Marketing is essential regardless of whether your Personal Training services are offered in a studio, a client’s home, on-line or in a health club. Marketing in a health club is the most unique of all.  The Membership Department and Personal Training must work cohesively because of “inside realities” and “outside perceptions.”

“Inside reality” refers to what you ultimately want to do, can actually do and/or have control over, when it comes to providing your service or product to your customers.  The “outside perception” refers to what your consumers actually see, hear, feel and experience with your product or service.   It is imperative that both the inside reality and outside perception parallel one another.  In most health club settings this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you were to tour a club with a salesperson from Membership, I would guarantee that 99 out of 100 clubs would promise you everything under the sun with the membership fee.  You will be offered the typical 3 Personal Training sessions, customized program (exercise prescription) with your membership. In reality the member actually receives 3 general equipment orientations and a cookie cutter circuit workout.  The health club believes the new member perceives this as an added service and the Personal Training department will benefit from the new referral.  However, the member’s initial experience with Personal Training is minimal and is validated as minimal by seeing his/her spouse or friends getting the same orientation/workout as they just received.   The Personal Trainer does his/her best to create value while guiding this new member through a circuit of selectorized machines.  In most cases, the equipment is chosen based more on the facility layout than on the new members’ needs.  The new member typically appreciates the time the Personal Trainers have spent with them, but don’t always see the value in Personal Training, thus seeing no reason to purchase any other services.

There are four critical relationship situations that increase the likelihood of someone buying something from you?  (1) They got to know you, (2) They got to like you, (3) They got to feel comfortable with you and (4) They got to TRUST you!    In the process of accomplishing the above four tasks, it’s important to identify the problem that the new member wants resolved, and then demonstrate clearly how you can solve that problem.  The best way to do this is via a consultation, not just an assessment.   An assessment can tell the member where they are, where as the consultation/assessment can be used to show them an exercise plan that will assist them in getting from Point A to Point B. The reality is three workouts are useless if the prospect doesn’t have a clear, vivid game plan for reaching their fitness goals from the start.  The steps need to be laid-out in detail and on paper as if it were a map. According to neuro-lingusitic research, the majority of people communicate visually. Do not ignore this communication pathway.  The prospect will then have a clear view of the plan in relationship to their goals.  For example, if someone wanted to lose twenty pounds before their wedding, and the goal and plan are properly defined and designed, he/she should be able to visualize and feel how they will look, how their clothes will fit, and know exactly how long (weeks) it will take to get those 20 pounds off and what they will have to do during those weeks (protocol) to make that visualization a reality.