How to Sell Personal Training (Without Being Pushy)

This is what we did last time and I want to do it again this time because I thought it was quite helpful to get everyone back on track because something that's always important to review to make sure you're making money is sales. Now, I'm going to attack Hemmings now because I think it's, it's important. So last couple of weeks, Hemmings sales have been what you'd say fairly consistent, but what we saw was a drop-off of leads to appointments. Is this a metric everyone is tracking? If you're not, it should be something that you're tracking. And remember, for the new folks in there, data and statistics, you need to turn that into actionable things in your business. So for example, you might be just tracking leads. You might get 100 leads and then you might get 50 appointments. And from those 50 appointments, you might get 2 sales. That would indicate that you have a sales problem. Likewise, if you get 100 leads, you get 10 appointments and you make 10 sales, that would indicate that you have a conversion problem of converting those existing leads into actual paying appointments. So it's important that you track, 'cause then that's what's gonna drive you to correcting what the dysfunction in the business is. So the more data we have on things, the better we can make decisions and the better we can focus and, and move things. So I might need to give Heming this one. And let's welcome Heming up. I just wanna talk about what we've done and maybe give a couple of examples in terms of improving our leads to appointments. So Heming, what have you done recently to improve the leads to appointments?

Well, it's not at the level that I want it to be at all, but definitely what I found worked was getting, when people do inquire, they've taken the first step to actually go through the website and take the action of, I wanna change, I wanna get in there and talk about personal training and how am I gonna then do something that will increase my confidence, stop the way I feel, every day that feels bad, right? So congratulating them and saying, hey, you know, you're clearly an action taker for taking the first step today and I wanna commend you on that. Then I found the compliance to actually come in and not ghost on me was higher. And funny enough, we actually did better in Christmas than we have in the last couple months.

So in other words, Newman came to me, what was like 2 weeks ago? He said the leads to appointments have dropped off a bit. And I said, well, what were you doing that was working then versus now? And we went through and I said, I think I know, remember over in Christmas how we had the same problem? I remember what you did. You congratulated them and said, you seem like an action taker, someone who really wants to get results. Is that— and then they of course would then say, yeah, yeah, that's right. Awesome. Well, let's not delay. Let's book you in as fast as we can to make sure we can get you on the path and see how we can help you. So those things, I know they might seem really insignificant, but in terms of the process of getting them to action right away, if I use that and say that on the call, they now, I've already casted them as someone who takes action immediately. That then, that little thing that we've implemented has actually really helped improve our leads to appointments. So it's something you should think about when you're using. What else, Emil?

I found that some people don't check their phones. So just assuming that everyone's gonna be like, if you text them or call 'em, they don't pick up, that they don't want to come in, they've changed their mind. But sometimes email is another way. They're like, oh hey, yeah, thanks for reaching out. I've been waiting for this for like, a couple of days now. Sometimes life gets in the way, shit comes in the way, and you need to follow, use the ActiveCampaign and automation system to send them another email. And they're like, okay, hey, I want to come in, how can I book a time? I'm like, cool, easy, just this time or this time. That's something that will get the odd lead every now and then, and that person can be a client for, I don't know, decades.

Yeah, but just simply, uh, you had a consult where you had to call them 7 times.

Yeah, I called them 7 times actually. Ghosted me on 2 consults, but tried not to take that personal and On the third one, he ended up paying.

In full?

Direct debit.

Direct debit. Yeah. So it shows persistence with your sales. And you know, Hemming will come to me frustrated about things and I'll often say, buy or die. Buy or die. Just keep calling and they'll pick up. And unless they tell you to fuck off or unless they die, they will buy.

They usually die first.

Yeah. Are there any sales issues or things that you want to review with us specifically as it relates to sales today? Yes, like an overall—

to not go through it all, but like just give me a snapshot of that, like your sales process and how do you onboard your clients. Sure, a sales process as in— yeah, the whole—

how does the whole role play go? Is that what you're saying?

