Are the clients buying what you’re selling?

Put yourself in your potential client’s shoes. Why would they fork over a large amount of cash to train with a person they barely know? Or, when they become clients, how do you keep them coming back? The answer is in the buy-in.

Are the clients buying what you’re selling?

Most clients come to trainers with only a vague idea of what they want. They expect the trainer to have all the answers, and they dump it all in your lap, hoping you find a solution.

But making the client part of this process is where the real magic happens.

Create Client Buy-In

You start by creating client buy-in. This buy-in makes it easier to sign and keep clients and leads to better client results. It may sound too good to be accurate, but it isn’t. A few tweaks to what you’re doing will help improve your income and lead to happier clients.

Here are five ways to make this happen:

1. Client Assessment: Use Motivational Client Techniques

Meeting a potential client for the first time is a nerve-racking experience. And the client is probably nervous too. You want to make an excellent first impression, and the potential client is way out of their comfort zone to make a lasting change.

But this is the perfect time to drill down on what the client wants and needs.

After you’ve gone through the standard questions on your client assessment and they’ve given you a vague goal they want to achieve, this is the time to make them part of the process.

This is the time to ask open-ended questions using motivational interview techniques first coined by Dr. William R. Miller and Dr. Stephen Rollnick in the 1980s to aid substance use disorders.

Here are examples of open-ended questions taken from the PTA Global

Program Design Questionnaire (PDQ):

• Why is this goal most important to you?
• How would that affect your life if you don’t make these changes and stay the way you are or regress in your health and fitness?
• What consequences could occur?
• When you successfully reach your goal, in what way will life be different?
• What benefits are most important to you?
• On a scale from 1-10, how important is it for you to make these changes now? Why is it not a two or a three?
• What would it take to make it go one number higher?
• Do you believe you can make these changes?
• On a scale from 1-10, how confident are you?
• What would it take to make it (one level higher)?
• Are you ready and willing to change now?
• In what ways do you believe I can help you?

2. Finding Your Client’s Real Why

Now you have the client’s goal and how committed they are to it, it’s time to dig into the real why behind their goal.

After going through countless client assessments and hearing the same generic responses:

“I want to lose 20 pounds.”

“I want to feel better.”

“I want to look better.”

“I don’t recognize the person in the mirror anymore.”

These responses are a good starting point, but it doesn’t tell you anything. The question is, why do they want it? When they find their way, they have some skin in the game and a reason to stick with your training.

Ask your potential client the five whys to get to their real reason for a change.

Here are examples:

Q. Why do you want to train with me?

A. To lose 20 pounds.

Q. Why 20 pounds?

A. Because I’ll get down to my old high school weight.

Q. Why is that important to you?

A. Because I want my energy and bounce back, like when I was in high school.

Q. Why is getting your energy back currently important?

A. My wife is about to have a baby. A baby, fantastic news.

Q. Why will a 20-pound weight loss help?

A. Because I want to be the best help and role model for my child.

Now you have your client’s why.

3. Personal Assessment

Assessing your clients physically by taking measurements, checking body fat, and reviewing their weightlifting history is a no-brainer.

The client needs to know if they’re making progress, and you need to know if your program is working.

But how’s your performance? You think you might be doing great, but the client may have different ideas. Therefore, creating a questionnaire to rate your performance is a good idea.

Here are some example questions:

• What’s one thing you dislike about my coaching?
• Everyone has exercises they love and hate. Name an exercise you like and one you don’t.
• What’s one thing that you’d like me to start doing?
• Have your goals changed?
• What’s one thing that you’d like me to keep doing?

The client will know you take them and their goals seriously. And you have things you will work on to become a better coach.

This outcome is a win-win.

4. Education

Clients come to you for either performance or to look, feel, and move better. But they often don’t see how training improves (besides vanity) their life outside of the gym. This is where you step in.

It is important to help clients join the dots between the exercises they do and how it improves their lives outside of vanity.

You do this by educating them on the correlation between the exercises and how it improves their life. For example, it carries increasing grip strength to open the pickle jar.

Doing this creates credibility for you and your programming. Plus, it helps the client buy into what they’re doing and see the why behind what they’re doing.

It would be best if you took every opportunity to educate your clients so they can make better decisions when you’re not around.

5. Program Choices

Finding the exercises that the client likes and dislikes (like mentioned in point three) makes the client a vital part of the process.

This keeps the client happy, and the buy-in generated from the client is second to none.

Your programming mixes what the client needs (not wants) and what their goals are. Often that doesn’t leave much wiggle room in your program for fun stuff like curls, tricep extensions.

