build emotion
2. The goal setting and questionnaire starts building a relationship and heightens excitement
3. I start closing the sale once I've demonstrated value to the client and they are ready to buy aka accomplish their goals

If they don't buy something big, I at least try and get them to commit to something small and try and convert them later.

I ain't rich but I love selling. It feels really good to get someone to commit to their goals and start the process of helping them get there. A sale is an opportunity to change a life for the better.

Thanks for the feedback, Tony. That sounds like a pretty good system you've got going.

[WoofieNugget]

Great posting and some serious reps coming your way. Just something to add:

The best way to sell something is to not have to "sell" it at all. This is a much harder prospect for newer trainers working at chain gyms who typically have to try to pitch everyone in order to learn the business, make sales and make money. However, once you have a steady clientele and are doing well there should come a point where roles reverse, the person is already sold before they walk in the door and you know that they are definitely training with you.

A proper screening process is important before you even take the time to sit down with a potential client, which can be established easily either over the phone (preferably) or via email if you have to. This is basically the equivalent of you interviewing them, not the other way around. Are they a good fit for you personality wise? Are they recommended by one of your current clients that you either like or don't like? Do they have money (yes, this is important - knowing cost isn't a factor goes a long way - but don't ask this directly). Have they worked with a trainer before? How committed are they to an exercise program? This type of awareness takes the sales out of the situation and you are now what you should be - an expert advising someone on what they need to get the results they want.

Once you have this level of awareness established, the consultation becomes an assessment and then it is just a matter of how many sessions they are committing to, not whether they are committing to any at all. I've gotten to the point where I think in two years I haven't had a meeting with someone and NOT had them sign up - because I already know that they are before they come in. Whether or not I want them to is another story.

[KyleAaron]

Good work.

My "system" is simply to talk to people on the gym floor. I ask them why they're here, what they're making all this sweat for. They tell me about injuries and goals - it's an informal consult. I ask what they do for this, they tell me some random nonsense. I think of something that'd help them. "Have you ever tried so-and-so? No? I have a few minutes, I can show you." Voila, now I'm training them. I then leave them with my good wishes and tell them when I'm around if they have further questions. 5-10 minutes, tops.

This comes from back before I started, the manager interviewing me asked if I believed in giving out free sessions. "Sure," I said, "but my thought is that rather than an official 30 minutes with one person, better an informal 5 minutes with 6 different people.

Only 3% of gym members, on average, are interested in PT. Doesn't sound like much, but remember that the really disinterested members won't even be in the gym for you to talk to, so it's more like 5% of those physically present in the gym. So with 50 people in the gym at any one time, that's 2-3 who are interested in PT. Who are these people? No idea - better talk to as many people as possible to find out.

In a community gym where you're doing gym floor shifts, this is actually part of your job, to wander around making people feel welcome and comfortable and offering them training tips. In a commercial gym where you're paying rent, it's not officially your job, but you should do it anyway.

Months go by, some of those people you talk to again and again, eventually they ask for PT, or you get your courage up and say, "You know, you seem to like me telling you what to do. Why don't you sign up for PT so I can tell you what to do on a regular basis?"

After some months of doing this, you start getting an instinct for who wants to talk to you and who doesn't, and what sort of person you'll get along with. So your success rate in approaches rises well above 5%.

You can't talk to everyone, there's just too many in the gym. In disasters with mass casualties, medical types adopt a triage approach. They separate people into three groups - the people who will die no matter what, the people who will live no matter what, and the people for whom medical help will be the difference between life and death. (Actually there is a fourth group - the already dead - but that's a bit depressing so we won't focus on them.)

It's the same in the gym. You get the skinny curlbros and skinnyfat cardio bunnies, there's no hope for them, they'll never listen to you. There are the psycho motivated athletes, they know what to do and neither need nor want your help, though trainers will usually spend a LOT of time talking to these people (big mistake and waste of time). Then there are the people who are trying to do something productive but making a complete dog's breakfast of it, those are the ones who need and may want your help.

I look across the gym and see three guys, "fellahs, if there's three of you lifting it, it's not a bench press," I make fun of them but don't expect them to listen. I see a woman doing dumbbell curl-and-press while sitting on a swiss ball, no hope for her. There's a guy doing snatches with 100kg - he's alright, don't bother him even though he's spreading his feet out on landing and wasting his energy, he'll live. But there's a woman doing partial barbell squats with the pad on the bar, and carefully noting down what she does in her journal. Aha! Here I can make a difference.

That's me, other people will have different ways of choosing their targets, so to speak.

