career in training?

[mhnation]

I am a new trainer at a corporate gym, with kinesiology degree, CPT, and CSCS certs and some strength and condition background.

I am having a bad struggle because I really suck at selling.

I did a lot of research online about training career before jumping onto it. Including this website. Many state that corporate gyms aren't where money's made but just for some experience and maybe networking.

I don't know what others think....but I had a lot of complements about my knowledge and training philosophy from others with more experience in the field. Even by my manager during job interview when we were talking about those "hypothetical" client scenarios, and also by my peers and instructors when I was in new trainer class.

So far, I've made great deal of improvements in my clients' exercise forms and their overall fitness, for sure. When clients are having hard time activating certain muscles, I come up with drills or specific exercises with cues to make them feel it. They all have positive feedbacks about how they feel with my exercises.

I use lot of supersets like Mike Robertson's style with minimal rest for about 40 minutes followed by 10 minutes of conditioning for fat loss clients, which are the vast majority.

However, I am doing really bad....does a lot of them lie about how they feel about training, just out of intimidation or something?

All those people I try to sell to won't think I'm worth the money....a few that I did sell were during promotions where they can get lower rates with smaller packages, in which case I don't even get enough number of sessions to induce much improvements to prove my worth anyways.

I know that to make money, I got to go independent eventually, but if I'm in a gym with super high traffic and can't sell training to save my life, than how in the world can I sell training in an independent setting?

[Ronin4help]

I know that to make money, I got to go independent eventually, but if I'm in a gym with super high traffic and can't sell training to save my life, than how in the world can I sell training in an independent setting?

The art of selling essentially requires the seller to generate interest in the potential client. That interest provides a window of opportunity to convince the potential client to make a purchase. This is selling in a nutshell. If you cannot sell, then you must find another way to generate interest and hence the opportunity to make a sell.

The number one way to do this is via a sales promotion. The number one way to promote a sale or reduced cost promotion is through advertisement. So, you must create an ad that illustrates a deal people cannot refuse. This will attract people to you, preventing you from having to go out and attract them yourself. The reason most people sell themselves is because it's free. There is a reason a Superbowl ad is the most expensive ad in television. Advertisements do the selling for you and they sell to more people in a minute than you could reach in a year.

[mhnation]

The art of selling essentially requires the seller to generate interest in the potential client. That interest provides a window of opportunity to convince the potential client to make a purchase. This is selling in a nutshell. If you cannot sell, then you must find another way to generate interest and hence the opportunity to make a sell.

The number one way to do this is via a sales promotion. The number one way to promote a sale or reduced cost promotion is through advertisement. So, you must create an ad that illustrates a deal people cannot refuse. This will attract people to you, preventing you from having to go out and attract them yourself. The reason most people sell themselves is because it's free. There is a reason a Superbowl ad is the most expensive ad in television. Advertisements do the selling for you and they sell to more people in a minute than you could reach in a year.

Thank you for your response

So you're talking about when I am independent, right? Definitely, my most fatal weakness is talking people into wanting training really badly, because most people see personal training as a luxury for rich people and nothing necessary and it takes something REALLY special to change their perspective. I wonder if things could've been different if I was in more wealthy area, but I'm in a very poor area where like 1 out of 5 people are so poor they don't even have their own phones. Is there any way I can get clients without those artistic way of psychologically manipulating people through words?

What ways would you suggest a low budget person like myself do to advertise? Online website? flyers?

How can I make it so that people take those flyers seriously? because I don't take them seriously.

[hdfitnessau]

Drop me an email at jason@utacademy.com.au
One of my pt tutoring students was having issues similar to this when he started pt work three months ago. 1 month in at his new gym and he's on $600-$700 a week guaranteed with a few simple tweaks I've been showing him. Happy to show you to help you out

[Ronin4help]

Thank you for your response

So you're talking about when I am independent, right? Definitely, my most fatal weakness is talking people into wanting training really badly, because most people see personal training as a luxury for rich people and nothing necessary and it takes something REALLY special to change their perspective. I wonder if things could've been different if I was in more wealthy area, but I'm in a very poor area where like 1 out of 5 people are so poor they don't even have their own phones. Is there any way I can get clients without those artistic way of psychologically manipulating people through words?

What ways would you suggest a low budget person like myself do to advertise? Online website? flyers?

