In the past I’ve spent a fair amount of time prodding you to take advantage of the PR opportunities available for motivated, high-level, articulate trainers.  I know several of you have already secured your own local radio shows, your own columns in print media, and regular TV and radio spots on which you appear as experts.  I congratulate you . . . but that’s not why you did it.  You didn’t pursue those opportunities because you wanted my congratulations.  You pursued them because the opportunities offered a no-cost way to promote your business, and as you’ve learned, the return can be spectacular!

As a matter of fact, today I was driving to my office in the Miramar Park of Commerce.  I was headed East on Miramar Parkway, in a bit of a hurry to get to work, and I didn’t notice I had slipped into a right turn lane.  I zipped across the road, moving left, to get in the forward lane, and BLAMMO!  Flashing blue and red lights!  The officer came up to the car and stood behind me.  He wasn’t interested in making eye contact or conversation.  He said those all-too-familiar words, “license, insurance, and registration please.”  I attempted to explain, but he wasn’t about to give me the opportunity.  He told me to wait right where I was and he returned to his car to talk on that cool little radio cops have.  I saw him in my rear view mirror.  He was waiting for someone to get back to him, I guess to let him know if I had stolen the car I was driving or if I had any outstanding warrants.  He studied my license and a moment later, walked right up to my window.  “Hey, you’re the fitness guy on ZETA!  I listen to you all the time.  As you can see, I’ve let my body go a little bit since I got married (he patted his belly as he spoke) and I always hear you talking about how anyone can get back in shape.  What could I do to get started?”

I drove away with the policeman’s card and told him I’d invite him to my next seminar (hmmm . . . that’s not a bribe, is it?).  As I drove away I realized . . . I deserved a ticket.  I did knowingly make an illegal maneuver.  No ticket was issued.  Was I lucky?  Maybe, but I find luck happens more often when you aggressively seek out those opportunities that initially appear elusive.  If I had never been on radio I have a feeling the kind officer would have returned to my car with one of those pretty yellow little slips of paper.  I’m not suggesting you attempt PR so you can break the law and get away with it, but I do personally see the benefits of being perceived as an expert in many different ways.  In the past few weeks I’ve been interviewed for scores of articles in publications from the National Enquirer (really!) to Self Magazine.  Am I lucky?  Lucky that I learned long ago that PR opportunities only show up at your door when you don’t really need them, and that if you want to be respected as an expert, a guest, and a great interview, you’ve got to lay the groundwork.

The Club Industry Conference

I just met 170 trainers at the sessions I conducted at Club Industry in Chicago.  Maybe 3 out of 170 had actually capitalized on PR opportunities.  Interestingly, those 3 were the most vocal throughout the session, happy to share their experiences, relaying stories of great success.  One wrote a weekly column in the health section of her local newspaper.  She had more clients than she knew what to do with.  Another retained a client who was a bigwig at a local radio station and he now airs a weekly fitness tip every Friday.  He had just raised his fees from $35 to $75!  The third was appearing on the local TV news doing a 4-minute fitness segment every week.  His business nearly doubled since he started appearing.  The benefits are immediate once you gain perceived status as “an expert.”  If you haven’t taken advantage of the PR opportunities that await you, read through your back issues, pull out the ideas that you find most compelling, and start marketing yourself.

One thing that I find frustrating about the breakout sessions at large conferences, such as Club Industry, is that they’re limited to 90 minutes and the people in the room are all thinking on different planes when they arrive.  90 minutes is sufficient for me to unify the group’s mindset, to help them understand, conceptually, what it takes to be a true fitness professional, but it’s challenging to pull off the mindset adjustment and also deliver enough “how to” information to give trainers complete clarity.  After conducting these seminars for near 18 years, I’ve learned that in terms of actually facilitating improvement, the mindset is more important than the “how to.”  Once someone can clearly see a vision of potential, the "how to" almost falls into place.

