Effective Communication is Vital

People who are successful in business know that the key to prosperity lies in how they communicate with their clients. In fact, the fitness client will forgo looking at the credentials behind your name and testimonial accolades if they believe first and foremost you are listening to them.

This does not mean that you should not attain the proper certification, or become well-schooled in your profession; simply that good communication is vital for success. If you do not allow your clients to communicate what it is they are hoping to accomplish, you might as well wave good-bye to any future of higher earnings.

If we were going to look at this idea from a sales standpoint, we'd address the needs of your customer through what is known as consultative selling. This is a highly effective sales technique. The strategy is to find out what the client is trying to achieve by purchasing your products or services. Once you have established what it is your client is wishing to accomplish, you go to work designing a program that addresses those needs.

Consultative sales is the perfect strategy for a personal trainer in that they have been trained to customize a nutritional and exercise plan to customer requirements. In order to make the most out of consultative sales, you'll need to devise a questionnaire or put together a set of questions so you can get to the bottom of what the customer truly wants to achieve. Once you have established the reason behind the personal training then you can go to work perfecting the customer's idea of what he or she wishes to achieve – as opposed to what your perceptions of their needs are.

For instance you may see an obese client and think they need a plan to drop ten dress sizes. But they may only wish to drop two dress sizes in time for a wedding.

Some questions you may wish to ask your client include: a) What prompted you to require the services of a personal trainer? b) Have you worked with a personal trainer in the past? If so, how was your experience? c) What is it you'd like to achieve as far as your fitness objective(s)? For example: Are you expecting to acquire muscle tone? Lose weight? Are you needing training in order to be more effective when participating in another sport? Also, you may ask the following questions: a) Do you have any underlying health concerns? b) When was your last physical? c) How do you rate your current level of fitness on a scale from one to ten with ten being exceptional? d) Are you currently on a restricted diet? e) Are there any medications that you are taking that may interfere with intense workouts?

Naturally, you aren't trying to act as the client's physician or give them medicinal advice or even pry into their personals. Your objective is to find out what you're dealing so that you won't subject your client to a workout that may compromise his or her current state of health.

If your client does have a present health issue, it may be advisable to proceed with caution and provide him or her with less intense cardiovascular workouts: again this is dependent on client objectives. The cautionary advice here though is: When in doubt—don't. Your client will recognize your concern. And a caring communicative trainer makes all the difference in the world.