Dealing With Common Personal Training Business Frustrations

In most personal training businesses there are some common problems and frustrations that most of us run into once we reach a level of moderate success. These are like our rights of passage and how we deal with them determines not only how successful we'll be but how much we'll enjoy our career. And I don't know about you, but I don't care how much money I make if I don't enjoy what I'm doin' it ain't worth it… period.

To achieve any level of success in life there's gonna be hurdles, problems and disappointments. Accepting this fact is the first part of overcoming these little conundrums as they pop up, and believe me they pop up, especially as you become more and more successful.

One of my favorite authors Eckhart Tolle says that life is "One damned thing after another" I keep this on sticky note on my desk so I don't get too irked every time time one of these damn things pops up. Sometime I have a low "irk factor" so some constant reminding helps.

I'm just going to go through these real quickly…

Clients not paying on time - Put people on automatic payments coming once a month directly out of their bank and into yours.

Not having a predictable income – Put people on term contracts for monthly automatic payments. We use 4 month and 12 month contracts in my business.

Prospective clients flaking out on the first workout or consultation – Get a credit card to hold the appointment. Even if the first appointment if free tell them there's only a charge if they flake on the appointment without giving 24 hours notice, in which case there's an appointment cancellation fee of x amount of dollars.

Clients flaking on their workouts or trying to reschedule at last minute – Have a 24 hour cancellation policy for the workouts, when they first sign up tell them you'll break it once every 2 or 3 months for emergencies, but other than that stick to the policy.

Clients coming in for trial workout or consultation and not signing up -

• Be excited to see them when they show up, greet them like a puppy would them ( hey, EVERYONE likes a puppy, right?)
• Improve your sales systems, script and skills
• Qualify the living hell out of them in your fitness marketing efforts and over the phone. In my business we often use a script on the phone where before we'll even schedule the first appointment we have them agree that they're willing to work with a trainer x # of times a week, they're willing to do cardio x # of times a week, they can afford our rates, they'll be in the area for the next 4 – 12 months, the buying decision is 100% up to them and we even get their credit card over the phone. This gets just about every objection I ever I had after a trial workout over with on the phone like "I need to look at my budget" "I can't afford it" "Let me check with my husband" or "Can I bring my credit card next time". This way we're only spending our times with highly qualified prospects. If they don't agree to all the terms on the phone then they're NOT our ideal client and we don't waste anymore time on them. I got help creating this fitness selling process from a guy named Andy Miller, he's super high dollar but definitely worth the money.

Not making enough money (or at least not as much as you'd like to) -

• Train groups
• Raise your prices
• Have longer contracts
• Do more direct response marketing
• Improve conversion systems
• Improve sales skills
• Ask for referrals more

Burned out -

• Systematize
• Delegate/Outsource as much as possible
• Give yourself more breaks periodically during the day
• Meditate
• If you're not an early morning person than don't train early morning hours… just firggin' outsource it
• Become better at managing your time
• Focus more on marketing and less on training
• Have set times when you'll take no client calls and let your clients know this. I'd even use a separate phone for personal calls and business/client calls and not even look at the business phone during "off" hours
• Only have certain hours you'll train and don't bend those hours for anyone. When I was training myself I was able to train over 120 sessions training only Mon, Tues and Thur ( I did this in groups of 3- 6 people… I count each person in the group as a session, so one group of 6 people is 6 sessions) I trained from 6 or 7 am until 11am and from 3 or 4 pm until 8 pm three days a week and didn't lose one single person because of my availability. I got this one watching what high end lawyers, cosmetic dentist and cosmetic surgeons do. Hey, they gotta golf at least a few times a week, right?

Clients trying to break contracts early and quit training

• Get em' better results
• If they flake on a workout call them right away and hound em' about it
• Put a stick campaign into place
  • Thank you cards
  • Welcome calls
  • Holiday and birthday cards
  • Gift em' right before their contract is up
  • Give em' the occasional pump up call ( just don't piss off any husbands)
  • Force em' to eat perfect ( I know… it'll NEVER happen… but I wish it would)
  • Recognize their achievements

 Hope this helps!

Chris McCombs

Fitness Business and Time Management Renegade