Ep97: Why Most PTs Lose Clients in December (and How to Stop It)

What's going on? Team Matt from the PT Profit, Leverage and Lifestyle show. We're going into detail on why PTs fail during the month of December and they basically have to start from scratch in January and they lose all their clients. So happens for most PTs in December and we're coming up to December very, very soon. So I thought this would be cracking episode to do a little bit of mindset, a little bit of tactical stuff. But firstly I just wanted to give myself a shout out here. I, I was struggling for probably like a month or so to get into a gym routine and tried to go early morning, it's like a 5am before the kids are awake. Tried to go late at night and couldn't really, couldn't really make it work. Consistently the early mornings I was, I was too tired at the end of the day so I was going to bed super, super early, which meant I was like I was really tired for when the kids got home from daycare and stuff. So I didn't like doing that. And then I tried the late nights, which meant I couldn't really spend much time with Jess, my wife. So she was like, oh, why are you going late at night? And I was like, well, I'll get too tired in the morning. I was like, okay, we'll try something else because I gotta, I gotta form this routine. So I say, cool, I'm gonna try drop kids off daycare because I'll do the drop off and then we'll go straight to the gym. So now what's happened is I've blocked it out in my calendar so no one can book in. So I've got daycare drop off, then I've got the gym straight after, no one can book in. And so far so good. Haven't missed the gym at all, which is epic. So moral of the story is if you want stuff to get done, put it in your calendar and don't allow people to book in to your calendar during those times. That's it. So little win for me, which is awesome. But let's get into today's episode. So I'm going to talk firstly on the mindset of why pts pretty much lose all their clients in December. Firstly, the mindset of the customer or the client is they want to have a break. They've been working hard all year, they want to have a break, they've got parties on, they got events on, they got booze, booze, booze, booze, booze, booze. And they lose motivation because they got so many events on they feel like crap. And they're just waiting for Christmas to come along. And then what happens is, and they might train a little bit, but then they're like, oh, they might go away for a week or two. They'll be like, oh, can you pause the payments for while I'm away? And the PT is like, yep, no worries at all. I'll see you when you come back. And guess what happens is they drink a lot, they have too much food, they lose motivation, and then they just ghost the PT and they have to start from scratch. There's no agreement, there's no signed document that they're going to come back. They're not on a direct debit and PT pretty much just like, oh, well, shit, that wasn't very fun. So, yeah, that's what happens with most PCs. And unfortunately, if no one tells them what to do, then it's just going to keep happening. So there's two things to do for the month of December is set your clients up for success and make sure you retain your clients. It's going to be harder to convert people in the month of December. We can obviously get into some other marketing strategies later on about how to get people to sign up in December. There's plenty of stuff you can do. You just got to give people an incentive to sign up in December rather than waiting until January because everyone's got stuff on, it's all good, we all understand everyone's busy, blah, blah, blah. It's not an excuse to not get started though, because you're going to get, you're going to get one month ahead of everyone else that starts in January. So firstly, let's, let's set the time with the mindset here. The PT sets the tone. So if the PT is going to take away, take leave, then your clients are going to take leave as well. So if you want your clients to stay motivated and trained during Christmas and you do the same thing, now, I'm not saying you have to work all the way through, I'm saying take some time off. But if you're going to take like two or three weeks off, expect your clients to do the same thing. So you set the time, you set the expectation. They, you're the leader, okay, with the health, with the health and fitness. Secondly, you need to prepare for when people do go away. So we have a email that we send out at the end of November which basically states that, you know, it's obviously a busy time of year and, you know, some, some of you guys might be going away. So if you are going Away, there is a specific time hold form to fill out if you need it. Majority of our clients just do makeup sessions to make sure we maintain our results during this time. And key little tip here, most clients, it's in their best interest just to maintain what they've done with you throughout the year. Most people are not going to like lose more weight during the month of December because they've got so many things on. Some people will, but majority of people, the general population will get a little bit carried away. So I always used to tell my clients as well, like if you can just maintain what we've got, let's set that as the goal for the month of December and then we're going to, that's going to set us up for a really big year in 2026 or the next year, whatever year it is. So having that conversation with the clients is the