3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE
CONTINUOUSLY ADD VALUE TO YOUR SERVICES... We are back and taking a look at our
Value Ladder. Step two is all about how you can continuously add
value to your services in order to keep commanding top dollar. Want to earn more with your fitness career? This is how! I think that the way most trainers work, by focusing on one client per hour, is a surefire way to avoid making any real money. Maybe you have the kind of personality for it and maybe you like the one-on-one time it gives you to flesh out your instruction. But honestly you can still do that and
expand your earnings in so
many other ways. The quickest way, of course, is to get rid of the idea that any time on the floor with one client will determine your financial future. You can’t live like that.
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
Trading your hours, day after day, for a set rate is the slowest possible way to grow your wealth. Why? Because there’s simply only one of you, one of the client, and one hour. When you factor in that a day can only have 24 hours, then you realize how limited you are there in what you can do. My method requires you to throw away that limiting
mentality and embrace the true value of what you do. Once you feel that and can explain to your customers what that is, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish and earn. I’m talking essentially about stability. That other more traditional way depends on
the most dangerous number there is: one.
When you
depend solely on one thing, if that thing collapses (and it almost always does) then you’re in deep trouble. I’m not necessarily talking about earth-shaking events. I’m talking about the little occurrences in life. Like you getting sick or a client being called away on business. Maybe there’s something that keeps people from your studio or gym, like a flood or a power outage. If you can’t get to that client in that hour, there goes your money. Who wants to live like that? So
no more feast or famine with your income. That is not a
viable plan. Let’s stabilize it and work to get you the exact amount of income that you want. The best way to establish a stable workflow and income streams is to
produce for your customers the value in what you’re providing. You have to connect with your customers and show how their lives will be positively impacted by working with you.
Your expertise
will combine
with your dedication to show you can deliver that value to them, every single time, for however long they’ll work with you. As people come to you, month in and month out, you’ll show them how committed you are to them accomplishing whatever they’re shooting for. Once you establish a lovely baseline income, then you move to protecting
specialized feeder programs and advanced marketing techniques, which I outline below. It’s that that retention rate with
easy! Are you ready to take control of your financial future and well-being? Here we go!
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FITNESSPRENEUR'S TIP: Cost can be adjusted. Time cannot. So don't wait for more hours in a day, just add value to what you do & charge more.
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
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THE VALUE OF TRANSFORMATION At this point in our industry, we’re the victims of our own success. Our society has made becoming fit a priority for decades now and we now have programs for all types of people and lifestyles. The problem with that? Fitness
training is everywhere you turn. There are boot camps in every park and outdoor
space. Every city has anywhere from a handful to numerous gyms and studios that cater to every demographic imaginable. Clubs are everywhere. Home trainers are a dime a dozen. Becoming fit is a popular commodity and the result is that the market What that means for you and me is that
is saturated.
our services are having trouble standing out in a
sea awash with competition. Your average consumer can’t navigate properly among choices that seem to all offer the same thing, the same classes, the same programs. What’s worse, because we sometimes don’t know how to market our services in the best way, we unknowingly contribute to the pile and further hurt our
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
chances at making real money. If you see someone over there making money, the temptation to replicate what they’re doing is too great. But in the first step of
my value ladder, I showed you how you have to
provide value to your customers on a constant basis. I demonstrated the
value of introductory programs that are so important because they feed into other programs catered to your customers’ needs. We’re talking going
matching a customer’s concerns and a program that provides a solution. In order to make top dollars, beyond simply
you will need to articulate clearly how transformative your services are going to be for them. The bottom line is that we are
constantly marketing ourselves.
Many trainers don’t like marketing and they don’t like sales, but that’s the nature of the business we’re in. In an oversaturated market, the winners will
FITNESSPRENEUR'S TIP:
stand out above the
Boot camps, gyms, studios, home trainers every place you look. To stand out you have to be loud or different.
be the ones that can get their message to
clatter. Those who don’t will simply be working harder for less pay. So rather than merely show what a program does, you’ll need to explain in clear concise language the specific value of that program to the customer.
Specifics are what matter.
By connecting the customer to the
specific value that the program will carry directly to them, you will point out what a difference you can make in their lives. You’ll need to show demonstrable value, something that can be quantified, in order to hook them in. Previously I’ve used the example of back and neck pain, but the type of program isn’t really important.
customers,
How you talk about with your
however, is incredibly important. Your expertise will need to
speak to the specific issues that your customers are dealing with. You’ll need to know about your customers’ habits, lifestyle, and activities. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll need to show how working with you will relieve that
stress or pain in whatever other areas of their lives need it. Because that’s why a person comes to a fitness professional…they want to be transformed. They want to interface with someone with that has a specific expertise and that can
help them transform into a better
person, whatever that means for them.
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
So you sell
the transformation by giving them a preview of what their
life will be like when you’ve done your work with them. You’ll need to paint a picture where that client is doing better at work or playing with his kids more often or having fun with their spouse regularly. These changes, these transformations, need to be spelled out in concrete terms so that the customer realizes your value isn’t in the hour or so they have with you, but in the improved life that lies ahead of them. They need to
visualize their
future life, and you need to help them. language you need to adopt and make a part of your marketing. And, by the way, that’s what talking is: marketing. Your That is the
ability to articulate fully what you can do for them is where that value will come from. Whenever you talk to people or your trainers or are emailing, you’ll want to keep the value built in to the pitch and at the forefront of the conversation. You never want a customer to forget what that session or program means to their life. It’s not just a session, it’s a chance to transform into a better person and reap the rewards that great people who take control of their lives enjoy. When that phrasing becomes the norm for the people that you deal with, it’s even easier to explain why your services cost more. You can confidently say, “We are back pain specialists. We are neck pain specialists. We make sure you live a full and healthy life and that’s why our programs are $300 versus $150 per month, or $500 versus $300."
