Hey Fitness Pros,
We have a trainer on our team, Rob Cloke, who has been with us for almost 12 years. His schedule is always at capacity, he always hits bonuses and always reaches his revenue goals. So how does he do it and continue to do it for 12 years?! Well, we asked him and thought we’d share his thoughts with you!
1. Live the Part
• You have to have an Infectious personality – you have to have the type of personality that people want to be around!
• Compassion for people who need help – People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!
• Confidence in your ability – You’ve got to know you know what you know! And the best is to be known for what you know! Clients must fully believe that you are the training team that will get them to their goal
2. Look the Part
• Your body is your billboard – “Seeing is believing”
• If you can do it, you can teach me how to do it!
• Be attractive inside and out and people will be attracted to you
3. Logistics of Keeping a full schedule
• When you adhere to the above two points, keeping a full schedule is much easier
• To stay in the 87-95% requires these next easy tips:
a. Proactive schedule attentiveness
i. Fill ‘hard to fill’ time slots with clients with flexibility (ie retired people, business owners, stay at home moms/wives, clients who make their own schedules). Then put these clients into the 9-11am and 2-4pm time slots and keep the prime time spots open for those clients with less flexibility
b. Suggestive Selling
1. The more your client is with you, the faster they will reach their goals
2. Timing and approach is key – usually after a killer workout, endorphins are high. This is the time for the pitch. “Joe, we have been working out 1x/week. It’s time to step it up. My Wednesdays at 5:30 to 6:30 just opened up and I’m giving you first right of refusal. I’m confident this will accelerate you to your goals.”
c. Be organized and have keeping a full schedule at the fore-front of your mind
- Keep the week’s schedule in front of you at all times. This reminds you to fill those open times. Keep a copy on your desk and on your clipboard at all times. Ask Bill if he wants an extra session this week because Joe is out of town or ask Sally if she would like to do an hour this week instead of a half hour because Joe is out of town.
- Keep at your desk a list of clients and their contact numbers who would and could potentially fill these holes in your schedule.
- Call previous clients you haven’t seen in a while and offer them a timeslot. “Hey Jim, we haven’t seen each other in 2 months. It’s time to get you in for a program update. I’ve got this Thursday available at 9am.” Put a recurring reminder in your calendar to call those clients you only see once per month or once every other month otherwise you will forget and months will go by before you or they remember to call to schedule their program updates.
- Use your Customer Service reps for confirmation calls especially with new clients to reduce no-shows.
- Use Customer Service Reps to make calls for you when you are with clients. For example “Shantina, can you call Joe Black and ask if he’d like an hour on Thursday instead of 30 minutes because I want to do a performance assessment with him.”
I’m 100% confident if you follow these critical steps, your training hours and clientele base will increase! You’ll be helping more people and everyone wins!
If you have other tips that helped you increase your training frequency, please share a comment below so you can help other budding fitness trainers.
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
ps. We offer a full course and tons of materials on the Skills of Selling that will help too. Contact kari@nwpersonaltraining.com for details.
