It’s no secret serving many people an hour is more lucrative for a personal trainer than serving one person per hour. It’s also more affordable option for a customer. It is quite a secret though how some personal training businesses seem to make a large profit and some don’t. Rookie mistakes can cost you money short and long term.
Below are eight reasons why your percent of revenue from small or large group training is not higher. If you’re seeking help to guide you through starting a group training or a veteran group training leader wanting to grow your business, this is for you.
It is easier to avoid these pitfalls in the first place but if you’ve made them change them as quickly as you can. No matter how long you’ve been going down the wrong path, turn around.
1.) Charging by the hour or session. Charge by the outcome and results. Increase the value and the experience. Read Priceless by William Poundstone.
2.) Underpricing. If you’re not making incrementally more for training two, four, five and 10 there is something wrong. Somehow though most trainers drop the rate for training four for example to a quarter of their rate. Your income per hour is the same if you do this. You’ve devalued your service.
3.) Underselling. There is no reward in thinking that if you build it they will come. If they weren’t heating up your phone lines requesting the service they are not going to be registering in droves because you decided it was a go. Who knows about it? Who has the problem you’re solving with the group program? You’ll still have to go where they hangout and connect with them.
4.) One Level Programs. Start with the end in mind. If you start a boxing group you are going to have a lot of beginners. What do you offer next for them? If you think of your groups as a sequence of options for each level of exercisers your programs grow by 66%.
5.) Neglecting the Social Interactions. Participants in groups value social connections that come from group exercise. The loyalty of that group becomes not only to the program but to each other. Faciliatate that.
6.) Failing To Renew Before Recruiting New. Your current customer is far more valuable than your next one. Focus on renewing them before recruiting others. How can you make it irresistible?
7.) Ignoring Past Participants. People do drop out for various reasons. You never want to lose contact. If you’re not emailing at least weekly people who have been your customers, why? A current offer might no longer fit their schedule. Don’t wait until you have a promotion to contact them again.
8.) Flyer By The Seat Of Your Pants. If you think your promotion is done when you have created a flyer and put it up on the wall, keep your other job. First, flyers are usually not well designed with images and copy for the target customer. Second, no one will see it. Ads alone are not going to work for you in the future. Learn how to write, make video, and create press releases.
Group Training is a lucrative business for the savvy and creative personal trainer. For the trainer who thinks through the program, positioning, and marketing then delivers value consistently greater profit is a group away.
