As personal training managers, we can get caught up in focusing on monthly personal training revenue numbers. Sometimes, we get so caught up that we forget to check other metrics related to our business. This article will list and explain five top metrics that personal training managers should look at on a regular basis that relate to their department:
1. Retention rate per trainer / per department
Take your trainers’ current client lists and compare them to their client lists from six months to a year ago. What did you find? Are your trainers holding onto clients, or are they losing all the clients they had from the first sampling? How is your department doing? Retention says a lot about your business, including whether or not it provides the results and experience clients are looking for. You should be looking for a retention rate of up to 85 percent if your trainer has been with your club for a year or longer.
2. Conversion rate for initial packages to regular training
This speaks volumes on how well your trainers can build rapport, show clients their value and sell their services without discounting. Most new members will take advantage of personal training when it is sold at a discounted rate, to see whether they like it or not without having to pay full price. After that package is used, the trainer should convert them over to regular training. A reasonable conversion rate goal is 75-85 percent.
3. New member consultation appointments
This number details a trainer’s ability to get new members to meet with them for a basic consultation. In addition, it showcases their ability to sell from a cold call. This is probably the most difficult appointment to sell since there is no rapport building (unless the member picks up the phone). A good goal is about 50-60 percent of all called, new members showing up to first appointments.
4. Dollar per session charged
This number may vary from club to club, but the basic metric is the same; what is the average dollar your trainers are charging per session? This is a great number to look at when considering increases in gross revenue. Given the way your club charges for personal training, this number might fluctuate greatly.
Take the overall gross revenue for a trainer for a week and divide that into the amount of hours worked (not sessions performed, but hours actually worked training). This number will let you see if a trainer is constantly selling larger packages for a discount, if they are training multiple people in groups, or are doing one-on-one sessions only. To have a higher gross revenue, this number should be at least 15 percent higher than your single-session cost. This would mean that not only are your trainers charging the correct amount, but they are also training in groups.
5. Profitability
For any business, this is a necessary benchmark. Look at the amount of commission you are paying a trainer and divide that by their total gross revenue. Make sure your profitability then also includes payroll tax and any other paid-out bonuses or allowances. For most businesses, a net profitability of about 35 percent is desirable.
Vic Spatola is the director of personal training for Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club in Greenwood Village, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Spatola offers consulting on personal training business development. For more information, contact him at vics@greenwoodatc.com.
