It was inevitable. I knew it would happen. People were going to call me out. Sooner or later.
They were going to call me mean. Greedy.
Their eyes would open wide in shock when they read my blog posts and they’d say, “OMG how could he be this heartless? Everyone deserves a personal trainer!”
So, I think this other blogger went after me in one of their posts a few months ago. Again, I think they were talking about me.
I can’t be sure, but there aren’t many if any personal trainers/bloggers saying what I’m saying.
You know, telling you to only market your personal training services to the wealthy and the successful, because in doing so it will fix every single problem you are facing in the industry.
You know the problems.
- No money
- No clients
- No consistency
- A gap filled schedule
- No freedom
- Burnout
Well, this blogger said they actually had to stop to take another breath to calm down while writing, because they were so disgusted that someone would dare advise such a thing.
Wow! So dramatic! LOL ; )
This “expert” goes on to say that the majority of people in the world say they can’t afford something 3-4 times before they say yes.
Ummmm in 19 years and counting as a personal trainer none of my clients ever said no, or that they couldn’t afford it.
This blogger also said that asking someone over the phone if they can afford a personal trainer is just bad business.
Well, first off just calling someone on the phone to sell your service or any service is bad business. Ya know we all love telemarketers. ; )
Secondly, I’d never even market my service to someone that couldn’t afford it, because I would know ahead of time that they couldn’t afford it. Duh! Why waste everyone’s time?
Yep, again I sound so mean, but isn’t it time you thought bigger?
You can’t grow your business with middle class people, I’m sorry.
You can’t grow your personal training business if you don’t retain clients. You can’t get one lose one, get one lose one…
Wealthy clients will never quit your service. Grow your business with them.
Once you’re killing it, and dominating your market, then you can start to give back like I have done for so many years.
See, many of these “expert” bloggers giving personal training marketing and business advice are foolish.
I hate it, because there are a few of us out there that have made a lot of money as fitness professionals, and continue to do so.
Now, we want to give back to the industry, and help end the horrible turnover rate. As I’ve said before, 80% of personal trainers are quitting within two years.
The “expert” bloggers are a big part of the reason that there is so much failure in this industry, because they’re not willing or courageous enough to tell the TRUTH.
Actually many of them don’t know the truth, because they were personal trainers for only a very short time. They were probably part of the 80%.
I’m tired. So very tired of all these tips from the “experts” on what to say and how to be.
I mean the continual role playing sales techniques are just horrendous.
It’s pretty much a lesson for you on how to beg for money. And how to deal with objections clients may have with committing to you and your service. And how to say all the right things so they’ll see value, and save up every month in order to pay you.
Well, if you read my post Role Playing Sales Meetings Are Dumb (Pretty descriptive title huh?) you know how I feel about them. All those meetings do is scare the crap out of new personal trainers, and have them begging to do a towel run.
As I have said many many times, you don’t need to be a wonderful sales person if you market to the correct people.
One of the top 5 reasons trainers are quitting this industry is because they are scared to death of sales.
Here’s a question with hopefully an obvious answer.
Do you enjoy sitting in an office with a person who supposedly is a potential client, but actually isn’t, and continue to try to coerce a couple hundred bucks out of them?
Fully knowing that even if you get the $149.00, and do a phenomenal job training them for the 6 half-hour sessions, (Yes, I’ve seen this crappy deal. The trainer gets only half of course. Do the math.) that they’ll never buy any more sessions from you.
Your answer is NO. At least it better be NO.
So why then would you continue marketing your personal training service to everyone?
Hey, real quick before I close, I want you to say something out loud for me.
Here it is.
“I can’t believe a personal trainer is blogging about only marketing his service to people that can afford it.”
I still shake my head and laugh at that statement, and I’ve been hearing it for many years.
It’s just now that I have began to write about it, because other bloggers (haters) bash my COMMON SENSE advice.
Hopefully you think that quoted statement is as dumb as I do. And even dumber when you say it out loud.
I mean seriously. What’s the alternative? Marketing to people that CAN’T pay you?
Does Mercedes do that? The high end country clubs? High end steak houses?
Sorry, but just like those items and places aren’t for everyone, PERSONAL TRAINING ISN’T FOR EVERYONE.
And just like those businesses and every other business on the planet, personal trainers need to be profitable in order to stay in business.
Why are 80% of personal trainers quitting within 2 years? Is it because they were unsure how to teach strength training exercises? Is it because they couldn’t get their clients to change their eating habits?
No, it’s because they weren’t making enough money. Period.
Thanks for taking a minute to read another blog post from me.
PTB has made it to almost 40,000 Facebook followers so quickly thanks to people like you reading and sharing my writing with personal trainers, sales consultants, and health club owners. I really appreciate this.
Talk soon.
P.S. If for some reason you haven’t heard, my phone consultation service and NEWEST 50 page E-Book titled Successful Marketing Strategies Used By Six-Figure Earning Personal Trainers are now available. Just click here –> Personal Training Biz to learn more.
Be sure to watch the short video too.
Btw, to clear up any confusion, you don’t have to schedule a phone consultation with me to get the new book. It’s for sale by itself as well. Go get it now!
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