It seems strange to me that personal trainers and fitness professionals should need an ‘excuse’ to put their fees up to their clientele yet nearly every time I write an article about raising fitness business prices I’m absolutely swamped by a deluge of emails from trainers arguing against the idea.

Usually there aren’t any real ‘reasons’ for their reluctance, rather it’s more a case of them believing that their clients simply won’t put up with higher fees.

And they may be right!

Certainly, if you’ve been providing a service that’s only worth £40 to the clients you look after, they’re going to be reluctant to part with more cash but, if like most fitness professionals, you’ve been working hard at over delivering whilst at the same time helping your clients get great results, the bulk of them won’t bat an eyelid.

In fact, more often than not, price resistance from existing clients is a sign that you’re either not as good as you think you are at what you do or you’re not selective enough about who you work with.

If either of these issues afflicts your fitness business then get to addressing them right away by sharpening your professional skills which, after all, are your bread and butter, and stop engaging in WAP marketing (I teach my mentor students that WAP marketing aims to attract anyone with a Wallet and a Pulse).

Assuming you’re a great coach who is fussy about who gets to work with you then you’d better get to raising those prices and soon, otherwise you’ll be dumped into the heap of all those personal trainers and bootcamp instructors who are deemed to be ‘average’ for no other reason than that they charge average prices.

If you’re still not convinced then read these 5 reason why it’s VITAL to you, your business AND your clients that you raise your prices… and quick!

REASON #1: You Make Much More Profit In A Fraction Of The Time

One of the biggest problems most fitness professionals face is ‘time creep’; that sudden realisation that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to train clients, train themselves, work on their information products, update their blogs, commit to their article marketing, tweet, facebook and myspace their followers, write their e-newsletter and have any form of life outside of work.

And it’s a deadly catch 22 situation too, as they’re doing all this other stuff so that they can get busier and earn more, yet they’re too busy doing it all to actually earn more.

Not if your prices are higher!

Do the math. If you’re £40 an hour and you want to earn £100,000 a year you need to do 48 appointments a week 52 weeks of the year. Not a great prospect is it? I can tell you from personal experience that my year of doing 60 appts a week was the most grim time of my life and nearly drove me out of the industry altogether.

Now imagine being a £60 coach, that’s just 32 appointments a week to achieve your six figures which is a lot more friendly, right?

In my own case, £150 an hour means that I only have to work 13 hours a week to achieve 6 figures from my own personal training leaving me 27 hours a week (if based on a 40 hour week) to run my mentoring programs, write my courses, create my information products and devise my grand schemes of world domination.

Now, you tell me, which sounds better?

REASON #2: You Attract Better Clients (and get rid of the worst ones)

There’s no getting away from this one, higher paying clients are better clients. Not better people, just better clients. They follow your instructions better, value your time more and develop better relationships with you than those who pay less.

Why?

Because they respect your expertise and advice, partly because of the price tag and partly because of your belief in yourself. There’s nothing more attractive in another person than true and genuine confidence and belief and this, more than anything else, is what people are willing to pay through the nose for.

Think about it; most people lack true belief in themselves and the goals that they want to accomplish. They’re frustrated and fearful at the thought of never getting what they want and are at a semi-permanent tipping point where they’re persuading themselves to keep going whilst at the same time ready to quit.

Then along comes you.

The expert.

The guru.

You’re the most expensive person in your area, you’re more confident and clearly more knowledgeable than anyone else (at least, that’s their perception) and suddenly… BOOM!… all doubt, all fear, all frustration suddenly evaporates and belief once again returns.

Suddenly they’re taking positive action on a daily basis and, because of this, they’re achieving great results.

They’re over the moon, you’re over the moon and you’re getting paid an amazing sum to work with them.

What’s not to like?

This is no exaggeration by the way. This is EXACTLY how people go from frustrated and fearful to focused and fantastically happy and yes, price IS a major part of the equation.

REASON #3: You Can Deliver MUCH Better Service

Let’s face it, struggling to pay the rent and keep your car running doesn’t lend itself to delivering a top-notch service to your fitness clients does it?

Every problem, every concern and every worry you take to work with you when you strap on your Nike’s and training gear is just another distraction that keeps you from giving 100% of your time, energy, focus, spirit, emotion and professionalism to your clients and leads to both a lacklustre experience and lacklustre results.

