Watch Your Personal Trainer Lead Generation Problems Disappear

“5 ways to get more personal training clients-in person and online”

Have you ever seen the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks?

Where he is stuck on an island.

Creates his friend “Wilson” made from a volleyball.

And he is stuck on the island in survival mode for years.

This story reminds us of when we first started as personal trainers back in 2009.

After 2 years of being full time personal trainers and realizing the business model we were in was broken, we started to gain curiosity on how we can move into a business model that allowed more time freedom, more income, and more impact.

We felt just like Tom Hanks did…stuck on an island…in survival mode…not knowing how to get off the island or where to even begin.

It really wasn’t until we hired Dr. Layne Norton and Todd Durkin, when we started to gain confidence, belief, and have hope that we would get off the island and be able to start doing online personal training.

If we fast forward from 2011-2018, where we did the bulk of our online personal training within Dynamic Duo Training, we wish we would have tripled down on marketing and generating leads.

An advantage we have as fitness business mentors to our Dynamic Fit Pro Personal Trainers is, we have a strong focus on marketing and generating leads. From a decade of experience, the money we invested in mentors, spending thousands of dollars constantly testing and experimenting, and from all the mistakes we made….we can confidently say we know a thing or two about marketing and generating fitness leads.

In this article, you will watch your personal trainer lead generation problems disappear with these 5 ways to get more in person and online training clients.

-Coach Chris and Eric

Lead Generation Problem #1- You are Trying to Serve the Entire World

Coach: “Chris, if it were a perfect world, what kind of clients would you want to work with online?”

Me: “Honestly, I want to work with as many people as I can.”

Coach: “I get that, but let’s narrow it down a bit, who do you truly want to serve and coach?”

Me: “Man, this is so hard, because I feel I can help a lot of people.”

As you can see, stubbornness and ego, I felt like I could help the entire world within online personal training.

That was far from the truth and to be honest I sold myself extremely short with this mindset.

I tried coaching general pop clients, bikini and figure gals, bodybuilders, athletes, and even a bit of powerlifters.

The one positive thing I can say is it made me a very diverse coach, but I sold myself short with not being SPECIFIC and SPECIALIZING enough.

This is something Eric and I teach heavily to our Dynamic Fit Pro personal trainers in our VIP program.

If I would have been more SPECIFIC AND SPECIALIZED in just one niche, I for sure would have made more money, served more people, and made a bigger IMPACT.

Once again, my ego and stubbornness got the best of me.

Therefore, I’m sharing this story with you because I don’t want you as the personal trainer to lose money, serve less people, and create less impact.

I want you to do the opposite.

I really like what Seth Godin says about niching down to serve your audience:

“Start with the Smallest Viable Audience {SVA}. Very niched down, specific, and specialized.”

What he meant by this was to not do what I did.

Be so broad and try and serve the entire world.

This is the one BIGGEST mistake I see personal trainers making still.

When you get clear on your SVA, you can filter out those audiences you don’t want to serve.

You can position yourself as the “GO TO” person in that specific and specialized thing you do.

You can charge more because of the positioning within it.

You start to speak their language, understand their pain points, and you start to create solutions for them.

You start to create a movement with your one thousand TRUE fans.

And most importantly you will IMPACT more people because you will have a purpose to serve others in that specific and specialized thing you do.

-Coach Chris

Lead Generation Problem #2- You Focus on Certifications Too Much

Yesterday we did our weekly live group call with our Dynamic Fit Pro personal trainers and one of the questions that stood out was, DO YOU NEED TO HAVE CERTIFICATIONS TO COACH CLIENTS ONLINE?

Here is what I told my student:

Scenario A) you can have a PhD and 10 plus certifications, but if you can’t market your services and sell your expertise, how will you get clients

Scenario B) you can be a personal trainer that has zero certifications, but you know how to communicate, deliver Ritz Carlton like customer service, motivate your clients, put them in programs that they can succeed in, ultimately get them results, and know how to market and sell your services

WHO DO YOU THINK THE CONSUMER WILL INVEST IN EVERY TIME?

Throughout these past 10 years of coaching thousands of clients in person and online, I think 2 people asked what my credentials and certs were.

Chris and I used to always worry and stress about needing to have X, Y, Z cert, and it was an insecurity of ours to be honest.

We have our personal trainer certification, Strength and Conditioning certification, and Masters in sports nutrition, but nothing has replaced us working with thousands of clients, hiring top tier coaches to learn under, and acquiring the skill to market and sell.