By showing the immeasurable value of an improved life and transformed lifestyle, you can elevate your rates and no one will think twice about paying them.
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FITNESSPRENEUR'S TIP: Your job as a fitness pro is to paint a picture of your clients better future selves.
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
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30, NOT 60 MINUTES Value to different people can mean different things. So in addition to showing how you’ll transform people’s lives, you need to also show how you can save them time and money. This next part is what throws a lot of trainers for a loop. I’m now not only asking you to stop trading your time for money, but to abandon what
get rid of your sixty minute sessions and instead focus on making them thirty minutes. seems to be a fundamental part of how we do business. I want you to
Whoa! You’re probably thinking, “How in the world am I going to make more money by working less time?" Remember, the frame of mind that we’re trying to get into is one that provides a greater value not the one that works a greater number of hours. I can understand why trainers are attached to the sixty minute session. For some, it’s all they have ever known. Sixty minutes just feels like it’s the right amount of time to get a good
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
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workout going. If you don’t know what you’re doing and like to take your time, those thirty minutes can fly by fast. But here’s the truth: science has proven time and again that you can provide just as effective an instructional session in thirty minutes or less
know what you’re doing.
if you
If you are in a situation where your
sessions have been created to target the specific problem that your client has, you can dive right in and the results will remain the same. In and out in half an hour. What’s not to like about that? The greatest benefit to switching over to thirty minutes instead of sixty is that
eliminating two of the biggest excuses that people give when they don’t want to work out. People always say that you’re
they don’t have time and they don’t have money. By switching over to the thirty minute model, you’re eliminating those excuses and bringing in more business. When we’re dealing with a mere thirty minute block, what possible excuse can a customer give for not coming in. Thirty minutes is a perfect amount of time for people on their lunch breaks from work. It’s the perfect amount of time for people to work out quickly before going in for their job. And everyone, from busy moms to recovering athletes, can put aside thirty minutes here and there to transform into better versions of themselves. The other reason that will seem insanely attractive to your customers is
how much they can save by only doing a thirty minute session. Save? That’s right. For a thirty minute session, you’ll drop the price but group people together. Now instead of making, at most, $250 an hour, you can do a group session of 6 people at, say, $50 per person, in just half an hour. That’s $300 in thirty minutes versus $250 for the full hour. In that full hour, if you schedule two groups of six at $50, that’s $600. And that’s before we even get into the other ways you can make more money with your customers through nutrition programs or Facebook challenges! By switching people over to thirty minute sessions, you now have a consistent pool of customers to
lead into your feeder programs.
You’re making more money during that hour (where there’s safety in numbers) and you give yourself a better chance to move in with your specialized programs.
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FITNESSPRENEUR'S TIP: Find a way to get into your clients' schedules. Make yourself an essential part of their transformation.
FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
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FEED THE FEEDERS As you’re reading this, I’m hoping that you’re getting comfortable with the language and power of how much value you bring to the table. We’ve established that your expertise is worth more than your typical training session and that by breaking it down further into thirty minute sessions, you’re able to make more with a larger group of customers. That group you’re training is now ready for the final piece of the second step of your Value
Ladder.
You’re trying to transform their lives constantly. And doing that will require an evolution of sorts. You’ll need to move these people into programs that will help along the transformation in tangible and easily seen ways. When looking at your group, start thinking about
programs that you can divide that group further
into. Some obvious ideas to consider include general overall fitness, weight loss programs, corrective
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FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 TRAINING SESSION CHANGES THAT WILL STABILIZE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
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exercise programs, and the aforementioned back and neck pain group. There’s no limit to how many groups there can be since so many people are looking for different things. When planning these programs, it’s a good idea to remember how the benefits can directly impact a person in their personal lives. So
look for common groups.
Are there any youth athletes looking to stay
limber? Can you do a post-pregnancy group with a group of eager moms? Be sure to think about the major
events in people’s lives
and pair up a program accordingly. Things like a New Year’s weight loss
program or getting ready for the upcoming bikini season can be hugely popular. Keep your thinking elastic and listen to what your customers are asking for. Once they start experiencing results with you in your group sessions, have your valuable programs ready.
The more they see the value in their lives, the more they’ll want to continue and see what else you can do for them. It’s a cause and effect thing. So I often say, “That’s great that you’re feeling energized! You know, I have a program that increases flexibility so you can play with your toddler even more."
Know what your customer base is looking for and let them know that you have the perfect program for them. If they want more results in their everyday lives, you need to be ready to provide it. Don’t leave any stones unturned. People are always looking to get more energized, feel confident, and feel sexy. Cater
to those desires and you’ll see your business boom.
Coming up next is Step Three where I share with you how to add more revenue without adding any more training. We’ll continue going up the ladder and providing tremendous value to your customers. Doesn’t a one-on-one session seem a little incomplete now? I hope you think so.
Let me help you launch your business, income and lifestyle! Follow me on:
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ABOUT VITO LAFATA As a certified High
Performance and Funnel Optimization Coach, Vito La Fata, is the NO BS business
& personal brand coach to the wellness and fitness professional or company that is looking to get outside the box of the industry and start learning how to grow a personal brand online and offline utilizing a hybrid business model of offline and online marketing strategies that deploy customer value optimization systems in order to create as much benefit and offering for the customer and as much profit and lifestyle for the company as possible.
Follow him on Social Media:
Or visit his Website:
www.VitoLaFata.com