How to Sell PT - Value vs Cost

With lots of budding PT's graduating from out Certificate 4 in Fitness course right now, it's a good time to talk about selling yourself as a PT and in particular justifying a higher hourly rate. As a PT you are going to spend time planning & preparing for workouts, travelling to the session, lost time in between bookings... It all adds up and for every hr you spend training a client you will probably spend about 30 minutes on this "other" stuff so your rate needs to high (as opposed to low) if you are ever going to make it in this game.

So... The typical client is thinking (or maybe even asking) why not just join the gym rather than pay you $40 for a half hour session?

Answer: I'll lay this out in sections so we can work through the logic of our value proposition:

Part 1 - True value per session - The average gym membership is around $650 per annum. Most people (in fact around 70%) join a gym and will use it regularly only for a few weeks - how many sessions are they actually getting for their $650?

Part 2 - Cost versus actual benefit & personal attention - What sort of results did you get last time you forked out $650 to your local gym and what sort of personal attention did you get? If you pay me $650 up front I'll apply a 20% discount and give you 20 half-hour sessions. Train with me twice a week for 10 weeks and you will see more results than one full year training in the gym.

Part 3 - No contracts - Your gym will lock you into some sort of contract where you will continue to pay even if you are not using the gym and not getting results. Train with me and I'll commit 100% to getting you in shape. If you're not happy at any time with what we are achieving, walk away and I'll even refund any remaining sessions (because I'm confident that I can get you there).

Part 4 - Highlight services that the gym just can't offer - When was the last time your gym instructor took an interest in your nutrition? How often do they push you as hard as you need to be pushed? How often are they updating your program? Taking your measurements? Offer you personalised motivation?

Part 5 - Back it up with other awesome stuff - Visit my blog, join my community and get support on my Facebook page, receive SMS prompts to train when you are not with me, access my great nutritional tips which I will email you... Use technology to value add for clients and suddenly the $650 up front is getting much more than a few training sessions.