Rarely do our students choose to become a Personal Trainer with earnings top of their agenda. I’m not saying income isn’t important, it is vital to the success of your PT business. It’s just that in our experience at the Academy of Fitness Professionals the overriding goal of most personal trainers is to help others. Secondary to this is to earn a living at the same time developing a successful PT business.

Most newly qualified Personal Trainers we know quickly encounter the price conundrum.

If I set my price too high it might put people off.

If I set my price too low I might not be earning what I’d hope to.

And, what should I do if my client wants to negotiate a discount? Do I give in and secure the on-going booking or stand firm and potentially lose the sale?

In this blog we aim to demystify how to price your personal training services along with some great tips on the art of price positioning.

What is Price

In a nutshell your price is simply the amount of money your clients are prepared to pay for your service. Different clients will look to you for different things, such as peak/off peak appointment times, lifestyle coaching, programmes to work on at home, nutritional advice, diet plans..and so the list goes on. With this in mind, your clients are all seeking different things, will place a slightly different value on your service and of course are all working to different budgets in terms of what they can affford.

Take a bottle of wine for example. Why is it that restaurants offer so many choices all positioned in a special wine menu for you to choose from? Why not just offer red or white at a fixed price? Imagine you’re taking your partner or a close friend out for a meal – it’s your treat. The wine list is presented to you and you’ve agreed on a medium red. The meals a special treat so you don’t really want to choose the cheaper house red but the exclusive wines at the other end of the scale look a bit on the pricey side. You swiftly agree on a bottle in the medium price range. Look closely and you’ll also find that surprise surprise there was the most choice here too.

The Price Conundrum

What you experienced in the restaurant was the careful art of pricing which we call the price conundrum, and it’s made up of 3 really simple things:-

1 – What do I want/need

2 – How much do I wish to pay?

3 – Is there something suitable on offer?

So how does this apply to setting your personal training prices?

Well the restaurant recognised that different people have different price points and by presenting a range of choices they maximise their wine sales by catering for all typers of customer.

After all when you glanced on the table to your left many have opted for the house red and the party of four to your right have chosen one of the most expensive choices. The restaurant carefully provides sufficient choice to cater for everyone whilst negotiating with you by offering the widest choice in the medium price range where it knows most of its customers choose to purchase.

Of course we’re discussing personal training not selling wine in a restaurant but the principles are the same. The skill behind your pricing is knowing that all customers who enquire with you will go through this pricing conundrum.

Setting Your Price

You now know that you need a range of options and services for your clients to choose from and that the majority will pick something in the middle.

Now it’s time to get creative. Imagine your personal training is that wine list. What does the house red look like? Perhaps it’s off peak times, your client travelling to you or group training slots. Now imagine the exclusive reds at the other end of the scale, what do they look like for your business? Maybe you’re including a programme to follow at home in between sessions, or a nutritional plan. Or perhaps you’ll be in more frequent contact with your client to support their motivation for change between visits. Now you’ve considered your service and pricing at the top and bottom end of your pricing scale it’s time to think about the middle part. Remember this is likely to be your bread and butter! Great tips to pricing here are to offer block packages of different durations. So for example a block of 5 personal trianing sessions is more expensive than a block of 10 and so on.

The Art of Negotiation

That brings us nicely onto the art of negotiation. Everyone in this day and age wants their money to go that little bit further so be prepared that your client may be looking for a better deal.

Remember the wine list method here and you won’t put a foot wrong. If the block of 5 sessions is a little more than they wanted to pay suggest that the block of 10 might offer better value. Here you’re negotiating your price based on something that’s of mutual benefit rather than simply discounting your earnings.

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