How do I get my first client as an (in person) personal trainer?

[jacktiner]

My qualifications:
- Wether its back problems, muscle gain for 18 year olds, fat loss for moms or managing groups of kids, I've got experience in all fields
- 4years of experience coaching gymnastics(6-12 year olds)
-1year of working at a gym and coaching there
- Highest Trainer license you can obtain in Germany
- Not impressively massive, but athletic physique and tall
- Willling to work more hours for less pay, since its currently better to work for 40/hour for 2 times than 0 times for 80 and hour(which seems to be the standard around here)
- Can put a good workout together out of anything and with limited equipment
- Got a 3x4 meter garage gym with a power rack, cable machine, weights and all sorts of cable attachments

Things that hinder me:
- Small social circle
- Broke, otherwise I would have opened a ninja warrior/gymnastics themed facility, as I have connections there already(which is planned should I have the funds)
- Abandonment mindset(Want to move to another part of Germany, so playing the long game via slow referalls seems "unattractive" to me)
- Currently only working 10 hours a week in a gym, which feeds into my brokeness, otherwise I would have moved from a 300k area to a 500k city)
- Not allowed to convert people in the gym to personal training clients
- Not an impressive social media physique( kids and moms think Im super muscular though lmao)

Things I have done so far:
- Made a website with some good pictures, added fake weight loss transformations
- Instagram, Tik Tok and facebook accounts
- Ran ads on Instagram/FB, 10 000 reach, 150 clicks on my website, 0 follow ups
- Ran Lead ads for 20 bucks, 0 leads so far
- Ordered 2500 flyers for 60 bucks, going to put them the mail boxes of upper middle class areas
- Going to start a 1x a week free bootcamp workout in the park on Meetup.com and advertise it via facebook ads
- Going to start group classes in the park in general(target: women from 28 - 45)
- Going to redo my ads/site in a week into something more "live laugh love" one instead of "serious" exercising


The goal is to get like 2-3k before I can move and then start it again and adding slow but steady growth methods, aswell as collect valueable information about what works/what doesn't since it doesn't matter if I make a fool out of myself and fail miserable, since I'm going to move away anyway(which is partly not a good business mindset to have, I know)
Also there is not really work available in a 35km/50 minute radius, atleast in the fitness sector in which I have my qualifications

 

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[Dockid]

The most successful personal trainers I know of all produce really informative content on Instagram and they also have really great physiques themselves. They built followers over time and converted a small % of the followers into clients.

One guy I have mutual friends with has been putting out funny/informative content for years and he would grow by maybe 50-100 followers a month. He slowly built up his client base just using Instagram and kept putting out great content. In the last year or so his growth has been parabolic and he has over 100k followers and released his own fitness app which is making him a fortune. He converted all his clients to his app which provides personalized meal plans / workouts every month and he also provides a group call every week for all the users.

 

[JLE]

My qualifications:
- Wether its back problems, muscle gain for 18 year olds, fat loss for moms or managing groups of kids, I've got experience in all fields
- 4years of experience coaching gymnastics(6-12 year olds)
-1year of working at a gym and coaching there
- Highest Trainer license you can obtain in Germany
- Not impressively massive, but athletic physique and tall
- Willling to work more hours for less pay, since its currently better to work for 40/hour for 2 times than 0 times for 80 and hour(which seems to be the standard around here)
- Can put a good workout together out of anything and with limited equipment
- Got a 3x4 meter garage gym with a power rack, cable machine, weights and all sorts of cable attachments

Things that hinder me:
- Small social circle
- Broke, otherwise I would have opened a ninja warrior/gymnastics themed facility, as I have connections there already(which is planned should I have the funds)
- Abandonment mindset(Want to move to another part of Germany, so playing the long game via slow referalls seems "unattractive" to me)
- Currently only working 10 hours a week in a gym, which feeds into my brokeness, otherwise I would have moved from a 300k area to a 500k city)
- Not allowed to convert people in the gym to personal training clients
- Not an impressive social media physique( kids and moms think Im super muscular though lmao)

