Every gym has the main goal of selling as many memberships as possible. Having a full gym and excited members makes it easy to keep your membership rates up and retention steady. So then what? How can you make your members' experience even better, while increasing revenue and retention for yourself? That's where personal training comes in.

The second you start seeing personal training as a membership experience and not a revenue opportunity, you will see a difference in your sales process, leading to an increase in PT sales. When you come from an emotional and helpful perspective, your members are more likely to feel like they are actually going to get value out of it (which they will!) and more likely to take the plunge.

In this blog, we will go over exactly how you should sell PT including scripts, follow-up schedules, unique promotions, and more. Share with your personal trainers, sales staff, and upper management to ensure everyone is making PT a priority.

Personal Training Follow-Up Cadence

Once someone has become a member at your gym or studio, they can be added into a follow-up schedule to sell PT or get them interested in group classes. Following a schedule will not only increase your chances of getting the sale, it ensures your team is being consistent amongst all customers. We recommend reaching out to them regularly in the first month and then slowing down a little in the months following.

In the first month their membership is exciting and new, which is a great time to get them even more excited about another opportunity.

By switching up the communication methods you increase your chances of getting through to your members. Maybe they respond to text messages but don't like talking on the phone. Keep it interesting and try different techniques until you find something that works.

Personal Training Sales Scripts

Setting your employees up for success is more simple than you might think, especially your trainers and salespeople. When you create compelling sales scripts for them to use as a guide, not only does it allow them to know they are saying the right thing, it also ensures that your company is being represented the way you want it to be represented.

Keeping sales scripts slightly open ended allows your team to add their own personal touch without going too far off script. Some quick tips: don’t let your text scripts go over 160 characters, keep your emails short and to the point, and always make it as personal as possible when calling.

Check out three examples of PT sales scripts below:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Unique Personal Training Promotions

Because PT is an “extra” for most people, the value really has to be there and be shown. It also never hurts to throw in something free, give a discount, or lower your price to get more people in the door so they can really see that value. Because it can be difficult to creatively think of new promotion ideas every single month, we went ahead and gave you some ideas that you can run with or expand on. Keeping things fresh, unique, and simple makes it easy for your members to take the plunge into personal training.

Submit a Yelp Review, Get One Free PT Session.

One of the most lucrative ways to grow your business is by word of mouth or great reviews. Most consumers look at review sites before choosing a business whether it’s Google, Yelp, or something similar. By increasing the amount of reviews you have, you increase your chances of finding new members. So, why not kill two birds with one stone? If a member comes in and shows you their Yelp or Google review, they get one free personal training session. Win, win.

Buy 5 PT Sessions, Get a FREE Nutrition Guide.

A lot of personal trainers already include a nutrition guide into their packages, but not a lot of trainers play up the importance or value in the nutrition guide. Before you run this promotion, do some homework and really build out a useable nutrition guide that is broken down by week, or even day. Give recipe ideas, shopping guides, a “yes and no” list, and anything else you can think of that would help your clients reach their goals faster. Market this by sending out a “sample” of the nutrition guide, with a note that if you sign up for PT, you will get the entire packet.

Offer a “No-Commitment” First Session For $30.

Taking the first step is hard. That is especially true in the fitness industry. So, just like you give out a free guest pass for 3-5 days, consider offering an inexpensive trial of your personal training to get members in the door. Offering the session for between $10-$30 makes it feel extremely reasonable to try out. Most likely, the member will love the workout they received and want to keep coming back for more.

A note on giving things away for free: A free personal training session is only free to the prospect. It costs you time (money) and resources. Giving services away can also have the opposite of the intended effect. By removing the monetary association from the service, the prospect may never mentally associate personal training with money and as something they should pay for. There are plenty of value propositions in personal training that don’t require doing things for free. You deserve to get paid.

Bonus Section: Texting

Using texting as a communication method is something that we at Club OS feel is extremely important (and our metrics back up this conclusion). And when it comes to selling, marketing, or retaining personal training sessions, texting is the perfect fit.

Sending texts to consumers works really well when you are trying to make a personal connection. Personal training is probably the most personal connection someone will make at the gym (hey, it’s right in the name), so it fits really well. Here are some opportunities to fit texting into your communication strategy:

Current PT Members: 1.) Session Reminders 2.) “Thank You” Messages After The Training Session 3.) Recap Message After The Training Session 4.) Nutrition or Meal Plan Reminders

PT Prospects: 1.) Particular Specials 2.) Assessment Appointment Reminders 3.) Monthly Check-Ins 4.) Fitness Tips & Tricks

Conclusion

The more involved your members are with your gym or studio, the higher your retention rates and member satisfaction will be. And satisfied members turn into evangelists which in turn bring in more members just like them. Getting them involved starts right when they start the membership buying process, but really evolves with ancillary revenues like personal training, group classes, small group training, and more.

With the information in this blog, you can now put your best foot forward in the PT aspect of your business. And believe us when we say that your members (and future members) will thank you for it.

Make your sales process even better! Download our free pre-written sales scripts for email, phone, and texting!