Industry News, UFM News
Do You have the Right Personal Trainers at your Facility?
Most fitness businesses have personal trainers. And they serve their purpose. They train clients, make some money, make you some money…blah blah blah.
Well in this day and age, blah blah blah doesn’t cut it. You don’t need clipboard cowboys or cookie cutter trainers. You need personality. You need people who love what they do and love where they work and want to tell the world about it.
Personal training isn’t a job; it’s a lifestyle. Or at least it should be. A paycheck is fun, but it’s even more fun to be known as the go-to fitness guy or gal in your community. When you have a trainer who embraces this, you’ll have a much better training department.
Here are some qualities of that superstar trainer who will make marketing your personal training services much easier and will improve your entire gym’s image:
- They are always early and never mind spending a little extra time at the gym (not arriving 2 minutes before their workout and leaving 2 minutes after)
- They never speak poorly of you or your gym (It is amazing how quickly your reputation can be destroyed…or enhanced by your PT’s)
- They understand the mission of your gym and what it takes to be successful
- They are willing to take two steps back in order to take 3 steps forward (They will put in floor time with your members, knowing that this will eventually pay off by way of a new client)
- They get involved in your community outreach efforts (Your PT’s are a great “Face” of your gym and are perfect for giving seminars and presentations to groups in your community)
Imagine how much fun it would be to have a prospect walk in the door and say, “I saw your trainer Susie on TV and I want to work with her. How can I do that?”
You’ll be falling over yourself in excitement to sign them up!
As an example, one of our coaching clients has a personal trainer named Jill who runs in, and often wins, the 5k and 10k races in a mid-sized town in New Jersey. Nearly all of the people she mingles with at the races are either members of the gym or are personal training clients of hers thanks to her being such a well-known runner in the area.
Another coaching client has a personal trainer who gives at least one seminar presentation a week. He will go onsite to all of the local businesses and provide a “lunch and learn” seminar for employees. He distributes his business card, which has his picture on it and his gym’s information. How’s that for helping people remember you?
Another coaching client has a personal trainer who was recognized as one of the top 50 best personal trainers in the state. This was 3 years ago, and would you believe there are still people coming in to ask for that particular trainer because they remember the article?
So what are your personal trainers doing to put their name, and your name, out in the community? Are they participating in “trainer of the year” awards? Are they a major volunteer to a local charity effort? Are they finding a way to become a “celebrity”, allowing you an easy marketing tool?
Maybe it’s time to have a little talk with your personal trainers to explain just how important their role is and to help guide them to get more involved in efforts outside of the gym. It will have a huge effect on your PT revenues and help establish your gym as the place to be.
Industry News, Online Marketing, SEO For Fitness
Fitness Business : 6 Goals You Should Set for This Year
While you’re busy helping all of your clients and members reach their goals and follow though with their resolutions, don’t forget to set your own goals for your fitness business marketing as well.
Adjust this list according to your specific needs or use it as inspiration to create a list of your own.
- Learn something every day. Guess what? You’re already doing that by reading this! Congratulations on reaching your first goal! When you wake up in the morning, or before you go to sleep, or at 2:00 in the afternoon when you need to relax, grab a book or an article or plug in your earphones and listen to an audio book. If you make it a point to learn one thing every day this year, think of how much smarter you’ll be one year from now.
- Organize Your Office. Nothing kills productivity faster than walking in to your office with stacks of papers piled up on your desk, file folders all over the floor, and sticky notes everywhere. Make it a point to organize and unclutter your office.
- Delegate more tasks, more often. I’m as guilty as you are. I think no one else can do as good a job as me so I tend to take on more than I should. Write out the tasks you do on a regular basis and find someone to do those tasks that don’t absolutely need your assistance.
- Know your numbers. Have one of your gym’s staff members send you the most important numbers every day. They can tell you how many total check-ins there were, how many training appointments, how many prospects visited, how many new members, and their progress toward reaching their monthly goals.
- Be more consistent in your marketing. This is incredibly important. Your team should be involved in community events, talking to prospects, introducing current members to your other offerings, distributing print marketing and gift cards and business cards. Never stop marketing your fitness business.
- Add social media to your marketing plan – Whether you like it or not, the world has gone social. Make sure you have, and are using, a Facebook page for your gym. Make sure you are getting online reviews, make sure you are blogging and tweeting and Liking and participating in anything you can. Not only will you connect with your members where they hang out, Google will also notice all of the social activity surrounding you.
Remember that a goal is really just a dream unless you put it within a system and put measurable objectives in place. So for example, to accompany each of the goals above, your goal could be: read one article every morning, organize one area of your office every Friday at 2:00, Have 25 different marketing systems in place at all times, post one new Facebook status update every Monday and Wednesday.
No matter what is on your list, always remember that imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. Lots of people set goals. Very few actually take action on them. I encourage you to just pick one of the things from this list and make it a point today to implement it.
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