As a result of my desire to really hammer home the perception shift, I often go off on related tangents, I answer questions, and I encourage full participation from the audience.  No two sessions are exactly the same.  Because I can’t predict precisely who will attend a given session, and what their greatest challenges will be, I make up a handout, but point out early on that it is simply a vehicle for taking notes.  I always apologize in advance in case I don’t complete the handout.  Completing the handout is not my mission.  Teaching trainers to implement success strategies is.  As a result, at the Club Industry conference, people left with handouts that were not completed and they feel as if they missed out on something.  In this issue I’m going to do two things.  One, I’m going to emphasize that they didn’t miss out on anything if they grasped the concepts of the Paid Small Group Orientation, the Series, the Retainer, and effective marketing.  OK.  I guess I finished with the first thing.  Now on to the second.  I’m going to include the information that completes the Club Industry handouts for my two sessions.  For many of you much of it will be a review, but it’s important to frequently return to the fundamentals.  This issue will put those fundamentals together whether you’re a facility owner, a Personal Trainer, or both.  For those of you who were at the Club Industry conference, your apprehensions about what you might have missed out on will be alleviated.

Excellence

My first session was titled Achieving Excellence For Your Club.  While it was for health club and personal training studio owners, I was surprised how many fitness directors and personal trainers showed up.  Many expressed that they were hoping to open a facility in the future and they wanted to do things correctly from the start.  I’ll describe the content here as it applies to facility owners, but if you are an independent trainer working without your own facility, you’ll be able to pick and choose the rules that apply.

I started the session out by discussing the word “Paradigm.”  A paradigm is a set of rules or guidelines that become associated with a specific undertaking or career.  I started in the health club industry in 1978 and I’ve watched it go through some stunning changes.  Back when I started, and right up through about the mid to late 80’s, the paradigm for health club operation was as follows:

“Build a clean club with adequate equipment, implement an aggressive sales force and ad campaign, and expect to lose 50% - 75% of your members when their annual memberships expire.”

That was the mentality under which the great majority of commercial health clubs operated.  Revenue was almost synonymous with membership.  Customer service was virtually non-existent, and attentions were placed on collections and appointment setting.  At the time, the paradigm worked, at least in terms of profitability.  As we completed the 1980’s and moved into the 90’s, the industry started going through a very distinctive change.  The market was growing narrow, as so many people had been alienated by health clubs.  People walked in with their guard up and their hands on their wallets because they knew . . . those sales people will go to great lengths to pressure, to coerce, and ultimately, to obtain a signature and a credit card.!  If you think about the big picture, it doesn’t seem realistic to believe that that old paradigm could have lasted forever as a standard for health club operation.  After all, if 75% of the health club members aren’t renewing, that means at least 75% of health club members were disappointed.  Waste enough money on memberships you don’t use, and it’s only a matter of time until you decide, “health clubs aren’t for me.”

Aside from the alienation of prospects and members, new challenges emerged for those independent or small chain health club owners operating under the old paradigm.

The mega clubs started expanding with centralized administration allowing them to operate with a lower cost per club.

The non-profit clubs began expanding into the commercial realm . . . with tax-exempt status allowing them to operate at roughly 60% of the costs of a conventional commercial health club.  They began to rival the top health clubs’ equipment selections, bells and whistles, and variety of fitness classes and programming.

If a mega club opens in your backyard, or a YMCA happens to negotiate a deal for the land down the street, it’s very hard to compete . . . especially if you’re operating under the old set of rules.

There are yet further challenges.  As competitors operate with reduced overhead, our costs go up in quest of excellence.  In other words, if you decide you’ll be better than the competition because you’ll bring in a more experienced, educated, and professional staff, you’re going to see payroll escalate rapidly.

There are also more perceived solutions out there than ever . . . ranging from fat burners to ab trimmers, from diet programs to infomercials.  These offerings compete with club membership offerings, and they can compete with much lower price tags.

I know . . . it’s starting to look glum for the independent health club operator.  Don’t worry.  There are plenty who are making things happen . . . big time!  They’ve just learned to a adopt a new paradigm, a set of rules for the 21^st century.  In my session I referred to the “new” paradigm as, “The Management Paradigm for Excellence.”

The new paradigm looks something like this . . .

“Sell consistently, deliver a quality product, manage payroll and costs, hire and develop exceptional performers, and strive to deliver more value than people expect while encouraging members to happily spend.”

The new paradigm is clearly a shift from the older operating mentality.

