Darren Jacobson
Darren Jacobson
Article Archive
As the health and wellness industry has developed, so has the understanding of what constitutes fitness “product” in the minds of consumers and facility operators alike. Nowadays, a company’s product is more than a tangible “thing.” It includes every aspect of fitness: personal training, group exercise, kids’ training, the facility, staff training and development, studio-based classes, floor layout and, above all, member experience.
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Creating a great member experience is one of the key success factors for personal trainers. To differentiate yourself in an environment that is moving toward more regulation and codification, you must maintain unwavering focus and dedication.
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Use the economic downturn as a prime time to train staff how to anticipate new consumer needs.
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Traditional personal training systems tend to focus on day-to-day management, which is often reactive as opposed to proactive. Unfortunately, a reactive approach to problem solving can lead to contractual breaches or drawn-out performance counseling, both of which can be avoided by taking a more proactive approach during the screening and recruitment phase.
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Managers who pay attention to details and have accurate, structured documentation in place can avoid a common managerial pitfall. In my experience, neglecting this aspect of business is the Achilles’ heel of many personal training managers.
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9 Business Basics:
Pricing Your Services
13 Technology:
From Mobile to Mobility
17 Training for Growth:
The Struggle for Significance
21 Best Practices:
Build Your Team
By nature, personal trainers are passionate, driven, organized and excellent at communicating, or so we would like to believe. In reality, within any team there are radical differences in terms of trainer competencies.
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It is said that if you want to be successful, you must surround yourself with great people. One of the most challenging aspects of running your own business is finding great people and then keeping them.
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One of the most common pitfalls I find with program managers is that they tend to focus on outcomes, or final products, and forget about the processes or action steps that need to take place in order to reach those outcomes. In many instances, program managers are driven by the club’s key performance areas, such as month-end results (i.e., trainer revenue, number of completed sessions), and their focus is fixed on those bits of data.
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Most trainers are ill-equipped to sell their services. Without specialized business education, many trainers get emotionally involved when selling their services to prospective clients. Armed with the proper tools and resources, you can successfully pitch your services without falling prey to emotions.
Wearing the Sales Hat
To circumvent the emotional aspects of the sales process, look at the whole picture in four manageable chunks.
It used to be that only those with disposable income availed themselves of personal training services. Now that more middle-class consumers are turning to personal trainers, the field has become even more competitive. That means trainers need to find a way to separate themselves from the pack. One way to do that is to generate more sales.
Unfortunately, most trainers are ill-equi…
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Being in this industry requires an entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and a drive to achieve. Personal trainers aren’t just selling a service; they’re selling themselves as the purveyors of that service. This can lead to the perception that success in gaining clients equates with success as a person. And since there is often an undeniable relationship between ego and income, …
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