How can I make it so that people take those flyers seriously? because I don't take them seriously.

Never assume you know what the potential client thinks or feels about you or your services. Because when you do this you create an environment that may not even be real (this applies to dating too... a conversation for another time). Always assume they like you, they want your services and that they can afford your services. Force them to fight like hell to prove those things wrong.

In terms of advertisements...this is where it stops getting simple. There are so many variables that make up a successful ad campaign it takes many months...sometimes years... before you understand your market well enough to maximize ad spending. This is not to say that you will not see immediate results from an ad campaign, but there is a good chance that your initial efforts may be equally an investment as they are profit generation. No one can really tell you (in an unbiased manner) what will work in your area for your personality and services (the people who sell the ads will pretend to know but they do this because they know you better than you know them and are trying to sell to you.. ironic yes?) But remember this... it's always a number thing. This may sound obvious but it's very true. A very good ad will generate a 5% response. This is how you know if an ad campaign is working well or not. So, for example... if you pass out 200 business cards and get 10 people interested... this is a good idea to continue doing. Most likely, you will get somewhere around 3 and from that three you will sell 1 person. Now, if it takes you three days to pass out 200 business cards just to generate 1 sale, then it will take you several weeks before you build up a descent clientele. Business cards are relatively cheap so this is a very popular form of ad campaign. A better one would be something that requires very little 'leg work' and potentially reaches a much larger market simultaneously (e.g. social media, local ads, TV commercial). The larger the market, the more expensive the campaign..but also the more chances of success. So, let's use an example...
Let's say you do a commercial that reaches 10,000 people with a market cap of 1000 (people interested in fitness). If the ad runs once (for simplicity purposes) and costs you $1,500 and it produces a 1% response (10 people) and you land 2 people from that, you earn that income for how ever long you keep those particular clients (do you see how it starts to become complex?). Maybe you make money, maybe you lose money. It's very difficult to say.

But I will leave you with this thought.... If advertisements were so successful, how is it possible that you can still buy ad space today? What happened to all the thousands of companies who had that space before you? If they were successful, why would they cancel their ad? They wouldn't. They would keep it going forever. So, getting an ad on TV, in a magazine, newspaper or wherever would be near impossible. It would be like trying to get season tickets at Lambo Field The fact is... it's not impossible. Why? Because the people before you canceled making that space available. The question is...why did they cancel?

[Ronin4help]

Sorry for the Freudian slip (Lambeau). I just cleaned my car. What can I say... it's Friday night baby!

[KyleAaron]

To get and keep clients you must demonstrate competence, establish trust and build rapport. It sounds like you are good only at the first of these.

Talk to people on the gym floor. The typical new gym member walks in thinking, "I'm going to be the fattest/skinniest, weakest and most useless person there, and everyone will be looking at me." They walk in and look at all the machines, "WTF is all this stuff, it looks like torture equipment." So they're lonely, overwhelmed and intimidated. Do you think they care about activating their transverse tyrannosaurus muscle?

Talk to people on the gym floor. It's popular to do free sessions with people, but rather than a formal 30' session with one person, better an informal 5' with 6 different people. Just go up on.
"Hi, I'm Jim, I see you're working pretty hard. What brings you to do this to yourself?"
They won't be shy, believe me. They'll spill about their injuries, their unhappiness with their body, their lack of energy, or whatever. In other words, you just did an informal initial consult/assessment.
"Okay, so what are you doing for that?" you ask.
They answer vaguely, because absolutely none of them have got a programme and are following it. 2/3 of them refused the free intro sessions offered as part of their membership, and they 1/3 who took them, 2/3 never did the programme again past when first shown it. So 8/9 of them are just doing random sht.
"That sounds good. Have you ever tried X?" where X is intervals, goblet squats, a lower back stretch or whatever is one little thing you would put in a programme to help them. "No? I have a few minutes and can show you if you like."
So then you show them. I mean for like five minutes.
"You did that well. Just remember when doing X to do Y. And you can progress it a bit by doing so-and-so. It was a pleasure meeting you, I just have to go clean up and get a cup of coffee and then I'm doing a personal training session with so-and-so. I'm usually here around this time, if I or any of the other trainers can help, just let us know."
Now go and write down in a little journal your encounter. "Oct 8th Saturday 10am - Jen, 30s, 2 kids, used to do netball, ACL tear, comes to gym for "me time"". When you see Jen again, say hi and ask how her knee is.

