You may have noticed I’ve been on a bit of an education kick lately…I just really seriously want to kick the bad ideas out of trainers’ heads so that you all can start winning the freedom and abundance you deserve.
A perfect example of this is when I see trainers struggle with the idea of free training sessions. Pretty much everyone understands that they need to have them, but I see a lot of trainers complain that they don’t work as well as they should.
They’ll offer up all kinds of reasons, like “one session is not enough time to demonstrate my value” or “the only people who opt in for free sessions are tire-kickers.”
Well, I got news for ya…
Using free sessions correctly is a core skill for ANY personal or group training business, and you are 100% responsible for closing the client at the end of the session.
No, there is no luck or magic involved in getting that close. If your free sessions aren’t closing people, it simply means you aren’t using the correct formula.
And that’s exactly what I want to educate you on today!
So let’s take it right from the top…
How to Start the Session
It turns out, the most important parts of this whole process happen before the workout even begins.
Because the first thing you need to do, before your prospect has even entered the building, is pump up your energy.
This not just some softball, “feel-good” advice here. The highest closing salespeople IN ANY INDUSTRY understand that ENERGY IS EVERYTHING. That’s why they all have special rituals designed to reliably get them in a high energy state before each sale. Consider creating your own ritual and keeping consistent with it.
Everybody is different, so your ritual will probably be way different from anyone else’s. Experiment and see what works best for you.
Now, once you’re at high energy and you’re ready to sell your training, greet your prospect and have some sort of small gift ready for them. It can be a complimentary water bottle, a towel, a protein bar, or anything else that’s appropriate.
The important part about this gift is that it sets off your prospect’s reciprocity instinct. It primes them to agree to your offer because they subconsciously feel like they owe you their business.
Next, you want to take 10-20 min. to sit down with your prospect and discuss their medical history and why they are coming in now for training. If they haven’t already filled out the paperwork, you can use that as a prop to guide the conversation.
Even if your prospect already has filled out the paperwork, you still need to take the time for this face-to-face conversation. Why? Because this is your best chance to find out their deep emotional reasons for coming to you…which are exactly what you need to repeat back to them later while closing the sale.
Pay very close attention during this conversation. Don’t settle for any obvious answers – get to the truth of the matter. Even answers that seem logical and self-explanatory have deeper emotional reasoning behind them.
For example, let’s say your prospect tells you they’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure and their doctor said something has to change. Sure, that it is a reason, but it’s not a compelling emotional reason.
You’ll never close a sale by saying “let’s get you in shape because your doctor said so.”
Heck no! Do you know often people will flat-out disobey their doctor’s orders? Actually, let’s be real here: how many times have you personally disobeyed your doctor’s orders?
Yeah, thought so.
The truth is that people only start taking fitness seriously when they believe it will give them an entirely better life…so if you really want to persuade them, you need to figure out what better life they are picturing so you can help them get it.
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Let’s go back to the prospect with high blood pressure. If you lean on them a little bit, you can get the real answer, which will probably sound something like this:
“I’m scared that I’ll have to go on a special diet…Food is really important to me and I can’t imagine giving that up. I’m hoping I can get my blood pressure down through training instead.”
THAT is a compelling emotional reason. That prospect is imagining a better life where they have a healthy blood pressure but still get to eat their favorite foods. (And of course, you and I know this is totally possible if they work hard and practice moderation.)
Once you get that emotional reason out in the open, you gotta remember it. Even write it down if you need to. This will be your key to getting the sale.
Selling the Workout
Now this part is very important, because if you’re not staying on your toes it’s easy to get this step wrong.
Remember that the whole point of this workout is to create a specific emotional reaction in your prospect’s mind. You want them to finish up thinking, “Wow, I just had a great workout.”
And the key thing to recognize here is that this is all about THEIR definition of a “great workout,” even if their definition is different from yours (which it most likely will be).
So to produce that “great workout” feeling, you want to hit that sweet spot where the moves are challenging enough to feel worthwhile, but no so challenging that they become intimidating.
And again, everyone has different standards, so you can and should ask them how they feel about the workout at every stage and adjust it as you go.
Now you might be wondering, “Bedros, what I follow this advice 100% and end up giving them a workout that I know is too easy?”
That’s totally fine! Let me explain why: you and I both know that nobody has ever transformed their body with just one workout. And really, the point of this free workout isn’t to magically get the prospect in shape.
The point is to establish a relationship that will allow you to get them in shape in a realistic time frame (and get paid the whole time you’re doing it).
Make sense? Save the hard stuff for later – if you follow this process correctly, you’ll have plenty of time for that later.
Going in for the Close
The moment of truth…which will actually be the easiest part if you’ve followed the rest of this process correctly.
Once you’re done with the workout, take the prospect into your office and shut the door behind you. That part is important, because you’re about to ask them to make an important decision and neither of you need any distractions.
Once you’re sat down, get the conversation started with some questions that are easy to say “yes” to. Avoid open ended questions – go for things like “Did you enjoy that workout?” or “We sure got a lot done there, didn’t we?”
The point of these questions is to prime them to say “yes” when you ask them to sign up for training.
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Then, once you’ve gotten a couple “yeses” out of them, bring up their deep emotional reason from earlier and tell them straight up “I want to help you with this.”
Once you’ve reminded them with their deep emotional reason and aligned yourself as their helper, you want to immediately make the offer for your training.
Ah, but you aren’t going to make just any offer.
What you need to do in this moment is offer them 2 distinct versions of your program and ask them “which option would you like, A or B?”
This is important because it frames the question as a choice between two options that let you win either way. Your prospect is no longer thinking “should I sign up for training or not?” but rather “which plan is best for me?” See how the chance to back out just magically disappeared?
Now as far as which options you offer, you can go with all kinds of different set-ups. Personally, I’m a fan of offering a choice between monthly and paid in full. In the long run, that gives me the same revenue either way, so I really can’t lose.
There you go: a full, step-by-step process for making the most out of free training sessions. Go use what you’ve just learned to close more clients, change more lives, and build yourself an amazing business!
Committed to your success,
Bedros