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Fitness Centers Call Today For a FREE Personal Training Diagnostic at 1.866.516.2421 |
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How Much Should I Charge for Personal Training? Posted on Aug 18, 2008 - 8:51PM How Much Should I Charge for Personal Training? Contributing writers: Brett Johnston, Mark Leeling & Randy Humola Have you ever done this: called up one of your competitors, assumed a fake voice and asked, "How much do you charge for personal training sessions?" Go ahead. Admit it. But here's the really silly part. Have you ever adjusted your session price to match or beat other gym prices? If you took Economics 101 in high school or college, you learned that selling prices for goods and services are determined by "what the market will bear." That means that members - the local area - decide what a product is worth, and will give so much money, but no more, for that product. After doing a fake-voice phone survey of a few local gyms, and setting your prices somewhere in their range (even doing the same type of price breaks for committing to more sessions), you might say you are charging, "what the market will bear". This beats going to the trouble of figuring out what your company's break-even point is. "We can't charge more than 'what the market will bear'!" is delivered as a logical reason for maintaining below-cost selling prices for personal training. But here's the rub. The "what the market will bear" rule applies to commodities, not services - like personal training. Commodities are products that don't differ much from vendor to vendor. Gold, for instance, is a commodity. Gold is gold is gold. Gold will follow the Economic rule of 'what the market will bear' pretty nicely. It will be directly affected by the law of 'supply and demand'. Economics 101 works well when you are talking about commodities. But it doesn't count for much as far as your products and services go. Here's the real rule, the 'street' rule, the rule they don't teach you in Economics 101 or Franchise Training: the local area, market or member doesn't set the selling price. The marketers (you) do. Why does Coca Cola sell for three times the price of generic colas? Why does Rolex sells watches for $50,000 when you can get a very nice watch for $100? Why did anyone pay $15,000 to cross the Atlantic on the Concord when a jet plane could have got them there for about $500? The marketers in this world differentiate their products, and make them something more than a commodity. Marketers create and communicate features that benefit consumers. Benefits add VALUE to the product. Coke is the real thing. A Rolex is a symbol of wealth and power. And the Concord went really fast (Speed is always a cool product feature). What does your personal training say to your members (what is the perceived value). Higher value commands a higher price. If value = price, then there is no sale. Cash in pocket will only be exchanged for something that has a higher perceived value. So, if a product is worth exactly what you are charging for it, no one will buy it. What usually happens is that you will drop your price until the value of your product becomes bigger than the price, and then sell. However, the marketer increases the value until the price looks insignificant. Then you have more profitable sales. You see there is a huge problem with basing your prices on what your competition is charging, on 'what the market will bear'. I bet your competition has no clue when it comes to knowing his break-even and the true cost of doing business. Because everyone in the industry, for the most part, is ripping off everyone else when it comes to pricing and price structure. And most don't even know how they got the prices that they have. They got their selling price by calling other gyms, gyms that are now out of business. Don't assume that your competition knows what they are doing! Lots of folks get confused when they set their personal training prices. They look at what everyone else is charging, then they hope and pray that they can make money at those prices. So, don't beat yourself up. Just do it the right way. Decide how much money you want to make - first. Offer a terrific product. Not just a trainer standing there counting reps, holding a clipboard and writing down a workout. Next - Figure out ALL your costs of doing business. Come up with a selling price that makes your dreams come true. Adopt a marketer's mindset. Create so much VALUE for your product that your customers beg to buy it. If you can create an EXPERIENCE that the member cannot duplicate on their own and find out the real, real reason why they workout - then they will love to buy at your price, not theirs. And forget what the 'market will bear'. |
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