Personal Training: Break it Down

When fitness managers speak about financial goals to trainers, trainers become glassy eyed and distant. They see a $6,000 monthly goal as unachievable and so far beyond their capabilities that they become disillusioned and lose interest.

The same thing happens with our personal training clients. We mention that their eventual goal should be to lose 20 pounds of fat, and they have this look of terror and sadness. So we make micro goals for them.

1. We may set a goal of coming into the gym five times each week for the first four weeks.
2. We maintain the first habit, and then we add decreasing their caloric intake by 300 kcal for the next eight weeks.
3. We maintain the first two habits, then add performing high intensity cardio or training two days a week.

By setting up small attainable goals, the eventual goal is easily attainable.

So, let’s deal with a $6,000 monthly revenue goal over the course of three months. Starting in January and assuming a trainer charges $70 per session and has 10 sessions per week, we begin looking at how to break down the remaining $3,200.

By the end of March, we want them at $6,000, which means we have 12 weeks to achieve that number. That breaks down to an additional $267 per week, or adding approximately four sessions per week.

Given the fact that trainers should have at least a 50 percent close rate when they meet with a member to do a new member orientation or complimentary workout, that translates to doing at least eight of those sessions per week.

Also, given that 50 percent of people that you reach out to will do these sessions, the trainer must make contact with at least 16 to 20 people a week. Break that down to a daily goal of speaking to someone on the floor, calling new members, or performing complimentary 15-minute tune-up sessions, that comes down to four of those per day.

So, when you speak to a trainer and say that you need $6,000 by April first, break it down for them and say this translates into speaking with four members per day and encouraging them to do a complimentary 45-minute workout with them.

That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?