Talk to people, be genuinely interested in them, and offer a bit of help and encouragement. Just a bit, an appetiser, a taste sample that makes them want to buy the whole product. Only about 3% of gym members are interested in personal training. In gyms where the trainers are lazy slugs and management doesn't care this might be as low as 0.5-1%, if the trainers are guns and the management supports PT it might be as high as 6 or even 7% (in some smaller gyms), but 3% is the average. This does not sound like much but how many members does your gym have? And you should know this number. 3% of for example 2,400 people is 80. Are 80 people doing personal training at your gym?

The least interested don't come to the gym at all, so it's more like 5% of the people you see on the gym floor. Next time you're training someone, look up for a moment and count how many people are there. If there are 20 people, there is at least 1 who wants PT. Which one? I have no idea - talk to lots of them and find out.

If you are there 5 days a week and talk to just 1 new person each day, that's 20 a month, 1 new client a month. Add in manager and current client referrals and you should have 2 new people a month. If your retention is poor then it'll at least keep your numbers steady, if your retention is good then your numbers will grow.

Just talking to gym members and being interested in them is actually quite unusual in a trainer and will be remembered. Last week I was contacted by a woman Farah. I met her about 4 years ago in my job at the YMCA. She was never a PT client, I just gave her programmes and encouragement. She remembered, so when she was ready to do personal training, she thought of me. She lifts in my garage gym now. After four years.

[BC02]

Find a new gym.you dont want to work at a gym that values the sale much more then what you do for your clients. Personal training sales that are done by trainers (and not mngmnt/sales staff) should be treated as a bonus, not as a "must do" to make a living wage. Go work for a gym that values your craft

[BC02]

And no, if you arent good at sales it does not make you a bad trainer. It usuallt means that the companys pay structure is skrewed up, and that they dont value results

[mhnation]

Drop me an email at jason@utacademy.com.au
One of my pt tutoring students was having issues similar to this when he started pt work three months ago. 1 month in at his new gym and he's on $600-$700 a week guaranteed with a few simple tweaks I've been showing him. Happy to show you to help you out

please check your e-mail.

[mhnation]

Never assume you know what the potential client thinks or feels about you or your services. Because when you do this you create an environment that may not even be real (this applies to dating too... a conversation for another time). Always assume they like you, they want your services and that they can afford your services. Force them to fight like hell to prove those things wrong.

In terms of advertisements...this is where it stops getting simple. There are so many variables that make up a successful ad campaign it takes many months...sometimes years... before you understand your market well enough to maximize ad spending. This is not to say that you will not see immediate results from an ad campaign, but there is a good chance that your initial efforts may be equally an investment as they are profit generation. No one can really tell you (in an unbiased manner) what will work in your area for your personality and services (the people who sell the ads will pretend to know but they do this because they know you better than you know them and are trying to sell to you.. ironic yes?) But remember this... it's always a number thing. This may sound obvious but it's very true. A very good ad will generate a 5% response. This is how you know if an ad campaign is working well or not. So, for example... if you pass out 200 business cards and get 10 people interested... this is a good idea to continue doing. Most likely, you will get somewhere around 3 and from that three you will sell 1 person. Now, if it takes you three days to pass out 200 business cards just to generate 1 sale, then it will take you several weeks before you build up a descent clientele. Business cards are relatively cheap so this is a very popular form of ad campaign. A better one would be something that requires very little 'leg work' and potentially reaches a much larger market simultaneously (e.g. social media, local ads, TV commercial). The larger the market, the more expensive the campaign..but also the more chances of success. So, let's use an example...
Let's say you do a commercial that reaches 10,000 people with a market cap of 1000 (people interested in fitness). If the ad runs once (for simplicity purposes) and costs you $1,500 and it produces a 1% response (10 people) and you land 2 people from that, you earn that income for how ever long you keep those particular clients (do you see how it starts to become complex?). Maybe you make money, maybe you lose money. It's very difficult to say.