My intention in this session was to actually demonstrate how I brought a club from the brink of bankruptcy to the point of healthy profitability, pointing out the rules and guidelines along the way.  Before I actually discussed the club, I felt it important to discuss the Stages of Fitness Business Growth:

Almost every health club opens its doors in a state of chaos. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, at least not initially.  The trick lies in managing chaos, and finding your way out of it within a relatively short time period.  In the initial stages of chaos, passion runs high, enthusiasm prevails, and the challenges become clear.

Most club owners in this session felt they were stuck in the Chaos stage.  Before I went into precise methodologies for achieving excellence, I felt it important to provide some preliminary rules.  I wanted to work to develop what I have already explained to you as the new paradigm.  One great way to develop a paradigm is to find role models who are achieving excellence, and learn from them!

I’m thankful I’ve had my share of role models, and when I had the opportunity to interact with them, I became a sponge, soaking up every bit of success information I could find.

One of my role models is Joe Weider.  Joe taught me the following rules that absolutely play into the new paradigm:

Without benefit oriented emotion-driven marketing, even the best products will fail!

That comes from Joe’s own experience, however, if you evaluate the revenue growth of any successful product or service, you’ll find it applies across the board.  I think you’re well aware that there are many products, from Bee Pollen to Apple Cider Vinegar that have been sold massively through emotion driven marketing, even though the value of these products is questionable.  I’m sure you can also think of some health clubs that had what you believed to be inferior products, yet the money poured in.  Why?  Emotion driven marketing. 

If as a health club or studio owner you have the greatest personal training staff in the world, and your facility is stacked with exceptional equipment, something has to drive people through the door before you can sell a single membership.  Fail to market by tapping into people’s emotions and you’re in for quite a struggle.  Push the right emotional buttons consistently and business will literally flow to you.

The second rule I learned from Joe Weider:

A Business Founded in Passion Must Stay True to Its Mission

As trainers and fitness professionals, we all operate businesses that were founded out of our passion to help others.  Too often I see people who have potentially thriving businesses and exponential growth potential get sidetracked by the lure of quick money.  I’ve seen trainers alienate all of their clients by becoming aggressive marketers of multi level marketing nutrition offerings.  I’ve seen health clubs try to become Physical Therapy centers and wind up with a For Sale sign on their front lawns. 

You have to be true to your core business.  If you are driven by passion, it becomes relatively simple to focus that passion toward finding a way to making it pay.  If you let go of that passion, work begins to manage you rather than the other way around.

Another role model that I personally learned from is Lee Labrada.  Lee has been a consulting client of mine, a frequent guest on my radio show, and most importantly, a friend.  I watched as Lee used his bodybuilding acclaim to launch a nutritional supplement company and I witnessed both his mistakes, and his phenomenal achievements.  In considering my experience with Lee, I can pull out two rules, both of which have proven invaluable in the continuous growth of my own business.

Maintaining a Position of Integrity Can Be Your #1 Sales Tool.

Never Consider Surrender, even Giants Can Be Defeated.

If you know anything about Lee Labrada, I’m sure you’ll see how these rules apply.  In an industry where deception and exaggeration are more the rule than the exception, Lee guarantees his label claims and the quality of his ingredients.  “If it’s on the label, it’s in the package.”  I remember the early days of Labrada Nutrition, where Lee, his wife Robin, and a skeleton crew of passionate but not yet experienced assistants, went head to head against the massive giants of the sports nutrition field.  This shouldn’t be surprising, as Lee took the very same approach when preparing to get up on the Bodybuilding Stage, and his track record proves it . . . Giants Can Be Defeated.

The third role model I’d like to reflect on is Joe Cirulli.  I’ve written about Joe in several different publications.  Many of you met him at my East Coast PEAK Training Forum in May of 2002.  Joe is an incredible motivator, maintains great vision, and is committed to success at all costs.  The first five health clubs Joe worked for went out of business.  That was his education in how “not” to run a health club.  Here’s what I learned from Joe:

Past Failures Have Nothing To Do With Potential For Success

A Well Trained Staff Sharing a Common Mission becomes an unstoppable force.

