The following blog post is based on our latest podcast episode hosted by Luke Johnson, but it is not an exact transcription.
As Luke introduced in the episode:
“This week, I’m talking a bit about marketing and sales I took from my lesson in the PT Core, Unit 9, titled “The Client Journey.”
With these blog posts, we’re offering you three levels of education:
Level 1: Read this blog, or only listen to the podcast, and you’ll be able to apply it to take action.
Level 2: Listen to the podcast episode, come back here, read the article, and you’ll be able to retain probably 30-50 percent more information.
Level 3: Enrol in our most popular course - the
PT CORE - and allow us to guide you, mentor you, and hold you accountable. If you’re not afraid to take action, we guarantee we’ll make your business flourish.
If you want to check out the podcast on this topic, you can do so below.
We go through all the stages individually, and we’ll provide some examples and practical approaches. Additionally, in the podcast episode, we discuss common traps most Personal Trainers fall into.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following strategy applies both to Online and In-person trainers.
What’s the first thing that most people pay attention to when they walk into a new gym?
Profile boards.
We can almost hear you say “Wait, what, when did you write this blog? In 1998, bro?”
To this day, people will notice pretty much the same thing they did in ‘98 - PT Specialists.
They might notice you working with a client on the gym floor.
Or they see you trying to get away with the bare minimum by counting reps for a client or chatting with them while they jog on a treadmill. (Don’t feel embarrassed if you do this. We’ve all been there.)
But if you want to grow your business without wasting years learning from your own mistakes - we can help.
Book a free call with one of our experts, and let us help you become a referral machine.
Luke gives more examples in the podcast.
The main point:
If people don’t know who you are on the gym floor and you have no Social Media presence, it will be impossible to convert them into clients.
This 7-Stage strategy is a process. It always has to start with Stage 1 - your awareness of a new potential client, as well as that person’s awareness of your online or gym-floor presence.
Engagement can’t exist without assertiveness, but you don’t have to be a natural talker or a born extrovert.
Engage means approaching a person, saying hello, meeting them in person, acknowledging their comment on your Social Media posts, responding to their DMs, and letting them know you’re always there to help them. Make them feel comfortable and noticed.
If you meet them on the gym floor, make sure your body language is welcoming.
The term Lead represents an individual who is interested in what you sell and has given you their contact info.
One of the most commonly used cold lead tactics is to get their email by providing a downloadable piece of value in the form of an ebook, a free program, or any other similar offer.
We go into great detail on warm leads and other successful marketing strategies in our
PT Core course.
We recommend listening to the podcast episode because Luke goes through examples of lead magnets for in-person PTs and gym owners.
Luke makes a special announcement in the podcast, with a guarantee.
We have something special in store for in-person gym-floor trainers coming in January 2022.
The podcast version will give you an insight into the transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4.
Your ability to convert has nothing to do with your ability to sell the product (service) directly.
You’re not a vendor, and you’re not selling, period.
You’re selling people on the experience, yourself, and the journey you’ll go through together.
You’re overdelivering in doing so, making devoted fans who will buy anything from you.
We teach our students to get clients they genuinely want to work with. You can only accomplish this if you’re marketing your authentic voice to the right audience.
If prospects complain about the price and want a cheap service - it’s your fault, not theirs.
We’re considering renaming the fifth Stage into Overdeliver.
One of the reasons why PTs come to us is not only because of our results. It’s because overdelivering runs through the veins of everything we do here at the PTC.
People will pay for overpriced and overrated coffee at Starbucks because of the individuality factor.
Starbucks employee: - “Pumpkin Spice Latte for Jessica!”
Jessica immediately thinks, HEY, that’s me, this is cool!
Even in this small-sized sample one thing is obvious - Jessica didn’t get coffee. She got the Starbucks experience, and for a moment, she belonged.
Now take that and multiply it by 100. Everything you do, add to it. An individual touch that will make anyone feel special. For example, don’t just welcome a client via text or email.
Add a video greeting. Or send them a physical welcoming card or a piece of merch.
Luke gives his take on Overdelivering that you need to listen to, even if that’s the only part of the podcast you have time to commit to.
Never just do enough. Always deliver, but never settle down for just delivering. Do more.
If you nail the Stage 5 and overdeliver, clients will stick with you for longer than they probably even need you.
If you followed the previous five stages, you now understand that clients never bought your training sessions or workout program.
They bought a service. They bought into you.
Client retention is vital for the survival of any Personal Trainer business. It is also disproportionately less time-consuming to retain a client than to acquire a new one.
Getting a new client means going through every previous stage.
Retaining a client simply means turning Stage 5 - Deliver into your daily routine.
We go in more depth explaining the difference between the effort and skills necessary to generate leads and convert versus retaining clients in the podcast.
Long-term clients will become your most valuable passive promoters.
Whenever you reach this final stage with a client, you’ll get a massive boost of confidence. We can help you get fully stacked with a roster of clients turned into active promoters.
If you’re struggling to get at least 75% of your clients to this stage, our services are ideal for you.
We want you to be our active promoters.
The only way to make you into our ideal client is to give you one thing you need - to have clients do your marketing job for you by going out of their way to promote you.
If you want to stop theorising and take immediate action - schedule a call with one of our expert advisors.
We’ll guide you every step along the way, but we don’t want you investing in our service if you’re unwilling to take action relentlessly.
If you’re an in-person Personal Trainer, we got a unique challenge for you coming in January 2022 that will make you into a gym-floor lead generation machine.
