Personal Trainer Promotion

The business of Personal Training has reached fever pitch over the past few years.  Every young gym professional seems to want to move into personal training as quickly as possible and there are a wide range of courses available to assist them in upskilling for the physical side of personal training.

Many trainers have the experience or know how when it comes to administering personal training, however many fall down when it comes to promoting their service to potential clients.  This can often mean a small client base, insufficient to earn a full time income. 

So how should trainers go about developing the client base quickly and professionally?  There are a wide range of options at your disposal to create new clients.   

Approach All New Members to the Gym
New members of your gym are an excellent source of personal training client.  Many of them are new to fitness training and are desperate to ensure that they achieve their health and fitness goals.  Perhaps include a letter promoting personal training in a starter kit with details on the benefits of personalised one on one training.  Another option is to include details of your personal training services (eg brochure) with a welcome letter that is sent to every new member.  Do not mention the price of personal training in a letter or brochure.  Instead offer a FREE consultation, which gives you the opportunity to discuss further with the prospective client and hopefully get them booked in for their first training session of many. 

Approach Existing Members
Personal Training is great for retention at a fitness centre.  Therefore, the more members of the club that begin personal training the larger the benefit to the club itself.  With this in mind I am sure your gym owner / manager will not have a problem with promoting personal training services to the gym population.  In fact many clubs do actively promote their trainers services to existing members for the benefit of the club and the trainer.

Newsletter Column
Does your gym have a regular newsletter?  If so, a great way to promote your services is to write regular training articles on topics of interest to the members.  Obviously you will include a little blurb at the bottom with your contact details explaining that you are available for a free consultation or one on one session.

Hot Spots
Probably the most underutilised tool at a trainers disposal is their own voice.  When I was personal training a few years ago 80% of my clients came from personally recruiting them by assisting on the gym floor or other popular chatting areas.  There are a range of 'Hot Spots' in any gym.  A 'Hot Spot' is an area where people tend to congregate.  It may be reception, the cafe, or perhaps the free weights area.  Make sure you are at the Hot Spots at peak hours to chat to members about their training.  By asking questions you will find out how members are getting on with their training and if they need any further assistance.  But be careful - do not try to push your services down their throat.  By friendly and helpful and the clients will come.

Promotional Letter / Testimonials at Hot Spots
Make sure you have your promotional information at the gyms Hot Spots.  This may be business cards, a brochure, or it may even be testimonials from previous clients.  Whatever it is make it look professional and have something that they can take away to contact you later.

Network with Other Staff
Interact effectively with the other staff in the club and they will become your own personal sales team!!  Sit down with them and discuss your service so that they all know what you specialise in and how your systems operate.  Discuss with them the best way to refer people to you if they are interested in personal training.  Make it easy for people to refer to you!!  Other gym staff are a great source of leads for personal trainers so keep in touch with them regularly as they may have potential leads for you to follow up on.  Most importantly however, reward any member of staff that refers a client to you.  It may be simply a bottle of wine, or a gift of some other description.  If you reward staff for referring clients to you then they will continue to do so and will truly become your personal sales team!