While it is certainly true that the number one priority for most clubs is increasing the membership core, increasing revenue per member is also a key component in making the most profit possible for your center. Personal training has high potential, but many fitness center owners struggle with managing their trainers efficiently.
Here are some suggestions that may help:
Keep your Presentation Uncomplicated
Attempt to keep the packages simple (5-pack, 10-pack, 25-pack). The more options you offer, the more confusing it will be for the member and the harder it will be for the trainer to communicate those packages to members, a challenge which has been proven to lower closing percentages. Offer specific training, but keep the pricing easy to understand. For example, a 10-session golf program might be designed to improve a client’s golf game, but it costs the same as a 10-session weight loss program.
Manage your Personal Training Packages and Payroll with Club Management Software
Certainly the easiest way to track personal training is with computer software. Club management software should offer the following reports:
>> How many training sessions are performed in a given week by a given trainer and the revenue generated by those sessions
>> Details of which packages are selling and what trainers are selling them
>> The number of each member’s remaining training sessions so that you can proactively market renewals to those members
>> Tracking for all former personal training clients for future marketing
Make it Easy for the Member
Provide your members with an easy way to buy and redeem their personal training packages. The best systems include:
>> Direct interface with a scheduling program to make redemption of a training session easy
>> A scheduling program that allows for different appointment types, booking ongoing appointments (e.g., every Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 until the package is done) and ability for trainers and members to check their schedule via the Internet
>> An easy way to set up a payment plan adding to a member’s EFT (for large packages)
>> An automatic way to deduct sessions when a member scans in (if they have a per visit membership or through the use of a separate personal training card)
>> Automatically printed receipts, including the number of sessions left in a package, when a member has a training session
Develop a Clear Payroll Package for Personal Trainers
I have seen numerous strategies in paying personal trainers. Hourly plus commission percentages, tiers, different percentages based on hours trained that week, etc. By far the easiest (for you and the trainer) is to offer a simple percentage of the revenue of redeemed personal training sessions. If a trainer has trained $1,000 worth of training sessions in a given time period, pay them a set percentage like 50% or $500. This is easy for you to figure out (with good software) and easy for the trainer to understand. If the trainer wants to make more money, she can sell more packages or increase her rates! An overly complicated payroll plan does not improve performance, it just makes it harder to manage.
Options for Managing Personal Training in Your Club
Someone needs to be on top of the number of members having consultations with a trainer, what is being said in those sessions and what kind of follow up is done. This can be a time-consuming task, but it is necessary to optimize sales. Write a script for your personal trainers, roleplay the consultations and periodically use secret shoppers to be sure your personal trainers are using the presentation messages and techniques you require.
If you cannot make the time for that type of management, consider hiring a company that specializes in managing personal training. These companies are often compensated with a percentage of personal training revenue. I can hear some of you saying you cannot afford to do that; however, paying 10% of $10,000 per month to a management company is better than only getting $4,000 per month in revenue. If you don’t have time to manage the process, there is potential for more revenue if you hire someone who does have the time.
A third option is to have experienced personal trainers pay rent to use your facility. While you still want to have an idea of how they present, the stress of increasing revenue falls on the trainers as you receive your rent either way.
Take a look at your personal training profitability and make every effort to optimize before your competition does.
Len Bell is a Sales Associate with Twin Oaks Software. He can be contacted at 866/278-6750, or by email at lbell@tosd.com or visit tosd.com.
Great article! As a personal trainer myself, there has to be an incentive to want to personal train and pick up new clients. Your section on the payroll for PT is perfect. That would sure make me want to do more training and in the long run make more money!