I recently had a new client contact me to inquire about our Personal Training Services. This particular client had been referred to us from one of our own clients who has been working with us for the past 3 years.

During our initial consultation our new potential client informed me that she was a little bit hesitant to work with a Personal Trainer again as she had quite the negative experience with her previous Trainer. When I had asked her why the experience was so negative she explained the entire situation, which unfortunately was all too familiar to me.

1) Client Must Commit To a Minimum Of 3 Sessions Each Week

Ugh, seriously? This old sleazy sales tactic still exists in my industry?

Although some Trainers and Coaches try to make it seem like they are trying to get you to “commit” yourself to exercising and working out 3x/Week, in reality all they are trying to do is get you to burn through your Training Package as fast as you possibly can so that you can purchase another one.

I have always found this sales tactic to be incredibly repulsive as it just shows how money hungry the Trainer/Company is for your hard earned cash and how little they care about you actually achieving your target health and fitness goals.

2) No Refunds

What the actual f#ck? How is this even still legal?

Gyms are notoriously known for hidden fees as well as overcharging their clientele base. This is nothing new. However, when I hear of Trainers doing the same, it embarrasses me both as a Health Professional and a Small Business Owner.

To me, this just shows a lack of confidence in one’s services and one’s skill set. I’ve always informed every single client that signs up to work with us that they will ALWAYS be refunded for any unused sessions that they purchase with us. Hell, we even put this on our website on every single package we sell.

With that said, we’ve never actually had any of our clients not complete a training package or ask for a refund however they always have the option to do so if they ever wish to for any reason whatsoever.

3) 48-72 Hour Cancellation Policy

Really? Coming from a man who has a full roster of both In-House and Online Clients working with him, this policy is absolutely ridiculous.

The standard 24 hours notice for all cancellations has always been sufficient in my opinion. Listen, shit comes up in our day to day lives. And 24 hours should be more than enough time for a Trainer who is good at what he or she does to either fill the empty time slot or use the “free time” to their advantage and work on their business.

48-72 hours notice for a cancelled session is unreasonable, not to mention unrealistic.

What Works For Us

I’m no business expert nor do I have my MBA, however I believe in treating our clients the same way that I would like to be treated when paying for a service: With empathy, compassion and most importantly, appreciation for the fact they our seeking out our services and trust us enough with their health and fitness goals.

As a Business Owner I understand the importance of turning a profit. However I believe that it is also equally important to conduct both yourself and your business in an honourable, respectful and trustworthy manner.

I believe one of the reasons as to why we have so many clients that have worked with us for close to two decades is because they trust us and have confidence in both our skill sets and our business model.

And incase you’re wondering, that new potential client has now become a regular client who has referred two new clients to us within the past 3 weeks. And once again, none of them were asked to sign ridiculous long term contracts that made them feel uncomfortable or perhaps question our integrity.

“Honesty Is The Soul Of Business.”
– Dutch Proverb

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance