So you’ve decided to become a Personal Trainer?

Chances are if you’ve decided this is the career for you that you love sport and fitness, enjoy a healthy lifestyle, like working with people and are a good communicator.

But what about sales? Are Personal Trainers sales people? Is there an art to securing new clients?

In this blog we demystify these questions and reveal the techniques the best Personal Trainers we know use time and time again.

Before we get into the nitty gritty however I’m curious about why you decided to become a Personal Trainer? Is it that you love sport? Are naturally active and maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle? Did you study PE or sports science at school or Uni? Perhaps you’re entering employment? or seeking a career change? There are many fascinating reasons why people enter this exciting industry and the potential they have to offer the UK population to improve their health and fitness never ceases to amaze me.

Many wannabe Personal Trainers are interested in coaching, enjoy working with people and consider themselves as good motivators to help clients attain results.

All of this is good stuff. But consider this for a moment…

To grow your Personal Trainer business you need to attract potential clients (new enquiries), understand their needs (the fact find), explain what your service has to offer and how it can help (features and benefits), agree a price (the pitch) and secure a booking (the close)…and this is selling.

It’s only afterwards once you’ve taken the booking that you can start planning your approach, designing the first session and mapping out how you can support your client’s goals.

Tried and Tested Sales Techniques

1 – Know your Client

Find out what your clients key driver is for using a Personal Trainer.

Make sure you tailor your service, approach and package to suit their needs.

2 – Ask Open Questions

These encourage your prospective client to do most of the talking and you’re job is to listen carefully. Remember the more you’re able to find out the more you’ll be able to help and the more likely you’ll be to secure a booking.

Some great questions include;

• Tell me a bit about what you’re hoping to achieve?
• What’s your current lifestyle like?
• How do you think a Personal Trainer can help you?

3 – Be Clear on your Features and Benefits

Features are what you have to offer (your service) and benefits are how these can help your prospective client.

Here’s an example;

You mentioned you were looking for 1 session a week? We can meet up weekly and I’ll provide a training programme for you to follow in between our sessions which will enable you to train regularly and gain results.

4 – Agree Next Steps

If your client doesn’t book, it doesn’t mean they won’t! A lot of people want to think about it, speak to a few trainers or chat to their partner. This is all perfectly understandable and a natural part of the decision making process.

Be ready with a suitable response and possible next step.

For example;

A follow up call

A trial session

A meeting

Emailing testimonials

Anita Lemon is Business Director at the Academy of Fitness Professionals. She has accumulated nearly 20 years’ experience in business, finance and sales together with a particular interest in nutrition and kids’ nutrition.