Instead, take a leaf out of Tony Gentilcore’s book and throw open the last five minutes to the client to work on what they want to train.

Tell them, “We got 5 minutes left. What do you want to work on today?”

Then take their answer and put together three exercises to work this body part in the form of a finisher. For example, if their answer is they want to work their arms:

Do as many rounds in 5-8 minutes and rest when needed.

Again, you are addressing your clients’ concerns and making them part of the programming process. Do you think the client is more likely to stick around if you do this?

Just Listen

Making the client feel included in the assessment and programming process makes them feel important and creates better buy-in. This leads to happy clients and a better paycheck.

And all you need to do is listen.

The post 5 Ways to Get Client Buy-in and Increase Client Retention appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When you’re coaching personal or group training, you’ve probably come across a sluggish client, or one that doesn’t pick up on exercise cues, or they muddle through their training with no enthusiasm. And, this bothers you because it’s not occasional as they’re almost always like this.

If it’s a personal training session, it’s easier to ask if anything is distracting them.

Even if there is, they’re under no obligation to tell you. These people are paying you for the hour, and they’ve shown up, even if it’s half-heartedly.

In a group exercise setting, it’s not advisable to single someone out, and it is probably unethical. All you can do is motivate and encourage the group.

The old me might have ruined this client because of my previous experience with coaching and group training. Push, push, and push harder, but now I know better. Seeing how some kids were ruined by coaches using this method made me see the error of my ways.

Not everyone responds to a hyperactive, in-your-face coach.

Many people see trainers as boot camps, punishment instructors, and it’s better not to feed this stereotype.

So, what do you do?

You could ignore them and hope the problem goes away. But you’re a coach who cares, so this is not an option. The other option is to put into action the following advice in this article.

Is it perfect? No, but using this advice combined with your experience, you’ll be more likely to keep than lose the client. And that’s a win.

Why Clients Resist Change

Even when the client is in front of you doesn’t mean they’re all in. they may flip flop between stages of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM). Remember TTM from your studies? If not, here’s a quick refresher.

The TTM is used in health psychology to explain or predict a person’s success or failure in achieving a proposed behavior change.

Here are the six stages of change:

1. Precontemplation: Not acknowledging there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed
2. Contemplation: Acknowledging there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a change
3. Preparation: Getting ready to change
4. Action/Willpower: Changing behavior
5. Maintenance: Maintaining the new behavior change
6. Relapse: Returning to old behaviors and abandoning the new change

Usually, the client in front of you is either in the action or maintenance stage, but that doesn’t mean they can’t regress.

When the client has a change of heart, they can relapse into old behaviors or slip back to the preparation and contemplation stage.

This regression could be the reason for their sudden loss of motivation and enthusiasm. No amount of encouraging, yelling, or positive talk is likely to help here.

What You Can Do

Now is the time to remind them why they’re here.

• In a personal training setting, this takes fishing out their consultation form and reminding them of their short or long-term goals.
• Then, asking them if they still want to reach these goals.
• If yes, that’s great, and hopefully, they refocus on the task at hand.
• If not, their goals may seem too ambitious because of a change of circumstances or heart.
• Then, between you and the client, adjusting these goals to suit them better will help.
• When the client feels a part of the process, and it’s all about them and not you, this creates more buy-in from the client.
• Then ask the client if any obstacles affect their ability to reach these goals.
• Some clients will immediately answer, and some will not.
• You need to remain quiet and listen while the client thinks and responds. It must be their barrier and not one you suggest.
• From there, between the two of you, come up with solutions for these problems. Small steps the client feels comfortable taking will help them move forward and regain some pep in their step.
• In a group setting, between sets of exercise or breaks in the action, remind them of the health benefits of exercise.
• It is not unusual to have ups and downs, and progress is not in a straight line.

Explain why you structure the class the way you do and the why behind some of the exercises. For example, a hinge movement is a perfect way to pick something off the floor to save your back.

This explanation helps the unmotivated client by adding an extra incentive to stick with it and see how exercise benefits them outside of the gym.

Communication Builds Relationships

Not everyone feels comfortable talking about their issues in a gym setting or with other fit people around.

Therefore, it’s important to open a line of communication with the unmotivated client.

With group exercise, this means making yourself available before and after class to answer questions and concerns. Or providing a business card with an email address so they can correspond this way. Will everyone take you up on this? Probably not. The best you can do is to make yourself available.

The power of knowing that someone is in their corner is sometimes enough.