But I will leave you with this thought.... If advertisements were so successful, how is it possible that you can still buy ad space today? What happened to all the thousands of companies who had that space before you? If they were successful, why would they cancel their ad? They wouldn't. They would keep it going forever. So, getting an ad on TV, in a magazine, newspaper or wherever would be near impossible. It would be like trying to get season tickets at Lambo Field The fact is... it's not impossible. Why? Because the people before you canceled making that space available. The question is...why did they cancel?

With business cards, do you make one and randomly give it out to people on the streets? or flyers? Social media seem to be the least expensive and time consuming option but probably won't be reaching out very far initially, though I'm really interested in such method.

Thank you.

[mhnation]

To get and keep clients you must demonstrate competence, establish trust and build rapport. It sounds like you are good only at the first of these.

Talk to people on the gym floor. The typical new gym member walks in thinking, "I'm going to be the fattest/skinniest, weakest and most useless person there, and everyone will be looking at me." They walk in and look at all the machines, "WTF is all this stuff, it looks like torture equipment." So they're lonely, overwhelmed and intimidated. Do you think they care about activating their transverse tyrannosaurus muscle?

Talk to people on the gym floor. It's popular to do free sessions with people, but rather than a formal 30' session with one person, better an informal 5' with 6 different people. Just go up on.
"Hi, I'm Jim, I see you're working pretty hard. What brings you to do this to yourself?"
They won't be shy, believe me. They'll spill about their injuries, their unhappiness with their body, their lack of energy, or whatever. In other words, you just did an informal initial consult/assessment.
"Okay, so what are you doing for that?" you ask.
They answer vaguely, because absolutely none of them have got a programme and are following it. 2/3 of them refused the free intro sessions offered as part of their membership, and they 1/3 who took them, 2/3 never did the programme again past when first shown it. So 8/9 of them are just doing random sht.
"That sounds good. Have you ever tried X?" where X is intervals, goblet squats, a lower back stretch or whatever is one little thing you would put in a programme to help them. "No? I have a few minutes and can show you if you like."
So then you show them. I mean for like five minutes.
"You did that well. Just remember when doing X to do Y. And you can progress it a bit by doing so-and-so. It was a pleasure meeting you, I just have to go clean up and get a cup of coffee and then I'm doing a personal training session with so-and-so. I'm usually here around this time, if I or any of the other trainers can help, just let us know."
Now go and write down in a little journal your encounter. "Oct 8th Saturday 10am - Jen, 30s, 2 kids, used to do netball, ACL tear, comes to gym for "me time"". When you see Jen again, say hi and ask how her knee is.

Talk to people, be genuinely interested in them, and offer a bit of help and encouragement. Just a bit, an appetiser, a taste sample that makes them want to buy the whole product. Only about 3% of gym members are interested in personal training. In gyms where the trainers are lazy slugs and management doesn't care this might be as low as 0.5-1%, if the trainers are guns and the management supports PT it might be as high as 6 or even 7% (in some smaller gyms), but 3% is the average. This does not sound like much but how many members does your gym have? And you should know this number. 3% of for example 2,400 people is 80. Are 80 people doing personal training at your gym?

The least interested don't come to the gym at all, so it's more like 5% of the people you see on the gym floor. Next time you're training someone, look up for a moment and count how many people are there. If there are 20 people, there is at least 1 who wants PT. Which one? I have no idea - talk to lots of them and find out.

If you are there 5 days a week and talk to just 1 new person each day, that's 20 a month, 1 new client a month. Add in manager and current client referrals and you should have 2 new people a month. If your retention is poor then it'll at least keep your numbers steady, if your retention is good then your numbers will grow.

Just talking to gym members and being interested in them is actually quite unusual in a trainer and will be remembered. Last week I was contacted by a woman Farah. I met her about 4 years ago in my job at the YMCA. She was never a PT client, I just gave her programmes and encouragement. She remembered, so when she was ready to do personal training, she thought of me. She lifts in my garage gym now. After four years.

Yes, building rapport is the most difficult one for me. During my job training, I've been told that I need to be careful about approaching people on the floor because depending on how I approach them and correct or suggest something it can make them feel really bad and produce negative outcome. Thank you for giving me an example of how it should be done so that I can put it into practice.

