5 Steps to Become the Go-To Personal Trainer

Most of the people that seek out help from a personal trainer are looking for the support and accountability that comes with having a well thought out and personalised plan laid out by an expert. Depending on your demographic and specialist skill set, people may be looking for particular support with an aspect of their training, with their diet and nutrition and often, their lifestyle and mindset.

But what qualities should a personal trainer have in order to be successful? And how do these qualities translate to success for the client? In this article, we'll lay out 5 steps you can follow to become the go-to personal trainer in your gym or area.

Step 1. Know What You Offer

Have you ever been to buy something and the person selling it has no idea what they’re really selling? They’re either not the owner of the company so they have zero passion or they’re not just confident in what they sell.

This is pretty common for newer personal trainers who aren’t sure what they should sell in their fitness packages and honestly, it will look and feel a bit naff to a potential client.

Making sure you’re clear about what services you offer, why you offer them and how a client should go about accessing them will be vital to make sure your clients are getting the very best out of your personal training services.

READ MORE: HOW TO BUILD FITNESS PACKAGES
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They will need to know how to book sessions with you, how frequently they should meet with you, how often you want them to check in and submit data, how they should make changes to their bookings will be important for them to feel clear.

You might consider laying this information out in an on-boarding document or an FAQ that you give to all new clients coming on board for your services. It helps them to have something they can refer to, it saves you answering the same questions over and over, and it’s a good way to set out the guidelines for working with you in a succinct and professional way.

Step 2. Communicate Expectations

When working with a personal trainer, one of the things people most frequently comment on is their communication skills. This doesn’t mean you have to be at your clients’ beck and call 24 hours a day, but being accessible to them when they need you is important. 

Making it clear at the start of your relationship how they should communicate with you outside sessions, what your expectations are, and any guidance around how you like to offer support is helpful for a new client starting out. 

You may offer a dedicated communication channel, such as Voxer or WhatsApp to support your clients between sessions. You may have a Facebook group and ask them to interact on posts.

Whatever your arrangements, communicating them to your clients clearly helps them to understand how best to work with you and how often you will want to hear from them.

Step 3. Be Seen As A Trustworthy Professional

For someone to seek the support of a personal trainer, it can feel like a significant step - they’re asking for help with their health; something that many adults feel like they should be able to manage themselves already. They may be overcoming significant fears about even being in the gym in the first place. 

Friendly, empathic, caring, supportive and understanding personal trainers help to make the gym seem like somewhere they belong. It helps them to feel welcome, and to have clarity on the goals they want to achieve. 

Behaving in a professional way towards your clients will go a long way to establishing that trust. In practice, this could be being on time for sessions, not talking about other clients to them, not providing tactile cues without asking permission first and giving them your full attention while coaching them.

Step 4. Provide High Quality Coaching

It goes without saying that in order to be a successful personal trainer, you have to actually provide clients with excellent service and help them to get outstanding results. That involves investing in your education so that you’re providing them with the most up to date training that suits their goals. 

Some clients may need you to help them to network with other professionals, for example, if they’ve been injured, working with a physiotherapist, or if they play contact sports, recommending a skilled sports massage therapist. Remember that you don’t need to have all the answers yourself, but being in a position to work with other skilled professionals to get your client the results that they need. 

To make sure you’re on top of this, make sure you have a thorough on-boarding process in place where your client provides a detailed PAR-Q, as well as any additional information that could be relevant to their training needs.

READ MORE: PERSONAL TRAINER DOCUMENTS
Access to an impressive resources library that includes PT documents like PAR-Q, Medical Release From, Informed Consent Form, Onboarding Questionnaires and many more.

Meeting with your clients regularly to revisit and recommit to their goals, or to reevaluate and set new goals will be key to getting clients such incredible results that they’ll want to send you referrals.

Step 5. Show That You Care

Giving your client an incredible experience with their training doesn’t need to stop when they leave the gym floor. There are a number of ways that you can impress your client and show them that you care about them and their progress outside the gym.

If the client has mentioned something during their session with you, asking them about that the next time you see them shows that you’re paying attention and that you care. It can make a great first impression to send someone a physical welcome card through the post to their home when they sign up for coaching with you. Remember their birthday or other significant dates in their lives and recognising them is a way to show your client that you’re not only training them for the money! 

Sending a gift, or publicly celebrating a win when your client hits a significant milestone in their journey with you. This could be something as simple as posting about them on social media, you could interview them and get their top tips for starting a fitness journey that could be repurposed for content to help other people, or you could actually buy them something to support their goals.

Summing Up

Although you may spend an hour or so a week with your personal training clients, those relationships are significant for both you and them. You’re helping someone to improve the quality of their lives, and potentially even extend those lives. Building that relationship takes time and effort, but the successful personal trainer knows that their clients are their best advert. Providing exceptional service, and making sure that your clients’ needs are met will make for a long and happy working relationship.