In a personal training session, sharing something about your personal experiences, both good and bad, as a coach and being transparent might make it easier for them to open up versus thinking trainers are perfect people with exercise and nutrition.

Then the client might be more inclined to talk about the issues which are holding them back.

If they do, listening and not trying to fix it is key.

Knowing what’s going on allows you to tailor your program and your message inside the session. If they don’t tell you a thing, at least the client knows they have a listening ear in you.

Open Lines of Communication

In your career, you’re bound to train the unmotivated client. Would you mind not turning into the in-your-face coach and mistaking their lack of enthusiasm for an opportunity to push them harder? Instead, be understanding, open lines of communication, and remind them why they’re here.

Because then they will be more likely to stick around.

The post How to Coach an Unmotivated Client appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

COVID has left an indelible mark on the fitness industry. Business owners, gym employees, and gym-goers were left scrambling, confused, and in the dark by the ever-changing COVID rules and regulations.

Gyms were required to close their doors with no idea when or if they were going to reopen. Some gyms, including mine, could keep going because of flexible business plans, long sleepless nights, and a little luck. Others were not so lucky.

Here are four statistics that COVID inflicted on the U.S health and fitness industry last year:

1. Industry revenue plummeted by 58%.
2. Seventeen percent of fitness facilities were closed permanently.
3. Eight major fitness companies filed for bankruptcy.
4. More than one million industry employees lost their jobs.

The financial loss is enormous but imagine for a moment the effect it had on people’s health.

We cannot measure health benefits, but the clients will feel these effects for a long time. My heart goes out to these people.

My gym Results Performance Training remains open because COVID forced me to learn some tough personal and business lessons. In some respects, it saved my business, as ironic as that sounds.

Here are four lessons I learned that made my business better today.

And if you’re still in business, hopefully, you can apply these lessons so you can survive and thrive in the future.

1. Pivot and Focus on Your Options

Due to the uncertainty of the job market and COVID fears, we focused on semi-private and virtual options.

• Results Performance ended up doing more semi-private/small group training to adapt to people who did not feel comfortable in large groups.
• Our gym devoted more energy to building our higher-priced services of semi-private training instead of our large group.
• We then added more options for one-on-one and semi-private (3-5 people per group) training. By having these three options, I was able to keep my gym afloat while allaying fears about COVID.
• By keeping the groups between three and five people, my gym can offer personal service without the personal cost.
• Reducing group size allowed us to provide a service that charges more than large group training with fewer sessions and requiring less staff.
• Semi and private groups are also easier on our coaches versus doing many group sessions per day.
• Going with the semi-private/small group training still offers higher-cost options like one-on-one training.

One-on-one training makes your group training easier to sell to those who cannot afford personal training long-term.

2. Improve Your Mindset

It’s easy when you’re knee-deep in the trenches to sweat the small stuff.

Before COVID, I was complaining about being too busy, and then COVID shut me down.

Now, I will never complain about being busy again. When Results first shut down, it put things in perspective and helped me practice gratitude.

During COVID, I became more aware of my negative thoughts and improved my ability to stop them quickly and turn them into positives.

If you practice gratitude and keep your mindset focused on the positive while ignoring the negative, it will help with the day-to-day running of your business.

3. Play To Your Strengths

There is a push from some fitness business coaches to have you remove yourself from the training floor altogether.

• It’s your decision, but you must realize being a trainer and owning a training business are two separate things.
• Removing yourself from one side of the business to focus entirely on the other may not play to your strengths.
• I feel you need to know both sides of your business to be a complete business owner.

I love being back on the training floor because it keeps me in touch with my members and their wants and needs. If you’re not delivering what the members want, you’ll soon be out of business.

You must find a balance if you own and work in your business.

You may have to devote resources to other members of your team to cover your spending less time on the business side of your gym. I had to analyze my team and find people who can play off my weaknesses to focus on my strengths.

Rebuilding my team during COVID gave me the opportunity to right some of my wrongs. No one wants to say this, but when you screw up as a leader, your employees and members will not forget it.

That’s why, in sports, when a coach goes, you see the team clean house.

Before, I had too many people in the same position, which was a drain on my payroll. When I reduced the number of employees and staff and played to their strengths, the business ran smoother, and our work atmosphere improved.

Because of this, our culture improved.

Improve the Culture

COVID gave me a chance to see who bought into my training philosophy. I was shocked by people going out of their way to pay even more to help or invest more in our business to keep it going.

The culture of our studio became even more vital because the clients who stuck with us during COVID are our ideal clients.

Your culture improves when you have your staff and members pulling in one direction.