That lack of results becomes another burden to carry, as do the little snipes, jabs, barbs and, finally, outright complaints of clients who feel that they’re getting less than they’re paying for when they’re with you.

We’ve all been there.

Struggling to achieve our own goals whilst at the same time playing the guru role with our clients and telling them how they should be achieving theirs yet, make no mistake about it, we’re not fooling anyone.

Clients know when we’re giving them 100% and when we’re not. It’s the experience they seek most when they’re moving toward their goals, not merely the result and when were struggling it’s the experience that’s the first thing to change.

Charge more, however, and this changes.

The problem goes away altogether.

I mean sure, there will always be little problems that surface from time to time but the fundamental ones, the ones that worry and distract you most just… dry up.

Just imagine the kind of service you could give your clients tomorrow if you woke up knowing that your mortgage and car payments were all paid for months in advance, your next 3 vacations were planned and paid for, your tax account had surplus ‘just in case’ money and your credit cards were all paid off in full.

There would be nothing left to distract you from giving your all to each and every client that you work with, right?

And BOY would they notice!

Earn more, chill out more, deliver better service, earn more, chill out more… and on, and on, and on.

Sound ok to you?

REASON #4: Open More Doors For Your Fitness Business

Do you dream of getting your fitness business into the National press, on daytime TV, radio, magazines or the syndicated news? What about securing corporate contracts, sponsorships and book deals?

So do most fitness professionals!

But who is it that seems to dominate this kind of work? Well, I can tell you who it’s not. It’s not the bargain basement personal trainer or the Mr and Mrs average coach, that’s for sure.

The first thing that any of these expert seekers looks for is the cream of the industry. The top dogs. The upper echelons of the fitness profession.

And how do they know who these super-heroes are?

Well, they’re not looking for the most qualified, PhD’ed, boy-scout badged, time served personal trainers, I can tell you that for nothing. The first thing they look for is articles and videos from a short list of experts and then they look at their sites to find out the prices they charge.

As they say, perception is everything.

These media experts judge other experts largely on what they charge for their services rather than what they truly know. It’s not fair, I know, but that’s their shortcut for decision making and, most of the time, they’re happy with what they get.

Needless to say, the fitness experts that are chosen are happy too.

I know I am!

Having done numerous TV shows, over 70 radio interviews and being quoted in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world, I can tell you that it really DOES help your business… but you knew that! : )

In fact, each time I’ve gained press for myself, my business has grown as a direct result, making me and my coaches more money than we could have ever gotten through traditional advertising.

Want to get the press on your side?

Charge more!

REASON #5: You OWN Your Niche

There’s only one highest paid personal trainer in the UK.

I’m it.

Because I’m it, I attract those who’re looking for the Rolls Royce and I do my damnedest to make sure that that’s exactly what I deliver them time and time again.

I read more, study more and spend more on my education than any other personal trainer or coach I know and, because I do, I know more about delivering Rolls Royce level service than anyone I know.

See how it works?

See how charging more, delivering more and studying more makes it possible for you to own the niche that you’re working in? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Then again, so does failure and struggle too!

Charge average prices, generate an average income and you’ll find you can only afford an average education meaning that you’ll deliver an average service that will (you guessed it) mean that you can only charge average prices, generate and average… you get the picture.

Raise your prices and the struggle ends and the real fun begins. Especially when the phones ring off the hook with people desperate to work with you!

It should be obvious by now that raising your prices is a no brainer in terms of improving both the quality of the service you give your clients and the quality of life you can gain for yourself at the same time.

If you’re a great coach on the way to mastery it not only makes a great deal of sense to charge what you’re worth, but it’s an actual disservice not to. After all, there’s only so much space at the bottom of the market, right?

You should be giving up that space to the newly qualified ‘apprentice’ fitness professionals just entering the industry and giving them a chance to ‘cut their teeth’ and hone their skills on the easier end of the market whilst you take your more advanced skills to those who most want and need them.

The apprentice doesn’t know how to serve these people and these people, in turn, don’t want or need the services of an apprentice.

They want and need a master and they’re prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege.

The only question now then, is ‘are YOU ready to step up and take up the mantle?’

If you are, prove it by putting your prices up.

If not, then get to becoming the master you should be. Stop hanging around. There’s too much good stuff to be, do and have for you to waste a minute more.

To your success!
Dax Moy
Fitness Marketing Made Simple

Tags: dax moy fitness marketing personal trainer training, personal trainer fitness marketing dax moy, PRICE

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