To sum this up, I’m not against certifications.

What I’m against is the personal trainer not knowing how to market and sell their services, expertise, and knowing how to position their certifications to get more clients.

You need to learn how to market and sell to get more leads, no ifs or buts about it.

-Coach Eric

Lead Generation Problem #3- Your Perception Isn’t Strong Enough

I remember when Eric and I first started Dynamic Duo Training in 2011, we were so afraid to charge more for our services.

Of course, the Personal trainer certifications and university classes never taught us about business, pricing, sales, marketing, positioning, social media, etc.

So, in turn, this leads a lot of personal trainers and their services to become the Walmart version.

Yep, Eric and I started as Walmart version personal trainers and for far too long.

But, my question to you is “why not be known as the Whole foods version?”

Whole foods perception is…

“it’s expensive to shop there.”

“Only wealthy people can shop their weekly.”

The list goes on.

Now on the flip side, do I even have to get into the perception Walmart has?

Look, I’m not faulting anybody for shopping at Walmart.

But, what I’m un-apologetic about with my Dynamic Fit Pro personal trainers is them becoming the Walmart version with their online and in person- personal training services.

Not under my coaching.

They WILL be the Whole Foods version within their personal trainer services.

I want to share with you the 3 ways to change this and become the Whole Foods version:

Positioning- you need to position yourself as the “go to expert” or “celebrity trainer” everyone wants to work with
Riches are in the niches- you need to really hone in on your niche (see number 1 above) and go where people have the disposable income to hire you at your premium personal trainer costs
Solve bigger problems- do billionaires solve six figure problems? No! They solve billion-dollar problems. So, think how you can solve bigger problems to charge more money

-Coach Chris

Lead Generation Problem #4- Your Traffic Sources Are All Over The Place

There are 4 ways to generate traffic as a personal trainer:

Create traffic- you can create organic posts through social media (Facebook, Instagram), blog, podcast, YouTube channel
Borrow traffic– You can guest blog, be a guest on a podcast, do a YouTube collaboration, etc.
Buy traffic- You can pay for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google ads. Influencer marketing, etc.
Own traffic- When you gain the 3 traffic sources above, you want to port that traffic to your email list or text messaging lists. Always remember, social media is rented land, your email list or text messaging lists are land you own

The mistake personal trainers make is they try and do all 4 traffic sources at once.

When you got started in the gym, building your physique, did you pile on all the training volume?

Or did you slowly add volume over time?

Same with your traffic sources, start with 1 traffic source, test it for at least a month, then start adding the others as you build your business.

If you learn to focus on 1 traffic source and really go all in on it, I guarantee you’ll see more leads come in.

-Coach Eric

Lead Generation Problem #5- You Don’t Have a Free Offer

“We are in an Information Age. People want cheap, better, fast and digital.”

Says Chris Anderson, author of the book “Free.”

As a personal trainer, if you want more in person and online training leads, you need to learn the power of having a free offer.

Here are 8 ways to make Free Offers:

Free Lead Magnet- Give away a PDF, cheat sheet, video series in exchange for an email or phone number and follow up with an email/text sequence or jump on a discovery call
Free Bribe Offer- Get all of my course for Free ($12k value) if you sign up for my $397 monthly program…Free with purchase
Unlimited Free Offer- 28-day trial (no customization or accountability) and then upsell them into a 1 month enhanced version
Free Trial Plus Penalty- Same as 28-day trial but if they don’t show up to sessions they get billed
Free Challenges with Contingency- Host a paid challenge and if they client completes X, Y, Z in the challenge then they get their money back
Free Forever- I will train you for free as long as you buy supplements or meals. Your giving something for free and bolting on another revenue stream
Free Giveaways- Supplements or meals for a month and then upsell them into coaching
Free with Commitment- First month is free as long as you commit to 8-12-week coaching program after that

-Coach Chris

Conclusion

Our hope by writing this article, was to help you watch your personal trainer lead generation problems disappear with these 5 ways to get more in person and online training clients.

If you actually take action and put these 5 ways to get more fitness leads into your marketing strategy, you won’t feel like Tom Hanks on an island.

It will at least get you off the damn island. Lol.

But always remember, you need to reframe your mindset to be a fitness marketer coach first and a coach second. One of the core tenants we stand by in our Dynamic Fit Pro’s Programs.

Now get out there and get more leads so you can create more income, impact, influence, and independence!

-Coach Chris and Eric

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