Converting Free Sessions to Paying Clients: Advice?

[doctr_zaius]

Hi All,

I have been a personal trainer for a total of 2 years spread out over 3-4 years of various other sports coaching jobs. I am confident with my skills as a trainer, my analytical abilities and my effectiveness as a trainer in general.

In the past I have had a mixed role in training centers, with a combination of administration, group fitness and personal training. PT clients would approach with an active interest in starting with a trainer.

Now for the first time I am "sales driven" and need to actively aquire new clients in order to be self sustaining. This is a new experience and I find I am struggling.

My current approach is to put up a notice board in my center with a sign-up sheet offering a free trial session. I am getting a fair bit of interest and am booking 5-8 free sessions a week. I am having difficulty converting these free sessions into paying clients.

My question is: Firstly, what should I put on this notice board to attract the right kind of people? Currently it says:

PERSONAL TRAINING

Free session
Lose weight
Diet advice
Work out more effectively
Have more fun
Get pushed harder!

write down your contact details for a free session

Secondly: how should I be structuring my free sessions to encourage paying clients? I am so far finding that if I meet their needs (ie. showing them some fun exercises) they say thanks and walk away happy.

I would ideally like a template for a short (25minute) free session that makes people want more.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Goldfish]

I'm far from the best at sales, so take my advice like a grain of salt.

Before I say anything else, I think opening with free sessions is going about it the wrong way. I understand the "try before you buy" mentality, but if you want to make it try before you buy, then you would do something more like a quick 5min coaching session to teach them how to do 1 exercise, perhaps with an added nutrition tip to help with their goals. (Maybe even print business cards with a free nutrition tip on them, and the instruction to call or email you for a full fat loss/muscle building/whatever plan.)

All of that is more what you might do just walking around on the gym floor, rather than as a result of booking people in. To book people in, perhaps offer 100% cash back on their first session if they sign up for more. This would mean that the only time you do free sessions is when people are actually paying for more sessions, rather than giving them a free session and then hoping they'll come back for more.

Another strategy might be to have an open day every now and again, in which people come in for free (or a small fee, say $10-20) to get some brief coaching and an outline of what a program with you would look like.

With regards to your actual ad....

Focus on benefits, rather than features. "Fun" is the only definitive benefit on your current list. The rest of the list is features. Instead of "lose weight" and "diet advice," see what happens when you say "look and feel sexy." "Get pushed harder!" is only a benefit in the eyes of the hardcore, and hardcore people are, in my experience, less likely to hire a trainer. On the flip side, I base my training around squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, pull ups and rows, which is a list of features and are all exercises typically reserved for hardcore people, but I can make that an instant benefit for a large number of potential clients by telling them that they'll "build a great body with just 6 exercises." People get excited about that.