Personal Training Business » personal training policy

Personal Training Policy: Deliver Awesome Results, Then Get a Killer Testimonial

Johnny Fitness — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:25:16 +0000

Hi there, hope you are doing awesome!

If you have been reading my blog, you know how much we talk about word of mouth marketing as being the fastest way to get clients and attract opportunities for your personal fitness business. Word of mouth marketing works better than internet marketing, better than social media, and better than advertising.

Awesome Results = Awesome Marketing

Deliver awesome results, so awesome your clients will want to brag about it to their friends, and when they do, those friends will come a knockin at your door. In fact, when you transform someones body, they will not even have to brag, because people will come up to them and ask them "what happened? You look great!" This is one of the many reasons I think it is important to be selective about who you train, using a personal training contract (accountability agreement) to weed out the people who are too lazy, too tired, or just too busy to commit and get awesome results.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Not only does word of mouth marketing the fastest way to get more clients, it is also what I call working smarter, not harder. You are essentially using the resources you have, a willing and eager client, to get more clients. Another way to work smarter, not harder, is to get a killer testimonial for your personal training business. Be sure to check out our blog posts on how to get a personal training testimonial and how to get a video testimonial for your personal training business. Client testimonials are a great way to show people you can deliver what they want: RESULTS! And they are way more powerful than other forms of marketing. Think about it, someone talking about how awesome you are is a ton more persuasive than you talking about how awesome you are. The world is full of people who think very highly of themselves and know how to talk the talk but don't know how to walk the walk. That's why testimonials are so powerful, they are proof you can deliver.

My Latest Client Testimonial

Check out the newest client testimonial I got for my personal training business. Its from Iron Chef Marc Forgione, winner of last season's "The Next Iron Chef" and the youngest person to ever win the cooking worlds highest honor and join the ranks of Mario Battali, Bobby Flay, and Morimoto among others. I have only been training Marc since the beginning of February, but I felt comfortable asking him for a testimonial because I knew he was really happy with the results he has already gotten.

"As a chef I eat a lot and work crazy hours and sometimes get stuck in a terrible cycle where the gym seems like somewhere thousands of miles away.

Jonathan Angelilli not only got me back into the gym but made me look at it in an entirely new way. His knowledge of the human body and what exercises to do was really eye opening and life changing.

I find myself making time that I never thought I had to get into the gym 4 to 5 times a week instead of 4 to 5 times a year, and doing exercises I never even heard of before thanks to Jonathan."

How to Use a Testimonial to Get More Clients, Increase Retention, & Motivate Your Clients

Testimonials DO NOT have to be from celebrities, every day people talking about you and your business will help you get more fitness clients, perhaps even better than celebrity testimonials. Once you get a testimonial from a client (be sure to let them know how you are going to use it), do all of the above:

Share it with your other clients, it will inspire them and help increase your retention.

Put it in your newsletter and post it on your social media sites like facebook and twitter.

Upload it to your website! In fact, you should have a whole page dedicated to testimonials if you are using a website for lead generation (to get more clients). Be sure to use a picture, it makes the testimonial much more personal.

Show it off to potential clients. First time clients often cancel, but they will be A LOT LESS LIKELY TO CANCEL if you send them to your testimonials page after you set up the first workout, because it shows them that you are professional and proves you can deliver results.

Just be sure to deliver results first! Do NOT ask for a testimonial before you have delivered results!

*What is your opinion? How do you use testimonials? Do you have any questions? Leave your questions and opinions in the comments and we will get right back to you! Make word of mouth marketing and testimonials a corner stone of your personal training policy and you will create a steady stream of clients and success. Until next time, keep your business fit. Johnny Fitness

Personal Training Policy: No Excuses!

Johnny Fitness — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:56:41 +0000

"I am too old to get in shape." "I am too old to lose weight." "It's too hard to get lean at my age."

How many times have you heard a client say something like this?

Seriously, how many times have you heard that this month even?

And even more importantly, how do you respond? Do you accept these excuses? Do you just let it slide? Do you politely disagree? Do you validate their excuses!?!

*Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the post, and send it to any client who says stuff like that.*

Use Written Policy to Set the Tone, Be a Leader, & Destroy Excuses/Negativity

All my clients have to sign an "Accountability Agreement" that outlines the personal training policy of my business. By having it written, it show them that I am professional, and committed to a certain way of running my business. By showing it to them before they buy a package, I not only am differentiating myself from other trainer, but also creating clear expectations, so they know exactly what they are in for.

(It is a tremendous sales tool for that reason, and I will send you a copy of the agreement I use in my business if you put your name and email in the box to the right at the top of the page, it is part of my business booster kit.)

One of the policies is "No negative self-talk and lame excuses in the gym". If you let your clients focus on problems and negativity, they will not succeed, will not be fun to work with, will end up quitting, and you will have to find a new client. By making this clear from the beginning of the relationship, and then enforcing the rule (not like a jerk, but politely), you can create a positive and supportive environment relationship, without letting them undermine their own efforts.