[mhnation]

Find a new gym.you dont want to work at a gym that values the sale much more then what you do for your clients. Personal training sales that are done by trainers (and not mngmnt/sales staff) should be treated as a bonus, not as a "must do" to make a living wage. Go work for a gym that values your craft

Obviously, as you stated, personal training industry market structure is very much screwed up. However, it seems so global that as messed up as it is it still seem to be so prevalent that it is seen as the norm (at least the corporate ones in my area that is)

In LA (USA), it seems like very few people want to get personal training and it takes a great deal of sales skills to convince them.

I would love to find a gym where trainers don't have to sell and still get decent client base. Would I have to go to a wealthy neighborhood for that?

Thank you.

[KyleAaron]

You don't have to correct them. Just have a mindset of - progress is progress. Whatever they're doing may be ineffective and have a risk of injury, but it's not as ineffective or injurious as sitting at home on the couch drinking beer and watching NASCAR. Walking at 4km/hr on the treadmill while reading Cosmo or lurching their body around on the lat pulldown is better than what they were doing before. So you congratulate them on their efforts, then - after finding our what brought them to the gym - suggest something extra that might help. Don't tell them about how their doing X is wrong, tell them about how doing Y will help them.

But if you don't talk training at all, that's fine, too.

Not enough credit is given in this industry to the gym instructor (GI) role. The gym instructor's job is to care and clean. People leave or stay at gyms because of,

1. cleanliness of the facilities
2. friendliness of the staff
3. overcrowding

2 out of 3 of those things you can do something about. If your gym doesn't have GIs, appoint yourself one. Take a spray bottle and a cloth and wipe down those treadmills, they get heaps of dust on them, especially the ones used a lot (static electricity). WD-40 on those cable machines so the plates stop sticking and coming down with a crash. While you're cleaning someone will look down at you, "Not the most glamorous part of the job," you say, "but..." and then you start chatting. They want to talk to people, if they didn't they'd just buy some gear and work out at home. They came to a gym with 2,400 people because they want to talk to people.

At my old gym, 2/3 of gym members refused the initial appointments to get them started, and 40% of those people were still members 12 months later. The 1/3 who did appointments, 80% were still members 12 months later. As noted earlier, they're not doing the programmes we give them, so it's not our brilliant instruction. Simply having spoken to a trainer once or twice makes them more likely to stick around - because they know at least one person in the gym. Just think about it for yourself. You start out at two gyms.

Gym A: "I go there and nobody talks to me, I just do stuff and think about how useless I am."
Gym B: "I go there and a trainer talks to me, he seems to know everyone, his client even said hi and made a joke about how she was getting smashed in this session, I wasn't sure what I was doing I just fcked around on the treadmill and a couple of machines but he told me it was a good start."

Which one do you want to go to again?

So even without personal training, the gym instructor role is very important. I mentioned earlier starting up 100 people a year. Without me, 40 would be members 12 months later, with me 80 (though my retention rate was 88%, but some are worse, average is 80% for gyms that do this). So my presence meant 40 extra people stayed members, even I talked to nobody on the gym floor and just sat around in the consult cubicle between appointments. Average membership spend was $1k pa, so just that effort was worth $40k pa to the gym. But of course, my talking to others on the gym floor boosted that up.

Keep all that in mind. Don't be scared to chat to people, it's what they want. And they're interested in fitness or they wouldn't be there. Just keep it brief. Short and sweet.

Don't sweat BC02, he's a guy who failed at being a PT and blames everyone but himself. YOU will be better than that and take responsibility for your own success or failure. I worked 4.5yr at big gyms, in my last one I went 3 years with no clients referred to me - well there was one but the guy tried to take her off me the next day and she ended up only doing a few sessions. The other 66 I got myself. The PT team leader didn't like me. Well, fck him - I succeeded anyway, and now have a garage gym business making as much money as I ever made in the big gym.

A gym's first concern MUST be to make money, otherwise how do they stay open? The question is how far below it is their second priority of helping people. At a Fitness First or similar, it's miles below; at a YMCA, just below. But money has to come first or the place closes and they can't do anything else.

[TXJ]

Don't approach it as you are correcting them, what I would normally do is approach with "I see you are working out ____, do you mind if I show you another exercise for _____ you probably have not seen before". I worked the floor similar to how KyleAaron suggested with much success, now that I am independent I don't get to do that anymore but it is valuable if you plan to stay in the big box gyms. Eventually you need to learn to prospect outside of the gym and as far as advertising, you don't need to invest in any advertising if you are already in a high traffic gym if anything the gym should sponsor that for you. It sounds like you are having trouble connecting with people more than anything, you can have the most knowledge in the world but if you cannot build a connection with your potential client they will not give you a dime at least not long term.