There are three traits Joe Weider, Lee Labrada, and Joe Cirulli share.  They all had:

Preparing for Growth

We all seek growth as nothing really stays exactly as it is.  You and your business are either growing, or you’re moving in the other direction.  When I work with fitness facilities, in order to prepare for growth, I find it important to first Determine the Present State of the Organization.  The three possibilities are:

Dependence indicates that the entire operation is dependent solely upon an owner, manager, or CEO, and that head honcho is constantly running around putting out figurative fires.

Independence indicates a working model where each department is at some level self-sufficient and can operate within the parameters of goals, commitments, and budgets.

Interdependence is the most advanced stage of business operation, and it is far and away the most valuable.  Interdependence suggests that each entity, each employee, or each department not only maximizes potential independently, but also feeds the potential of others throughout the corporation.  If you’re operating a health club in the 21^st Century, Interdependence is where you want to be.

Once the present stage of the organization is clearly identified, we need rules and ideas so we can formulate a cohesive plan.  I’ve already covered some general rules provided by role models.  Now let’s look at some specific success rules for health club operation:

1. The front desk is the control center.  It is essential that the front desk is staffed, but overstaffing can be a costly mistake.  Most clubs can operate with one front desk attendant 60% of operating hours.

2. Personal Trainers should never be a liability. They should receive a percentage of revenues that they generate.

3. Written job descriptions are a necessity

4. Sales personnel should have the ability to earn significant income in direct correlation to significant sales

5. Membership prices should be consistent and firm

6. Marketing dollars should be a percentage of the previous month’s sales (i.e. 7%).  Failure to track ads leads to risk of cost outweighing production.

7. If a Profit Center isn’t generating a profit, it shouldn’t exist.

Those are the rules I use to formula a plan to move a fitness facility operation from chaos to organization, from dependence to independence.

The next part of this issue is sort of like a “how to manual” for taking a club out of chaos.  I’ll walk you through the process using an imaginary club, but I’m sure you’ll figure out . . . the imaginary club is based on actual events at actual facilities.

The First Step: Identifying the Bright Spots

Before you attempt to correct issues and problems, you need a clear picture of your resources.  In Club X, I identified some overriding bright spots:

1. The club had sold 1,000 memberships in 5 months.  That demonstrates that it is a saleable product.
2. The demographics in the area were strong with a very high disposable income
3. The immediate area lacked a fitness facility operating under a paradigm of excellence
4. The club was large, well equipped, and clean

The potential for success was there.  We then move on to the next step:

The Second Step: Identifying the Challenges

Upon close inspection, a chaotic business has inherent individual challenges that warrant immediate action.  One common challenge is most clubs is a weak bridge from the point of sale and Personal Training.  To optimize potential for profit, there must be an emphasis upon connecting new members with trainers.  This could be the single most powerful step in kicking profitability into high gear.

I won’t get into detail on the challenges I identified at Club X, but I will provide a summation.

The front desk was overstaffed, payroll was near 50% of revenues, the sales manager was paid an exorbitant salary although sales were unstable, there wasn’t any direct link between the point of sale and personal training, the juice bar was losing money every month, and there weren’t any written job descriptions resulting in a chaotic free for all.

I know at first glance that sounds as if the club was a complete and total mess, but remember the bright spots.  It just needed some cleaning up.

Maximizing Internal Leadership

With the bright spots identified, and the challenges isolated, it was time to work from the top down . . . to maximize the impact of the leader. Remember, leaders have visions, missions, and plans, so before we could take aggressive action to correct the shortcomings, the owner had to refine his mission, establish a clear vision of the organization stage, and create a written plan.

The Mission must be a compelling underlying reason for the facility’s existence.  The mission ties in with the passion that drove you to start the business in the first place.

The Vision must be a clear image of the Organization stage.  In zeroing in on a crystal clear vision, you have to provide answers to the following questions:

• What are the specifics that exist that make the facility unique?
• What is the unique selling proposition that is backed up by service?
• What can members come to expect without being disappointed?

The Plan must be in writing offering a comprehensive set of guideposts by which you can monitor and evaluate progress.  The plan must include budgets and financial forecasts, written job descriptions for all positions, standards that will separate non-productive employees from those with potential to grow, a marketing plan emphasizing community awareness of the facility, direct marketing to establish a “position” in the marketplace, and an internal marketing plan to connect members with profit centers.

