How to Get Referrals For Your Personal Training Business

Your best source of lead generation is going to be your existing clients. If you’re doing a great job for them and they’re getting brilliant results, they are going to receive compliments from their friends and family.

People will be asking what they’re doing, and who is helping them. In order to capitalise on this network that you don’t even know yet, you can use a referral system.

What Is A Referral?

Put simply, a referral is asking your existing clients to bring someone into your business that they feel would benefit from your personal training services. Maybe they have a friend, family member, or colleague that’s expressed an interest in what they have achieved and has asked about what they’re doing to get such great results with you. That person is not currently part of your world (whether virtual or in real life) and they would get better results with your professional support.

How And When Do I Ask For A Referral?

Asking for a referral is easy, and there are a few points in your relationship when it may feel natural to ask about a referral. The first thing to remember is that it’s not a big deal. All you’re doing is suggesting they pass on your name and contact info.

1. When Onboarding New Clients
You could simply ask, “is there anyone you can think of that might like to join you?” You might even choose to incentivise the referral with a period of time where they can try your coaching for free, or you could offer a cash bonus to the clients that refer someone that ends up joining up, or even exclusive merchandise for people who engage with your referral scheme.

2. When Seeing Progress
After a month or so, when they’re starting to see some results, you could ask them then.

“You’ve been inside the programme for X weeks now, and at this point, I like to ask people if they’d like to introduce a friend into this service. You’re probably getting a lot of compliments and questions about what you’re achieving, and if there’s someone that springs to mind - please feel free to pass on my contact details and social media links”.

This is a low commitment exchange. You’re not giving your phone number and asking that the friend introduce themselves to you - a total stranger. You simply want to give the friend an avenue to learn more about you and your personal training services. If they sign up, great - you can reward the client. If not, they’ve been brought into your world anyway.

3. When Hitting a Milestone
It’s also a good time to ask for a referral after a particular milestone or achievement has been reached. This is particularly straight forward if someone is checking in with you by text, email or via a check-in survey. This time works well because the client will be on a high after achieving a milestone, and a small ask from you at this time is likely to be fulfilled. This makes them feel like a superstar and that’s a powerful position from which to ask for a favour. 

This might look something like:

“Hey - incredible work achieving this important milestone. You’re only just getting started tapping into your potential. Can you think of anyone you know - that’s as committed as you are - that wants results like this? I only want to work with other incredible clients like you, because you’ve done so well.”

You should be asking for referrals regularly, roughly every four to six weeks. Don’t worry about sounding like you need more clients. You could say something like “if I had 5 more clients that were exactly like you, we’d all be crushing it!”

Get Referrals Without Asking

A referral is useful because you’re highlighting that you want to work with a particular type of client - and by telling that client that they’re your preferred type of person to work with, it makes them feel amazing. 

One way you can reach that network that’s just beyond your current world is to publicly shout your clients out on social media and tag them in the post. That could look something like,

“I’m so proud of what [tagged name] has achieved in the first month of working together. When we started working together, they were [experiencing a common problem for your audience] and with a few simple adjustments to their diet/ routine/ training techniques now they can [do something they couldn’t do before/ feel differently/ look like this]. Leave a comment to show them some love!”

These posts are great because you’re publicly celebrating a client win, but by tagging them in your post, not only do all your friends see it, but all their friends see it too. That post could generate some new friend requests or some messages from people that know the client but who don’t yet know you. Make sure you post it publicly though, not friends only!

Anyone that likes your post, or comments on it - you can send them a message. Thank them for engaging with your post about the client, and ask them how their training is going. The goal here is just to start some conversations with some new people. You don’t have to be pushy or salesy; remember they don’t know you yet. Just look to build some rapport.

Conclusion

Referrals are really no big deal. It’s just about getting your clients to talk about you to people that are interested in similar results. In real life, that might be passing on your business card. Online, that could be liking your post or profile and engaging with your content. 

Building relationships with people that are ever so slightly outside our current sphere of influence is how we grow online with word of mouth marketing. Your clients’ results are more influential to their friends than any paid advertising that you could possibly run because they trust the endorsement of the client already.