[BC02]

Obviously, as you stated, personal training industry market structure is very much screwed up. However, it seems so global that as messed up as it is it still seem to be so prevalent that it is seen as the norm (at least the corporate ones in my area that is)

In LA (USA), it seems like very few people want to get personal training and it takes a great deal of sales skills to convince them.

I would love to find a gym where trainers don't have to sell and still get decent client base. Would I have to go to a wealthy neighborhood for that?

Thank you.

EOS if you get the right fm

[BC02]

You don't have to correct them. Just have a mindset of - progress is progress. Whatever they're doing may be ineffective and have a risk of injury, but it's not as ineffective or injurious as sitting at home on the couch drinking beer and watching NASCAR. Walking at 4km/hr on the treadmill while reading Cosmo or lurching their body around on the lat pulldown is better than what they were doing before. So you congratulate them on their efforts, then - after finding our what brought them to the gym - suggest something extra that might help. Don't tell them about how their doing X is wrong, tell them about how doing Y will help them.

But if you don't talk training at all, that's fine, too.

Not enough credit is given in this industry to the gym instructor (GI) role. The gym instructor's job is to care and clean. People leave or stay at gyms because of,

1. cleanliness of the facilities
2. friendliness of the staff
3. overcrowding

2 out of 3 of those things you can do something about. If your gym doesn't have GIs, appoint yourself one. Take a spray bottle and a cloth and wipe down those treadmills, they get heaps of dust on them, especially the ones used a lot (static electricity). WD-40 on those cable machines so the plates stop sticking and coming down with a crash. While you're cleaning someone will look down at you, "Not the most glamorous part of the job," you say, "but..." and then you start chatting. They want to talk to people, if they didn't they'd just buy some gear and work out at home. They came to a gym with 2,400 people because they want to talk to people.

At my old gym, 2/3 of gym members refused the initial appointments to get them started, and 40% of those people were still members 12 months later. The 1/3 who did appointments, 80% were still members 12 months later. As noted earlier, they're not doing the programmes we give them, so it's not our brilliant instruction. Simply having spoken to a trainer once or twice makes them more likely to stick around - because they know at least one person in the gym. Just think about it for yourself. You start out at two gyms.

Gym A: "I go there and nobody talks to me, I just do stuff and think about how useless I am."
Gym B: "I go there and a trainer talks to me, he seems to know everyone, his client even said hi and made a joke about how she was getting smashed in this session, I wasn't sure what I was doing I just fcked around on the treadmill and a couple of machines but he told me it was a good start."

Which one do you want to go to again?

So even without personal training, the gym instructor role is very important. I mentioned earlier starting up 100 people a year. Without me, 40 would be members 12 months later, with me 80 (though my retention rate was 88%, but some are worse, average is 80% for gyms that do this). So my presence meant 40 extra people stayed members, even I talked to nobody on the gym floor and just sat around in the consult cubicle between appointments. Average membership spend was $1k pa, so just that effort was worth $40k pa to the gym. But of course, my talking to others on the gym floor boosted that up.

Keep all that in mind. Don't be scared to chat to people, it's what they want. And they're interested in fitness or they wouldn't be there. Just keep it brief. Short and sweet.

Don't sweat BC02, he's a guy who failed at being a PT and blames everyone but himself. YOU will be better than that and take responsibility for your own success or failure. I worked 4.5yr at big gyms, in my last one I went 3 years with no clients referred to me - well there was one but the guy tried to take her off me the next day and she ended up only doing a few sessions. The other 66 I got myself. The PT team leader didn't like me. Well, fck him - I succeeded anyway, and now have a garage gym business making as much money as I ever made in the big gym.

A gym's first concern MUST be to make money, otherwise how do they stay open? The question is how far below it is their second priority of helping people. At a Fitness First or similar, it's miles below; at a YMCA, just below. But money has to come first or the place closes and they can't do anything else.

lol at I "failed" I have given you examples in the past of my clients accomplishments that I seriously doubt you can touch in your own training career

[mhnation]

Gym A: "I go there and nobody talks to me, I just do stuff and think about how useless I am."
Gym B: "I go there and a trainer talks to me, he seems to know everyone, his client even said hi and made a joke about how she was getting smashed in this session, I wasn't sure what I was doing I just fcked around on the treadmill and a couple of machines but he told me it was a good start."