15 steps? Do you want to be the salesperson? Okay, so we'll do like a phone role Do a phone call. So you can be James for a sec.

I'll be, I'll be— Ring, ring. Hello?

Hey, is this James?

Yes, this is James.

James, hey, it's Hemming from Enterprise Fitness. How are you doing on this marvelous day?

Yeah, I'm, I'm well, Hemming. How are you today?

Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, I saw that you, you left your details on our website and says that you want to lose weight. Is that, is that correct?

Yeah, yeah, look, I've been wanting to lose weight for a while now. A while, you say?

How long has that been?

Oh, probably just like 2 years.

2 years, whoa, that's a long time to be thinking about it and wanting to do it.

I suppose it is, yeah, 2 years, yeah.

Well, congratulations, you've taken the first step, which is, it's never easy, but clearly you're an action taker from someone who is, who has reached out to us today. So I commend you for wanting to take a step forward.

Yeah, I appreciate that, thanks. I mean, it's been something I've thought about on the train and I walk past your studio every day and I've been thinking about it for a long time. So yeah, thanks.

Yeah, absolutely. What, what about our studio made you go, screw it, I'm going to reach out today?

Oh, it just always looks busy every time I walk past. And I went online and then I saw that you have a lot of transformations and you look quite holistic. So yeah. And then I saw something on Instagram about a lady saying that she had scoliosis. And then I thought maybe you could help me as well.

For sure. For sure. So do you have any injuries yourself?

No, actually, but sometimes I get back pain.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, look, best thing from here, let's have a chat at our studio. Let's really figure out where you're at and who would be the best fit for you going forward.

Oh, but how much is it, Heming? I'm a bit scared because I heard it's expensive.

Yeah, great question. So you are working with a one-on-one trainer and it is going to be a premium industry-leading trainer. However, again, like buying a suit, right? I don't know exactly what's going to be the specific package for you. Everything is going to be tailored. So once I have a bit more information, then I can give you the exact pricing. How does that sound?

Oh, like what information do you need?

I mean, oh, just look exactly how many times a week, because if, if I give you a package, that's going to be the one that I feel like will be the best chance for you to get results.

Oh, okay. I'm training like 4 times a week at the moment.

Yeah, and you're not seeing the outcome that you want to see, right?

Oh no, no, no. Well, I, to be honest, I miss a lot of the sessions, but I'd like to train 4 4 times a week.

Okay, so like to— you would like to see yourself do 4 times a week, but something is stopping you. So you're probably someone who struggles to have this fit into their lifestyle, right?

Uh, yeah, I guess so, because I get really busy with work.

Yeah, for sure. This is a lot of our clients. They, they're very busy with work. They struggle to make this a part of their lifestyle. And really, we need to educate you and really make sure that this is something that you can do on autopilot. So really, here we're selling a result rather than time. Because you could be in the gym 7 days a week, but if you're not getting the results that you want to get, if you're not losing weight, you're not happy, right?

Yeah. Well, you said results, like what results could I expect?

Really, you're looking for losing weight. You're looking at half a percent to a percent a week until you get to the weight that you're happy with. And then we're, we're really going to teach you how to maintain this, how to maintain this as a lifestyle, because you don't want to lose the weight and then come back to where you're at, right?

Yeah, that's true. Oh, how do you do that?

Magic.

Oh really?

Magic. Come in. We'll, um, this is definitely the, the whole, the training process is what's going to be the thing that educates you about it. We want to leave you in a spot where this is clear. You're able to, if you were left to your own devices, you'd be far better off than you are now.

Okay. All right. So, so, okay, what do we go from here?

From here, let's book a time in. How does, could you even do like now?

Now? Yeah, you mean like— no, no, I'm at work, Kimmy.

That's fine. What about tomorrow, either 10 AM?

I can do 5 o'clock this evening.

Oh, you can do 5 o'clock this evening? Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Just be mindful not to park on our side of the road though, they will circle, circle, so forth.

Oh, okay, cool. So should I come today at 5 o'clock?

Yep.

