"Personal Trainer Sales"
How to get better at selling your Personal Training Services
Personal Trainer Sales: Once you become a personal trainer, you may find that the toughest part of your job is selling your services. I’ve lectured to thousands of new prospective trainers, and the #1 concern is always Personal Trainer sales.
I was deathly afraid of sales when I started working as a trainer. I’m a physical therapist by education, and had no sales or business experience when I began. What I have learned over my 10 years in the personal training industry, is that everyone likes sales if they learn how to apply the right lessons to their presentation.
Most people think sales is trying to convince someone to buy something that they might not want. That’s not sales that’s a bad idea.
Most people think that there is something special that they have to say to get the person to say “Yes”, but the truth is that Personal Trainer sales techniques and closing techniques only make up a small part of your results.
Closing (sales) techniques only account for 10% of the results in the sales process; however, your presentation accounts for 90% of your sales results.
If you want to improve your sales, you must first improve your presentation.
10 ways to improve your Personal Trainer sales presentation
1. You only get 1 chance to make a first impression. We always make a judgment with our eyes. Make sure your dress is appropriate and professional, and pay attention to your body language. Your body language should be attentive and inviting.
2. Focus on building rapport. Rapport means trust, and it is a well known fact that people don’t buy things from people they do not trust. After your first impression, your goal should be to get the person to like you.
3. Empathize: Empathy means understanding another’s feelings. You must listen to the person to truly understand their needs. Once you know their needs, you can more accurately provide a solution.
4. Assess their goals, knowledge, and fitness ability. This is an important step. Before you go out on the floor and just wing it, you should already have an idea about what the person wants to achieve, what they know about reaching their goal, and whether their body is prepared to do what they need to do in order to reach their goal.
5. Over Deliver: Consumers are getting smart, so my personal philosophy is Over Deliver to amaze your prospect. Some people say don’t give them too much in the beginning because they will never buy. But, this is not true. People don’t buy because your presentation is not good enough to show the person the value of your service. There’s also another hidden bonus of Over Delivering… your reputation skyrockets. You’ll be known as the awesome trainer who educated and inspired someone to reach their goals; versus, the trainer who showed someone some machines.
6. Enthusiasm: When you are excited about what you do, it comes off you in electromagnetic waves and attracts others to you. If you are de-motivated and lethargic, you won’t sell water to a man in the desert. After all, the #1 reason people hire a trainer is motivation!
7. Confidence: Confidence is just as important as enthusiasm. When you are confident, people are attracted to you and believe in you.
8. Smile: This needs no further explanation. Don’t forget to smile!
9. Practice your presentation. Planning your words and workouts in advance will increase your presentation quality 10 fold. Most people just wing it and say and do whatever comes to mind. One of the secrets of sales is that the good sales people plan their presentation in advance. Don’t worry if your plan is perfect. Any plan is better than no plan at all.
10. Never stop learning. You should read fitness magazines, nutrition books, attend seminars, and find a mentor in the industry. Everyone wants to hire an expert, and the only way to become an expert is to work at it.
Working on the above tips will improve your Personal Trainer sales, and the cool thing for you is that it’s not really sales that you have to work on. It’s you!
As you get better, your presentation gets better. And as your presentation gets better, your Personal Trainer sales go up.
Now, remember number 10—always learn more.
Studying Personal Trainer sales techniques and marketing philosophies will significantly add to your ability to close sales and get new clients to say yes. But before you master what to say you must master what to do.
The product (in any industry) must be excellent if it is going to stand up to the test of time. If the product is low quality, you may convince a few people to buy training, but they won’t stay and they won’t recommend anyone else to work with you.
See you at the top!
Yours in health,
Dr. Charles
About the Author
Dr. Charles Inniss of All-About-Abs.com is a Physical Therapist, Personal Trainer, and fitness author with over 10 years of experience in the health and fitness industry.
He has mentored thousands (YES, thousands!!!) of aspiring Personal Trainers and has helped countless Personal Training clients and patients achieve their fitness dreams.
Dr. Charles is also the author of several eBooks including How to Lose Belly Fat and Get a Flat Stomach. Check it out today!
We are happy to have Dr. Charles Inniss as a featured author and look forward to his future contributions!
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