How personal trainers can become fully booked!

With so much competition in the personal training industry, it can at times feel overwhelming…

How do we attract new clients? 

How do we fill our diaries? 

What makes us stand out from all the other personal trainers? 

Don’t worry, these doubts are perfectly normally and I’m sure that if you spoke to most established personal trainers they would all admit to having similar thoughts back when they started.

I for one can relate and that’s why I’ve written this post, I want to help personal trainers generate new leads and grow their businesses.

In this post, I’d like to give 4 pointers, which if followed will help you stand out from the crowd and help you fill your diaries for months on end!

#1 Help People in Your Gym

People will not come knocking on your door for personal training sessions (not to start with anyway!). You’ve got to go out there and find clients. It can be daunting going up to people, the fear of rejection looms large.

Again it’s normal to feel this way. One way to get around this is rather than going up to people and immediately selling yourself e.g. “Hello, do you want to buy some personal training session?” – instead provide value first before selling.

You could approach someone in the gym and help them with a technique or provide some tips to help them get more out of their sessions.

Be polite, friendly and approachable. Try and get to know as many people in your gym as possible. If you come across genuine, and knowledgeable people will start enquiring about your services and before you know it you’ll have a bunch of clients paying you for sessions.

#2 Facebook & Blogging  

Invite friends to like your FB page and put out lots of free content to help people. Although it takes time to write and schedule content online it pays off in the long run.

You can also build you audience faster by using sponsored posts, although this does cost money and isn’t always ideal for personal trainers with limited financial resources.

When you put out valuable information for free you are letting people know that you are an expert. When the time comes that they want to get in shape you’ll be the first person they think off.

I like to write 2-3 FB posts per week and at least 1 blog. For content ideas please head over to my FB page (if you could also give my page a ‘Like’ that would be great!)

If you are unsure of what to write about and don’t know how to start a Health & Fitness Blog check out this post I wrote.

#3 Write A List Of Potential Clients 

I’m sure most of you reading this will have people you know who you could train. Write down a list of co-workers, friends and family members who you think may be interested in working with you. You could run a 90-day transformation package and give them a mates-rate discount.

#4 Give Out  A Free Taster Session 

I’m a big fan of giving out taster sessions, especially when you are starting out. Although I don’t offer taster sessions anymore they allowed me to pick up lots of clients at the start.

I would write out ads and post them on Gumtree “Free 45 minute taster PT session”. I would also post these ads in local forums.

I’d invite people down, talk through their goals, give them free help/advice and take them through a session. After the session, I’d then ask them if they would like to hear more about the services I had to offer.

You’ll be surprised at how many people will want to train with you when you take this approach. It’s a great way to fill your diary.

Summary…

When you think about it all you need for a full personal training diary is 20-30 sessions per week. That means you only need approximately 7-15 people working with, and training 2-3x per week for you to become fully booked.

The biggest thing I’d like you to take away from this post is ‘Giving Value’ – when you are committed to helping people and give before you take, you’ll have people queuing up to do business with you.

As I said before, smile, be approachable, help people and do these things consistantly and you’ll be fully booked up in no time!

Any questions please give me a holla!

Nick