Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales?

I was recently asked by another fitness professional what kinds of discounts I was going offer for Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday. My answer was, “None.” I’ve always held the belief that I would never discount our personal training or group fitness programs. Discounting has been a debated issue in the industry for a long time and, while many facilities do offer sales and discounts, I stick to the belief that you don’t discount health services. You also don’t want people putting off starting until you have a sale (let’s face it, we all do that for certain products.)Untitled design (60)Now that isn’t to say that I don’t promote during these sales times. In fact, while people are in the shopping frenzy, it’s the perfect time to remind them that they can give the gift that can change people’s lives. Create a marketing campaign to promote/highlight a specific program for beginners, or for skiers, or for the new year. Make the program the attraction, not the discount.

While hitting sales is on people’s minds, so is getting the right present for those they love and that takes priority over whether something is on sale or not. So, promote the gift, the program, and don’t get sucked into thinking you need to discount.

 

Never Underestimate a Fun Workout

Most personal trainers that I know are very serious about creating training programs for their clients. That’s great! It’s important that the programs give clients the results they are looking for. That said, people also like to have fun and love to laugh. Whenever you can create some fun, you will engage your clients more and keeps them wanting to come back. Let’s face it, if you had your choice of a good workout or a good workout that was also fun, which would you choose? It can be a great differentiator between you and your competition.

Untitled design (57)If you can work the fun into the workout itself, that would be best. Maybe you can create a game-based workout (i.e. hopscotch can be a fun plyometric and balance challenge). Now work is work and exercises aren’t always fun in and of themselves. So, maybe the fun comes in the form of requiring that your client dances from exercise to exercise or perhaps teach them to floss between sets or simply joking with your client. 

Of course you have to choose things that you and your clients feel comfortable with, but the important note is to add fun where you can. Leaving your clients in a better mood than when they came in creates one more layer of client loyalty, not to mention that when they leave happier, so do you.