Okay, all right, we'll see you today at 5 o'clock. Awesome.

How much do you know about us, Mark?

Um, or just from what I saw on the website on Google.

Okay, I'll send you a bit more information about us and yeah, I'll see you 5 o'clock.

Okay, great, see you then.

Bye.

So just to tweak a couple of things that Heming did then, when he gave the time, like there's a couple of things I really liked, there's a couple of things that probably because it's role play you didn't do the way you normally do, but I would have offered 2 times and 2 times, like I would have been like, oh well, I have 2 times available, are you available today by any chance? And then left it open-ended. So are you available today by any chance? Okay, great. Well, I actually have, and if they said 5:30, I would actually say a time like 5:45. It's like, oh, actually I can't make 5:30. 'Cause you do want to give the, you don't want to give people like, it's too easy. Like you've got all the time in the world to book in. 'Cause then it's like, oh well, they don't value their time as much. It's just, so I always give them like, it's a little bit off what their time is. So that's one. I've got two times available, this time or this time. So it's probably all there. He used actually, and I think he did this on purpose, but at the end he paused and made me say, so what do we do now? I was waiting for him to say that, but the actual pause that he made me say that I thought was actually pretty good because now I'm asking to buy. So that's also good. Anything else you would add on that?

That's how I would actually, that's how I'd normally do my appointment setting. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out like what's the reason that they're not coming in as much these days.

Yeah, well I think you could always sell a little bit. So if we just did that one more time and I'll be the salesperson this time, you'd be the client.

Do you want me to be challenging or like compliant?

Whatever you want. Just a little bit of both. Ring, ring, ring, ring.

Hello?

Hi, is that Hemming?

Yeah, who's this?

Hi Hemming, it's Mark calling from Enterprise Fitness. How are you on this morning? It's Marvellous Day.

Oh, hey, yeah, yeah, I'm doing great. How about you?

I'm really well, Hamming. I saw you left your details on our website, so I wanted to reach out, give you a call, and see how we could help. Have you been looking at personal training and getting in shape for a while now?

Yeah, yeah, look, it's been like 3 years and I'm really a fat shit, so I need to do something.

Oh, wow, you've been wanting to do this for 3 years? That's a really long time.

Yeah, yeah, I need to like really get out of my own head and just do it, I think.

Yeah.

But I talk myself out of this a lot and I have a tendency Why do you think you talk yourself out of it? I have no idea, to be honest. What do you, what do you think?

Oh, I don't, I don't know you well enough to say, but I do have a question for you, Heming. If it's been 3 years and you've been up and down about this in your head and you haven't got any results, why have you inquired with us today? What made you want to leave the details today?

Well, I saw you guys have like a Googled personal trainer and I saw you guys have amazing transformations. And yeah, I was like, all right, I gotta, gotta see if this is gonna work for me.

Yeah, but, um, what, what was the, like, you know, you were Googling, what made you want to even Google, like, personal trainers? I don't know what you Googled, but what made you even start Googling?

I've never really been asked that. Well, Mark, I think, um, you know, last week when I was playing tennis, I was just puffing after every point. I couldn't, I could barely breathe. So I think that was the moment of like, all right, I think I'm carrying a bit too much.

Okay, so you really noticed that your health was suffering when you were playing tennis, and it's where your health is at right now. You're not able to do something that I'm guessing that you really enjoy and love right now.

Yeah, yeah, correct.

Right, so you're not able to play tennis. Was there anything else you noticed that made you want to start Googling training?

Oh, you know, like I come from an Asian background, so all my aunties and stuff saying like, you need to lose weight, can't keep putting weight on. I'm sorry to hear that.

It's really unfortunate to have people close to you kind of bring you down a little bit like that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Hemming, look, I'm glad that you've inquired and I want to congratulate you for taking the first step for inquiring because that's awesome, right? You were going to start to make some changes. What I think we should do from here, there's really 3 types of clients that come to us. One that wants to be held accountable with their training. 2 wants to be held accountable for the nutrition, and the third is one that wants to complete body transformation. Out of those, which one would you say you are?