first thing. But the email goes out and it basically says, hey, we've got been a massive year. I'm super, super pumped to end the year with you and so grateful for your support. Firstly, the first thing, we've got a Christmas party, it's on this date. Please RSVP ASAP so we can book your seat, blah blah blah. Second thing, if you are going away, we can either do makeup sessions or you move to an online model. If you need to pause your payments while you're away, please respond to this email and we will tailor make a solution for you. Last resort is to get people to pause payments. Okay, so for example, if someone goes away for two weeks and they're doing one session a week, that's two weeks. The two sessions they miss out on. You do makeup sessions. Okay, so you do one makeup session before they go away to get them in prime shape for their holiday and then one session when they come back to get them back on track with motivation. So you frame it in a way that hey, let's not miss out on, let's not miss out on you getting the results that you want. Let's do the makeup sessions one before, one after so we can stay on track. That sound good? Yep, perfect. If they don't want to do that for whatever reason, which most people should be fine to do, then you move on to move them onto an online only model where they get a reduced rate, they'll get access to their training program and nutrition and check ins and you just give, you just give them accountable while they're away. So some people obviously won't want to do that, which is fine. Which the last resort is the time hold. Now, there's a very specific timehold form that we get people to fill out, basically saying that they will commit to come back to personal training once their holiday has finished. And if they choose to cancel after that, they will need to do the notice period, which usually anywhere between two weeks and four weeks, plus the time hold that they were on hold for. So if they want to hold for two weeks and they want to cancel straight after because we were holding their session for them, they've got to pay out six weeks. So the four week notice period plus the two weeks that were on hold, this makes it super serious about people coming back to the gym. Okay. Now you might get people still want to cancel, which is fine, but they better pay out that notice period, which most people don't want to do. So they just end up coming back. So that's how you make sure you don't lose your clients. So first thing, ideally, set the mindset or set the expectation. You still train during the month of December, you're still going to maintain results. Okay. Second thing, if they are going away or missing missing things, make up sessions. If you're online, pretty much it's business as usual. Nothing changes. Should be no excuse. They're going away. Cool. Let's change the, change it to workouts that you can do in the hotel room. Plenty of stuff you can do. People still need to be kept accountable. I think it was all the points I had there. And you'll notice people will just keep paying because if they're doing makeup sessions, the payments keep coming out. And you know, the number one, the number one thing that people say to me is, you know, PT is so unstable, it's so unreliable. Well, it's, it's not. Also it is. But you're just not getting the stability because of how you run the business and how you've set it up. So everyone needs to be on direct debit. Everyone needs terms and conditions filled in. Everyone needs a time hold filled in if they're going on pause for payments. Okay. You don't do anything through text message needs to be a form that's filled out. Okay. You're running a proper business, not a hobby. If you're dealing with calls and Woolworths and someone wanted to just be casual about, I don't know, changing a date of delivery for a truck, whether to send a text message or they go through the appropriate channels and they would go through the appropriate channels to get the job done. So you're a big business, put your big boy pants on and start acting like it. So that's the first thing. And the other stuff is the marketing. You see, you still want to do marketing in December, but you want to prepare for January. So you do a lot of marketing, lead generation activities, but you're not going to do a whole lot of consults in December. You still might do some, but you're not going to. You definitely don't want to do consults from like 21, 23, 23rd of December. Okay. It's just not going to happen. So you do lead generation and there's like plenty of stuff you can do, like giveaways, which is probably the biggest one. Giveaway heaps of stuff for the start of January, but you're generating interest in December to start it in January. Okay. That's what you want to do. So, yeah, I hope that gives you some context in terms of what to do for the month of December to make sure you don't shit the bed and lose all your clients, which I'm lucky. I never had to be in that situation. But a lot of people that come to us have completely shut the bed when it comes to retaining their clients during December. So have the right mindset, set the expectations, fill in the paperwork and make it happen. That's it for today's episode team. Hope you have an amazing day. And I'm gonna get out of the studio now. I'm finished recording for now. I'm gonna shoot some more reels. Content is king. So put the be a little reminder, go shoot some content, post it up there and take heaps of action. Have an awesome day. Bye. Bye.