Sometimes when we think about sales people, we get this over riding feeling of dodgy car salesman or door knockers flogging double glazing. I believe that this provides a real obstacle to any newly qualified personal trainer. I will explain why in this article.
In truth when we are selling, we are positioning a product, but in personal training, what is the product? The answer is you, the personal trainer. The first step is to acknowledge this and work on the skills that are required to sell yourself first. There are numerous ways to do this, the first being how you conduct yourself when dealing with people. People will sometimes flock to the personal trainer who is buff and good looking, but how long will they stick with that trainer if the individual has no personality and doesn’t listen to a word the client says. These are the fundamental skills that build relationships and retain clients in the long term.
Sales in essence is providing a good service so the person is comfortable with what they are buying. How often have you been pushed into buying something and kept it for years and years? People tend to look for value and excellent service, this is the key to selling. The biggest hurdle that I see in the industry is retention and in my experience this is due to bad management of clients from the start of the relationship. This can be down to bad positioning of the product or person at the time of purchase.
I come across trainers that are scared of the concept of sales but as an industry, we need to concentrate on the service we provide and the manner we conduct ourselves with clients, this way, the “sales” will look after themselves and we will retain clients past a couple of months, which I believe is the industry average.
Hi I’n John Hill, personal trainer for Inspiring Fitness. I am also a key member of the support team and I specialize in marketing, client relationship building and recruitment.
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