I want a complete body transformation.

Awesome. Well, you sound like our ideal client. So just so I understand, what are you currently doing with your nutrition at the moment?

I eat pretty healthy. I'm like, I don't understand why I don't lose weight. I think I eat pretty healthy.

Has a, has a coach ever looked at your plan and like done your macros for you and looked at how much protein you're eating, how much carbs, and put an exact science into what you're doing?

No, no, I've only ever had those group classes, so no, I never—

no one's ever looked at nutrition?

No.

That's a pretty telltale sign. Like, so if you haven't had anyone look and review nutrition— we see this all the time, people who are kind of generally training and generally fit, they go, you know, they do some general things, they eat some general healthy foods, and they wonder why they get general results and they're not getting the results, the head-turning results they want. Because to get the high-level results that I'm sure you've seen on our you really need a specific and tailored plan. And that's exactly what our clients, what our trainers will do for you in the first session. So the first thing we're gonna do is a structural assessment on you and then we're gonna take a skinfold test. Then we're gonna sit down, we're gonna talk about your diet. We're gonna put together a plan that is uniquely for you, that is based, it's evidence-based and scientific and we'll give you exact protocols and whether you wanna work in baby steps where we're just gonna kind of put a meal plan together or whether you need the exact macros, we're gonna put something that is gonna tailor-made just for you to hit your results. And I think something implemented like that will really get the results that you're looking for. How does that sound to you?

Yeah, it sounds great. I mean, if someone's like 30 kilos overweight, have you, have you guys helped someone like that lose weight?

Absolutely. We've helped people who've been 55 kilos overweight get to— yeah, so that's on our website too. I can send you links and stories to those as well. So absolutely, um, and this is the benefit of having a tailor-made plan. Yeah, yeah. Have you— you've never followed a tailor-made plan?

Never, never. I struggle to like stick to too much structure.

Well, I think you're really going to get a lot out of training with us. Future-facing. And tell me, has anyone ever put together a bespoke training program for you?

What do you mean by that?

Has anyone ever assessed you, how you move, your structure, how your knees move, how your hips move, how your back is?

No one's—

and then no one's ever put a training program? So you're kind of like going from like bodybuilding.com program to program or group programs?

Yeah, kind of.

Yeah. Well, when the way we do it is we're going to bring you in and assess you first of all. Yeah, assess what is weak, what is tight. You know, we're going to— coaches are going to be like, hey, Hemming, don't squat like that, bring your feet closer. Hey, turn this foot out. We're going to show you all the 1 percenters that will help you lift like an elite pro, and then you'll be able to see like the difference. And this is what our clients often find is that they might have been training 1, 2, 3, sometimes even 10 years, and then they come to us and we completely change the way they train forever. And that's what yields the result year on year, whether we get the head-turning results that you've seen on our website. And that's why we've got over 420 Google reviews.

Yeah, I've never— I've definitely never really had that.

You've never had that? Well, I, I think we're leaving a lot of results in the tank, Amy. So what I would recommend from here is that we meet face to face, because I know it's all very well and good for me to talk about all this on the phone and say what I'm saying. I know it probably all sounds great, but, you know, I really want to make the you and match the visual and I'd love to meet you. So I think what would really get you to see how we do things is to come in in person. So I'd love to invite you in. Are you by any chance available today at either 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock?

Can't do today, but I tell you what I could do, I could do Tuesday.

Okay, cool. Is morning, afternoons or best for you Tuesday?

Usually afternoon after work. I do work night time.

What time do you finish work?

5 o'clock, I finish in the CBD.

Okay, it's 5 o'clock. Okay, cool. Let me look at my Tuesday. I have 2 times available Tuesday. I could either fit you in at 5:45 or at 6:15. Which of those 2 times best suits you?

6:15.

