Before getting into the 5 techniques to make more money personal training, it should go without saying that the first step is of course joining TrulyFit! It is the fastest path to becoming a successful personal trainer and fitness professional. The only online fitness business solutions platform that actively markets to get you paid. Clients from all over will seek you out. All you have to do is create a free profile and list your availability and schedule. Scalability at it’s finest. Join now!

1. Design Evergreen Content For Common Concerns

You will need content of some sort that you can use over and over (tweaking only when necessary). This helps gain authority on your subject while simultaneously providing generalized value quickly.

I developed stretching routines. These were complete with pictures and step by step directions. I picked 5 different yet common physiological issues. Lower back tightness, poor upper body posture…and so on. When prospective or current clients came to me to discuss one of the 5 issues I simply emailed them the pre-made file. It raises your credibility, portrays you are organized, and demonstrates you’re a veteran in your field.

If you plan on running an outdoor stroller class for Mom’s, you will get the same demographic and therefore the same questions. “Are the exercises safe I am only X weeks postpartum?”, “What kind of cardio will we be doing and how fast can I lose my baby weight?” Having an email or flyer already on hand answering those common questions will save you time and energy. Additionally, any time you can dispel potential worries you increase the likelihood of getting them to participate. 

In order to make more money personal training you have to maximize your time. Having evergreen content on hand helps do that.

(You can use the 7 Central Movements as your first evergreen content for your clients)

2. Create Exclusivity Through Perceived Time/Schedule Constraints

Let us go through an example:

• If you are a group class instructor you can do this by capping the total number of attendees in each class. This creates a sense of urgency and people will jump to sign up quickly. Even when you are fresh into the business, never tell your prospective client that your schedule is wide open. Always make them feel as if you’re doing the favor fitting them in. Your time and efforts are limited to the hours in the day, and you have to treat each hour as gold. 

You can use quality or quantity to help build your fitness business. If you decide to work with smaller numbers of people, you have to use limited availability and specifically catered programs to your advantage. Yes, you upcharge for that.

If you decide to work in quantity, you find ways to fit as many people in to as few sessions as possible. This will allow you to charge them each a price well under the value yet make it a steal for them financially. Understanding that collectively it makes you a lot more money personal training not capping the total number of people when using that format is important. Let’s go over some examples.

Merging Private Sessions Into Small Group

• Holly is a golf instructor who teaches children and young adults from 5-18 years old in 1 on 1 private sessions. She works from 3pm to 7pm each evening after school and has now decided she needs to work smarter not harder. Her new goal is to work 1 hour each evening for the same amount of money. She marketed herself through all the local schools, and dropped her price point 50% lower than every other golf instructor in the area. However, Holly doesn’t do 1 on 1 sessions anymore. Rather 4 or more at a time in group sessions only.
  • Although the price per golfer is 50% less, simply by have at least 4 she is now making 2x or more of what she would have in an hour previously. She can now make what she use to make in an evening in one hour at minimum. She understood that it benefited the parents who would want to save money. Also that the children as a younger demographic aren’t as particular about 1 on 1 time. The children and parents who still preferred the private sessions? Well, they faced a dilemma. Changing instructors or staying with Holly in the small group setting and saving money. They almost all chose the latter decision. 

Make More Money Personal Training with Exclusivity

• Jason is a Speed & Agility Training coach who works with high school and college athletes.  Jason wanted to have a more relaxed summer so he designed an “8 Week Summer Speed Course”, to enhance your 40m and 100m speed. He let it be known he only has room for 8 people.
• He charges $1,000 upfront per athlete, and promises the following: Daily Workouts, Free Shirt with his Speed Camp Logo Design, 24/7 availability to questions/concerns, speed Improvement after 8 weeks, and his PDF course with full instruction. Jason only meets with the 8 athletes 3 times a week for one hour. The rest of the time they follow a program on their own. Collectively, over the course of the 8 weeks he works 24 hours (not including the initial course development time which is evergreen for new clients) which comes out to over $330/H. Jason understood creating a result oriented product. In addition, the limited availability coupled with little need for his physical presence was the ideal way to increase revenue. 

3. Give Yourself Away

You need to get in front of people. You can use hours you otherwise would not be getting paid to give yourself exposure by giving your time up for free (or cheaply). Don’t think of this as giving away your best asset, but rather investing it to save time (and earn more) in the future.

This is no different than spending money to fix a water leak. You will save money on your water bill down the road and come out on top. You can do this through social media, free local assessments, and many other creative ways. 

When I was struggling to gain clientele in my second year working as a FIT, I decided to do this. I used the time I wasn’t making any money and gave it away for free. “Steve, I thought you said time is the only thing we have to sell as a FIT, and now you’re telling me to give it away?”

Remember, this technique appears contradictory, but in order to sell your time you first need to acquire clientele.  You won’t have to do this down the road. However, it’s a great way to start gaining clientele quickly when you’re green. To make more money personal training you need a clientele base or else who are you charging?