[PeteratCastle]

Love this part;

1) Member signs up.
2) Membership consultant (read: someone who actually has a good system going to sell memberships) offers them two complimentary sessions with a gym instructor/personal trainer. This is not presented as something that's used to help them get a PT, it's just presented as a gym induction. This is where things start going bad.
3) Member is scheduled for their induction with whichever trainer happens to have a shift at their chosen time. Not much attention is given to what any given trainer specialises in and how each trainer can help specific individuals. If they get a good match, it's just the luck of the draw.
4) The member shows up to the first session about 50% of the time.
5) The trainer goes through goals and a basic workout with the client. The trainer does not introduce the session as what it is: an opportunity to help the client fit into a program with a trainer, group classes and/or on their own. So the sale is never opened.
6) Book the member in for their second induction session. Again, there's only about a 50% chance of them showing up.
7) Another workout without opening.
8) CLOSE THE SALE WITH A MAGNIFICENT SPIEL THEY TAUGHT US.

It is a bang on 100% accurate reflection of how most gyms in Edinburgh work



Edit; Love Kyle's breakdown of people..that's exactly how I work.

[PeteratCastle]

BTW; Loved it soo much I nicked it and stuck it on my FB page (giving you props obviously)

[TrendingUpward]

If you're avoiding the fact that you are a personal trainer and that you're selling personal training until the last minute, then you aren't going to be spending the time transparently building value. I won't prescribe a specific system here, but I will recommend being transparent. It helps you not to feel like you're trying to trick someone into buying, and it lets them know at each step of the process what they're in for. I'd encourage you to develop a sales system that is transparent about it's purpose and that is focused on building value at every stage.

Great insight here! I completely agree. It is critical to make it clear up front what your value add to the client is up front and also that your value add does not come for free. That's OK! If you are adding enough value, than they should be happy to pay you for it!

Thanks for the post.

[rdferguson]

Great posting and some serious reps coming your way. Just something to add:

The best way to sell something is to not have to "sell" it at all. This is a much harder prospect for newer trainers working at chain gyms who typically have to try to pitch everyone in order to learn the business, make sales and make money. However, once you have a steady clientele and are doing well there should come a point where roles reverse, the person is already sold before they walk in the door and you know that they are definitely training with you.

A proper screening process is important before you even take the time to sit down with a potential client, which can be established easily either over the phone (preferably) or via email if you have to. This is basically the equivalent of you interviewing them, not the other way around. Are they a good fit for you personality wise? Are they recommended by one of your current clients that you either like or don't like? Do they have money (yes, this is important - knowing cost isn't a factor goes a long way - but don't ask this directly). Have they worked with a trainer before? How committed are they to an exercise program? This type of awareness takes the sales out of the situation and you are now what you should be - an expert advising someone on what they need to get the results they want.

Once you have this level of awareness established, the consultation becomes an assessment and then it is just a matter of how many sessions they are committing to, not whether they are committing to any at all. I've gotten to the point where I think in two years I haven't had a meeting with someone and NOT had them sign up - because I already know that they are before they come in. Whether or not I want them to is another story.

Mmm, I'm glad you brought this up. It took me way too long to learn about pre-qualifying prospects, but it's so worth it. In the gym I used to work at, with the system I presented above, there was absolutely no pre-qualification, and pre-qualification is a concept that was never even alluded to.

Good work.

My "system" is simply to talk to people on the gym floor. I ask them why they're here, what they're making all this sweat for. They tell me about injuries and goals - it's an informal consult. I ask what they do for this, they tell me some random nonsense. I think of something that'd help them. "Have you ever tried so-and-so? No? I have a few minutes, I can show you." Voila, now I'm training them. I then leave them with my good wishes and tell them when I'm around if they have further questions. 5-10 minutes, tops.

This comes from back before I started, the manager interviewing me asked if I believed in giving out free sessions. "Sure," I said, "but my thought is that rather than an official 30 minutes with one person, better an informal 5 minutes with 6 different people.

Only 3% of gym members, on average, are interested in PT. Doesn't sound like much, but remember that the really disinterested members won't even be in the gym for you to talk to, so it's more like 5% of those physically present in the gym. So with 50 people in the gym at any one time, that's 2-3 who are interested in PT. Who are these people? No idea - better talk to as many people as possible to find out.

In a community gym where you're doing gym floor shifts, this is actually part of your job, to wander around making people feel welcome and comfortable and offering them training tips. In a commercial gym where you're paying rent, it's not officially your job, but you should do it anyway.

Months go by, some of those people you talk to again and again, eventually they ask for PT, or you get your courage up and say, "You know, you seem to like me telling you what to do. Why don't you sign up for PT so I can tell you what to do on a regular basis?"

After some months of doing this, you start getting an instinct for who wants to talk to you and who doesn't, and what sort of person you'll get along with. So your success rate in approaches rises well above 5%.

You can't talk to everyone, there's just too many in the gym. In disasters with mass casualties, medical types adopt a triage approach. They separate people into three groups - the people who will die no matter what, the people who will live no matter what, and the people for whom medical help will be the difference between life and death. (Actually there is a fourth group - the already dead - but that's a bit depressing so we won't focus on them.)