Is that a lot of work?  Putting together a comprehensive written plan?  Absolutely, but it may very well be the most important determining factor as to what your future holds.  Whether you are a Personal Trainer, studio owner, health club operator, or fitness competitor, I urge you to crystallize your vision, your mission, and your plan.

Getting to the Nitty Gritty

Once the bright spots are identified, the challenges isolated, and the vision, mission, and plan are all in place, it’s time to take those aggressive actions that will move the club out of the danger zone.

In order to fix the chaotic operation at Club X, the following steps were in order:

Terminate non-productive staff members and hire qualified individuals for the first Tier of Management (i.e. Fitness Director, Membership Director)

Work with the new managers to create a shared vision for the new team

Establish a compensation program with incentives for production

Hire high-level trainers with recognized credentials

Put the new hires through two weeks of intensive training prior to them taking their places on the workout floor.

The training of the Personal Training staff must include extensive focus on marketing and building overall profit center revenue.

An overall marketing plan must be designed including combined advertising, internal marketing, and outreach, and kick it off by planning an event that attracts the community.

A daily focus must be placed upon membership and revenue goals

Close controls using a bookkeeping system, purchase orders, and petty cash accountability must be implemented and maintained.

Let’s review the stages of fitness business organization:

In order to grow a company interdependently, there some other rules, rules that lead from a place of organization and independence to excellence and interdependence:

You must have a company-wide emotional buy-in.  This is a must for growth, for positive working environment, and if you hope to send a consistent message to members.  The entire staff has to buy in (emotionally) to your vision, mission, and plan.

The Leader Must Lead.  That doesn’t mean must put out every fire, but instead follow the old ABC’s of the One Minute Manager.  Activate actions, measure Behavior, apply Consequences.

You must build various tiers of excellence.  The first level management staff should have authority to make hiring decisions (when budget allows).  The second level staff should be hired experts and professionals.  These include sales experts and fitness professionals.  The third tier should be the “bullpen,” individuals who want to become experts and professionals, but have to do their time in less prestigious positions as a trial period.

You must creatively offer incentives in order to keep momentum high.  Reward for production, but do not pay for effort.  Effort without production is time wasted.

Recognize your top performers as well as the second and third tier people who perform exceptionally well.  Recognition breeds future achievement.  This can include employee of the month programs, newsletter pieces, or the awarding of gift certificates of plaques.  Public praise in a meeting is an inexpensive way to ensure employee loyalty and production.

What you have here is a list of governing rules that can take any business from chaos to excellence, and in order to set a standard, we need to clearly identify the New Paradigm for Excellence in our field.

The New Paradigm

Sell consistently, deliver a quality product, manage payroll and costs, hire and develop exceptional performers, and strive to deliver more value than people expect while encouraging members to happily spend.

The Personal Trainers

The next session I conducted at Club Industry was specifically for Personal Trainers.  It was titled, “Redefining Personal Training Professionalism for the 21^st Century.”  I started out by asking the trainers in attendance to answer the 3 questions that lay the groundwork in most of my trainer seminars.

1. Why Have You Chosen The Business of Personal Training?
2. Who, In General Terms, is Your Competition
3. If You Were To Write A Job Description For Yourself, What Would Your Primary Responsibility Be?

It’s interesting how in every seminar the answers to these questions are the same.  They chose their career out of a passion for fitness, out of a desire to help others.  Independent trainers initially express that the large health club chains are their competition.  Their job descriptions never include sales or marketing, but always related directly to customer service.  As you might have surmised by now, I know the trainer mentality well.

After a brief discussion reviewing the predictable responses, I express that as professionals, if we truly position ourselves as professionals, we can eliminate any competition.

We then get into a discussion about “the Big Guys,” the mega clubs with massive advertising budgets.  Are they competition for the struggling independent trainer?  At some level the answer would have to be yes.

The strength that the Big Guys have is plain and simple . . . lots and lots and lots of money.  Trainers or independent clubs can never compete with the marketing power of the large health club chains.  In order to do battle, the independent fitness operator has to separate himself or herself from “The Big Guys” by maximizing the value of the trainer’s great strength.  What is that strength?  It’s twofold.  Caring and the ability to satisfy.  Do the large health club chain operators care?  Sure . . . about money.  We care about people. 

