No matter how heavily-armed you are with certifications, you are going to need clients in front of you in order to train. It’s a major misconception in the industry that the more certifications education you have is obviously going to attract more clients. My hope is by the end of this article we can debunk some myths to allow you latitude to focus on the things that truly matter: the people in front of you.

I spent the beginning years of my career flailing in the wind like a white surrender flag. Mostly pacing through the gym, hoping that members would simply run up to me asking to buy the biggest package possible because of my fitness acumen. Bluntly put, that simply wasn’t the case.

(Me at 19 years old working at a High School Football Combine at Giants Stadium)

If you’re anything like me – you LOVE what you do.

And I’m not talking a hobby. I mean, spend your time reading articles on the topic. Following mainly fitness accounts on Instagram to gather inspiration, and spending the majority of your day in some form of gym shorts because even when you’re not “working out” you are still actively working.

Does that sound familiar?

Unfortunately, the education and information when entering into the field is pretty lopsided. Heavy doses of highly technical scientific information on how the body moves, reacts, and efficiently operates. The information I learned while getting my degree was really great in regards to Exercise Physiology but being a Personal Trainer is a very different job. While I was reading books on cardiovascular tests, the Sodium-Potassium Pump, and the cranial nerves I never once learned something as basic as how to have a conversation with a new/prospective client.

To actively participate in the job of being a personal trainer (and make an honest living doing it) you are going to have to pick up some clients. If you want to close more clients that you meet with ( which I hope you all do) continue to read.

Let’s help you figure out where you may be hitting some bumps in the road and picking up the client that you want to have on your roster.

LET’S FIRST DO SOME MYTH BUSTING

1) “I WORK IN A LOW BUDGET GYM SO PEOPLE DON’T HAVE MONEY”

I get this excuse from trainers all the time! The fact of the matter is, people spend money on things they truly want to invest in. If they aren’t buying personal training with you it’s simply because we haven’t created enough value for it.

Here’s your easy example:

* Have you ever been out in public where there is the subway, public transit bus, or just in an area where you see a bunch of people? How many people do you see wearing Beats by Dre headphones? Or, how many people have an iPhone?

The fact is, the majority of the people don’t have a budget of $300 per year for headphones or $1,000 for a brand new iPhone every time it gets released. The individual has to RATIONALIZE it’s a worthwhile purchase in order to engage that amount of money. Personal training is no different.*

It becomes a self limiting factor when you begin to tell yourself over and over again you are a slave to your circumstance. One of the first gyms I worked in was a $10/month facility where in a matter of 2 months I had a full client book paying $80/session to work with me. Don’t judge the situation by the building.

2) I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH CREDENTIALS

There will be some clients who come in specifically if you have a PPSC, CSCS, or any other major certification. Honestly, about 95% of the people that come into the facility or Studio that you work at have absolutely no clue what those letters represent. Whether you are NSCA, ACE, or down with OPP. They don’t care.

They aren’t investing in personal training because of the credentials, they’re investing in personal training because of the person that can help them through this task. If they only cared about the credentials they could buy the book for themselves.

When you begin all your potential training relationships with an assessment or a complimentary session, these are the top reasons why the person isn’t going to engage in training with you moving forward. This is going to be one of those articles of deep self-reflection – because if you truly want to make a change – you might have to take a hard look in the mirror to see what you aren’t doing to the best of your ability.

OKAY, NOW HERE IS WHAT TO LOOK FOR

3) YOU AREN’T EXUDING PROFESSIONALISM

While the job we have is very recreational and nature people are going to want to know they go to someone who treats their time and money with respect. Let’s be honest, personal training isn’t cheap. So when somebody spends $130 per hour to meet with you the last thing they want is you schlepping in after your personal workout time, calling them “bro”, and texting during the session.

Start looking at the position as professional personal training. You are being paid a high dollar amount to work with this person and get the most out of what they can give you within the amount of time they pay for.

Missing on this key concept isn’t only going to affect you with the person in front of you but it’s going to potentially deter any future client who may be watching during that session. It’s important to understand that when you’re on the floor working with somebody – you are ALWAYS on stage.

The step for professionalism can really set the table even before you meet them for the first time. Here are a couple key concepts to order it yourself moving forward to make sure that everything’s in line with the brand that you want to present.

EMAIL – Emails should be short and succinct. The quickest way to lose someone’s interest is to send an email with multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Start with templates to make sure you are getting the right message across and personalize each template just a little for the person you are sending it to. This makes sure you are sending the right message while they don’t feel like they are receiving an automatic response from a computer.

PHONE CALL – Speaking to someone on the phone should be as professional and clear as the initial meeting. Over the phone, you have to “present” yourself as the person they can rely on and trust. Tone of voice, volume, enunciation, and your personality should shine through on a phone call.

Make sure to set expectations for what you will be doing, what they need to do, and what they can expect from meeting with you. Setting these guidelines will avoid the circumstance of missing expectations the client created because you simply didn’t communicate.

*What will happen when you meet?
*Where will you meet?
*How long will the meeting be?
*What should they bring to the meeting?
*Are there any things you want them to have prepared before coming?

