Backseat clients

[ablessedunrest]

At this stage my work is giving me a lot of free clients (as part of the signup process. I also don't get paid for them at all). A few of them have been "backseat PT's". What I mean is they research stuff, ask loads of questions (countering what I say.... At least I had answers for everything so far)... One took the start up forms off me and said "I can fill it out quicker." How do you deal with these types of clients? Do you find that they ever sign up as PT clients? How do you get them to trust you?

Sorry for the noob question.

[KyleAaron]

Milkers. Many many questions, spend large chunks of your shift talking to you, hint they'll sign up, never do.

The snatcher is just impatient. That person won't even come to the gym regularly. "I've gotta do it gotta do it gotta go go go my time is important you know go go go!" Two workouts later: "I'm not jacked yet fck this my time is important you know go go go I quit!" This one may sign up, but get them to pay in advance, so long as you don't mind their missing everything but the first session then rocking up six months later to demand their money back.

Some people won't trust anyone, and will never sign up. Not everyone is willing or able to do personal training. It's about 3%. So you just have to talk to and work with a lot of people to find the ones who are willing and able to do it.

[dwill094]

Tell them bluntly,

"You have hired me to be your trainer, if you can't trust me or follow my advice then we can't work together."

[KyleAaron]

In this case, they're not hired her personally to train them. It's just the 3-pack kickstarter many gyms offer. You pay your joining fee, and they whack you with whichever trainer is willing to do 3 sessions for free in the hopes of signing the person up for more where the PT will actually get paid.

Now, the person has paid for these sessions (joining fee), but they don't perceive that they've done so (2/3 of new members waive them). People never value things as more than what they paid for them. So this kind of second-guessing is inevitable.

It declines with time, since on day one you as a trainer are never that confident with what you're presenting. And if you're not confident with it, why would the member or client be? As you become more confident with what you're presenting, so too will the gym members and PT clients.

Now, however confident and/or brilliant you are as a trainer, some people will listen, some won't. But as you go along in your career, you'll also learn the skill of quickly figuring out who the listeners will be, so you won't waste a lot of time with them.

[hdfitnessau]

Pretty much this!

[Ronin4help]

At this stage my work is giving me a lot of free clients (as part of the signup process. I also don't get paid for them at all). A few of them have been "backseat PT's". What I mean is they research stuff, ask loads of questions (countering what I say.... At least I had answers for everything so far)... One took the start up forms off me and said "I can fill it out quicker." How do you deal with these types of clients? Do you find that they ever sign up as PT clients? How do you get them to trust you?

Sorry for the noob question.

This should be a rare occasion, not worth worrying about. But if it happening so frequently that you need to inquire online, then something is not right with either the actual service you are offering or the information these people are being told regarding your services.

Your post would be similar to someone saying 'When I drive to work, people are constantly giving me the finger and blowing their horn at me. How do you guys deal with people like that?'

If this is happening a lot, then maybe it's the way you are driving and not the other people on the road.