Awesome. I'm going to book you in for 6:15. Now I'm going to send you— this is obviously your email and your— I've got your email, I've got your phone here. I'm going to send you an email and also send you a text confirmation. And on the email, I'm going to send you a couple of links, which are— you asked me some questions about the 45 kilos and people. So I'll send you some links to Joe and Helen and about their stories. And I'll look I look forward to seeing you in the studio Tuesday at 6:15.

Beautiful. Good to see you then.

See you then.

How much does this cost, by the way?

Oh, so the consult with me won't cost anything. This is just an initial chat where I'm gonna be able to understand more about your needs, how many times a week you train, who I think would be the best trainer for you, and also the availability in which you have to train. So the initial is just a chat, and then from there I'm gonna be able to put together a program for you that's going to be able to hit your goal. So once I understand about a bit more about who you are, what you need when you train, how many times a week I think you need, then I can put together a bespoke program for you.

Cool, yeah, sounds great.

Awesome, no worries. Let's speak then.

Bye.

I get this a bit, um, asking a rough— roughly how much?

Cool. So as a rough estimate, we have a few different options ranging from once a week to 4 times a week. Week, um, and once a week to 4 times a week, the prices do vary quite considerably and also varies on whether you pay upfront or direct debit. So my first question is, how many days a week— uh, like, I have my recommendations how many days a week, but how many days a week were you thinking of training with us?

Yeah, yeah, 4 times.

Okay, so you're looking at 4 times a week, so you'd be looking at one of our 4-time package. And we have an upfront or direct debit and a split option. Were you looking at paying upfront or direct debit?

Well, I don't know, like, what are the prices? Okay.

Yeah, cool. So, so that's where, like, I'd say to really put this together, I'd recommend coming in because this is where it gets— does get a little bit confusing as to— because we do have a few different options available. Look, to give you a ballpoint figure, if you were to pay for something, you know, weekly on a weekly kind of plan, you're looking around $400 a week. Is that within your budget?

Uh, not really.

Okay, well, we do have twice a week as well. Twice a week is obviously less, so maybe the full-time week isn't, isn't right for you. Maybe it's twice a week, but Again, this is where once, uh, you know, we are going to do the diet, the programming. You have missed the sale?

No, I haven't, but I have a few times had to give them a ballpark and give them a figure. Just keep pushing for it, keep pushing for it. If they keep—

if they keep pushing for it, I say, look, it could be anywhere between—

that's what I say—

200 to 400.

But I haven't— that hasn't necessarily— I usually say it to you, but I just, I always feel bad after it.

So I know it's I usually say the price is a premium, or I say it's in the lower thousands. And if they're emotionally feeling it that day, I'll jump them up to higher thousands.

Or I say, look, look, I can tell you straight off over the phone that— I can tell you straight over the phone that we're not the cheapest in town. Yeah, right. So you could be looking at— and I used to say this a lot— is you could be looking at anywhere from $127 a week up to $600 depending what program. And I know that's a huge range, and that's because we have a lot of different programs depending on your needs. So I think what we should do is sit down and talk about what your needs are. Okay.

That's kind of what I've been doing, but I was like, is that the right way? But it seems to be okay.

Yeah.

Every time I've had to do that. So I'm just making sure that that's kind of what you guys would do.

Do you get the email before it as well?

Yeah.

So if it says like Yarra Group or some clearly some email with like a high status, then it's like, okay, giving, giving a ballpark price probably won't hurt. Then they're going to come in and go, they're going to be like, all right, fine.

Now, before we move move on on this because I don't want to brush over this, but there was a— this is a lesson for you too, Hemming. There was something different that I did in my sales process that Hemming didn't. Did anyone hear it? That's pretty tough. Yeah, it's not that. It's more to the point. What didn't Hemming do? It is, it is part of that, but I did do that, but it was even more. And this may be something that you could add into yours.

The Google, because I'm like, what made you reach out to us? And I just accepted a normal answer.

What was What is that doing?

That's getting to the root of the problem.