Can the large health club chain operators satisfy?  Statistically, 95% of their members don’t even show up regularly!  We have the ability to not only satisfy people, but to thrill each and every one, that’s 100%, or our clients!

In order to create that separation, to position yourself as being different than the other advertised fitness and weight loss solutions, you should live by the following promise.  Promise to consistently deliver more value than people expect!

Is that hard to do?  Nope.  There’s a difference between what people “hope” for and what they “expect.”  While they hope they develop lean, toned bodies, most people are so used to fitness failure they’re shocked when they finally achieve a result.  If you focus on delivering more value than expected, you’ll wind up thrilling each and every one of your clients.

Setting Your Fees

It’s amazing to me how trainer fees run the gamut.  I meet trainers who are charging $15 an hour.  The average trainer in 2000 made $10 an hour.  I charge $200 per hour!  Am I 20 times more valuable than the average trainer?  Ego aside, I’d have to say yes, but so are you!  The average trainer doesn’t subscribe to newsletters or attend conferences.  The reason I’ve achieved such great results in helping trainers increase their income is in part because I’m only attracting those who have the passion, the commitment, the desire, and the willingness to work.

If you’re closer to the $10 number than to the $200 number, think carefully.  If, in fact, you are delivering more value than people expect shouldn’t you be treated as a professional?  Doesn’t a professional deserve to be justly compensated?  Do you believe if you raise your fees you’ll cost too much?  Then your thinking isn’t yet aligned with mine.

There is a distinction between “cost” and “value.”  If someone fails to receive value, they will perceive their expenditure to be a cost, but if that same someone delivers value that exceeds his or her expectations, the expenditure is viewed as an investment.  I understand why you might start out with fees at $35, but realize that your fees are marketing.  Your fees, in part, affect the perception others have of you.  Once you set your value too low, it’s difficult to break out of the low-income trap.

Forget about the word cost. I want you to think in terms of value.  If you can change somebody’s life in a positive way, improve their health, help them love their reflection, boost their self-confidence, and feel better about themselves, is there any question that service has significant value, value in line with doctors and lawyers?

As I’ve shared with you before, there are three ways to increase profits:

1. More clients
2. More actions per client
3. More $$ per action

If you’ve been a subscriber for some time you know that already.  What do trainers conventionally do to attract new business?  They do FREE stuff.  Free consultations, free fitness assessments, and free workout sessions.  Let’s think about a Golf Pro for a minute.  If you joined a country club, and paid $30,000, and you wanted to take some golf lessons, would you expect the Pro to teach you for free?  Not if you have any common sense.  You recognize that this is his livelihood, and by virtue of his position, he is a professional and deserves to be treated as one.  Ask a doctor to treat you for free with the promise that if you like the treatment you’ll come back next time your ill.  He’ll either have you arrested or laugh you out of the office.

It’s time Fitness Trainers began to see themselves as “Professionals.”  If we aspire to lead the field, we shouldn’t follow convention.  We must identify tactics and methodologies capable of generating excellence.

In the session at Club Industry, I shared three vital foundational business concepts that are often ignored by Personal Trainers:

1. Make Sure Your Pumps Exceed Your Drains (revenue pumps that is)
2. Develop a plan – Without a Plan You Never Know If You’re On Course
3. The More People You Thrill The Greater Your Potential For Profit and Growth

Much as the role models I shared earlier, much as the top health club owners, the top Personal Fitness Trainers have some clearly discernible attributes that lead to success:

A Successful Trainer . . .

• Has a Plan
• Recognizes the Drains Associated With a Business
• Learns to Manage the Fine Balance Between Dollars Coming In and Dollars Going Out
• Has Value
• Delivers More Value Than People Expect
• Commands Professional Respect

Those of you who have my Profits book, or who have attended my PEAK seminar, have learned in some detail about the Seven Mistakes Personal Trainers Make That Cripple Their Profitability.  I won’t get into them here, but I will list them, as this ties in closely with the content matter this month.

The Seven Mistakes

Trainers . . . .

1. Try To Keep Their Clients Indefinitely
2. Try To Sell With Features
3. Give Away Their Valuable Service
4. Sell Packages
5. Focus On Taking People Through Workouts
6. Believe Marketing = Advertising
7. Believe Business Cards and Flyers Will Work

By now you should be able, with some careful thought, to discern why all seven of these actions are mistakes.