It isn’t easy to put this culture into words, but you can sense its enormity. Your culture is always something you should try to nail down and strengthen because knowing who you serve and who you don’t will help sales, member retention, and your bottom line.

COVID forced me into a situation where I needed to improve, or my employees would lose their jobs, and I would lose my business.

These four lessons have improved my business, and hopefully, they can improve yours also.

The post 4 Ways the Pandemic Saved My Gym appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This attitude hurt more than helped me, and this was the first of many mistakes I made at the beginning of my career.

When I started training clients, I thought I knew it all, and I would strut around the gym floor like a peacock, willing to assert my superior gym knowledge. When in fact, looking back, I knew absolutely nothing.

This attitude hurt more than helped me, and this was the first of many mistakes I made at the beginning of my career.

Mistakes are all part of the learning process, and you’re guaranteed to make them and keep making them if you don’t learn from them. What will set you apart from other trainers is your ability to reflect upon what happened, reassess, and make changes, so it doesn’t happen again.

Let my pain be your gain as I’ve put together a few common mistakes trainers make at the beginning of their career. If you’ve made them, that’s normal; consider this an opportunity to grow. Let’s dive in.

1. Not Giving Away Freebies

“Why would I give away free stuff? Training is my career, and I need to get paid!”

Trust me—they’ll get their free information from somewhere. But, by giving away free stuff, you can make sure your clients are getting the correct information while also building a connection. When you start to build trust and value, they’re more likely to become a client.

Think of your free consultation as an investment that may pay dividends in the future.

When you have gotten a potential client’s contact info, ask to set up an appointment for a free consult/assessment on their schedule.

• Please give them a taste of the difference you can make and show you’re not a sleazy salesperson.
• Please sit down and ask questions and listen to their answers.
• Learn their schedule, their goals, their lifestyle, injury history, and exercise preferences.
• Explain to them how you can meet each need they have.
• Be direct and say, “I think a 3-day-per-week semi-private group session will work best for your needs because….”

Giving away free stuff will set you apart as the go-to trainer for information.

The more potential clients come to you, the more opportunities to turn them into paying clients.

2. Don’t Narrow Your Focus Too Early

Some trainers start by wanting to work with athletes or train celebrities, but you need to spend years setting yourself apart, doing internships, and learning from the best.

It would be best if you built a stellar reputation.

Tons of other populations need your expertise now, so don’t count them out. By zeroing in on a single population too early, you’ve entirely negated anyone who doesn’t fit your supposed ideal client. Sure, you might get one or two aspiring athletes, but is that enough to make a living?

Instead, use the start of your career to connect with a broader audience.

Remember—you’re growing a business, and it helps to train everyone at the beginning while developing your brand.

3. Don’t Specialize Until You Gain Experience

During your first few years, you must train as many people as possible to figure out your niche. But after you’ve gained experience, then you can start to specialize.

Hopefully, you have a grasp on which group fits your training style. With whom do you enjoy working? Which population can make the most significant difference?

Narrowing your focus allows you to start attracting your ideal clients.

Now, you can genuinely say you’re the expert in X, and you have the social and experiential proof to back it up.

Once you’ve been in the industry a few years, you’ve got to find ways to stand out and not blend in. Unless you plan to be the Wal-Mart of trainers, narrowing your focus provides a superior product for attracting your ideal client.

4. Don’t Miss Opportunities To Network

Learning doesn’t stop after you get certified, even though you may think you know it all. Getting out to live events and connecting with other people in our field is essential for growth.

You’re on the right track by reading this, but nothing beats a face-to-face conversation with fellow professionals because live events are great places to meet like-minded people. Then you can pick their brain about dealing with challenging clients or starting a business.

The day-to-day grind of training clients leaves little time for business development, but you owe it to yourself and your career to do it.

5. Not Getting Client Referrals

Social media is a great way to market your services and highlight your successes.

But, you don’t control the platform or the algorithm, and you don’t know how many people will see your posts unless you pay to advertise them. But there is a much easier way to get clients, and it’s right in front of your face—your current clients.

Ask your current clients if they know any friends or family who would benefit from your services. Or ask them to write a Google review or testimonial (with your guidance) to post on your website or social media.

Glowing referrals from your clients means potential clients who come from being referred to you have been presold, making it easier to sign them.

It is an untapped gold mine many new trainers miss.

When starting your career, you will make mistakes because it’s easy to overlook something you don’t know.

Now you know better, you will avoid these five mistakes and get a head start on a long and fruitful personal training career.

The post 5 Mistakes for New Trainers to Avoid appeared first on Breaking Muscle.