Fitness Trainer Success: 10+ Elements

The IDEA Trainer Success Journal provided a few interesting articles for the month of February. Three articles focused on “list articles” for the business of personal trainers… each can easily be adapted to group instructors and coaches.

The following table contains the heading points for the three articles. Column one is the list from Todd Durkin’s article “Top 10 Ways to Drive Revenue in a Downtrodden Economy”.  Column two is from Tom Terwilliger’s article “Your Business and the Economic Slowdown”. The third and
final column “The Scary Times Success Manual” is the list by Dan Sullivan.

Each offer some great advice for the fitness professional, not just the personal trainer. Below the table I’ve taken the opportunity in
combining these principles row by row.

This is a very important time to be positive and proactive in your fitness business. There are many things you can do to not only maintain, but also expand your training business, even during tough economic times.

Row 1 – Don’t devalue yourself. During tough economic times you will see many reduce the service or product fees they charge. This ultimately reduces the perceived value of your product or service. Instead provide add on services as bonuses. These do not have to take extremes in added time or expense, but can easily increase the value of your offering.

Row 2 – It’s all about amp-ing up your message. Marketing is simply building relationships and your job during times like these is to strengthen existing bonds and to actively pursue new ones. Writing new health & fitness articles is a great example of providing more to your existing relationships inexpensively and functions greatly for marketing when published to the public via the internet or print.

Row 3 – Establishing services that are economical for the participant can also be lucrative for you. Take the growing “bootcamp” model as an example. Providing training to groups will lower the cost to the participant/client and also allow you an opportunity to make even more revenue for your time invested. These are nothing more than session camps and can be provided under any format. Take a look into bootcamp training and adapt it to fit your expertise. These programs are in demand and growing for very good reason.

Row 4 – This row seems to echo row 3. Look to group opportunities, related offerings, add on products,  membership (continuity) options, inside and outside the club setting, etc.  Now is not the time to sit back and hunker down like so many are. It is a great time for looking outside the box for new solutions and opportunities.

Row 5 – This time we look more internally. Take the time t0 review your marketing plan. Is it efficient and effective? Does it take advantage of on-line and off-line options? Are the terms for whatever setting you use the best you can find? Are there other billing options you could provide such as credit cards, automatic recurring billing, or paypal that would benefit your customers? When is the last time you looked to optimize your website or mailing materials?

Row 6 – Retaining your current customers is key at this time. How else can you improve upon their experience? Daily look at what you can do beyond what your client would expect. Your genuine interest in their health should shine through and will direct your actions. One idea we have ran before is offering a wellness class for all our personal training, bootcamp, and yoga program clients to attend. We simply offered it for free, as a bonus, and as a surprise to say thank you and let the law of reciprocity handle the rest.

Row 7 – Lets see… follow-up = customer service essential. Start small group training = already mentioned and still a great option to be investigated for any fitness pro. “Who you can be”… Here it is suggested that you concentrate on what you can control – YOU. Become self-directed, self-managed, and self-motivated. Today’s example is the economy. You cannot directly control it or how it effects your clients. What you can control are your actions/re-actions, customer service, product and service offering mix,
your specialty skills, and marketing avenues.

Row 8 – This mix is looking a bit tough to combine, but each are important elements suggested by the authors.
Networking - This investment of your time is worth far more than you can imagine. Todd suggested the partnership with local professionals, but I want to suggest you also take advantage of online  fitness industry networks and utilizing partners and JV. Many opportunities present themselves through networking as well as chances to learn from each other.
Passive Income – When times are economically a bit tougher you’ll have a huge advantage if you have passive income options available to you. These can be small or large financial quantities that add to your bottom line without taking up significant time on your part. Think a paid newsletter, or adding product sales to your services.  Having an online presence can open a world of affiliate opportunities or without you can affiliate through a “tell a friend” program. Your Fitness Pro Travel program offers you one easy affiliate option, but there are many more (ie. commission junction and click bank)
Your Responses – This is one item you can control. Things happen, good and bad that you rarely have direct control of. You can control how you respond though. Focusing on controllable items rather than the uncontrollable will reduce your stress and anxiety and allow you to progressively develop your response plan.

Row 9 – This is all about keeping your motivation during difficult times. It is important that you take steps to keep your engines fired up.  Look at the resources immediately available to you that allow you to make daily progress.  Simple small steps will build your confidence and momentum as you lay the ground work for larger program achievements. Learning new things will similarly build confidence, encourage networking, and offer momentum when the general business climate is struggling. There are many fitness workshop event calendars available to you online that present many learning options including our at Fitness Pro Travel.

Row 10 – Give back. Make a positive difference to others, without expectation, and it will come back to you. The internet marketing folks I have followed speak of “raising the free line”. Giving as much as they can before ever asking for a sale or action from the prospect.  They are relying on the law of reciprocity. When you give, people tend to like you more. When they like you more, they are more likely participate in your offerings. Stated another way, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

The economy is not being overly helpful in keeping your business running strong, but multiple fitness industry evaluators continue to forecast growth for 2009 and 2010. You want to be active and progressive in how you view your fitness business to take advantage of the industry growth rather than fearful and stagnant during the economic slowdown.

Visit sites like Fit Pro Biz and sign up for fitness professional networks like Fitness Pro Travel. And, do sign in for the fitness business news and notice mailing list found in the right column to stay on the front edge.

I hope this summary of these three articles offers at least one item that resonates for you.  What do you think of the ideas provided by these industry leaders? What are you doing that’s not mentioned that’s making a difference for you?