If we are going to deliver value, we have to recognize what it is that our clients want.  I know initially you’d come up with answers such as “they want to lose weight,” or “they want great abs.”  That may be true, but those are not wants as much as vehicles.  They want those things because they believe they will bring them to a place where the feel better about themselves.  I’ve shared this in previous issues, but it’s important and bears repeating.

People Want:

• To Feel Good
• To Make a Positive Change
• To Be Empowered
• To Know Achievement and Potential

Trainers who focus on “taking people through workouts” give up their power by ignoring the importance of developing skills of influence.  Trainers often shy away from selling, yet their competitors are full willing to sell aggressively which puts the trainer at a major disadvantage

Trainer Gain Profit Power by mastering skills of influence.

There are four terms that I define in my sessions, as these are four areas that together can have a very dramatic impact upon profitability.

The Consultation – this replaces the free consultation.  It’s an actual session, an hour spent one-on-one, trainer and client.  I believe you should charge consistently for your time, thus, if someone wants to consult with you, your hourly rate should be at least as much as it would be if this person were to commit to ongoing sessions.

The Series – this replaces the selling of packages, where you collect money that isn’t rightfully yours until you’ve completed your session commitment.  Trainers destroy the perception of their value by discounting sessions in exchange for commitment.  Isn’t commitment a requirement if someone wants to make a positive physical change?

The Orientation – this is a small group session that serves as an introduction to supportive eating, to exercise realities, to important fat loss concepts, and to taking complete control of someone’s metabolism.  The Greatest Challenge The Professional Trainer Faces is Public Perception.  The trainer needs a forum where he or she can prove to clients that there is true value here.  The Orientation is that forum.  Because it is a group (ideally between 3 and 8 people), you are not compromising your fees when you charge less than you would for a standard one-on-one session.  I suggest the Orientation is priced at 25 – 30% of your regular per session fees.

Marketing – many trainers believe that marketing and advertising are one and the same.  Advertising is a form of marketing, but I don’t believe it’s financially sound for a trainer to rely on advertising to generate business.  Marketing can be cost-free.  Marketing is any activity that puts your likeness, name, voice, or image in front of your target market.  Advertising always has a cost involved.  Even with health club businesses, I believe optimally advertising would be 5% of their marketing.  There are so many ways you can promote without tying up money and moving into a deficit position.

We are in a field that has unfortunately over the past two decades positioned us to fail.  As personal trainers, we face some challenges people in other industries are able to bypass.

Challenges Trainers Face

• There isn’t a standardized recognition of professionalism
• Most trainers give their services away
• If we charge fees equal to other professionals in other fields, we appear comparatively expensive in our own field.
• We appear to be the most painful option in a field of quick fixes.
• In order to establish value, we have to separate ourselves from the rest of the pack.

And one challenge that a mentioned just a few paragraphs ago that bears repeating . . .

• The Greatest Challenge the Professional Trainer Faces is Public Perception.

Remember, in order to modify perception, we need a forum.  We need to position ourselves as experts and become resources for basic understandable truth.  The Orientation is that forum.

Marketing Ideas

You know I’ve already given you scores of powerful marketing ideas in previous issues.  There are a few that I’ve gone to great lengths to explain in the months past, but there are four that I want to highlight as they consistently prove very powerful in increasing trainer perception and revenue.

Become A Published Author

This might sound difficult, but all you really have to do is write a fitness related article, print it, laminate it, and hang it from the handlebar of the stationary bike in your health club.  That’s a start. With time you should start to develop some media concepts and seek out opportunities to write a regular column for a local periodical.

Be A Media Guest

I started this issue by talking about the power of being a media guest.  It instantly positions you as an expert.  Start out by contacting the smaller radio stations with a press release related to a timely, newsworthy, or shocking story.  With perseverance, you’ll find a great payoff (you might even get out of a ticket or two).

Seminars

Sure, you can promote for-fee seminars and not only generate significant revenue, but you can also captivate and compel your audience so you pick up recurring clients.  It’s just that unless you have a name for yourself, it’s challenging to get people to pay to hear you speak.  I’d suggest you start out by speaking at schools, corporate luncheons, and networking meetings.  That will allow you to hone your skills and begin to build a seminar program that can ultimately be your strongest marketing asset.

