First day as a Personal Trainer in a gym – What to do?
Hi, I’ve been a lurker here for a while, it’s a great community with lots of useful insights and I eventually joined to ask a question!
I’m really confused on how one should build a client base, starting from scratch, working in a commercial gym, assuming you have to build your own client base without any help from the gym itself.
A lot of advices and suggestions I see take for granted you have already a base to start from, but what if your completely new to the world of personal training?
What are your best advices for a new trainer looking to build a client base relatively fast? Should I approach everyone and give free sessions? Should I ever try to sell my services or just be nice, help people and try to build relationship and trust hoping someone will eventually request personal training?
To sum it up: please, share your knowledge on, going back, everything you would do in the first weeks in a gym setting. I’m very very confused (and… terrified)!
If it was your first day in the gym, I would spend the whole day try to get to know each and every client that walks through the door. You want to be the trainer that everyone knows. Let it be know that you are a personal trainer and you are there to answer any questions and help in any way. The key is to build relationships. If people begin to know and trust you, then they will begin to ask you questions. Those questions lead to you being trusted. Even if the person you are talking to isn’t interest in training, they know someone who is.
Especially with the new year approaching, and plenty of new people coming into the facility with New Year’s Resolutions. Don’t be afraid to ask someone if there are interested in personal training. There is a right time and wrong time to ask the client if they are interested. That is something that you have to be able to feel out and just know the time is right.