High Value Personal Training: Guided Transformations

Like many new trainers, I used to be a bit confused about how to add value to my Personal Training (PT) business.

Having worked hard to get qualified, we’re usually highly motivated to put our newfound skills and knowledge to work. Initially, we’re concerned with getting the basics right. As such, we tend to focus on the following key areas:

• Programme writing
• Fitness appraisals
• Nutrition guidance
• Teaching exercises
• Instructing classes and training sessions

But do our clients value these areas as much as we trainers do? – What is the ultimate high value offering that we could provide?

In this article, we discuss how trainers can use these foundation skills to amplify the value they provide their clients.

Let’s start with an example…

Andy has a problem!

Andy is a technically gifted and highly educated Personal Trainer. He’s just starting out in the industry after completing an Exercise Science degree from one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

He has an analytical mind for training and physical performance.

Upon signing up for Personal Training with Andy, clients receive the following services:

• Comprehensive fitness assessments including, aerobic fitness testing, 1RM strength testing, weight monitoring, girth measures and body fat analysis.
• Advanced physical conditioning programmes designed to supercharge weight loss, muscle gain, strength and performance, speed and power or aerobic fitness.
• Technical lifting advice to optimise muscle recruitment and adaptation.
• 4-weekly progress reviews with a full printout of how ‘the numbers have stacked up’.

Sounds impressive eh!

Unfortunately though, when having Personal Training sessions with Andy his clients also tend to get…

• Bored!

You see, Andy’s idea of creating high value for clients is amiss. He’s too focused on discovering more advanced training techniques and showing how smart he is. As a result, he’s oblivious to what his clients actually want and need.

Furthermore, Andy gets so obsessed with finding technique errors to “fix” that he unintentionally takes all the fun and enjoyment out of exercise for his clients.

As an exercise purist, Andy considers himself to be in the ‘service delivery’ business. Thus, he promotes the following as part of his Personal Training services:

All somewhat suitable offerings and quite an impressive set of skills by any trainer’s standards. However, this does not necessarily equate to high value Personal Training.

As we’ll discuss, if Andy wants to meet and exceed his client’s expectations, he may need to reconsider what type of business he’s actually in.

You may be surprised to hear – it’s probably not the service delivery business.

The mistake PT’s make when ‘delivering services’.

Traditionally, the fitness industry has relied on service delivery (programme writing, personal training, group fitness classes) and the sale of goods (supplements and equipment) as its core economic offering.

But do clients actually want and need more than this?

In their book ‘The Experience Economy’, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore [ref 1] describe an ‘economic pyramid’.  At the bottom of this pyramid are three economic offerings.

The sale and provision of:

• Commodities,
• Goods, and
• Services

Commodities are the lowest-value economic offering. They include items of mass production and low individual value.

Comparatively, of greater value than commodities are goods. Goods satisfy a human want or provide some form of utility value.

Lastly, and of greater value than goods are the delivery of services. Services are often thought of as an act or helpful activity undertaken for another person.

For Andy, like many trainers, his business model is focused on service delivery.

Andy finds himself with a problem.

As just one of many trainers in the service delivery game, his customers become:

• less concerned with the individual features of his service and,
• more concerned with price.

After all, every trainer is writing ‘advanced’ programmes, doing fitness appraisals and showing clients their exercises, right?

Potential clients are asking “who can provide these standard ‘services’ at the lowest price?”

A ‘service-only’ orientation inevitably results in trainers like Andy:

• Not having many clients,
• Dropping their prices to gain more clients, and,
• Collectively lowering the perceived value of Personal Training.

However,  by developing a better understanding of value, from a client’s perspective, Andy can become a high value Personal Trainer.

Moving Personal Trainers up a level or two

Pine and Gilmore suggest that there are two economic offerings of greater value than goods and services. These are the:

• Staging of experiences and,
• Guiding of transformations

These ‘premium client offerings’ are really what Personal Training is all about. The fitness industry in general is a great vehicle for ‘transformation’. Therefore, these two steps are important for creating high value Personal Training experiences for your clients.

To successfully guide transformations, Pine & Gilmore highlight the following three phases for any ‘Transformation’ business:

1. Diagnosing consumer aspirations/goals
2. Staging transforming experiences
3. Following through

Let’s look at how this applies to Personal Training…

1. Diagnosing aspirations – it all starts with the consultation…

In our Personal Trainer programme we devote a significant amount of time to ‘the consultation process’.

This process is an opportunity for the Personal Trainer to:

• Build a meaningful, supportive relationship with each and every client, and
• Identify how best to guide and support the process of transformation.