It's the same in the gym. You get the skinny curlbros and skinnyfat cardio bunnies, there's no hope for them, they'll never listen to you. There are the psycho motivated athletes, they know what to do and neither need nor want your help, though trainers will usually spend a LOT of time talking to these people (big mistake and waste of time). Then there are the people who are trying to do something productive but making a complete dog's breakfast of it, those are the ones who need and may want your help.

I look across the gym and see three guys, "fellahs, if there's three of you lifting it, it's not a bench press," I make fun of them but don't expect them to listen. I see a woman doing dumbbell curl-and-press while sitting on a swiss ball, no hope for her. There's a guy doing snatches with 100kg - he's alright, don't bother him even though he's spreading his feet out on landing and wasting his energy, he'll live. But there's a woman doing partial barbell squats with the pad on the bar, and carefully noting down what she does in her journal. Aha! Here I can make a difference.

That's me, other people will have different ways of choosing their targets, so to speak.

I actually considered writing about how you get your clients in the OP, but I figured that if you reply you'll probably explain your process more accurately. It sounds like a pretty good way to get clients off the gym floor, especially when you include the part about triage.

BTW; Loved it soo much I nicked it and stuck it on my FB page (giving you props obviously)

I'm honoured. Thankyou

Great insight here! I completely agree. It is critical to make it clear up front what your value add to the client is up front and also that your value add does not come for free. That's OK! If you are adding enough value, than they should be happy to pay you for it!

Thanks for the post.

Glad you liked it.

[RyouBakua]

Love this part;

1) Member signs up.
2) Membership consultant (read: someone who actually has a good system going to sell memberships) offers them two complimentary sessions with a gym instructor/personal trainer. This is not presented as something that's used to help them get a PT, it's just presented as a gym induction. This is where things start going bad.
3) Member is scheduled for their induction with whichever trainer happens to have a shift at their chosen time. Not much attention is given to what any given trainer specialises in and how each trainer can help specific individuals. If they get a good match, it's just the luck of the draw.
4) The member shows up to the first session about 50% of the time.
5) The trainer goes through goals and a basic workout with the client. The trainer does not introduce the session as what it is: an opportunity to help the client fit into a program with a trainer, group classes and/or on their own. So the sale is never opened.
6) Book the member in for their second induction session. Again, there's only about a 50% chance of them showing up.
7) Another workout without opening.
8) CLOSE THE SALE WITH A MAGNIFICENT SPIEL THEY TAUGHT US.

It is a bang on 100% accurate reflection of how most gyms in Edinburgh work

Edit; Love Kyle's breakdown of people..that's exactly how I work.

my attendance rate is well over 50%

95% for paying clients


what has helped me:

1. talk with them in person

2. set an appt and repeat it at the end of the conversation

3. contact them 24 hrs in advance as a reminder



generally ive found that most cancellations/no-shows will be to the sessions that are free or cheap

[rdferguson]

my attendance rate is well over 50%

95% for paying clients


what has helped me:

1. talk with them in person

2. set an appt and repeat it at the end of the conversation

3. contact them 24 hrs in advance as a reminder



generally ive found that most cancellations/no-shows will be to the sessions that are free or cheap

Those are some good points. The more someone has emotionally invested in something (and having spent a relatively high amount of personal money on something is an emotional investment, because money has value), the greater the perceived need to follow through. Likewise, the lower the investment, the lower the need to act.

[FitnessFreedom]

Outstanding thread!
You had my attention 100% of the way through!
Felt like I was at a meeting at my last job discussing pros and cons of the gym!

I actually left the corporate "for-profit" side of the industry because a previous employer was RUTHLESS about numbers, sales, and goals. The gym forgot what it meant to help customers. There were more about helping themselves and working out client's wallets.

Again, Outstanding post and I shared it on my website FitnessPatterns(dot)com, giving credit to you! This is truly amazing!

Thank you,

Justin

[KyleAaron]

Money must always come first, mate. You can help more people with $1 million in your pocket than $1.

Question is, second priority, how far below is it...

[ChessGuy]

Sales is part of life. You can deny it, if it makes you feel good, but it's still there. Sales is a transference of emotions and a convergence of needs. Having a successful system is essential. This is not brain surgery.

[rdferguson]

Outstanding thread!
You had my attention 100% of the way through!
Felt like I was at a meeting at my last job discussing pros and cons of the gym!

I actually left the corporate "for-profit" side of the industry because a previous employer was RUTHLESS about numbers, sales, and goals. The gym forgot what it meant to help customers. There were more about helping themselves and working out client's wallets.

Again, Outstanding post and I shared it on my website FitnessPatterns(dot)com, giving credit to you! This is truly amazing!

Thank you,

Justin

Then I've done a good job at selling you on reading each line