Without clients you don’t have a business. Without a steady flow of new leads to your business you will battle long jeopardy. To have success and spread your healthy message to more people, to generate the lifestyle and business you deserve you need to implement a sales system. Here I talk with Scott Krywulycz on effective sales systems. To listen to the interview click here http://www.careerfitness.com.au/files/Sales%20School%20Interview%20with%20Scott_Krywulycz.mp3

For more information click here

take your health and fitness business to the sporting field

Never before have there been so many opportunities in sport. The list includes working with kids, schools, weekend warriors, amateur athletes or a professional practice. Career and business opportunities within sport have never been this lucrative. Sport is now a business with teams requiring experts to provide them with the edge needed to win.

If you have had a background in sport or any interest to work within the sporting industry then come and hang out with a team of experts who can help you take the next step.

who should attend…

• If you plan a career in sport
• Are currently in the health and fitness industry
• Want to work part-time or full-time or with kids to the elite level
• Not sure on how to get started
• Have played sport and want to cash in on your earlier experiences

what’s included…

• Develop a career path in the business of sport
• A day with a professional international trainer
• Techniques for getting started in sport
• Expert advice
• Workbook and downloads

what do you get…

• A day of being exposed to career opportunities in sport
• An understanding of the technical, personal and business skills required to get to the top
• Have your sports questions answered
• Technical tips and knowledge
• The opportunity to be learning from elite performers in the business of sport

why sport as a career…

• Sport teaches you amazing life skills
• Opportunities for a paid job, work independently or both
• A real need for great people
• More money is invested now in sport than in the history of the game
• Satisfaction of working in a team environment towards a set goal

limited opportunity

Due to demand we have put together a world-class program with international experts. We will not be running this event again until 2013, however our objective is to place the next generation of ‘sportpreneurs’ into their business and careers. If you enjoy sport, working in a team environment and helping and supporting others then consider the many opportunities that exist by being involved in sport. You will be exposed to a world that only a few choose to enter, where the career and the rewards can be whatever you want them to be!

Grab this limited opportunity and who knows the possibilities when you’re associated with influential leaders within the sporting community.

international sports conditioner, consultant and studio owner - Andrew Verdon

Andrew has been working with the Australian Sailing Team and the Australian Institute of Sport Sailing Squad for the last six years. His main role with the team is to educate elite sailors in the areas of sports conditioning, injury prevention and athlete preparation and recovery. He consults to various sporting clubs including his most recent appointment of setting up a High Performance Training Venue on beautiful Lake Como in Italy. Andrew also owns Beyond Exercise Studio a high performance studio based in Neutral Bay.

Andrew will present at our Sydney and Melbourne workshops.

elite sports conditioner and performance consultant - Brad Harrington

Brad will take you through his career path from personal trainer to working with local sporting teams, into working with amateur cricketers and AFL players. From here Brad, took the step overseas to work internationally in Rugby League with Super League club Halifax before heading back to Australia to work within Rugby Union with the NSW Waratah’s. He is now based in the UK working with the Welsh Rugby Union team and well as consulting to various Rugby Union and Rugby League clubs. Brad’s expertise is sort after by many clubs and he enjoys a life of working at the top end of sport, travel as well as helping others getting started in the Business of Sport.

Brad will present at our Perth and Gold Coast workshops.

format of workshop

This is a one-day workshop starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm. The venues are to be confirmed and dates are as follows:

Sydney - June 1

Gold Coast - June 3

Melbourne - June 8

Perth - June 17

To register please click here

I have sourced a thought provoking article from well know small business operator Peter Crocker. In the article Crocker discusses the merits of solo business operators.  I suggest that you read the article at least twice and absorb the points that Crocker makes as they might have some implications for the way you run your business.

“You stroll into your boss’ office, flick your resignation letter nonchalantly onto the desk and explain precisely what they can do with their stinking job. Then you swan out to the cheers of your workmates. Or so goes the fantasy.
Much of the appeal of working for yourself is escaping the annoying, incompetent and/or bullying bosses that make your life a misery. But when you leave employment to run your own show it’s not just those bosses that you leave behind.

