The Secret to a Stable Income as a Personal Trainer

They used to call me a snake oil salesman. They used to say that I was all about the money.

But don’t you want to have a roof over your head? What about when you’re married and have a kid, don’t you want to have health insurance for them? I certainly do.

I don’t know about you, but I just want some basic shit. I’m not looking for a gulf stream. I just want to have consistent income. When I started out in our industry, no one had that.

Here’s how your income (and your life) can change for the better once you decide to charge your personal training clients on a monthly basis. But first: why do coaches need this in the first place?

 

Most Personal Trainers Hate Sales

Here’s a secret: most trainers that get into training are not passionate about sales.

No, why would they be?

A lot of personal trainers are great at helping people and giving them results. But oh God, when it comes to selling to people, that’s where they struggle.

There was always so much friction whenever I had to do this. It’s like all of a sudden my client is on their 9th session out of ten. I’m like, “Hey, Ada, listen, so tomorrow is your 10th session, do you want to opt back in?” I didn’t even know how to ask it.

So, sometimes they would say no, because I didn’t know that when you asked them if they want to, it gives them a yes or no option.

Always ask, “So, are you going to continue for 10 sessions, or do you want to do 15 sessions.?” Give them an A or B option. I didn’t even know that until my old mentor, Jim Franco, taught me about A or B options.

But what if there was another way? Is it possible to sell someone on a recurring basis? It very much is.

 

How to Avoid Selling and Still Make Money

Don’t sell clients 10 or 15 sessions at a time. Instead, sell them monthly subscriptions, just like a gym membership.

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Back in the day, I was able to sell my five gyms because, at the time, Crunch Fitness was coming through San Diego. They didn’t buy my brand, Premier Results—they bought my recurring revenue that all my clients were paying me. Like hundreds of thousands of dollars of money was scheduled to come in over a 12-month period.

Of course, I was skeptical at first when Jim told me about this: “I can’t afford 600 bucks a month out of my credit card automatically. Who can?”

It turns out everyone who’s got money can.

That’s why Jim told me that the fitness industry was, and still is, “broken.” People will pay you on a monthly basis—especially affluent people. Had Jim Franco not taught me how to sell, how to lead generate, how to put clients on EFT contracts—electronic fund transfer contracts—I wouldn’t have even thought of charging people like this.

But First…You Need to Capitalize on Leads

Here’s the thing: You still have to capitalize on the leads you get before you charge them anything.

We all know that the money is in the follow up. Jim taught me this thing called monster follow-up.

I would call a lead and I’d get a voicemail, so I’d leave a voicemail. “Hey, this is Bedros from Premier Results, and you showed interest in filling out the form and to win a month. And sorry you didn’t win the month, but you get a free week of personal training. Here’s our number, call us back.”

After that I never would follow up again.

Well it turns out you can followed up. You have their email address, just keep calling until they buy or died.

As Jim Franco taught me, you follow-up with a lead until they buy or die, meaning they tell you to stop calling, or they buy your service.

Once you get good at this, you start getting more leads through your doors; once those leads show interest in signing on with you as a member, then you can get them on a recurring payment system. What does that mean for you? Stable income, less selling, and less worry.

There’s nothing oily about that.

 

Committed to your success,

Bedros