Learning to love sales can be tough when your background is personal training, but if you’re looking to grow your business with new clients then you need to become an expert closer. Marketing will only take you so far, you’ve also got to be able to convert your prospects into paying clients if you’re looking to make the big bucks- and you can only do that by selling.

Selling personal training has gotten a lot easier over the years due to the fact that more and more people have taken a bigger interest in their own health and fitness. Because health and fitness are becoming more “front and center” in people’s lives, closing even the toughest customers is now a breeze compared to years ago when everyone was under the impression that you had to be rich or famous to hire a personal trainer.

Now that our society is a lot more aware of the harmful effects of obesity, more people are looking at getting fit as a way to curb medical costs- and they’re right to do so. Eating right and getting enough exercise can help anyone in almost any situation avoid costly doctors visits and not to mention help them feel a lot better, so it’s no big secret that most doctors will prescribe a patient a healthier diet and more exercise if they aren’t getting enough.

So what does all this mean for you and your personal training business? It means everything! Personal training, group or boot camp or one-on-one, is on the up and up meaning that more people are seeking a personal trainer to work with. They’re already easier to sell than ever before so all you need are these quick selling tips to get you on the right track with your prospects.

Trial Offer

One of the best ways to gain a prospect’s trust is to offer them something of value for free or cheap. A week free at your facility will help them get used to your personality and your style of training, which will help you when you’re ready to sit down and sell to them. They’ll already be familiar with what you have to offer so your consultation will be more focused on them and what they want to accomplish.

That’s much easier than sitting down with a prospect that you barely even know, who doesn’t even know you at all, and trying to sell them a year’s worth of personal training for whatever price. The key is to get them to know you, like you, and trust you before you even end up selling to them because it makes the process that much easier for you and for them.

So if you’re not offering some free or cheap (a week free or two weeks at $45 or whatever feels right to you) trial at your fitness center then start doing so and promote it online, offline- pretty much everywhere you can to get people interested in joining. Your prospects will be much more likely to buy if they can take your training for a “test drive”.

Ask Questions, Then Listen

The secret to closing is basically this: ask questions, then listen- hard. Even the world’s best salespeople know how important it is to let the prospect do the talking. It’s where all the magic happens, it’s where you can pinpoint the exact reason they came to workout with you in the first place and that’s your golden ticket.

Asking important, qualifying questions like, “When is the last time you felt good about the way your look and feel?” or “Tell me about the last time you felt good about your fitness” will help you figure out just what it is that’s holding them back from meeting their goals.

Your goal is to ask open-ended questions so you can get them to talk. Asking “yes or no” questions won’t do anything for you (unless you’re asking for the sale) so avoid them as much as you can.

Sell The Outcome

Instead of going over what a client will get if they sign up with you like unlimited boot camp sessions or access to equipment or anything of that nature- focus on the outcome. What will happen to them if they follow your program? Results! So sell them on the results they’ll get if they work with you.

Talking about the features of your program or facility won’t help them make up their minds, but talking about the amazing results that they’ll achieve if they work with you will. But in order for all this to work- you really have to know your stuff and be able to deliver what you’ve promised.

If you know that a prospect you’re sitting with needs at least six months of training to achieve their desired results then that’s what you should sell them (not what you think they can afford)- and once they finally get the results that they want then you’ll have another meeting with them to discuss their new goals.

Heck- even letting them know that in your initial consultation will help them to realize that their goals should change once they get to where they need to be. So if their goal is to maintain their results then put them on a program that will do that for them, and if they’re looking to take their results to the next level then do that.

This entry was posted on April 28, 2014 at 2:40 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Boot Camp Business, Boot Camp Strategies, Closing and Sales Techniques, Fitness Business by Steve Hochman | No Comments Yet