Which one do you want to go to again?

So even without personal training, the gym instructor role is very important. I mentioned earlier starting up 100 people a year. Without me, 40 would be members 12 months later, with me 80 (though my retention rate was 88%, but some are worse, average is 80% for gyms that do this). So my presence meant 40 extra people stayed members, even I talked to nobody on the gym floor and just sat around in the consult cubicle between appointments. Average membership spend was $1k pa, so just that effort was worth $40k pa to the gym. But of course, my talking to others on the gym floor boosted that up.

Keep all that in mind. Don't be scared to chat to people, it's what they want. And they're interested in fitness or they wouldn't be there. Just keep it brief. Short and sweet.

So I will have just to be helpful, nice, and genuine, not necessarily push sales. I was always afraid of a lot of people having negative opinions of trainers being these annoying people that are trying to make you spend money that they don't want to spend. For now, I want to start out separate the role of "sales" and "helping people out" because when I try to do both at the same time it seems like I ruin it all.

Thank you.

[mhnation]

Don't approach it as you are correcting them, what I would normally do is approach with "I see you are working out ____, do you mind if I show you another exercise for _____ you probably have not seen before". I worked the floor similar to how KyleAaron suggested with much success, now that I am independent I don't get to do that anymore but it is valuable if you plan to stay in the big box gyms. Eventually you need to learn to prospect outside of the gym and as far as advertising, you don't need to invest in any advertising if you are already in a high traffic gym if anything the gym should sponsor that for you. It sounds like you are having trouble connecting with people more than anything, you can have the most knowledge in the world but if you cannot build a connection with your potential client they will not give you a dime at least not long term.

As you stated, connecting with people is the hardest thing. I'm just not natural at it and there's no magic in being good at it. I guess for non-people person like myself only possible way is to build tons and tons of experience and memorize pretty much everything about how to talk to people in whatever circumstances.

Thank you for your prospecting ideas.

[mhnation]

EOS if you get the right fm

Right now the FM position is vacant at my gym....if I do get one that can sell as you said, that would be an easy way out for me.

[KyleAaron]

So I will have just to be helpful, nice, and genuine, not necessarily push sales.

That's right. Some of them will like it so much they ask you for personal training. And if someone has sought out your help several times in a row and you've got a good rapport, don't be too shy to say, "Look, since you enjoy my company and advice so much, why don't you book in for personal training with me twice a week?" It sounds stupid and awkward, but if it's someone you've talked to over months it's not. I've had people I helped in the big gym who signed up 6 or even 18 months after I first met them.

Remember the first word in your job title. It's about developing positive relationships with people.

You do get people advising you to do the hard sell. And the hard sell works - once. If a car salesman does the hard sell, that's okay, you drive it off the lot, you change your mind, tough sht. But PT's an ongoing service which they can quit at any time. So the hard sell signs them up, but doesn't make them stick around. "That's why," one marketing manager told me, "you keep doing the hard sell." No thanks, I'd rather work with people who actually want to be there.

Again, it might only be a small proportion of gym members, but that's okay - you only have time to train 20 or so people anyway. That's a small proportion of people in the gym. So yes: just be helpful, nice and genuine. It works.

[BC02]

Right now the FM position is vacant at my gym....if I do get one that can sell as you said, that would be an easy way out for me.

If a FM cant sale, they have no business being a FM.

[Ronin4help]

With business cards, do you make one and randomly give it out to people on the streets? or flyers? Social media seem to be the least expensive and time consuming option but probably won't be reaching out very far initially, though I'm really interested in such method.

Thank you.

I'm not really a big fan of passing out business cards. They don't get anyone's attention and they don't generate energy or excitement. Give out a promo gift instead, like water bottles. Custom water bottles (bicycle type-more expensive or Arrowhead type-less expensive) get people's attention (because everyone likes free stuff). This way you are giving people something they actually want and can use and they feel more obligated to give you some of their time in exchange. Be sure your company name and number are well represented on your 'promo gift'.

