Mastering Personal Training Sales

A Personal Training Sales Guest Post by John Heringer

The post is all bout overcoming objections which is one of the huge keys to becoming highly successful at boot camp and personal training sales.

Do you remember the scenes in the movie Tommy Boy when Chris Farley is just starting on his selling brake pads and can't sell a thing?? (I LOVE that movie).

Customer: "No"

Farley: "Okie Dokie, thanks!"

His sales skills sucked.

Over and over again…

No listening to the customer… no clearing or overcoming sales objections…  Just walking out.

Well that's what I'm here to talk about because I know sales can be an uncomfortable process for all of us in our fitness training businesses… I mean we wanna be trainers… not sleazy used-car salesman… right?

We wanna get people into shape, but if we don't hone our personal training sales process, we probably won't have many people to get INTO shape.

First, let me preface this by saying that if you're using the pre-qualifying Personal Training Sales Script by Chris McCombs and Zach Hunt consider this a refresher as you might not be running into any of this… more power to you! ( You can access the sales script for one dollar by clicking here btw )

I myself, having recently purchased Group Training Exploder, (which is awesome) can't wait to start incorporating it.

However, if you're still selling people in consultations, still a trainer at health club or whatever your position may be, you need to hone those sales skills, or should I say "influence" skills.

Here are several steps you can take to start closing more deals and Makin' It Happen…

1) Get the RIGHT people in front of you

If I'm trying to get women from a certain age range into the best shape of their lives then I am not going to waste my time talking to bodybuilders or even the elderly for that matter.  Not because I don't like them but because it just isn't my target market and my time is precious.  Your time should be too.  Never forget the 80/20 rule.  80% of your success will come from 20% of your efforts. Intros and Closing the Sale

2) Overcome Your Fears

Do I hate being turned down?

Sure, but it doesn't stop me from asking. Sales just freaks some trainers out…

First you need to be ok with people saying "no" to you and understand that they are NEVER saying no to you, but rather to your offer.

Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken was turned down over 1,000 times by restaurant owners to partner with before he opened the first one at the tender age of 63.

Be confident in your approach, be relentless in your approach and know DEEP DOWN that YOU have the solution for this prospect's fitness needs!

***Action Item: Repeat to yourself that you are the best personal trainer out there and that you get people the best results until you internalize to your soul.

3) Clear objections before they come up

I'm sure most of you work from a fitness profile or sales script of some sort but if you don't, here's an easy acronym for you to remember: M.A.T.T.S. Commitment

M - Money – Find out what they do for a living, pretty much self explanatory.

A - Already know/do on my own – How long has it been since they were in great shape?  How many times have they tried unsuccessfully to achieve and maintain said goal?

T – Think about it – "How long have you been thinking about achieving this goal?" Then, if they try to say they want to "think about it" when you ask for the sale, it's a cover-up.  Ask them "How do you mean when you say ‘think about it'?" They will then proceed to give you their REAL objection (time, money, spouse, etc.)

T – Time – Get them to commit to days/times they can workout and write them down.

S – Spouse – Is their spouse supportive of them achieving this goal?  Do they know they are having this consultation, etc.?

C – Commitment - On a scale from 1-10, what is their commitment level? Then get more ammo… "So if you're a 7 Mrs. Jones, what do you think you would need to get to a 10?  What is preventing you from being a 10?  What else, what else, what else? Get as much info as you can!

4) Ask for the sale with choices, always!

I'm a firm believer in the alternate choice close.  "Would you prefer option A or option B?"

One of my favorites is linking it with achievement of their goal like this…

"Mrs. Jones, how would you feel if you could be 30 pounds lighter and toned and firm in all the right areas in as little as 5 months?"  Great, right? (collect the yes!)

"So what we have here are 2 different options.  This is about 2-3 months and represents 50% of your goal, the other about 5 months and 100% of your goal.  So Mrs. Jones, which percentage of your goal would you like to achieve?"

Who is going to tell you they don't want to achieve 100%??!!  No one!  The only thing preventing them will usually be… you guessed it, money.  Then just find a payment plan that works and Voila!

5) Overcoming Objections

Unfortunately, I don't have a cool acronym for this one but here is my protocol.

Acknowledge the objection – "Absolutely Mrs. Jones, I understand you feel you just don't have the time to commit to your workouts, it can be difficult to change our habits." (They are not expecting you to agree with them so it gets their defenses down!)

Isolate - "Besides TIME Mrs. Jones, is there anything else really preventing you from getting started towards achieving your fitness goals?" (Bit of a guilt trip b/c nothing should be preventing them)

Overcome - "Well Mrs. Jones, earlier you said that you could definitely fit some exercise in on Mon, Thur and Friday between 6-730am.  Currently I have a spot available at 7am on Mon and Thur which is perfect for you!"

Ask Again - "So do you think you would prefer ultimate results with 100% achievement of your goal or does 50% work better?"

There is a lot more I could talk about but just keep in mind some of the small things like your tone of voice, pitch, facial expressions, body language etc.  And always SMILE! J

Practice this process, visualize the end result of obtaining a new client and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

I'd love to hear your comments in the comment section below.

This is a personal training sales post by John Heringer, John is a certified personal fitness trainer

John Heringer is a San Jose Personal Trainer the creator of the Fast Action Training Ultimate Fat Loss Formula and owner of Fast Action Training. Heringer has over 6 years of experience as a certified personal trainer all across the Bay Area and has been involved in health, fitness and sports for nearly two decades. A San Jose native, Heringer can be found writing about fitness, working out or enjoying the outdoors.

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