personal training
As a personal trainer’s hours are fi nite, offering group personal training can boost their hourly income
to the customer that their workout will become more effective if they stay within a particular heart rate zone, then the customer will see it as an advantage if they are able to buy a heart rate monitor from their personal trainer. Another trend yet to make real
in-roads in the UK is online personal training, where the PT doesn’t even have to see the customer face-to-face to provide the service. This needs experience and a strong customer base to work, but using social media from the outset can keep trainers engaged with their clients, and potential clients, between sessions. “Premier has evolved its service
with the launch of a new online training community platform,” says Stuart. “Personal training graduates can create individual client profi les and communicate with them via this portal. They can monitor clients’ nutritional and workout diaries, recommend other training programmes, and there’s even a shop with equipment and supplements. This will be a great tool to motivate and inspire between sessions.” But ultimately, suggests Steel, PTs
need to think longer term when selling sessions, by trying to sign people up for three-, six- and 12-month blocks. Tony Lyons, who runs Soho Gyms Academy, agrees: “PTs are often bashful when
52
“Clubs need to support their personal trainers so that together they can maximise the revenue stream”
talking about money, but they needn’t be. Clients expect it; they’re often successful business people themselves and don’t have trouble discussing money or paying for good service.”
the club’s role Middelkamp says it’s not all down to the PTs – he argues that clubs employing PTs should have a PT manager who can motivate and mentor them on a daily basis in skills such as building the business and invoicing. FitPro’s Mahony agrees: “The fi tness
manager needs to be able to provide support and mentoring, as well as setting targets for interactions, and goals for translating those interactions into clients. Meanwhile, managers need to recruit the right sort of personal trainers in the fi rst place.” To this end, FitPro runs a Certifi cate
in Health and Fitness Management, an online qualifi cation aimed at the fi rst and second tiers of management and designed to help them recruit the
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
right people, build effective teams and manage and motivate personal trainers. Steel also feels the business model of
clubs needs to change to allow PTs to act as a business within a business and be more entrepreneurial: “Clubs should reward good personal trainers rather than risk losing them. They should task and incentivise them, give them a mentoring programme and advertise their programmes in-club.” To conclude, while training providers
are trying to create PT courses designed to turn out more rounded trainers, with the skillsets and expectations to survive the realities of the job, clubs that see personal training as an important part of their business model also need to support their PTs, so that together they can maximise the revenue stream. Meanwhile, anyone looking to
personal training as a career must ask themselves if they are creative and tenacious enough to set up in business and continue with the ongoing CPD required to stay at the top of their game.
march 2011 © cybertrek 2011
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