Boosting personal training leads takes a concerted effort by your marketing department, sales team, and fitness staff.
You'll need a combination of old-school and new-school techniques to reach both your current membership base, along with those who haven’t joined your club, yet. According to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, 43 percent of health club members participate in group exercise, while only 13.5 percent work with a personal trainer. That’s a lot of training sessions left behind.
While your member base makes for a captive audience (and built-in leads) for your personal trainers, it will probably take more than just hanging a sign in the locker room about a training promotion to get them to take advantage of all that your fitness staff has to offer.
Here are nine ways to help boost your personal training leads every month:
In the Club
1. Onboarding.
It all starts at the beginning. Having a sound onboarding process and system in place to make sure that all new members are contacted and meet with your fitness staff is essential to developing and nurturing them as leads.
2. Start a mentoring program.
It may take more than just a fitness assessment during the onboarding process to help develop the rapport and trust needed to turn a member into a client. A mentoring process during the first month of membership not only allows your training staff to strut their stuff but may have the side benefit of boosting retention as well.
3. Teach a Class.
Have your training staff teach classes when possible. Classes are a great way to introduce your trainers to active members who are interested in getting help or instruction. They’re also a great opportunity for the trainers to market their skills and coaching style.
4. Create a Contest.
Host a weight-loss or obstacle-course-based contest. Have an initial session with a trainer as part of the entry fee. This will put motivated buyers together with your training staff, giving staff an opportunity to sell training that can help buyers win the contest or just improve their overall fitness.
Out of the Club
5. Take Classes Outdoors.
In the beautiful weather, offer outdoor boot camps at local parks. Give all participants a shirt with your organization’s name on it. This will let others who are perhaps just running through the park or are trying to work out on their own in the park see your trainer in action and generate leads.
6. Corporate Networking.
Have your sales team talk with their corporate clients about a special once-a-month boot camp just for the company as part of the membership. This will allow your club to add value to the corporate group while allowing your training staff to interact with a membership base different from the one they normally meet.
Online
7. Sell on the Web.
Allow members to buy and book training sessions for themselves on your website. This lowers the barrier for entry and takes away some objections to buying training.
8. Build a Blog.
By having a blog that your fitness staff can help write (or at least take credit for when others ghostwrite it for them), it not only helps your club attract overall leads, but it helps give authority to your training staff, making them more in demand from people wanting results.
9. Be Social.
By using your social media accounts to help your training staff reach members and non-members, they can develop a pipeline of leads to help build their book of business. Use videos to demonstrate exercises, post pics of healthy meals they are eating, and share inspirational quotes and fitness tips.
By marketing your fitness staff in and out of the club (including online), you can help build a flow of leads that will keep your personal trainers busy year-round.
What ways are you using to build your personal training leads?