VOICEMAIL – Voicemails are a quick way for the client to get to know you while never meeting you. Similar to the phone call, how you conduct yourself in a voicemail is a big piece of setting the table for a strong initial meeting. This should also be succinct like the email.

**Pro Tip** Leave yourself or a friend a voicemail in the manner you would for a potential client. Listen back to the voicemail to decide one simple question – would you call that person back?

4) THE CLIENT DOESN’T BELIEVE YOU ARE THE “RIGHT” PERSON

Don’t take this as a personal shot, but not every trainer is the perfect match for every client. Depending on their goals, they want to work with someone who they believe you can see the world from where they’re standing. The 55 year old client with chronic back pain and a lifetime of confidence issues and obesity struggles isn’t going to find a lot of commonalities with the 21 year old super-trainer who just graduated college.

Clients identify best with someone who they believe can help them from their position.

Regardless of demographic, it could even be a matter of working with the best fit for your specific goals. Take me for example – I’ve been a strength and hypertrophy coach for a majority of my career. It took me a few years to start gaining the confidence of individuals with hip replacements, knee replacements, and joint the specific disorders to trust me to work with them. It’s important to understand which way I best operate in and how I continue to help people within that jurisdiction.

During my Exercise Science degree I learned how to write programming for somebody attempting a marathon. I learned progressions, splits, intensity variations, an optimal way to taper somebody off prior to the event. But I’ve never run a marathon.

So I can’t tell you what it feels like at Mile 18 when you’re trying to push yourself mentally past that threshold.

I can’t tell you the fatigue and soreness during a feel after the marathon, because I’ve simply never done it. There are other coaches out there that are a much better fit than me in that situation even though I know how to write a solid program for that person. Finding clients in that category is going to be a key part for you in building a long tenured client base.

5) YOU ARE OFFERING DISCOUNTS

Most trainers give discounts because they want to get more people engaged. Unfortunately, discounts show weakness.

Offering a baseline price for your time is saying it costs X amount of dollars per hour to make sense for both myself and you. When you start to offer discounts for time-based services, what you’re truly telling the client is I was charging you X before but really I’m willing to settle in and take X-$45 amount of dollars usually.

Most people that are buying training have enough expendable income to understand the differences between these scenarios. People generally accrue a lot of money because they’re financially responsible.

Price your services appropriately to what you can provide and what the standard rate is within that given area. Just because you used to train in New York City or Los Angeles doesn’t mean you can charge New York City or Los Angeles prices in Omaha Nebraska.

Don’t upsell and don’t discount, simply charge the appropriate amount.

6) YOU AREN’T CONFIDENT ENOUGH

This isn’t always true, but usually, the most profitable trainer in the gym isn’t necessarily the best trainer in the gym. We operate in a business where people follow a herd mentality. Why would they work with the top trainer? Well, everyone else is working with the top trainer.

If you show me the top trainer then they must know something that I simply don’t. That has to be the most sought-after person so there must be some kind of edge to working with that individual versus other trainers., right? And we know that’s simply not the case.

Confidence comes from two different ways: knowing what you know or THINKING you know what you know.

Whether you’re highly intellectual or highly off based in your reasoning, confidence is authentic either way. People are drawn to confidence. People want to follow somebody who they believe knows exactly what the answer is and how to get them from point A to point B.

The last thing somebody wants when investing a lot of money into a service such as personal training is a wishy-washy response on a bunch of maybes and potentials. Do you see how that could really deter someone?

7) YOU DON’T OWN THE BASICS

When you have a firm grasp of the information you are much more freely willing to talk in-depth on specific topics. This grasp of knowledge is going to exude the confidence necessary for someone to believe that you really have a grip on what you’re doing. When someone asks a question, they are seeking you for better answers or better information. This can be in relation to the latest fads going on or a trending diet. If you aren’t sure of these topics when someone brings this up, its going to set off an alarm in the client’s brain. We will expand on this topic a little bit in one of the future bullets.

8) THEIR GOALS ARE BEING OVERSHADOWED BY YOURS

The client’s goals are going to come first! When we learn a bunch of cool science-based information in a certification we always want to be the first to utilize that and show how much we know. When somebody comes to you that wants to lose the last 10 pounds they’ve been trying to get for the last 10 years and you tell them not to focus on that because they’re lacking an extra 10 degrees of flexion at the upper arm towards overhead Mobility. Oh, you’re going to lose them.

The fact is they’re coming to you with a very specific goal and what they want to do – you’re letting them speak – then completely ignoring what they came to you for. The client is ALWAYS right.

Well, not always. But they are the owners of their trip and goals. We can find ways to incorporate those necessary things for them such as “hiding the vegetables” but we simply can’t disregard what their goals are and why they came to us.

Imagine going to a friend and asking them to loan you $10. When you ask them, they give you a high five. So then you again repeat if you can borrow $10, to which they again give you a high five. That would frustrate the hell out of me because it’s almost as if they’re not listening to a word I’m saying. So, imagine how the client feels when they come into a highly vulnerable situation willing to unveil their deepest insecurities to you and you tell them not to focus on those insecurities but the focus on what you want to focus on.