Things I have done so far:
- Made a website with some good pictures, added fake weight loss transformations
- Instagram, Tik Tok and facebook accounts
- Ran ads on Instagram/FB, 10 000 reach, 150 clicks on my website, 0 follow ups
- Ran Lead ads for 20 bucks, 0 leads so far
- Ordered 2500 flyers for 60 bucks, going to put them the mail boxes of upper middle class areas
- Going to start a 1x a week free bootcamp workout in the park on Meetup.com and advertise it via facebook ads
- Going to start group classes in the park in general(target: women from 28 - 45)
- Going to redo my ads/site in a week into something more "live laugh love" one instead of "serious" exercising


The goal is to get like 2-3k before I can move and then start it again and adding slow but steady growth methods, aswell as collect valueable information about what works/what doesn't since it doesn't matter if I make a fool out of myself and fail miserable, since I'm going to move away anyway(which is partly not a good business mindset to have, I know)
Also there is not really work available in a 35km/50 minute radius, atleast in the fitness sector in which I have my qualifications

If you intend on relocating I suggest you do that first, especially if your goal is to do in-person training. Most clients don't want to make a long commute to see their trainer and I doubt you want long commutes every day to see your clients.

So my first suggestion is to either move first or plan to do online coaching. This really is a slow game. If you can forego your desire to move then I think you're already off to a good start with the flyers and having a website and social media. Start handing out flyers. Greeting people door-to-door. Cold calls. Anything you can do to show-off that you're in shape and have physically improved the lives of others. Make offers.

You're in a great position where you're at. You mentioned that you have a home gym, it could very easily be used to take your clients through a workout without the overhead of paying to use a local gym to train your clients. You have ample opportunity here.

 

[jacktiner]

If you intend on relocating I suggest you do that first, especially if your goal is to do in-person training. Most clients don't want to make a long commute to see their trainer and I doubt you want long commutes every day to see your clients.

So my first suggestion is to either move first or plan to do online coaching. This really is a slow game. If you can forego your desire to move then I think you're already off to a good start with the flyers and having a website and social media. Start handing out flyers. Greeting people door-to-door. Cold calls. Anything you can do to show-off that you're in shape and have physically improved the lives of others. Make offers.

You're in a great position where you're at. You mentioned that you have a home gym, it could very easily be used to take your clients through a workout without the overhead of paying to use a local gym to train your clients. You have ample opportunity here.

They or I won't have to do long commutes, since I'll be living on the other side of the country

Also I am not allowed to train or take clients in the gym I am working at, as said before, so sadly that is not an option.

The most successful personal trainers I know of all produce really informative content on Instagram and they also have really great physiques themselves. They built followers over time and converted a small % of the followers into clients.

One guy I have mutual friends with has been putting out funny/informative content for years and he would grow by maybe 50-100 followers a month. He slowly built up his client base just using Instagram and kept putting out great content. In the last year or so his growth has been parabolic and he has over 100k followers and released his own fitness app which is making him a fortune. He converted all his clients to his app which provides personalized meal plans / workouts every month and he also provides a group call every week for all the users.

I want to do in personal training rather, as I have plans to open a sports themed facility

 

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[Deleted88861]

The group classes in the park sounds good and its good that you are trying to find meet-ups.

It sounds like what could help you would be to get out in the general community even more and attend events where your demographics would be at and this doesn't have to revolve around fitness either, by building up your social circle that can also really help you as your new pals might eventually help you with word of mouth referrals. Because personal training is such an intimate, face-to-face thing (unless you only want to do online based), you'll need to mingle more.

If you live in an apartment building, you could see if there is a specific FB group for residents (we have one here and PT's seem to be building decent relationships with people there as there are a lot of young folks in the group, you could even try and join groups based on the certain name of areas around you and instead of hard-selling (which annoys the crap out of people in groups), you could give some good value with a small CTA at the end of your post, something that says "hey, happy to be a part of this group, I'm a PT and wanted to share some cool tips with you here in this post, have some of this, I hope it helps, if interested feel free to PM me with more questions and I'll help you out!") - This is just an example.