Make More Money Personal Training with Free Assessments

I needed something that was vague enough to draw in ample amounts of people, but personalized enough where I was providing value. Choose a topic/subject, but don’t narrow it down too much. I went with sports. Okay, now what? Well, design a sports specific assessment!

I designed an assessment that looked like a test, with 10 different exercises/stretches and their corresponding rankings (i.e. Plank Hold Test – Over 2 minutes = 100). Some of the exercises/stretches were areas the prospective clientele were certainly going to struggle with, and that is purposeful.

At the end of the assessment I want the subject to feel as if they could have, need to, or want(ed) to have done better. This is where we show our expertise and sell our value in helping them on whatever sections they struggled in.

Maybe you had a golfer who came in and showed poor trunk flexibility in the rotational assessment, and wants to now work with you on flexibility. Maybe you had a gymnast who came in and showed knee valgus in the single leg squat assessment and now wants to work with you to correct that. This can be done a million different ways for any FIT, by simply changing the few key variables:

1. Topic (i.e. Sport,)
2. Assessment/Test Type (Exercises, Stretches, Combo of both, Tests, etc)

Assessment Keys To Make More Money Personal Training

The key sells to them: It’s FREE! It also provides value in giving the prospective client information about their physical skill set (or lack thereof) that they did not previously have from someone who is an authority (you!).

They key sells for you: Exposure. Access to prospective clients who are faced with their limitations. Ability to sell your expertise to fix those limitations. Who better to fix something than the person who first pointed it out? Show/tell them snippets of what you could do, but don’t give it all away. Make them want to book you.

4. Art Of Negotiation

The following is simply a list of items you should have a solid grasp on before you interview or start building your independent career as a FIT.

• Prepare – Research Trends, Research the Organization, anticipate what could be said, assess strengths and weaknesses, your preferred outcome, alternative outcomes if you have to negotiate, concessions, prepare for emotional reactions.

• Build Rapport – Show you’re trustworthy, competent, likeable, and you have aligned interests.

• Bargain – Give and take process, everyone should be equally satisfied or dissatisfied with the outcome.

• Conclude –Reach agreement, lock in promises.

• Execute – Follow through on agreement.

If you’re interested in unpacking this esoteric topic I suggest Roger Fisher and William Ury’s, “Getting to Yes”. In it, they urge you to keep the following 4 key principles in mind when negotiating;

• People: Separate the people from the problem. 
• Interests: Focus on interests, not positions. 

• Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do. 

• Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard.

I understand these all seem like cliché business closer terminology better set for a real estate broker, but you should have a brief understanding if for no other reason than to feel confident when having to go negotiate. Whether it be with your clientele or your boss, you will be faced with circumstance and situations that will be decided by your negotiation tactics for your entire career as a FIT.

5. Adjust & Adapt

If you want to make more money personal training you are going to have to adjust and adapt.

Ford Motor Company executives look over the Q3 (Third quarter) earnings and purchases and see that they were selling Ford Focus’s at a 3x higher rate than Ford F-150’s. Assuming the margins on F-150’s are significantly higher for each sold, what do you think their focus for Q4 would be? Some may think putting more marketing into selling F-150’s, however that would be a huge mistake.

You do not create a market, you find out what the market dictates and you adjust accordingly.

Answer? You would put all your marketing and sales teams on pushing those Ford Focus’s out the door as quickly as you can. The return on investment from a margin standpoint is less. However, the quantity being sold given the market trends are large enough to make up the difference. That same strategy can be implemented as a FIT. 

Ultimately, you will wear a lot of hats through-out your FIT career as you grow and learn new techniques, certifications, and fitness mediums. Understanding what is popular, and what will attract people toward you is vital. 

You’ll have expertise in areas, and you’ll love teaching specific fitness modalities more than others. Remember though, the end game to your success will be building your confidence in teaching anything. Being ready and willing to switch strategies on a dime.

Make More Money Personal Training by Adapting

Example 1:

• Let’s say you have been selling a line of nutritional shakes that have various options of flavors, calories, macro-nutrient profiles, and vitamins. Suddenly, the Keto Diet has blanketed the entire food scene.
  • Is your best bet to continue to push your best-selling shake that has strawberries and bananas (sugar is not keto) galore in it? Or to pull a quick marketing switcheroo to your coconut milk protein shake that is Keto friendly? 

Example 2:

• You have been running an outdoor circuit training class for a year centered on using kettlebells and heavy weights. Suddenly, a fitness challenge sweeps across Instagram; Body Weight Blitz. Everyone is trying to AMRAP (as many reps as possible) pushups and jump squats in 2 minute bursts each (4 min total) and posting their numbers.
  • Should you continue the course full steam ahead with you kettle bell and heavy weight movements? Or should you design and promote your class (or some of your classes at least) as the ultimate catalyst for maxing out the “Body Weight Blitz”, by using exercises that specifically help your push-up and jump squat endurance?

I think you know the answers here. There will be various scenarios daily, weekly, or yearly that will present themselves in a similar fashion and call on you to make these marketing maneuvers. 

Use the 5 techniques and you will make more money personal training!