How to Pick up Personal Training Clients in a Big Box Gym “So you got your first gym job, now what?”

Congratulations!  You made it!  You just got hired as a personal trainer in a big box gym.  You are dressed in your new shoes, uniform shirt, smelling good, bright-eyed and ready to go change some lives.  You walk in for your first shift and then it hits you.  You realize you have no idea how to go from knowledgeable personal trainer with no clients to the busiest trainer in the gym.   

First thing you want to do is get to know the membership sales team and front desk employees.  They are the first people new members and potential clients encounter when they walk in the gym.  Frequently they will be asked questions about training and which trainers they recommend, so you want to make sure that you are at the top of their mind.  Offer to do a free evaluation and workout for them.  This is a win in so many ways- you get to know your new coworkers, they get a free evaluation and workout, you get practice doing evaluations and workouts in your new environment, they get to know you and your training style (so make sure you crush it!) and members see you on the floor training people.  Do this for every single person, especially the busiest sales people, as soon as you can.  Your job is to create raving fans.  Start with the people whose job it is to recommend trainers to members.  It will pay off exponentially.  Take note to not make enemies of these people.  One wrong move or harsh word could cost you years of recommendations or scheduled evaluations from that person.  (This actually happened to a coworker of mine once.  She said the wrong thing to a member in front of the salesman that just spent the last ten minutes talking the trainer up and for the next four years, he never recommended her again and would actively convince members to train with other trainers.)  

After you've met the membership and sales staff, get to know the other trainers.  Come at this with an abundance mindset.  These people are not your competition.  The TV, couch, and other life distractions are your competition. The other trainers at your gym are your team members or even gym family, not competition.  Talk shop with them.  Find out who they are as people and as trainers.  Learn their specialities.  You'll have to refer a client to someone else at some point, maybe your fellow trainers could fill that need.  Offer to workout with them.  As I am sure many of you can attest, hitting leg day together is a real bonding experience.  These people can also be a great resource for discovering which members at the gym used to have a trainer but don't anymore, for whatever reason.  Or which members have particular quirks or things that might help you later.  Bonding with your fellow trainers is not essential, but it's certainly helpful and makes the workplace much more enjoyable.   

Now, the real work begins.  You need to become the mayor of your gym.  Everyone needs to know you and you need to know them.  Members will never want to train with you if they don't even know who you are.  You need to build tons of rapport with everyone.  Say hi to everyone.  Spend a little time near the front desk so that you can see their names when they check in.  That way, you can greet them by name and introduce yourself.  Then make sure to run into them on the floor during their workout.  Use their name again.  This is a great time to ask what they're working on, compliment their shoes, make conversation about your local sports teams, the business on their t-shirt or whatever else gets you in the door.   Find common ground.  As soon as you're finished talking to them, go jot down any relevant details.  A spreadsheet with the members name, fitness goal, and anything else you talked about would be helpful.  You may want to include their contact information, so that you can reach out to them later if you have a program or something they might be interested in.  Refer back to this list frequently so that when you see them again, you can ask specific questions about what you had talked about before.  For example: "Girl! I tried Senor Chiles- the carnita tacos are life changing!  Thanks for the recommendation!” That is a nice segue into questions about how her workout is going and hopefully building a stronger relationship.  Above all else, make sure your interactions are genuine.  

As an introvert, talking to people at the gym can be painful and awkward for me.  But when you first start working at the gym you have this window of about two weeks where you are new.  It    ’s your job to meet the members and introduce yourself and because of that it's no longer awkward.  Take the opportunity to get to know as many people as possible in this first     “new arrival” period.  It    ’s significantly harder to go up to someone that you    ’ve seen in the gym five days a week for the past six months and then have to ask their name.  Learn all the seasoned members as fast as you can, and be sure to use their name as much as possible.  Using their name helps to build that rapport that is essential to eventually landing clients.   

As much as it may sound like common sense, make sure you look the part.  Be clean,  have your hair presentable, wear deodorant and a big smile.  Make sure your clothes don    ’t have any rips or tears and that they fit well.  Make sure your shoes are clean and fresh.  Pack a little kit to keep with you at the gym.  Fresh socks, deodorant, a toothbrush and toothpaste, floss, some mints, a comb or hairbrush, a nail file, sanitary products, baby wipes, and some ibuprofen usually come in handy at some point.  If your gym offers you an employee locker, use it.  A towel, spare change of clothes and everything else you would need for a shower is helpful.  You only get one chance to make a great first impression, so make sure you are fresh and clean, so that the only thing your potential customers notice is your personality and knowledge, not that you smell like a gym.   