What about the great bosses? The ones that motivate you, guide you, teach you all the tricks of the trade and swoop in if a project hits the fan.

In any large organisation there are plenty of genuine leaders whose role it is to develop talented employees. If you’re a standout company performer, your progress up the career ladder can become a natural progression.

As a soloist, it is great that there’s no one breathing down your neck telling you what to do. But there’s also no one patting you on the back, advising your next move and looking out for your career. No strategic roadmaps. No performance review. No career plans. No fast track programs.

So, what do soloists do when it’s time for a change? For me the end of each year brings a period of reassessment. Whether it’s looking for a clear direction or assessing opportunities, these are the times when I miss being able to book a meeting with the boss to map out a solid plan.

One great solution is to find an experienced business mentor who is willing to sit with you a few times a year and be your sounding board.”

I am such a huge advocate of business mentoring is that it has taken years off the time I originally needed to achieve my financial goals. It has helped me accelerate my business growth at a rapid rate as I have been able to learn from my mentor and not repeat his mistakes. Many business owners find it very difficult to stay up to date with both the changes in their industry and the endless innovations in sales, marketing, retention and management strategies. All this means that having a mentor is no longer a luxury but a necessity for outstanding performance. A mentor is like having a personal trainer for your business. They help you devise a specific Game Plan then keep you accountable to it, ensuring you take action every day towards achieving your aims.

The Facts

Ask any business owner worth their salt and they will tell you that on average it costs 6 times more to get a client than to retain an existing one. The costs include all of the time and money you spend on marketing and promotion. Couple this with a statistic from IHRSA (International Health Racket and Sports Association) which says that 46% of new clients come as a result of word of mouth referral!

With these things in mind it still staggers me as to why most Personal Trainers don’t place a much bigger emphasis on retaining existing clients and giving them reasons to spread the “word of mouth virus” to more people. Perhaps it is because they either don’t understand the implication for profitability or simply don’t know what they can do to influence these factors. The purpose of this article is to remove the second of these excuses by giving you strategies that you can implement today.

7 Key Customer Service Strategies for Personal Trainers

1. Welcome Packs - clients are often spending a substantial sum of money up front, or are entering a direct debit contract on the basis of a result they are hoping to achieve in the future. As we live in an instant gratification society, my advice is to give clients something tangible at the point of sale to help positively reinforce their purchase decision. The simple act of giving a backpack containing some merchandise, educational articles or fitness equipment tends to reduce “buyers regret” and will separate you from personal trainers who don’t do this.

2. Confirmation calls - trainers that take the time to confirm appointments save themselves from a lot of cancellations. It also shows the client that you care about them.

3. Set Homework - many personal trainers make the mistake of delivering a great session once or twice a week but not following up with their clients outside these times. You are doing yourself and your clients a disservice if you don’t set homework or follow them up outside of session times. Homework should include specific exercise prescriptions - cardiovascular training, resistance training, flexibility exercises and group exercise classes that are appropriate to their training goals. Other homework tasks should include a focus on incidental exercise and diet.

4. Follow Up - whether this takes the form of a phone call, e-mail or SMS doesn’t really matter, but follow up contact is vital. For a new client this may be a call to reassure them that it’s normal to feel sore after their first workout and that this will get better as their body adapts to training. For an experienced client this may be to check that you have worked them hard enough.

5. Thank you cards - showing gratitude is one of the most powerful relationship building techniques you can use. It positions you as different from other Personal Trainers. Think about it, when was the last time someone you have purchased from took the time to send you a thank you card in the mail? My suggestion would be to send something physical in the post to your clients 4 times per year.

6. Monthly Newsletter - a regular newsletter builds you credibility with existing clients as well as any prospects you have. Some rules about newsletters are that they must be regular, i.e. don’t be the trainer who sends out their monthly newsletter every 6 months! They should also include relevant information that you clients can either use or directly relate to such as an exercise of the month, recipe of the month, success profile of one of you clients, quizzes, recognition of client birthdays or special achievements, etc.