Close. I'm building need. Value. Took more time to build need and— Value. I built value, right? So if you contrast what I did on the call just then versus what Hemming did on the call, well, you guys heard the calls. How did you feel about Hemming's call versus my call? Which one are you more motivated to come in for? You tell me. So is everyone like, hands up for Hemming's call and be honest. Who was better at his call? My call.

Yeah, that's why I'm not getting him in.

The only difference, no, and I say this as a good teaching moment for everyone and not to make an example outta you, Hemming, but this is awesome because it gives you feedback and I know you've got a champion mindset that takes feedback on. The only difference between my call and Hemming's call is I took just a little bit longer to establish their need and then married that with value of them actually coming in. And I'll tell you exactly, and then I also future-paced them. And I'll tell you exactly how I did that. The core need thing that I did was, so, Heming, you must have been thinking about this for 3 years. What was the moment that you called us today? Like something that happened this week for this to be top of mind. Yeah, I was playing tennis. Okay, now I've got a recent example. Okay, so I understand. And then he said something about his family and I said, oh, that really must really suck. I'm sorry to hear that. That, that people aren't supportive of you, right? I'm built, but I've got now recent pain. I haven't got arbitrary pain of I'm fat and my clothes don't fit me or whatever it is. Like, it's a recent lived pain that I can refer back to that he felt that is a lot stronger than something happened 3 years ago. I combined that forward, and this is how I built value, was I said I did do the 3 types of clients. And the reason why I did that was, you know, because I wanted to highlight the fact that we do training, we do nutrition, nutrition, and we do body transformation. Which one of those? Oh, you want a body transformation. Then he, he gave— and this wasn't scripted, like, I didn't know what he was going to say. He then said, oh, but I'm doing everything right with my nutrition. And then I said, what, have you ever had a coach lay out your macros for you? No. Oh, so you've never had anyone figure out exactly how much protein, carbohydrates, and fats you're supposed to be having and scientifically put together a custom plan which you can work to and walk you through the whole thing. You've never had that? No. Oh, well, it's no wonder for me that you haven't gotten results. So when you come in on the first session, let's talk about that. Let's talk about putting that plan together. Now, on the other end of the call, what does he hear? He goes, oh, fuck, there's something that I'm not doing that's going to get me results. Because again, remember, the same thing in business, right? If I do a consult with one of you and, you know, Gordy sits with me and says, this is what I'm doing on Facebook, I'm like, oh, it's awesome, Gordy. And he says, this is what I'm doing with sales. I'm like, oh, it's awesome, Awesome, Gordy. And he's like, this is what I'm doing with, um, with, with whatever it is. And my answer to everything is, oh, that's awesome, Gordy. Well, guess what? Gordy doesn't— he's not coming to me as a business coach, he's coming to me as a friend, right? Makes sense. That's a friend relationship where you go to the person and you say, this is what I'm doing. And look, I have friends who call me on my shit and I love it. But the point is that a coaching relationship is— it if all you can say is everything is great, that's great, and but you don't offer anything to improve, then why would I spend money to help me improve? Like, in coaching, there is a little bit of confrontation. You do need to confront. Like this morning, when I'm trying to get what the challenges are from you folks, I'm not just hearing it on face value, because if I hear it on face value and I don't understand, then I'm not really helping you. So I'm like, well, is it— is this— I care about your problems, I care about your challenges, I care about your problems and challenges enough to understand them. Okay, like we had with Pippa. Okay, is it— is that the problem? I don't know if it is. Like, let's just stay on this for a little bit and really like get in the weeds of what the problem could be so we understand it, so then we can solve it. That's what you're doing as a coach. So on the call, I'm giving them a taste of that already and saying, well, I Oh, you haven't had that? And then I transition. So with your training, has anyone ever structurally assessed you and screened you and said what's tight, what's weak and what's— Oh no, okay. Well, absolutely, there's no wonder why you're not getting the results you want to be getting because you're not doing the things that world-class results are required to get. So what we do in that first session, this is what we're doing, this is what we're gonna help you. Now there's a median value that's been built up in their head where they're like, oh, well, I'm curious about what these guys do versus everyone else. Do you understand?