A sound, comprehensive consultation process equips trainers with the skills to:

• Build rapport.
• Develop an understanding of each client’s unique needs.
• Gather valuable insights about clients from their physical activity histories.
• Understand each client’s motives, drivers, and aspirations.
• Identify and address any factors that might pose a risk for the client when they exercise.
• Produce exercise plans (a roadmap for success) with responsibilities assigned to trainer and client.

Diagnosing a client’s aspirations (or goals) is seldom as straightforward as it sounds. It’s a process that requires time and skill because clients often have trouble articulating:

• What they want to achieve,
• Why certain goals are important to them, and
• What it will mean to them once they achieve the goal/aspiration.

This is why rapport building and being genuinely interested in clients are essential to a trainer’s success. And the success of their clients of course!

It takes time and skill to get to know our clients. To help them feel comfortable and willing to share their insecurities and identify their dreams. But an investment of time early on always pays dividends. It’s the insights we gain during consultations that help us truly understand what clients want and need.

Let me provide a personal example of this…

Aspirations are normally more than just a ‘number on a scale’ – here’s why

I recently bumped into an old client of mine.

One of my all-time favourites, she always gave it her all.  It was well worth waking up for the blurry eyed 6am sessions when training her.

Like most of my clients, her initial goal was to lose weight. However, there was something else she really wanted.

Weight loss was just a step in the process to her becoming a mum.

Having her BMI reach a suitable level would help her qualify for IVF treatment and she could begin the process.

The true significance of her goal was so much more important than I could have imagined. And jeez, she absolutely smashed it in our sessions too!

Some 10 years later when I ran into her again, she introduced me to her son.

What a special moment.

To me, this is what diagnosing aspirations as a PT really is about. Understanding what’s really important for our clients.

The number on a bathroom scale meant so little in that flash of time.

2. Staging transforming experiences

Staging transforming experiences involves creating and delivering memorable experiences that clients look forward to repeating.

Pine & Gilmore note that there are four ‘realms’ to consider when designing ‘memorable’ experiences. These realms cover:

• Aesthetics
• Escapism
• Education
• Entertainment

Here are some examples of how these realms may be applied when delivering high value Personal Training sessions.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics are all about looks.

From the client’s perspective, does it look inviting and rewarding to train with you?  Does it look like you care about your clients?

Imagine you’re a sporty fitness enthusiast looking to train somewhere that ‘inspires’ you. You walk through the doors of a potential gym. All you see is a room full of weight machines with an empty space in the corner for stretching or who knows what.

Meanwhile, as you search for somewhere to stick your gym bag, the duty trainer ignores you on their way to wiping down some benches.

Sure, you’ll be able to get your workout done here but it doesn’t ‘look’ inspiring or feel welcoming.

A more high value scenario

What if you walked in and noticed that part of the gym was set aside for certain athletic feats.

There’s a green strip of astroturf dividing the room with a sled ready to load up and push. A client is enjoying some battle rope slams. They grind through another set with their enthusiastic trainer nearby. There’s a full-size boxing ring in the corner with heavy bags, speed balls and posters of world champions lining the walls.

Instantly, this looks like a more inspiring place for you to train in.

Additionally, a trainer at the club uses their consultation process to get to know you, your goals and your exercise preferences.

Rather than a generic exercise programme, small-group box fit classes are prescribed for you. Additionally, a series of PT sessions focusing on boxing techniques interspersed with some high-intensity drills are included.

“Let’s get those gloves on Champ”. 🥊

For a sporty, fitness enthusiast, this ‘looks’ like the type of training experience that suits you doesn’t it?

Naturally, not all clients are looking for such an ‘athletic’ experience. This is just an example of how we can ramp up the aesthetic factor for our clients. If we understand their preferences and are willing to do a little bit more, we can create some pretty memorable training experiences for them.

Escapism

Escapism relates to how trainers immerse their clients in exercise.

For many people a regular training session may provide crucial time away from the stresses of work or family.

Therefore, the ability to recognise this is crucial.

When clients want to turn their brains off for half an hour, trainers need to find activities that allow this. The last thing we need to do is overload their brains by providing 101 new technique points for advanced exercises that clients really have no interest in.

In our article Boxing Training: Why PT clients love a bit of biff we discuss ways to hit a client’s ‘experiential sweet spot’.

If you want some ideas on how to ramp up the escapism with your own training sessions – that’s a good place to start.

Education

A mistake many trainers make is to think their primary value lies in teaching clients.

We can get caught up in all the technicalities of complex exercises, activating the ‘core’, or ‘keeping the spine in neutral’.