You are neglecting their transparency and that’s not the foundation for a solid relationship.

9) THEY CAN’T IMAGINE IT HAPPENING

People generally have a hard time of envisioning themselves doing great things. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true.

When we meet with somebody and unveil a lavish plan on how to get them from where they currently are to the body of their dreams, sometimes it’s hard for people to digest that information. It just seems too fantastical. I mean we all want to live in the world of rainbows and unicorns, but that’s simply a fantasy land.

If it is possible to show visuals, you can help open up the landscape for your clients.

Finding ways for your clients, or potential clients in this case, to truly believe in what you’re telling them you have to give in bite-size pieces and describe the path. What we are doing is writing a detailed novel to illustrate their success through words. We want them to feel the feelings, see the vision, breathe in the success, and own the new version of themselves that will soon be.

If you have a hard time describing to someone what the outcome is going to look like, practice with friends or practice around the house. Simply look at the book cabinet it’s been in your living room for years and explain the details of it. Every detail of it.

Here’s an example:

*There’s a wooden bookcase in my living room. The piece simply looks heavy, stretching from the floor to just shy of the ceiling. The Deep Brown Hue of the wood is detailed with the dark swirls of grain showing the age and beauty of the mahogany. The quality of the bookcase is authentically antique. Sliding your fingers across the way you feel the age in the piece while your fingers dragged across the aging lacquer that preserves its experience. Cabinets at the bottom allow us to open up for storage with the bins where we keep our tiny belongings while at waist height a flat platform with a reading light available to quickly turn through the pages of a book. Four rows above are books stacked from edge to edge ranging from new books to the old classics. A piece of homage to the past while renewing the beauty of reading the future.*

10) THEY DON’T BELIEVE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING (COMMUNICATION)

One of the most common mistakes I see your new trainers is trying to master everything at once. This is an easy recipe for miscommunication and disaster.

Clients truly don’t care how much scientific information you know. What are you going to master about the biomechanical nuance of the shoulder complex or the anatomical structure of the acetabular femoral joint? They want to know that you can help them when it comes to exercise, fitness, and their overall health.

Clients get turned away when you try to wow them with a bunch of information that you don’t really have a grasp on. This happens when you try to lean into topics that you may not have mastered yet. And to be clear, it’s okay that you haven’t mastered everything yet. I am 14 years into training. The more I train the more I realize I don’t know anything. What I do know are the things that I’m willing to talk to clients about.

Don’t try to be the master of EVERYTHING.

This disconnect between what you can truly do and what you are trying to do could be the one thing that’s causing clients to hesitate in starting with you. They don’t want to be the guinea pig for your trial and error. They want to know what they are getting when going into something as rigorous as personal training.

11) THE SERVICE ISN’T WORTH THE MONEY (VALUE)

If all the other things aren’t the reason why someone isn’t raining with you then it’s most likely this. People aren’t seeing the value in it, or more specifically, the value in you.

We think that people can afford something because they won’t spend money on it when simply it’s a disconnect between what you’re offering and what you’re asking. I think we all can agree that Ferraris are expensive. But if someone was offering you a brand new Ferrari and mint condition with no problems at all for $2,000, I’m assuming you at all run to your savings account or find friends to help cosign on getting that mint vehicle. Because you know it’s much more valuable than that.

When you meet with someone and go through training options and you let them know that for example it’s $100 per hour the client has to ask themselves “is this worth $100 per hour?” And it’s usually one of these three things:

Personal Training in general isn’t worth that amount – Any amount of time you met with them you simply weren’t able to build enough value in what Personal Training could bring to their lives. Either they think they can do it on their own or they believe that what Justin does is aligned with who they are. We’ve known they both aren’t true but that means that we didn’t do a thorough enough job of explaining what we bring to the table.

This trainer isn’t worth that amount – Maybe the dollar amount that you are charging ( because of your gym split or simply your pricing) is too much in what they deem you are worth. When someone invests in something they want to know they’re getting a steal on a service or product. That means we shouldn’t just meet the value but exceed the value. And during their interaction with you they didn’t feel like you’ve exceeded the value.

I can get the same service elsewhere for cheaper – We all shop multiple places before purchasing a product or service. It was only a few weeks ago I was looking for Airpods for my wife and searched numerous sites before I found the lowest price. If somebody feels the service you are providing is similar to the service someone else can provide but they provided at a much lower expense they would be fools to spend a premium on you. Find ways to better show your value of what you bring to the table specifically for the person that’s in front of you..

MOVING FORWARD: TRUST THE PROCESS

A these tips are going to help you self-audit your business and sales process in order to create a folder client book. There should be a couple key concepts that you leave with before trying to practice all this stuff in your business.

Are you mastering the lane that you work within?
Are you treating the profession with professionalism?
Are you setting yourself apart from the crowd in positive in personalized ways?

Do you believe in yourself enough for people to believe in you?

If you are reading this article you certainly care enough about the industry that I have full Trust but you can help people. Scratch that, I know you can help people. Take these tips and practice them to build out the client book you’ve always dreamed of!