Don't get me wrong. We are not licensed psychologists. And they can still self-sabotage with their thoughts and actions outside of the gym.

That is not the point.

The point is that when they are in the gym, they are following your leadership, and you make the rules, especially if they help empower the client. If they can start to master their thoughts and actions there, it will spread to every other aspect of their life outside of the gym.

That is the power of personal training policy :-)

Exceed their Expectations & Help the Client Shift Focus

Of course, people have more health issues as they get older.

But you reap what you sow, just look at Jack Lalanne.

And remember the difference between causation and correlation. Sure, studies show people lose muscle mass as they get older. But old does not equal unfit. The issue is that people become more sedentary as they get older! You can't keep muscle if you don't use it! So MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!

One way to over deliver and exceed the clients expectations is to not only help them shift their focus from something powerless (i can't help it, I am too old) to something powerful (I reap what I sow) by providing tools and video that are fun to watch to help inspire them and confront their inaccurate assumptions and excuses.

You can educate and inspire them while entertaining them.

And when you do it "on your own time", in other words, when you are not in the gym, it will show them you really care.

For instance, watch this video, and send it to any clients who could use inspiration, and send it out every time you here someone blame their age!

It is a video of a 73 year old break dancer. Seriously.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Wess Murray for posting.

I mean come on! This is a break dancing senior citizen, and you are trying to tell me you can't lose 10 more lbs? Ya, right.

Call Your Client Out on The Lies They Tell Themselves!

One of the most satisfying things is helping clients get in the best shape of their life. One of my clients is 49 years old, and is bench pressing more than when he was in the "best" shape in college. And yet, the other day he tried to tell me "but I can't lose this weight because of my age". I called him on it!

Really, you think you can get stronger than ever, but not leaner than ever? How does that work? Your body only lets you adapt one way but not another. That is how persistent this lie is! Even someone who has seen proof that it is not true, will still lie to themselves and blame their age. But they can't lie to me. My job is to hold up the mirror of truth.

And so is yours :-)

Leave a comment? Do you write out your personal training policy? Any special policies you have? Any challenges to enforcing policy or questions? Leave them in the comments!

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness

The Fitness Clients Bill of Rights

Johnny Fitness — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:11:48 +0000

An Awesome Sales Tool & Standard of Service

What standard do you hold your fitness business to? Do you have a personal training policy? Do you have a personal trainer mission statement you share with your fitness clients?

Defining your own personal trainer mission statement, moral code, and standard of practice will provide the foundation of a successful personal training career and increase your profits! The fitness profession is a very competitive business, so having a statement that you share with clients is a powerful way to differentiate yourself.

Below is “The Client Bill of Rights”, a set of standards I hold myself up to when working with fitness clients. I expect all of my trainers to exceed these standards as well. For my business, this is the minimum standard of professionalism, not the maximum, and must be met consistently.

Please feel free to:

copy this statement

change it to match your business

put it in a document with your companies branding element, website, and your photo

print it out and share it will clients and prospects

Most importantly, embody it!

When printed out and provided to fitness clients at the end of an introductory workout, this is a powerful tool that will help you make more sales. (Give it to them to take home .) I recommend putting a nice picture of you on it too, in addition to your website and perhaps your rates; this sends a powerful message!

The Client Bill of Right’s states that fitness clients are entitled to a personal trainer who:

Continually Tracks Your Progress and Goals as They Evolve.

Helps You Define & Achieve Goals that are S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely).

Keeps You Engaged With Fun & Interesting Workouts.

Stays Attentive and Focused Every Session.

Confirms Every Appointment.

Has Excellent Communication and Listening Skills.

Provides Safe and Effective Workouts.

Effectively Teaches You Exercise Knowledge (so you know how to work out better on your own.)

Is Always On Time, Prepared, With Good Hygiene and Looking Professional.

Has Good Availability for Your Schedule, Rarely Cancels, and Provides Advanced Notice When Canceling.

Responds to all Email, Text, and Voice Mail Communications Promptly.

Provides Motivation, Inspiration, and Leadership.

Consistently Provides a Customized Workout Program.

Challenges You to Work Out on Your Own, Be More Self-reliant with Exercise, and Addresses Lifestyle Habits.

Comprehensively Addresses Your Health and Fitness by Collaborating with a Network of Health Professionals.

Leave us questions, comments, or success stories in the comments below.

The fitness profession is great, but getting more competitive? What is your personal training policy and personal trainer mission statement? Do you print them out and use them as a sales tool? What have your fitness clients said about it?

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness

Personal Training Policy: How to Manage Frustrating Client’s Who Always Cancel?

Johnny Fitness — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:40:15 +0000

Heart Break!

You take the time and plan a thoughtful program.

You show up early, and set up the gym so everything is ready.