Medical Affiliation

Too many trainers try to connect with doctors by knocking on doors requesting a “you-refer-me, I’ll-refer-you” relationship.  These attempts rarely prove fruitful.  Doctors have far more on their minds than to recommend to every patient a trainer who popped in one fateful day to drum up business.  Do doctors need your referrals?  Even if they did, do you really have all that many clients and contacts who have immediate need for medical attention?  I’ve found a far more effective method of affiliating with doctors.  Create a platform where you stand alongside three or four doctors.  There are two powerful ways to do this.  One is to find three or four doctors willing to write articles for a newsletter you’re going to produce.  You will write an article as well.  Readers of the newsletter see an article by a doctor, another article from a doctor, yet another article from a doctor, and an article from you. Their perception of your value is instantly raised.  When you produce the newsletter, each doctor will receive a nice stack that will be handed out in their waiting area.  They’re thrilled to participate in distribution, since doctors, like trainers, have egos and love seeing their name and a validation of their intelligence in print.  The other way to create a medical affiliation is to establish a monthly health night at a health club you work with.  Each month, a doctor gives a 45-minute seminar . . . and you work yourself into the rotation.  Each month, the doctors who aren’t presenting set up tables where they can interact with people at their leisure.  Of course you’ll have a table as well.  Again, the perception is, you have an expertise in line with medical professionals.

Club Owners and Trainers

The final point I’d like to make before concluding with a review is that club owners and trainers speak different languages.  Club owners have usually strapped themselves financially, mortgaged their homes, gotten loans from banks, and are in an ongoing struggle to not only repay all necessary debts, but also to try to make a few dollars in the process.  Trainers think about helping people.  Very often trainers tell me their health club owners don’t care about personal training.  That’s because it’s being presented in a different language than club owners respond to.

A typical conversation in which a trainer wants to convince a club owner to make changes in the personal training program has the trainer saying something like this, “and I’m certified and I really have a knack for getting people results, and I know a lot of the members, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  The club owner’s attention is elsewhere.  If you’re going to influence a club owner, you have to speak to him in a language he understands.  Money.

In my seminars I ask the question, “What is an annual membership worth?”  Someone usually calls out, “four hundred dollars.”  Others in the room report higher figures, but what they’re actually doing is telling me the membership price.  I didn’t ask what the membership costs, I asked what it’s worth.

If a club sells memberships for $400 and 95% of the members fail to show up regularly, 50 – 75% of the members don’t renew when their memberships expire, and active members aren’t contributing to the immediate bottom line, that club starts each new month with a desperate struggle to sell more memberships.  Until it’s positioned properly, few owners recognize the true potential of a personal training force.  Let’s say the club has 2,000 members, and 10% of them connect with a Personal Trainer only once a month.  That means 200 people each month will be contributing money toward the club’s bottom line.  If the club were to receive only $10 per session (and they should receive more), they’d increase their monthly revenue by $2,000.  That’s $24,000 in a year!  But that’s only a starting point.

Personal Training is the pivotal profit center as it is capable of feeding all other avenues for profit.  When a trainer tells his client how valuable a post workout recovery drink is . . . you can be sure that client’s going to start plopping down $3.50 after every workout.  If the same 200 members who took advantage of personal training buy only one $3.50 drink per week, four per month, the club would increase monthly revenues by nearly another $3,000!  Initiated by the training team!

Recognize that the club owner you might have been trying to influence was unresponsive to your past attempts at initiating change because you were speaking the wrong language.  Explain the positive impact you’ll have on the bottom line and I don’t think there’s a club owner in the country who wouldn’t at least give you a chance to prove yourself.

WRAP UP AND REVIEW

In closing, I’ll note the key points I addressed in my Club Industry session. These points should help you integrate everything I discussed, every idea that flew out of your head while you were reading, and every “next move” you can make into your plan.

That should help you align your thinking to make a few shifts in your business that when stacked upon each other can help you double, triple, or in some cases quadruple your income!  Of course, there will be more empowering information next to come. . . ‘til then, STAY FIT AND KEEP GROWING!

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