7. Client Appreciation Days - the imagination is the limit as to what you could do here. You might have a day at the cricket or the football, a movie night, a bush walk, a picnic, etc. The key thing is to make the events something your client base would appreciate. Again a key thing here is that you are doing things that the average Personal Trainer does not and that is what will separate you in the eyes of you clients which in turn builds incredible loyalty.

Conclusion

There you have it, 7 useable strategies that if implemented will give you an edge in customer service over the great majority of your competition. Some of the strategies may sound simple, however please do not make the mistake of thinking that simple is not powerful.  If implemented, these strategies will make the world of difference to customer retention and referral which in turn will have a dramatic influence on your income.

It is my belief that you should spend at least as much time, money and effort on your internal marketing as you do on your external. Internal marketing is the process of continuing to educate and sell to your existing clients. Internal marketing is by far the most profitable marketing you will ever do as it is much easier to sell to an existing client than to sell to a new prospect. The reason is that your existing clients already know and like you and thus you have built up credibility with them that you cannot possibly have been able to do with a new prospect that is like a stranger to your business.

Examples of campaigns that you would promote “internally” to your current list of clients include new program offerings, i.e. starting a group program such as a bootcamp, a 6 week boxing course, or a 12 week body transformation program which can offer additional profit centres for you business. It might be that you start selling fitness related products or supplements, or you might introduce a “gold class” Personal Training service that has special benefits built in that is an upsell on your traditional services. The way you would spread the message about these new services would be through e-mail, traditional mailings, phone calls, text messages, flyers, etc.

The bottom line from a business perspective is that 20% of your clients will produce 80% of your revenue. The challenge is to continue to market to those who already believe in you and your service and provide them opportunities to upgrade to more product and service offerings. As long as you are delivering a quality product that your clients enjoy using then you have a win/win situation for all.

Many personal trainers find it challenging to grow their client base, but if you believe in something, then it should be easy to sell it, right? Here are a couple of tips to build your confidence with securing the sale and new clients.

Believe in yourself

As a personal trainer, the first thing you have to realise is that you have the ability to help someone. Obviously it is the client’s decision as to whether the service you offer is worth the money they need to invest to achieve their goals. The most important thing in the sales process is that you believe in yourself and the product you’re selling. If person has enquired about personal training, then this means they have a need that you can help them with. Adopt the philosophy that sales are merely the process of getting the client started on their goals and you may find your success rate increases. The bottom line to Personal Training sales is that you are helping someone improve their lifestyle and health. You need to remain focussed on the fact that it’s all about helping the person achieve their results. If a client is achieving results then they will remain a happy client. When clients are not achieving results they will begin to weigh up whether they are getting value for money, and whether they want to continue. If you are not confident in asking for the sale, role playing once or twice a week with amore senior trainer or a sales team member will help dramatically. Asking an experienced trainer to view one of their sessions with a regular client can also be beneficial in picking up additional tips.

Pain versus pleasure

In discussions with your prospective client, it is really important to weigh up the ‘pleasure versus pain’ scenario. You need to get your client to weigh up the benefit of personal training (pleasures) versus the cost of it (pain). If you can do this, then your client will take up personal training. Parting with the money, exercising and making the commitment are all things associated with pain forth client. For a successful sale, you have to ensure that you emphasise and create enough pleasure in achieving the results they desire, to be able to get them to start personal Training with you. People often don’t see value in something if there is no desire on their behalf. That is, if someone considers something as a high priority then they will usually pay any price to attain it. For example, for a potential Client who strives to be in better shape for their daughter’s wedding, ask them to rate the importance of this goal on a scale of 1 to 10. Create leverage by asking them how they would feel being at the wedding after achieving their goal (pleasure) as a result of working with you. Not achieving the goal can sometimes be enough pain to get the person motivated to begin with you, so ensure you find out how important it is for them to achieve the end result.

