Pitfalls of Offering Free First Sessions

Offering a free first session to potential new clients is an area of great debate in the world of personal training. For many, it comes down to a simple mathematic equation, trying to figure out whether or not it is potentially worth it to set up these sessions. While many clubs experience high rates of success, you might struggle to excel in the same ways. Here are some major pitfalls to avoid.

When working as a private personal trainer, it is important to think about the costs that you will incur yourself. If you are looking to boost your services, and have some extra funds, this might be a good way to do it. However, remember that you will need to pay the bills at some point. You need to be comfortable with the fact that the actual purchase rate from a new client may be as low as 20%, so you will need to find a way to replace that income for yourself. Once you add in the expenses for normal operation of your services, you may find that it isn’t always worth it.

If you work your own club, pay attention to how many trainers you have on staff! Remember you are paying for each session that a trainer spends with a client. This works out in the long run if the potential client purchases sessions, but if not you’ve lost out on that potential income. Be aware of how much time the trainers spend doing sessions that are not attributed to a client, and how much time they spend with clients who have purchased a package. By doing some simple math, you will see that there is a drastic difference in the gross income made between the two, once you have paid off your trainers.

Another thing to consider is your marketing scheme. Many people perceive something that is free to be of a lower value. It is important to market yourself in a way that encourages people to view personal training as something that they should invest into once their first session has been completed.

Overall, when offering any free service to your constituents, be sure to think about how much the service will cost the company to provide, what the expected outcome of that is, how that outcome will benefit the business in both the short term and the long term, and how you will choose to measure the rate of success.