Whilst these are all things the exercise purist may salivate over, most of the time our clients are more interested in understanding:

• How they’ll benefit from an exercise?
• Whether they can fit exercise into their lifestyle?
• How long it’ll take till they start seeing and feeling results?

Imagine you have a trainer like ‘Andy’ who we met earlier.

As a technique purest, Andy has analysed your posture and gait and has tabulated the results.

According to all the latest guidelines for ‘correct standing mechanics and joint loading’ – you’ve got some work to do! You’re way out of alignment.

Andy points out that there are some “obvious” imbalances. You’re “overactive here”, and “dangerously underactive in this area here, see?”

Is this high value Personal Training?

As a client, you just wanted to improve your fitness, lose a few pounds and feel better about yourself. You thought that using a Personal Trainer was a smart move. Now you’re not so sure.

Andy assures you that not all is lost – you can be fixed! But he’s not going to let you lift anything heavy or exert yourself until you’re at least 95% for your ‘bilateral equivalence rating’.

Andy’s mistake is that he believes his value as a trainer is in identifying and fixing all the minor movement flaws that clients have. Unfortunately, this means that his clients never actually ‘train’. They get poked, prodded and constantly analysed.

They never get the satisfaction of being absorbed in and completing a session. Similarly, the rush of endorphin release that comes with exercise never arrives.

Rather than providing high value personal training, these clients become pet projects and there’s always something needing to be fixed. They are forced to endure the confusing ramblings of a technically oriented trainer who is oblivious to delivering what their clients “actually” want.

OK, so some clients will absolutely want to learn about the technicalities of training – and that’s fine. Indeed, most of us trainers are info junkies who love the technical detail, and the science of exercise and movement! But get the balance right.

Give clients enough education to satisfy any burning questions they may have. Help them understand why they should do something and how to do it safely.

Beyond that – let the client tell you what sort of knowledge bombs they want from you. They may want a lot – my experience is they will want just a little.

If they are just starting to enjoy exercise – don’t take the fun away by getting too technical with pet topics or intricate technique points unless they’re vital for safety.

Entertainment

Quite simply, people are more likely to repeat exercise sessions that are fun and enjoyable.

When exercise is perceived as a chore, we avoid or ‘put it off till next week’.

Remember our clients are not us. Struggling to walk for days after an intense leg workout isn’t the ‘badge of honour’ for clients that it might be for us trainers!

With this in mind, it’s important to regularly discuss what clients like and dislike about exercise. What are they enjoying? What would they rather never do again?

Additionally, you could consider whether a group setting might suit some clients better. If the weather allows, would some clients prefer to exercise outdoors, or would they be worried about passers-by making comments? Should a few skill-based games be included?

There are endless opportunities to find and add entertainment value. Dreaming up new ways to engage, surprise and entertain clients can be a fun and rewarding task in and of itself.

Sometimes, we can just concentrate on having a few laughs with our clients. That’s all good too! Remember, for many clients, their weekly PT session is the only opportunity they have to relax, chill out and have someone focus on helping them!

3. Following through

The final phase of ‘guiding transformations’ is all about following through.

Following through (or following up) means regularly checking in. Seeing how clients are doing and adjusting their exercise plans, programmes and training sessions to better suit.

As part of our Personal Training programme, students learn how to prepare and work through a formal client progress review.

During a progress review (completed on a monthly basis with new clients), the trainer discusses:

• how the client’s training has progressed,
• how their measurements have changed,
• what has helped or hindered progress,
• How to eliminate problems and build on successes,
• Targets and goals for the next period of training.

Ultimately, as a trainer, when you accurately diagnose clients’ goals, provide memorable training experiences, and follow through appropriately – results will always follow.

Clients on the receiving end of this stick around and refer new clients to you. Your high value personal training business thrives as a result.

That’s how you know you’re doing a good job.

Curtain call

With obesity and diabetes continually on the rise, more New Zealanders are seeking out and benefitting from Personal Trainers. There’s never been a better (or more important) time to pursue a career that focuses on ‘transforming’ the health and fitness of others.

After all, a solid foundation in anatomy, physiology and exercise science will always be core knowledge for trainers. However, developing a comprehensive understanding of client aspirations, delivering memorable training experiences and following through with great support is what builds and sustains a valuable business.

When working with clients, keep asking yourself:

1. Do I know what their real aspirations are?
2. Am I delivering memorable training experiences they’ll be hanging out to repeat?
3. Am I following through frequently and effectively?

If you can answer “yes” to these questions, your Personal Training Business will be quite a gem!

References:

1. Pine, J. & Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The Experience Economy, Work Is Theatre & Every Business A Stage.