The gap between a new client and a lost sale varies based on your confidence. You have to believe more than the client that this is the right thing for them to do.
If you are 100% invested in the confidence that personal training is the best way to help someone stay accountable and to get done what they are not getting done on their own, then you are 99% there.
If you let that little voice of doubt even visit your thoughts, the one that says they can’t afford it, you don’t know exactly what you’ll do for them, or that her husband is going to be upset if she does this without asking, you’ll miss the sale most of the time.
A customer wants you to be so sure that you’re contagious and they catch it. To be without a doubt feeling good about getting started, working with you, knowing that you’re going in the right direction feels good to them! They want to be nodding in agreement with you. It is not their intention to be defensive and guarded.
So give them something to agree with and find out about them. What are their goals? How long have they been wanting that? What’s gotten in their way? Do they believe in exercise?
Point out that they aren’t getting it done on their own, that most people don’t succeed just because they have access to facilities, they need some program and accountability to get them doing what is the best for them.
“So you do agree that exercise is the answer? You haven’t been getting it done on your own? So the only thing between you wanting to get started and getting started is whether you can afford it? So let’s find an option that works for you.”
“What did you have in mind when you came in today? Did you have a dollar amount in mind?” Here’s where most people will not have a specific answer; they didn’t have a specific amount in mind, just the impression that it was expensive.
Don’t let their thinking become your thinking. You know the cost of personal training is far less than the expense of physical therapy or medications when you’re sick. You know the insanity behind spending a couple hundred dollars on a dress or a pair of shoes that will be worn once or twice a year….when that could buy weeks and months of personal training that gives an education that lasts forever and a feeling that is priceless.
Remind yourself of all of those things, before you begin any sale.
You have a ‘hero’ that you admire? A Sherri McMillan, a Nicky Anderson, a Thomas Plummer? ….who know exactly what to say and when to say it to close a sale. Think as if you were one of them. What would they say and what would they do and how would they do it?
Do you have a book on your shelf there by Brian Tracy, John Maxwell, Jim Cathcart? Or a speech you’ve heard by Mark Leblanc that reminds you of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it?
Fill yourself up with the positive thoughts and ideas you’ve collected and then act ‘as if’ you are the successful personal trainer you see yourself being. One acknowledged because of the help you provide people with and the way you enhance their life and health. Then deliver ….from sale to service!