Numbers that matter when growing your Personal Training business

Personal training powerful numbers

A few days ago (weeks it might have been, but I'm on holiday so it's really really hard to remember anything!) I was chatting to someone about numbers in Personal Training that have proven themselves predictable over the course of time.  Numbers that reassure me that Personal Training is a very simple process.  Here they are;

5     3    2     1

That's it really. My first blog for 2013 is done, thanks for reading ... well maybe a little explaining would help.

5 is how many people you need to meet and talk to about their training

3 is how many people you meet and greet that you can eventually call a lead

2 is how many people of the 5 you meet, that you can comfortably ask to sit down with you

1 is how many of the two that sat down with you, who will be training with you a month later

Don't hang up, this is real.

When I first Personal Trained these numbers eventuated in my business.  Then, when I started managing Personal Trainers in clubs they kept repeating themselves.  Then I traveled and studied some more and five years later, well, back into Personal Training and the numbers were still there.

On the strength of these numbers, I went on to buy Personal Training licenses - I just went in to clubs, met the owners, said I'll pay you xyz dollars every year if you give me the exclusive right to Personal Training in your club.  Several did (it's a no-brainer when I was offering more than all the current Personal Trainers combined and I was offering to manage them all, build customer service standards and I offered to increase the rent I would pay by 5% per year for the next three years).  The numbers, you guessed it, held.  And, I'm pleased to say, I made a good living and built a lot of Personal Trainers' businesses with them.  But there were also failures.

This is what I learned about the failures in the 5, 3, 2, 1. 

1. New Personal Trainers really struggle at times to meet 5 new people without saying something a little silly or soiling their pants (or panties).
2. Initially new Personal Trainers don't always have the natural timing you need nor the right words to ask a client to sit down with them for a full consultation (bit like teenage boys at a dance really - new Personal Trainers tend to spook a lot of members)
3. Not all novice Personal Trainers know how to deliver addictive training experiences over time
4. It's easier to complicate things than do things - this is not me judging, I'm just saying that's what I saw happen at times
5. You can't polish a terd (I have an old staff member of mine to thank for this phrasing - originating from Manchester England, he loved saying "there's an old english saying" and then dropping in something golden like this - thanks Mark)

As I started to learn how to eliminate 'failure' for each of the points above my business (that of licensing in the clubs) grew in profit because I could recruit good people who loved fitness and show them how to quickly build sound businesses.  So, I thought I'd share with you some of the secrets I've learned so that you might get 5, 3, 2, 1 working for you. Beware, this Blog may stop at any moment and get picked up another day as my kids are due for a swim at the beach and I may forget what I'm saying altogether (I am on holiday after all)

Getting started finding clients

The 5 is really just about getting started.  The more you do it, the easier it gets, and you can start as small as you like. 

Two things make 5 hard.  Firstly, you need to go out and meet 5 strangers.  Secondly your natural instinct is to focus on the end point rather than the process - that is you are very interested in whether this person you are now talking to could be the '1' rather than very interested in this person and their current training. 

I used a few techniques with Personal Trainers to help with this. Here's a couple;

I used to tell new Personal Trainers - you are only allowed to say "hi, my name is.... I'm Personal Training here at 'club name' and I'm going around meeting all the members before I get too busy training clients.  May I ask your name (offer handshake unless person is knee deep in sweat with boxing gloves on or running at 18kph on treadmill etc)"  "Nice to meet you 'name' are you enjoying training at the club - great, well I'll leave you to it - I'll see you round the traps no doubt" (or, if you don't use 'traps' in your country insert 'place' or 'club').

Personal Trainers had to do that 20 times a day and make a note of the person's name after they had met them.  They had to do that for two weeks and every time they saw someone they had already said hello to, they had to go back and say hi again or at the very least acknowledge them by name and a wave. At the end of two weeks they had 200 names with faces and a network of people to talk to who liked them and knew talking to them was nice, non-threatening, no hassle, and no pressure.  If nothing else Personal Trainers in this position are on the yellow brick road.

I found this approach helped Personal Trainers immensely as it lowered the expectations of what they had to do, was super easy, and allowed them to focus on meeting people rather than selling Personal Training.  If you are fretting about getting more clients - do this and nothing else and watch what happens.  If the 200 is a big number (it can be in clubs under 1000 members with group fitness a feature as it's quite possible only 500 members are using the weights / cardio area and possibly 50% of those members are actually turning up regularly enough for you to meet them.  If it is a big number, just try 5-10 a day.  It will still get you in the groove.

Whenever a mature Personal Trainer wanted to add clients - well the advice was the same.  5. 

... sorry off to the beach, more tomorrow...