Asking for the business

If you don’t ask you won’t make the sale. This happens especially when complimentary personal training sessions are given and then the trainer simply says ‘I hope you enjoyed the session and if you would like to continue simply book in for another one’. This is not asking for the business and is not going to get a result for either you or the client. You must ask specifically for the sale. For example, you might say, ‘From what we’ve discussed the two best options are the “quick start” or “results” programs. The quick start program is one session a week for $70 a week and the results program is two sessions a week for $130. Which one suits you best?’Then stay silent. Let the customer have time to think and answer your question. Then when they have chosen their package, get them going with their paperwork and book them in for future sessions. If your customer asks a question, welcome it and try to solve it as best you can. Try not to let someone walk away saying they need to think about it.

Chances are they have been thinking about it for months, so now is the optimal time to take action. Respond gently. You might say, ‘I can understand that you would like to think about it, but may I just ask is it the program or the session schedule that you are concerned about?’ and start the process of solving their challenges. Remember, you ‘retrying to better their lifestyle; it’s not just your business that will benefit from the relationship; they actually have more to gain than anyone by working with you.

Have you ever heard of the puppy dog close in the world of sales? It is where you give the prospect (potential client) the puppy to take home for a week to fall in love with. After the week you go and collect payment and 90% of the time the prospect will not be willing to part with the puppy. So how does this relate to selling Personal Training? Providing a sample of two complimentary Personal Training sessions is a variation of the puppy dog close. If you offer first class service and deliver great value during these complimentary sessions you should be able to convert a very high percentage of prospects to full fee paying clients as these clients have experienced a service that they don’t want taken away from them. I highly recommend the strategy of offering complimentary sessions while your Personal Training business is in it’s infancy and believe you should consider the time spent in these sessions as part of your marketing budget.

Once you start to establish a list of paying clients you should start to see the magic of referral business kick in provided you deliver a great service, and have learnt how to ask for referrals and can effectively sell. According to IHRSA (the largest health club body in the world) 46% of new business for Personal Trainers comes from word of mouth referral. When this happens you will find that you don’t need to do many or any complimentary sessions as these clients are often “pre-sold” by their friends. However, until you get to that point you will find offering complimentary sessions or as I call them a “test drive” and effective business building strategy.

As the saying goes if we fail to plan then we plan to fail. With this in mind the importance of an Annual Strategy for a business becomes vital as it really is a road map for success which gives direction to the efforts of the business owner.

The way to start developing your annual strategy is to imagine it is Christmas Eve 2010 and to picture what it is that you have achieved in your business? This means visualising how much money you have earned? Making a list of the things you want in your business i.e. a new website, 2 corporate clients, deliver 5 workshops, have 10 outdoor group sessions, and 20 one on one clients each week. The more measurable these things are the better. This process of starting with the end in mind is called reverse engineering.

Once you have 5-6 key measurables for the year then ask yourself why is it important to reach these goals? This means asking yourself what will it mean to earn X dollars? What does it represent to you? Keep going to the why? Eventually we want to come up with a single word. For example, hitting my financial goals each year is represented by the word CHOICE. The reason being that having a good income means that there are more choices available to me in terms of products or services I can purchase, the length and destination of holidays I can choose from, etc. What I am getting at here is that money is a lot like weight loss, in that I don’t believe that people are motivated by actually losing weight - rather it is the benefits that losing weight represents like being more attractive, being able to play with kids, finding a partner, or fitting back into an old pair of jeans. 

The next piece of the Annual Strategy puzzle is to brainstorm a meaningful reward to give yourself once you reach your goal and to visualise the satisfaction that comes with achievement. For example, when I hit my financial goals this year I will be taking my family on a 2 week holiday to Queensland and I will be well satisfied with my efforts for the year as I know that for me to achieve my goals I will have helped a number of fitness leaders achieve theirs.

One of the reasons that it is important to go through the whole Annual Strategy process is that when the inevitable ups and downs of the business occur you can refer back to what drives you and the rewards that hitting your business goals will bring. I recommend spending up to an hour each day around planning your time and efforts and then give each day your best effort. Look after your health and understand more is not always better in terms of hours spent working. You can be just as effective in 2 hours as 10 if you have the drive. Finally review each day and look at what was good, great and what can you do better. Using a journal is a great way to do this.

