Grow Your Personal Training Business with Referrals
by Pat Rigsby
Referral marketing is the most powerful, cost-effective and targeted marketing you can do. Follow this simple 3-step process.
1. Earn the referral
One thing is certain: clients who are merely satisfied do not refer. Personal trainers must provide extraordinary service that take clients’ satisfaction levels way beyond that. To receive a flood of referrals you must have raving fans!
You can’t expect clients to refer their friends, co-workers and family members unless you over-deliver on what they’ve purchased from you. Even the most compelling referral system will not persuade unhappy clients to give you referrals.
Walt Disney, who created one of the most successful media and entertainment businesses in the world, used to regularly ask himself, “How can we do what we do so well that our customers can’t help but tell their friends about us?” Personal trainers should ask themselves this same question. Doing business with you should be so enjoyable that clients can’t help but tell their friends.
Notice that the focus here is on service – the interaction that clients have with you and your staff. Make the act of doing business so pleasurable that it leaves a mark on your clients. Extend yourself over and beyond the clients’ expectation levels. Don’t overextend, however, or you may not be able to sustain that level. Extend just enough that your clients say, “Wow, I wish every business treated me this way!”
2. Ask For Referrals
It sounds simplistic, and it is. But it’s amazing how many fitness professionals simply do not ask for referrals. Maybe they’re uncomfortable asking for help. Maybe they’re embarrassed. Or maybe they feel they don’t deserve them.
Think about how much you improve your clients’ health, their self-esteem, their relationships and their energy levels. If you’re not asking for referrals on a consistent basis, you’re really missing out.
3. Reward Referrals
How do you feel when you do a friend a favour and don’t receive a thank you in return? Maybe resentful or regretful that you put yourself out? When your clients give you a referral, you must reward them.
Remember, anything you reinforce you get more of. When you reward the behaviour of providing referrals, you get more in turn. And how do you reward referrals? Simply pick up a phone and say thank you. Or send a letter thanking them for their kind assistance and say you’ll do your best to assist their friend. Or send a gift. Whichever option you choose, remember that you need to give in order to receive.
Above all, remember that you’re rewarding the behaviour of referring, not the act of the prospect purchasing your services. Reward the behaviour if you want your client to repeat it in the future.
Pat Rigsby is the co-owner of several businesses in the fitness industry, including the Fitness Consulting Group. He is also an industry consultant who focuses on the development of profitable personal training departments. To learn how you can improve your fitness business and improve your marketing and sales success, visit www.PersonalTrainerU.com.
Popularity: 21% [?]