[hdfitnessau]

Replied to your email op

[mhnation]

That's right. Some of them will like it so much they ask you for personal training. And if someone has sought out your help several times in a row and you've got a good rapport, don't be too shy to say, "Look, since you enjoy my company and advice so much, why don't you book in for personal training with me twice a week?" It sounds stupid and awkward, but if it's someone you've talked to over months it's not. I've had people I helped in the big gym who signed up 6 or even 18 months after I first met them.

Wow, that's amazing they remembered and signed up. Thank you for the ideas.

[mhnation]

If a FM cant sale, they have no business being a FM.

It's a really tough job that not a lot of people can do well in.

[mhnation]

I'm not really a big fan of passing out business cards. They don't get anyone's attention and they don't generate energy or excitement. Give out a promo gift instead, like water bottles. Custom water bottles (bicycle type-more expensive or Arrowhead type-less expensive) get people's attention (because everyone likes free stuff). This way you are giving people something they actually want and can use and they feel more obligated to give you some of their time in exchange. Be sure your company name and number are well represented on your 'promo gift'.

I see how that can be more effective. Thank you.

[mhnation]

Replied to your email op

I apologize it took me a long time to find time to write a long reply. I finally got to it.

[KyleAaron]

Wow, that's amazing they remembered and signed up. Thank you for the ideas.

Again, most won't remember. But a few will, and you only need a few from here, a few from there, a few from the other place, and voila, you have a successful training career. Just be generally social, trust me, they'll talk to you.

For example, on Saturday I went with my son and daughter to his friend's birthday party. The dad of a classmate of his sat down and started talking to me, there was the usual, "what do you do?" so I said I was a father and a trainer, training people out of my garage in the afternoons and evenings. I just wanted to talk about being a parent, he kept dragging the conversation back to training. Said he'd had a PT, got smashed (he didn't mention results, just being smashed in the session), but PT plus gym membership became expensive, and now he was unhappy with his physique. Again, I kept trying to talk about kids - he was insisting on talking about training. This was the perfect opportunity for me to talk about the difference between training and exercise, and the price of coming to my gym, which is more than a regular gym but cheaper than conventional PT. I had my phone and could have made an appointment then and there.

But it was a kid's birthday party, man. I had my infant daughter on my lap wanting a feed. There's a time just to chill the fck out. Anyway it's the dad of another kid, we'll see each-other again. Nonetheless it demonstrates - if you walk in just talking about what you do and having a genuine interest in people, they'll ask you about training. And that was a kid's party - how much easier would the conversation be at a gym where everyone is interested in fitness?

Incidentally, the guy had had a PT before. This is one of the signs that someone is likely to want one again. Sounds obvious once I say it, yeah? And this is what you'll find with some people, they have a trainer on and off over the years, it's just a matter of who it'll be. Just be careful when asking about it, if you ask, "ever had a trainer?" some will think of those 2-3 initial gym sessions, "oh yeah I've had a trainer" - they don't mean 2x30' sessions a week for $100 for 6 months. So clarify that. But if they've spent money on training before, they'll do it again.

[mhnation]

Incidentally, the guy had had a PT before. This is one of the signs that someone is likely to want one again. Sounds obvious once I say it, yeah? And this is what you'll find with some people, they have a trainer on and off over the years, it's just a matter of who it'll be. Just be careful when asking about it, if you ask, "ever had a trainer?" some will think of those 2-3 initial gym sessions, "oh yeah I've had a trainer" - they don't mean 2x30' sessions a week for $100 for 6 months. So clarify that. But if they've spent money on training before, they'll do it again.

I really agree with someone having had pt before is more likely to do it again. I had someone sign up the other day, and honestly started out thinking that this introductory session one won't go well. When I was told she had a trainer before, that's when I though I might actually have a chance. Only a few sessions, but I got it. I really felt like I wanted to challenge and prove to be better than the other trainer. I hope she's telling me the truth when she says she finds my sessions helpful.

Its also interesting that when I try to talk to people about training those people often don't really seem to care.....However, I often get approached by people when I just go to a park and be training myself and people will come to me asking about cardios, different footwork drills, nutrition, etc.

Maybe I look too artificial or fake or forced when I am talking to people in a professional setting, whereas when I'm in more casual setting people find me more genuine.