And you wait, and wait, and wait…

But your client never shows up, or you get a text/email/voice mail that says they cannot make it and can they reschedule.

Keep Your Cool

Yes it is frustrating, sometimes it is downright rude, but every trainer out there has been through this scenario. The most important thing is to keep your cool and be a professional. Some clients will never be superstar clients, that’s OK. But your time is valuable, and you should make sure that all your client’s respect your time, otherwise it’s time to say goodbye. Don’t jump to conclusions, maybe something bad really happened. (Hopefully not!) Call them, leave them a message, and be positive at least until you find out what exactly is going on.

Avoid Creating Repeat Offenders

The first step in helping your client’s respect you and your time is to create clear expectations for the relationship from the very beginning. Whatever your policy is regarding cancellations (I have a 48 hour policy that goes for both myself and the client, but the industry standard is about 24 hours), you should have it clearly written and presented to the client from the very beginning. This will help the client take you seriously, weed out bad clients, and demonstrate your professionalism. I always make it a two way street, if I don’t show up, they get a free session (in 9 years it has never happened, but it shows them that you are committed to them, so they should be committed to you. Fair is fair.)

Any exceptions to your cancellation policy should be clearly written as well (i.e. life and death emergencies). In particular, you should spell out that work emergencies DO NOT COUNT AND ARE NOT VALID REASONS FOR CANCELING WITHOUT NOTICE! Most of your client’s are going to try and put work before their health, which is ludicrous; this is an imbalanced priority that you do not want to encourage. You don’t have to present them with a contract full of legal language to sign, just write it out or type it up, and have them initial it, so the expectations are clear.

The next step is enforcing your written policy! I will usually let the first cancellation without enough notice slide, especially if it is close to the deadline, but you should do this ONLY IF YOU TELL THEM YOU ARE MAKING AN EXCEPTION THIS ONE TIME. (If they are a no show, I always charge except of course if it was a life and death emergency.) This allows you to reiterate the seriousness of the cancellation policy. And the next time it happens, you MUST charge them for it no matter what. Otherwise, you are at risk at conditioning their behavior in the wrong direction. If you don’t charge them, they will expect you not to charge them when they do not provide notice, and will get upset if you try to charge them for it later on. Set the expectations from the start, actions speak louder than words, don’t just say it, do it!

Behavior Change and Habits

Our client’s come to us to lose weight or look better, but whether we realize it or not, we are in a lifestyle business. That means that every client that comes in to see you needs to change their life in some way, often many ways, or else they wouldn’t need your help.

• They don’t sleep enough.

• They are stressed.

• They don’t know how to work out or don’t work often enough.

• Their back hurts.

• They are lazy and tired all the time.

All these things add up to disease and imbalanced health, but more often than not, they are coming more concerned with their looks than anything else. The client doesn’t fully realize or want to admit that THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR LIFE.

This is what the elite personal trainer focuses on. Not just getting them in shape, but helping the client take control of their life. It is the only way to achieve and maintain their goals. What the hell is the point of getting in shape and then losing it a few weeks later? Why not just get in shape, stay in shape, and be happy? This is a goal for all clients.

But you will never be able to influence your client, and inspire them to change their behavior, if they don’t respect you in the first place. When they cancel on you, they are saying, whether they realize it or not, “This isn’t a priority”. Help them make it a priority. Enforce your policy with a sincere smile and a gentle energy, but enforce it consistently. You will weed out the bad client’s who cannot match your commitment to their goals, allowing you to focus on the super clients that will become walking billboards for your business.

Stick with it; this is often a big issue for personal trainers who are just getting started and not very confident. Make sure you do not give “weak” energy for the client to feed off of, create good habits in managing your clients, and you will have less cancellation very soon.

Neat Little Trick for First Workouts

The first time a client comes to workout with you is the time when they are most likely to cancel! And if they don't come in, there is no way for you to get them as a client. First, just understand their predicament:

• They want to believe you will help them, but have seen some terrible trainers out there.

• They are scared, and feel vulnerable.

• They will be opening up, sharing an intimate space, and be forced to confront their own behavior, and on some level they know it.

• The gym is intimidating, they may have a terrible self image, or feel ashamed.

Whatever the case, the first step is to try and disarm their fear as much as possible. Talk to them on the phone and be generous and supportive. Send them to your website so they can see your face, see the testimonials of your clients, and get to know you. Then set up the appointment.

Often the first workout is complimentary, but a sneaky little trick we use is to take a credit card down and explain to them that the first step is often the hardest for people to take (so true!), and so people often cancel their first appointment. Explain that your time is valuable, so to ensure that they will show up and not waste your time, you take a credit card #; they are only charged if they DON'T show up. This is a great way to screen out people who will waste your time by no showing, or will be crappy clients.

Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. What are your biggest problems with clients? How do you handle repeat offenders? Let me know what you think.

Until next time, keep your business fit.