You could also start paying attention to comments from people around fitness when it comes to Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and reply with some cool information around that. Become part of the online fitness communtiy and stay consistent, add your two cents of value without asking for anything in return, you can once again tell people that if they are still struggling to reach out to you, that you'd be happy to help answer more questions, then you're practically warming them up for a possible sale, too.

You mentioned small social circle, well that definitely could be acting as a big bottleneck. Try and get out and about more, even if none of your mates are into this stuff you could go out to some pubs with them and meet other people and just be around them, just be in the mix and have fun conversations. You don't even need to drink, just buy soda & lime cordials if need be. That way, once again, you are putting yourself in the area of your demographics. Don't be that serious guy in the bar though, be casual and subtly proactive at the same time.

Google your area and try to attend any events near you that might be somewhat relevant but not exactly related to fitness. Maybe you're into painting or music outside of your PT stuff? Are there are music events happening, or art workshops you could attend for fun? This would once again get you around quite a lot of your demographic and you'd basically be acting as your own touch point, letting people know that you exist. Plus, you'd make some new friends (hello eventual word of mouth referrals again)

If you are looking for sales but you either live in a small area or you have a small social circle etc, you could consider moving to a bigger city, you risk more competition but so long as you prioritise helping people (and at times for free) and keeping the personal touch to things that you do, going out of your way for them etc, you'll quickly get ahead of other competition. So in general, try to focus more on "how can I help these people" ahead of trying to get leads etc, you can try and do both of course but nobody likes to be sold to in a pushy way, so help them first. This can even mean putting a smile on someones face on a night out or having a laugh with people at a workshop. Just try and get yourself in front of others and if you're being genuinely nice to them, they will be interested in what you do, then you can go into it a bit.

Pushing for sales is fine if that's what you are doing by running your ads, but are you sure you are helping people first and foremost before pushing for those sales and are you staying consistent in this process? That will get you ahead of the rest. Being genuine, helpful and offering cool, helpful advice in return for little. If you can make your approach more about this, people will become interested in you. Warm them up by existing where your demographic exist (online & offline), offer stuff that will actually help these people and have a landing page or contact info that guides them down your funnel. Got any PT's that you look up to or respect? Find them on social media, take time to find what people are saying in the comments and if you see anyone asking for help to their question, send them a message or reply to them and help them out because the comments sections will probably be filled with potential leads for your PT business.

Remember as well that because of the industry you are in, being a solo PT etc etc, you need to prioritise your PT brand (offline and online) and when you are developing a brand it is important to understand when you need to market instead of sell. For example, in B2B service providing broadband to other companies, there tends to be little marketing but lots of selling, its the same as in retail stores, people are there to try and get your money there and then, they are not exactly focused on longevity and marketing most the time, it's fickle and most of us aren't big fans of these cold approaches. But, if you are building your brand and aiming for longevity, you might want to consider putting a heavy emphasis on marketing, not selling. Then during your marketing process, you can start to look into sales funnels, which ultimately ties in both and without your prospects feeling pushed or pressured. I've worked in multiple hard-selling job roles and I can tell you that having a healthy balance of both sales AND marketing is the way to go, but marketing when branding trumps selling when branding.

Running tight on time today hence the messy reply, but I hope it helps you somehow and you are able to get something out of it.

Good luck

 

[JLE]

They or I won't have to do long commutes, since I'll be living on the other side of the country

Right. So move first or forego it entirely. That was nearly the entire point of my post.

Also I am not allowed to train or take clients in the gym I am working at, as said before, so sadly that is not an option.

I never mentioned taking clients from the gym you presently worked at. Did you read anything I wrote? I said get clients for your home gym.

It doesn't seem like I was clear enough. Here's a brief:
1. Don't move. Forget about relocating.
2. Quit working for a gym.
3. Hand out flyers. Make offers. Be in great shape. Build testimonials.
4. Train the clients you acquire at your home gym.

 

[jacktiner]

Going to update the thread once I get the flyers

 

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