Most personal trainers aren’t experienced marketers or salespeople. In fact, many personal trainers are intimidated by the very idea of asking people for money. This is a shame because it keeps them from actually making a living at what they love.

The truth is that the biggest factor to successful personal trainer marketing is very simple and straightforward. It’s not a complicated system or a series of hoops you need to jump through. Not only that, but if you’re serious about your work and passionate about truly helping your clients change their lives, then this one thing will actually come very easily to you. It’s about selling the right thing.

Too many personal trainer marketing efforts are focused on selling a commodity – a workout, a system, a particular trainer or a specific type of class. The last thing you want to do is focus on selling a commodity. Commodities are cheap and prices fluctuate wildly, dependent on the economy, the time of year and so on. Commodities are also easily compared to other commodities like them, and the lowest priced commodity often wins.

Instead, you need to focus on selling outcomes and end results.

Let’s look at the difference between the two. Let’s say you’re selling six weeks of personal training sessions for $XX. The value of that six weeks for that price is going to vary between potential clients, because all they’re looking at is the commodity and then comparing it to five other personal trainers’ deals plus maybe the cost of six weeks of do-it-yourself training at the gym. You’ve got a lot of competition and the final decision will probably come down to price.

On the other hand, if you’re selling end results and outcomes, you’re selling something of high value to EVERY potential client, even though the exact nature of the end result may be different to each one. For one person, the end result may be a reversal of a new Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. For another, it may be going to their 20th high school reunion feeling sexy and confidant. For others, it may be fitting into the wedding dress of their dreams, being strong and healthy enough to get back into rock climbing or having the confidence to wear a bikini for the very first time.

For every one of those clients, what you’re selling is absolutely priceless. And when you’re the one selling it, you have no competition. It doesn’t matter how much the gym costs or what kind of sale prices those other personal trainers are offering. You’re the one that’s going to make their dreams happen. Of course, you’d better deliver on that promise once you sell it. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and if you make a promise, follow through and always set to over deliver.

When you focus your personal trainer marketing on adding value, solving problems, changing lives for the better and making dreams happen, you can’t be made into a commodity or even be lumped into the same group with other trainers in your area. You will always be able to charge a premium as long as you promise outcomes and results and then deliver them.

Like I said, the specific outcome and result that will sell each potential client is going to differ with each one. That middle-aged man with a gut doesn’t care about fitting into a wedding dress. So how do you know what you should be selling?

Ask.

When they first begin pitching a potential client, most personal trainers immediately ask about commodities. What kind of workout are you looking for? What kind of equipment do you like to use? How many times a week do you want to work out? These are all commodity questions. None of them has anything to do with their dream, with the thing that will really represent a compelling, irresistible value to them.

Even asking how much weight they want to lose is a question about a commodity that will tell you nothing. Your first questions shouldn’t start with “what”, “where”, “when” or “how much.”

Your first question should be “Why?” If you ask a “Why” question, the potential client is going to tell you exactly what to sell them. You need to start the conversation with “Why do you want to change your body?” or “Why do you want to lose fifty pounds?”

What these people will end up doing is telling you what outcome or result they’re really looking for and what value that result actually has to them. Take for instance the man who says he wants to have enough energy and breath to play ball with his kids. The result you need to turn around and sell him is the ability to spend quality time with his kids, the opportunity to be a role model for them and the chance to live long enough to see his grandchildren.

For the woman who says she wants to be a size 6 again, you’re selling the confidence to go out make her life what she wants it to be, because she’s transformed her body and knows that she can also transform her life.

I can go on and on, but hopefully you get the idea. The only commodity here is the prospect’s goal. The value, though, is in what that goal actually means to their lives and to their happiness. What you’re selling is the expertise and commitment that will make that dream a reality.

That makes you a crowd of one when it comes to your personal trainer marketing.

This entry was posted on June 2, 2014 at 10:00 am. 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 Fitness Business, Fitness Marketing, Group Personal Training Strategies, Uncategorized by Steve Hochman | No Comments Yet