A recent edition of Personal Fitness Professional asked six of arguably the top fitness training business leaders what their top 5 success strategies were.  That’s 30 keys to success in total… and I’m picking out 12 success strategies from the bunch that I believe are the meat and potatoes of success in your fitness business.

1. Work ON your business, not just IN your business.  If it is a fitness business you operate then treat it like a business and not a job.  There is much behind the client interaction scenes that MUST receive attention.
   
2. Have a plan. Goals with no plan to accomplish or measuring sticks along the path will simply become unfulfilled goals.
3. Surround yourself with great people.  You will reflect the qualities of those you associate with.  Choose your friends and mentors wisely.
4. Specialize your fitness service.  Work to your strengths to fulfill specific needs.  This becomes your niche and you become the expert of that niche.
5. Work on the things that deliver.  The return on your investment is key both financially and maybe even more so for your time.  Outsource and delegate the small stuff and concentrate where the business has the greatest return potentials.
6. Purposeful use of time and tools.  Distractions are everywhere including some of the greatest social media tools available to you.  Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Email and more can be huge time sinks, yet they are excellent tools for spreading your message.  Schedule your time in these areas to keep control of your time.
7. Tap into hidden opportunities.  These are only hidden if you do not utilize them.  Up sell, cross sell, and down sell are traditional marketing practices that help you appropriate place offers in front of customers who are already at a purchase level with you.
8. Ask for the referral.  Obvious, but often missed.  Let customers and co workers know what you are looking for.  Referrals are powerful as you start from a more trusted position when their friend gives you the thumbs up to start.
9. Work from a list.  Again, cutting out distractions makes you efficient.  Create a daily task list and check them off.  Only after should the distracters be given your valuable time.
10. Master your craft.  There are many snake oils salesmen out there in the fitness industry.  They are not just the goofy ab machines either.  Whether you have developed a silver tongue or not, you should always be able to back up your exercise prescriptions based on current research and standards.  Keep learning and participate in industry education, follow blogs of respected fitness professionals and participate in mastermind programs.
11. Improve the experience.  Deliver extraordinary experience to your clients and students. Set yourself apart by focusing on enhancing customer experiences.
12. Don’t wait for perfect.  More than anything I have witnessed outstanding programs that could have truly changed lives never get off the ground.  They went to the wayside as one thing or another was never quite good enough.  Do as FaceBook does and get the program to a  reasonably acceptable level and let it roll.  Improve and tweak as you go.

Now these are some great items of advice from six awesome fitness professionals.  To read the full list from Kelli Calabrese, Stephen Cabral, Todd Durkin, Shelby Murphy, Bedros Keuilian or Pat Rigsby, go to PFP Magazine.

—–My 2 additional Success Strategies would include Goal creation and achievement strategies and the framing of the situation with scripted planning.

Goals- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and possibly most important, time sensative.  Most have heard of these “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, but do you have a plan specific for attaining the goal? Are you being held accountable by other trusted peers?  Do you write down your goals and post them in often seen locations?
Targeted goals are powerful.  Use them appropriately and hold yourself accountable to attain them.

Practiced Scripts – Not that every word is planned out, but being prepared with leading topics as you tour a facility or run a potential client through an assessment.  ie when you show the treadmill you should be practiced at asking leading questions that help the potential client understand that they do not know all protocols for cardiovascular training, that there are ways to use it most efficiently, and an educated fitness professional would be an excellent choice in learning to optimally use that equipment.  Lot’s of areas of the gym to do similar.

What might you add to this list?