Getting potential clients to take the leap and sign up for personal training services is an undeniable challenge. And there are two main reasons why.

What You’re Up Against

First, is the fact that nearly every potential client who considers personal training will bring with them some level of self-doubt—even if they’ve purchased training services before! They’ll ask themselves: Can I commit to this? Will I have the time and energy? What if I fall off the bandwagon? What if I’m just not cut out to be a “fit person”?

As if helping potential clients find their motivation and overcome their inner fitness demons weren’t enough, the second key challenge with acquiring new clients is cost. To someone already uncertain about whether or not they’re capable of sticking to a training plan and achieving results, the idea of putting out money can be daunting. What they don’t see is that the cost of services is an investment in themselves and their health—one that’s worth every penny.

So how do you help potential clients overcome these concerns and sign up for your personal training services? We suggest a free trial.

Show Them What They’re Missing—with a Free Trial

Free trials are a proven technique for getting potential clients to see and understand the value of your services. And, if executed correctly, they can yield extremely high client conversion rates (potential clients becoming paying clients). The trick is: you have to keep the potential clients engaged the entire way through the trial and you have to help them achieve something during that time.

Here’s how you can do that with Trainerize:

1. Decide on the Free Trial Period.

First things first, you need to decide how long of a trial you’d like to offer. For personal we recommend a 1-week trial, but you can always bump that up to 10 days or 2 weeks if you like, just know that shorter time commitments often have a lower barrier to entry for clients.

If you offer them 30 days free, they might think “I can’t commit to this for a month!” and get scared off—even if it’s free. And on the flip side, even if a potential client is ok with a longer commitment, setting up and monitoring a potential client’s progress over 30 days is a big undertaking for you as a trainer.

Keep the trial length short enough to be manageable for both you and your clients but long enough to see results—that’s the sweet spot!

2. Build a Free Trial Program (Or Two)

Third, start building your trial program. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can always build more than one—ideally for different fitness goals. You could create a trial program for weight loss, another for building muscle, another for strengthening, and so on. It’s up to you how many you create, but you can always start with one and add more later.

When building your trial program, you’re going to want to include opportunities for the potential clients to explore all the benefits of training with you and of using Trainerize. That means:

• Including workouts with detailed instructions and, ideally, custom exercise videos
• Scheduling progress checks so the clients can easily see their improvements
• Using auto messages to stay in regular contact with clients and offer encouragement along the way
• Adding clients to groups to build their sense of community and leverage social motivation

And more!

3. Promote Your Trial

With the trial Program built, now’s the time to start promoting it. Contact leads, or past clients using your mailing lists to let them know about the special offer or share information about the trial on your website and social media channels.

If you’re using Trainerize Pay, you can also set the trial Training Program up as a Product and create a special discount code for 100% off, giving potential clients the illusion that the trial is a limited-time or limited-quantity offer they should take advantage of, while also highlighting the value of your services.

4. Connect the Free Trial Program to a Goal or Event

To really get the most out of your promotions and get as many potential clients as possible to sign up, we recommend you connect the trial to a client’s specific goal or event.

For example, if you’ve been in touch with a potential client who is on the fence about signing up, but has, say a wedding coming up, you could position the free trial as a way for them to prep for the event at no initial cost. Or maybe someone comes to you with a goal of running an upcoming marathon or race. Why not offer the trial as the first step in their race prep? Having a goal in mind that is personal and meaningful to them will keep the client more invested (and that’s already at least half the battle). If they see results, they’ll be more likely to sign on and continue training with you.

Keep Your Eye On Their Progress

After you’ve got them on the free trial, the hard part is almost over. With your perfectly-built Program, most of your client’s activities and your communication will be scheduled. With some quick checks on Trainerize Feed and the occasional personal message, you should be able to watch your potential client dive into their trial, keep them motivated the whole way, and show them the real value of your services.

Once you do that, you might just find yourself with a brand new paying client.

Jump headfirst into the world of online personal training.

Start your free 30-day trial of Trainerize.

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