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(Personal Training) Sales is a noble profession. Posted on Jul 16, 2008 - 8:33AM (Personal Training) Sales is a noble profession. Are you noble enough? Contributing writers: Brett Johnston, Mark Leeling & Randy Humola Last year, AEFG delivered many seminars on selling more personal training and servicing clients in order to keep them, with a combined audience of more than 600 trainers & managers. What would we be without the sales aspect of our job? Simple. We would be something besides a personal trainer. Personal Trainers are professional salespeople, as well as, service providers. Without sales we wouldn’t be eating, and it is the lifeblood as to how we grow and maintain business for ourselves. Personal trainers need to start viewing themselves as a sales engine at the club and the personal training manager should be viewed by their sales force of trainers as the sales manager. The problem I’ve seen is that personal trainers do not want to be viewed as salespeople and therefore have the mentality to want to be disconnected from that all together. As for personal training managers, most of their time should be spent grinding away at the phone, contacting leads to set up comped workouts, confirmation calls, follow ups; developing their trainers, and managing floor prospecting shifts. Sounds like a sales manager doesn’t it. The difference is not the activities of a sales manager, but the products they sell. Guess what? We sell personal training services! Others sell copiers, real estate, insurance, etc. The great news is that our prospective buyers are all in front of us and already qualified buyers, since they already are there working out. At our seminars or staff development trainings put on at the clubs that hire us, they come to an these events in the hope of learning to better their skills, secure more clients, keep their existing clients loyal, figure out new strategies, or some other form of making the sale including overcoming economic conditions or just plain getting out of a rut. Our audiences of trainers and managers were all ages, with all types of experience - at all levels of competence with one basic common goal: Learn more to earn more. That's one of the characteristics of a great personal trainer or personal training manager: continuous learning. Student forever. I was racking my brain to think what other job exists where this type of activity takes place. You could make a case for professional development and specific career knowledge for doctors, lawyers, accountants, and architects. But even they are dependent on sales, marketing, or some form of practice/business development in order to increase their business. And so, I asked myself the question: Why do people become a personal trainer and sell an emotional product? What characteristics do they have that sets them apart (at least the successful ones)? And I thought that it might be an interesting exercise for anyone contemplating personal training to answer the question, and for anyone who is a personal trainer to reaffirm or answer the question: "Why is personal training (sales & service) for me?" Personal Training (sales) is economic freedom and challenge. If you're paid based on how many sessions sold or serviced or have an additional form of bonus based on performance - you're ostensibly free to go out and create your own economic environment, based on your performance. Personal Training (sales) has no economic barriers. If you're in a performance-based job, the more you sell, the more you train, the more you earn. If you're in a bonus-structured job, the more you train, the more you earn. You create your own pay. One of the early attractions to me when I first got into sales, I mean personal training was that income was only limited by my ability to perform or succeed. I didn't have to wait until it was time for a raise, I could give myself one by simply going out and making more personal training sales. I also made it a priority NOT to change their lifestyle (only enhance it), but to make personal training part of their lifestyle. But personal training (sales & service) is a much bigger opportunity than money. Great trainers (salespeople) have character, and characteristics possessed by few others. Here are the highlights: Presentation skills. How to speak in a compelling manner. How to persuade others to your point of view. How to overcome barriers. In short, how to get your way. How to get personal training with you as part of their existing lifestyle. People skills. Every personal trainer (salesperson) must learn to interact with members, clients, coworkers, gym management & owners, and anybody else in the fitness industry in a manner that is relationship building. Networking skills. Personal trainers (salespeople) have social and tactical skills to help them turn business time and social time into strategic alliances, connections, and leads. Questioning skills. Personal trainers (salespeople) know that asking is more powerful than telling. Listening skills. Personal trainers (salespeople) have antennas that are always alert to information, buying signals, buying motives, or other elements of how to make the sale that come only come from the person buying. Great trainers are also great mental note takers. Personal trainers (salespeople) are always seeking to improve their skills. They don't just come to our seminars, they read and listen to self-improvement information all the time. Personal development skills. Personal Trainers (salespeople) have a positive attitude. They achieve their goals and seek to master the other intangible aspects of the mental and physical elements needed to win at the game of personal training sales and great service. The ability to achieve a goal. The opportunity to change bodies, change lives, make lasting friendships, earn recognition, travel , in general enjoy more freedom than most other jobs in a company Creativity skills. Personal trainers (salespeople) have to prepare with creativity, demonstrate with creativity, respond with creativity, sell with creativity, and use creativity to build relationships. And that creativity extends to their sessions and is evident on the gym floor. Moxie. Personal trainers (salespeople) have self-confidence, self belief, determination, and persistence. Moxie is the added ingredient needed to transfer beliefs and confidence, and moxie is the unspoken swagger needed to complete the sale. Likeability. People buy from people they like, believe, have confidence in, and trust. Like starts the ball rolling towards trust. That is why selling training and “dumping or dishing” it off to another trainer creates a negative in the eyes of the member. And, oh yeah, they have sales skills. But there's risk involved in selling. You have to perform. Often you're presented with club monthly quotas, sales plans, or other forms of forced achievement, as well as, your own personal needs. You also have a boss. Someone who you may or may not totally love or respect. The challenges are multifaceted which I believe is part of the attraction. It takes intelligence, personal dedication, continuous education, and the ability to self-start. Often personal trainers (salespeople) are working remote. They're on the gym floor with the challenge, or the pressure, to perform. And they do. Or, they die a sales death. Red Motley, who in 1946 said, "Nothing happens until a sale is made." This is yet another reason why people decide on a career in selling; whether it’s personal training or insurance. It's the spark. Or the pressure to light the fire. It's the challenge, and it's the euphoric feeling you get when you know that you have now been given another opportunity to enhance another’s life. Personal Trainers (salespeople) also have unlimited opportunity to grow in any organization. Leadership positions and executive positions abound for the man or woman who can sell anything, in this case – personal training. One more bonus for great personal trainers (salespeople): Unemployment does not exist. There are always openings for people who know how to sell. You are selling on emotions, and if you can sell that you can sell anything! |
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