In times gone by, people would have believed that the list of things required to be a successful PT contained things like having a rock hard six pack, bulging biceps, a host of medals from sporting events and a no 'bullshit' attitude telling it how it is and making people do as you say. Think Harvey from Celebrity Fit Club. Whilst this is still around in our industry, we need to move beyond these arguably old-fashioned views on personal training and prepare ourselves to meet the needs of those who may not be as enthusiastic about exercise as us.
Here's my take on the five most important skills you need nowadays in order to help the people most likely to pay for your services.
Most would assume that PT's should be telling people what to do differently. This couldn't be further from the truth. First and foremost we need to be able to hear what our clients are telling us. Only then do we know exactly what they want, their motivation, their fears and concerns. If you can become well enough practiced in listening you will find that clients tell you the answers to their own questions, leaving you with much less work to do.
Coach
Linked closely to listening skills is the ability to coach. When I started working in the industry I assumed that the more knowledge I had the more I'd be able to tell people, they'd do as I say and that would fix their problems. How wrong I was! Over the years I've discovered that there's only one person who has all the best answers to help the client achieve their goals...themselves! The skill of the PT is actually in helping them to draw these answers out of themselves. To do this you need to be well practiced in the listening skills already mentioned and then use a range of techniques such as reflection, paraphrasing and questioning to guide the client to find the answers to their own questions.
PT's spend thousands of pounds getting qualified, learning loads of technical knowledge in their main courses as well as a host of CPDs to gain additional skills. After all, knowledge is power isn't it? Well yes, but only if it can be applied and to apply it you need the most important ingredient...clients. Customers pay for the sessions and then you can afford to carry on doing the job you love and have so much knowledge about. Many PT's when starting up will spend further money on equipment, then there's insurance, membership of professional bodies, gym rent and this doesn't even include life costs like the mortgage, holidays and kids. To be successful these days we need to learn the fundamentals of business like:
- cash flow forecasting (when will I get paid, when will I have to pay out and how much do I actually have in the bank?)
- business planning (who exactly are my customers, what am I going to offer them and how?)
- sales and marketing (how do I reach these people, appeal to them and get them to pay for products and services?)
- finance (what do I need to record, how do I do this, how do I get the best from my money and make sure I do not break the law at the same time?)
- legal considerations (tax, data protection, health and safety and much more).
From my experience, PT's may do better after getting qualified to spend their focus on these points first before forking out for further CPD training. With money in the bank you can spend more on equipment, training and further business development.
Adaptability
Once you're in the actual sessions working with your clients, there's a whole new set of skills required. One of the biggest and most important is adaptability; you need to be able to use different approaches with different people and even to change your approach with the same person based on their mood on the day, energy levels, previous training that week, what they've eaten, the weather, how busy the gym is and a whole host of other factors. No two people are ever the same and one of my biggest bugbears in the industry is when I see a PT deliver exactly the same session to a number of different people one after the other. Surely Jane who's 65 and wants to help manager her arthritis doesn't need the same workout as Sarah who's a busy mum who wants to lose weight or Pete who plays rugby and wants to pack on a bit of muscle? Even if their goals are the same, you'll need different tools to motivate people differently. There is absolutely not one right answer, forget fifty shades of grey, the world of PT is 50,000 shades of grey! Telling clients that there is a golden bullet, one solution that will work for everyone, is doomed to failure. Somebody will come along who doesn't respond in the same way and then you're stuck as you told them that was the solution. Tell them that there are many ways to achieve their goals and that you'll use your experience to guide them towards making the best choices but that you may need to make changes along the way as it doesn't always work for everyone. This way you can't lose, you've set the idea of a flexible journey in their minds and you can use as many different tools from your toolkit as you need along the way.
Butlin's Red CoatThere are so many technical considerations to creating PT sessions and so much science out there that sometimes we forget that, along with results, one of the main things a client wants is to enjoy themselves. We need to make it fun, for that hour that they really don't want to do to pass quicker than they ever thought possible. There may well be 'best ways' for some clients to achieve their goals but do they like them and will they stick to them? Three HIIT sessions will not achieve as much weight loss for a client as six months' of regular walking. What are they most likely to stick to? What are they nervous about doing? Consider these when designing your programmes and remember, if they only have 20 minutes twice a week, that's better than doing nothing. Start small, make it enjoyable and increase their likelihood of sticking with it and adding more over time.
Underpinning all of these skills should be some key traits:
- A desire to help people. Yes it's ok to want to make money but if that's your first thought then you may find yourself disappointed. Wanting to do some good, to help people change and to show you care will all ultimately lead to clients coming your way and paying you.
- Customer service - the fees charged for personal training sessions are not to be sniffed at. People are parting with their hard-earned money and these days it's a precious commodity. As such we need to treat them well. Be on time, well presented, prepared for the session and focused on them throughout. Be sure they get the full session and your undivided attention for its entirety. Open doors for them, fill their water bottle and fetch them a towel, these small gestures will go a long way towards creating an awesome customer experience. As a fantastic motivational speaker once said at a conference I was at, focus on the 'TNT's' or Tiny Noticeable Things. All of these add up to an explosively big difference.
- Never stop learning. Our industry changes, science moves on (forwards and backwards sometimes) and the world changes too. We need to stay on top of our game and be humble enough to recognise that we never know it all. We can always improve and learning provides the route to do so. I've learned so much from my clients and my learners on course over the years and I am eternally grateful to them for this. They continue to provide me with new insights every time I see them.
I hope you find this useful food for thought. Please do share your views too, I'm sure there are other important traits worthy of discussion. If you'd like to contact me about any of the above, would like to ask a question or request that I put together some information on anything else for future blogs, there are about a million ways you can do this below.
Keep inspiring people!
Paul
email: info@balanceweightloss.co.uk
Website: www.balanceweightloss.co.uk
Twitter: @paulw_fitness
Carrier pigeon: Speckled Jim
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