Once you have written up your Annual Strategy you should hang up in your office so that you see it everyday. I advise that you should read it everyday as it will slowly morph into your subconscious so that you live and breathe it.

Once the outcome of the Annual Strategy is determined then it should be broken down into bite size pieces. What this means is to set a quarterly strategy and then to break this down into monthly strategies and finally daily actions. You should develop strategies around income, expenditure, product development, and personal development. It is really important to know your numbers and to track these ideally through a scorecard system and to keep the personal development process occurring as up skilling can remove potential barriers to success. A really good example of a monthly strategy would be as follows:

This month I will earn $10,450. I will do this by completing 84 world-class PT sessions @ $100 per session and having enjoyable fun in testing my outdoor group participants and delivering 12 sessions @ $150 per session. I will sell my e-book and audio download for $50 to 5 people this month. By earning this money this month I will serve my mission of creating a healthier population plus help to build one step closer to my annual goal. I will work hard on my sales skills by reading ‘Killing the Sale’ by Todd Duncan. Further to this I am avoiding being broke and not having money to do what I want when I want. This will be a great month of business.

The Annual Strategy is then broken down into the monthly tactics which is where the rubber hits the road and you nail down specific outcomes that need to occur each month. Monthly tactics would be having 2-5 specific tactics for each revenue bucket and specific personal development actions.

Having coached so many fitness professionals through the Annual Strategy process I know it to be the most effective way of achieving what you are after from your business in 2010, so if you don’t have a written Annual Strategy in place I implore you to start working on one today.   

Many of you have heard the saying that business owners need to spend more time working “on” their business rather than “in” their business. To put this in perspective for a Personal Trainer working “in” the business is doing the hands on Personal Training sessions, while working “on” the business would be doing tasks such as business plans, marketing plans, sales calls, updating information on your website and blog, etc. Most business owners understand this concept intellectually however often do not put into action as “they are too busy”. In terms of a solution Scott Krywulycz from PT Plus suggests that you put 4 hours per week in your diary as forced isolation time where the critical work “on” your business tasks take place. Forced Isolation means turning your phone and e-mail alert off and locking yourself away from the rest of the world for that 4 hour block. If you have the discipline to implement this strategy you will find that you become so much more productive, in many cases you will get more meaningful work done in those 4 focused hours than you would typically do in a week or a fortnight. So my challenge to you if you are running a business or looking to start in the near future is to schedule a minimum of 4 hours of forced isolation to work on your business each week.

It has been an incredibly exciting last few days in the Whear household as my first born Kayden has just turned 5 years old (Wednesday 22^nd July). It seems like just yesterday that he was born, but as they say time stands still for no one. The milestone of Kayden’s 5^th birthday has been a time of reflection for me. It has made me think about some of the key decisions I have made in my life that have brought me to where I am today.

It wasn’t long before Kayden was born that I decided to leave a well paying Managerial position with the Melbourne City Baths with all of the security and benefits of a 9 day fortnight, holiday pay, sick pay, and a guaranteed income each fortnight that comes with a secure job. However, the truth was that I was losing my passion for being a manager in a Fitness Centre. So after many stress filled nights procrastinating I made the decision to trade the security of employment for the uncertainty of building my own business in Career Fitness.

I still remember the sleepless nights I spent worrying about trading security for the unknown of doing something I was really passionate about, i.e. training up the next wave of outstanding fitness instructors who were ready to make a difference in the lives of the many Australians who need their guidance and support. I am not for a moment suggesting that there have not been challenges along the way, but what I can say is that going into business for me has been the best work decision I have ever made.

My challenge to you is to spend some time today reflecting on your life over the past 5 years. Has life moved in the direction you wanted it to? Are there things holding you back? Perhaps now is the time for you to make a courageous decision and change careers or start up that Personal Training business which to date you have only dreamed of.  I really hope that the next 5 years are as exciting and rewarding for you as they have been for me and my family.