Now, you’ve been meeting as many people as you can, the next step is to showcase your knowledge.  Offer them a free evaluation.  Show them how to stretch.  Put them through a conditioning finisher.  Get creative and make sure it's awesome and visible.  You need as many eyes on you as possible.  Because you will have so many people watching you, make sure you give it all you got.  Show them something interesting or out of the ordinary.  We all know that the basics work and that they should be the bulk of any good training program.  But sometimes our clients want something a little more fun or different.  This is the time to give it to them.  Put on a little bit of a show.  Make sure they are having fun and working hard. (obviously if the situation is appropriate)  

The busier you look, the busier you will be.  Everyone wants to train with the busiest trainer at the gym. So offer free sessions or mini sessions to everyone.  Invite your friends and family in for free evaluations and sessions too.  Worst case scenario, you get valuable practice and build stronger relationships with your friends and family.  Best case scenario, the members of your gym see you being an awesome trainer, and some of your people decide to buy training with you.   

Schedule a couple free group training sessions.  That way when you do all these free evaluations, sessions and mini sessions, you have something to refer them to in a no pressure manner.  For example, offer a free 30 minute HIIT training session or a mobility session at a particular day and time, and try to get as many people as possible to join you.  Make it fun, take some video clips to use on social media later, and get others to see what a great trainer you are and how fun your training is.  Schedule one of these free group training sessions once a week for the first month that you're there and get yourself known!  

Next, the close.  Many gyms offer a free session or two to every new member.  You want to be doing as many of these as possible.  One, it gets you more practice.  Two, it gets you to know as many gym members as possible.  As much as you need them to know you, you should want to know them too.  And three, this is the best way to sell training to your members.  During that first evaluation session, don't even mention training. Keep it completely focused on the client and their goals.  Every trainer will do an evaluation a little differently and include different tests that they find valuable, but what every trainer should be doing at the end of that first evaluation is discussing the workout plan with the client.  You don't have to have the workout all ready to go, but by the end of that session you should be able to tell them which days they are doing weight training, group classes, cardio, or whatever you think.  Lay the plan out very clearly and make sure your client is onboard and understands.  Making sure your client is excited about their new workout routine is crucial to success.  Always schedule their next session before they leave.  It is so much easier to get someone to come back in if they already have an appointment.   

At that next session, meet them up at the front desk.  Don't make them have to come look for you and wonder where you are.  Take them through their workout, educating them about every aspect of it.  Now at the very end, walk them up towards the exit, but before you get there stop and talk for a minute.  I usually stop right where the workout cards are stored, and show them where to keep them, where the pens and clipboards are and then I pull out the personal training price sheet.  Chances are that your gym offers a bunch of different training packages.  You need to narrow this down for them.  If you know that you want to train them in half hour sessions, just cross out the hours, or vice versa.  Cross out the packages that aren't a good deal.  Make sure you leave a super expensive and a more affordable option on the list.  Point out the packages that you recommend, ask them which one sounds good and then you stop talking.  You don't want to give an easy out like, “if you want training, let me know.”  You want them to have to tell you that they don’t want training.  But don't worry- if you've done a great job so far, most of them will want training.   

Something to consider is that if you don’t have a small, cheap intro package, get one.  It is super easy to sell three sessions for $149 and then their foot is in the door.  They now see how fantastic it is to train with you and it makes it much easier to sell a bigger package later.  Make it so that they can only buy this package once-you don't want to sell too many sessions at a deeply discounted rate.  Get someone to buy into you-remember people buy trainers, not training-with one of these small packages, and then it'll be that much easier to upsell a bigger package later.  Note: if you sell monthly packages instead of sessions, this works for that too.  Sell them a one or two week package, and then upsell them to monthly packages later.   

Once you've sold that first package to a client, you've made it! Your job now is to just not mess it up.  You’re a knowledgeable trainer, so go forth and make the world a healthier place!