Written by Chris Fernandez
I’m going to start off with a very simple contention with regards to the majority of personal trainers: You aren’t charging nearly enough for your personal training services! How do I know this? It’s simple: The reason lies in the “wisdom” of crowds.
In a book by the same name, the central thesis states that a diverse collection of independently made decisions tallied in aggregate is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts deciding alone.
In this case dictating what the “going” rate for personal training should be.
Unfortunately where PERSONAL training is concerned, you don’t want any such standard entering in the equation as it undermines your credibility, your passion and creates a no-win situation in which your business buckles under the weight of unmet expectations colliding head on with the realities of running and operating a business.
Oftentimes low or generic rates and a lack of differentiation will inevitably hurt your personal training business. Setting our personal training rates at “average” or area-specific levels allows us to attract the same types of clients that our competitors attract, but that’s a costly game that will inevitably undermine you in the long run, and is preventing your business from achieving its highest possible success.
Clients Want to Pay You Higher Rates – Really!
When a client is searching for a personal trainer that understands their exact needs and they find them, the price becomes inconsequential. Ultimately, all personal training boils down to is how your client FEELS about themselves, their body, their outlook, their experience and the services you offer. Your training is merely a conduit for those emotions.
Aside from overcoming limiting beliefs as to your worth as a personal trainer and the value of the service that you provide for your clients, you also have to learn how to properly market and position your services as elite, in demand and scarce. From an execution perspective there are several factors that you need to master in order to increase your bottom line – both internal and external – before you can ever look someone in the eye and ask for what is perceived to be a much higher rate than the norm in your area.
Some of these factors include:
• Marketing
• Positioning
• Scarcity
• Perceived Value (yours and your client’s)
• Limiting beliefs
• Expectations (yours and your clients)
• Mindset
• Strategy
Every personal trainer does something that is elite, is of a higher perceived value or possesses some skill or attribute that allows you to charge much higher rates. Lowering your rates is NOT the answer to creating scarcity and demand, rather it sets your business and mindset further back and creates an uphill battle to realize the lifestyle and freedom you became a personal trainer to achieve in the first place.
Bottom Line: By NOT following the “wisdom” of crowds and realizing that you should be charging much higher rates than you are now, your personal training business will not only survive in any economic environment or location, but thrive as a result of putting together a complete personal training experience that builds off your passion for helping others wrapped in the proper balance of niche appeal and service offerings.
Chris Fernandez, B.S., CPT, has been a cutting edge author, speaker and celebrity personal trainer for over 12 years, as well as a natural for life bodybuilder, athlete and cross-trainer devoted to helping other personal trainers achieve lasting financial independence through his fitness marketing blog, System 5 and other products.
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