The other day at the end of one of our ladies-only group classes I overheard two of my clients trying to figure out how long they had been training with me. With a little bit of my assistance and our combined math skills we calculated that they had in fact been working with me for a little over ten years now. Once we had determined the timeline both ladies were in somewhat of a disbelief that they had been clients of mine for so long. For myself I thought nothing of it as the majority of my clients have been working with me for almost an entire decade now. Ofcourse I am more then grateful for the continued and ongoing support that we continue to receive from all of our clients at Forever Fit however for some reason I always just assumed it was normal to retain clients for the long term. After all, if we constantly strive to make our customer service exceptional and our clients continue to achieve results then why wouldn’t they want to come back? Well after speaking with a few other independent trainers I really had no idea that this in fact is rarely ever the case in the Personal Training industry. In fact, most trainers have an extremely difficult time retaining clients and unless they work for a big corporate chain gym it can become even more difficult to build up their clientele based on their name, a few referrals and a decent marketing gimmick alone.

So how have we been able to retain clients for so long and how do we continue to do it? As much I would like to give credit to my good looks and my charming personality the reality is that I’m really not that good looking and I’ve been told that I’m not as charming as I might think. Therefore to give myself a better answer I had to sit back and reexamine our business. I needed to look at what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong.  It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself and your business when you step back and try to look at it through another person’s perspective. But that is exactly what I did. And this is what I learned….

The Client is Always Right….Except When They’re Wrong

After being involved in the fitness industry for almost 15 years I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different kinds of people with many different types of personalities. I can honestly say though that the majority of the people I have trained have been and continue to be a pleasure to work with. However there have been a few energy suckers over the years and I’ve definitely trained my fair share of negative nancys and debbie downers (ugh, I really hate that as I become older that I’m starting to talk more and more like my parents). Now working with people we don’t necessarily like or get along with is a part of life. And as an adult you usually just shut up and deal with it. And I did. But now that I feel that I’ve somewhat established myself in this industry I believe that I have paid my dues and therefore can be quite selective as whom I choose to work with. At this very moment in time I enjoy working with every single client who trains with me. There’s never a session or class that I don’t look forward to instructing. My clients work with me because they want to, not because they have to. And this makes my job immensely enjoyable to go to everyday. Which in turn allows our business to grow and continue to help more people become physically active and fit. If our clients are happy then I am happy. When I’m happy, I’m productive. The more productive I am, the more successful Forever Fit becomes. And so the cycle continues.

To Be The Best You Need To Work With The Best

Now by no means do I think that I am the best Personal Trainer to ever walk the face of the earth. In fact, I don’t think I would even make the top 100 list if given the opportunity. And I’m more then okay with that. I do however have somewhat of an understanding of how business works. And I know that you cannot build an empire on sand or that you can grow a business on your own or with people who are lazy or who are just working for the weekend. Therefore I am also extremely selective as  to whom I choose to hire and whom I choose to work with when it comes to expanding and improving our business for the better. I always try to seek out the best of the best. Whether it comes to our web design team, accountant, book keeper or who I trust to work on the floor with our clients, I always feel very confident with the decisions I make and that’s because I have confidence in the people I work with.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I know absolutely nothing about TRX Training. But guess what? Our trainer Megan does! And it’s no secret that I’m an analog man living in a digital world, so when it comes to things like social media marketing or website development, you better believe I’ve had some help. My point is that without any of these peoples’ guidance and assistance over the years I would still be a guy working 14 hours in the gym that’s working in my business rather then working on my business. As the great Michael Jordan once said – “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships”.

Humble Roots

I was 6 years old when I got my first job. I worked as a Newspaper Delivery Boy for my brother. My job was to take half of the newspapers to one half of our neighbourhood while my brother would take the other half of papers to the other half of the neighbourhood (which he rarely did!). I remember getting paid $5.00/week to do this job. Little did I know at the time my brother was turning a major profit off of child labour as he was pocketing much more then I was but that was besides the point. I learned the value of a dollar from hard work at a young age. It was engraved in me from both of my parents as well as they were both hard workers and both continue to work to this day. My brother and I were never allowed to go out and play with our friends until all of our chores were done. At the time I found this to be a nuisance as we had ALOT of chores but looking back now I realized that my parents were trying to teach us the value of free time and that it had to be earned and not just given.

Growing up in this environment taught me that you cannot expect anything in life to just be handed to you. If you want something then you have to work for it. And as cliche as it may seem this is the exact mentality that I apply to our business everyday. Just because we had one of our most profitable months in history this year does not give us any reason to step off the gas pedal. Again, this comes down to never being satisfied with mediocre results. And even when the results are better then expected, to keep pushing for more and never being completely satisfied.

Listen To The Client!

To this day I still cannot understand why I see so many Personal Trainers who do not actually listen to their clients. It baffles me when I see a trainer working with a client who is clearly overweight and trying to get them to focus on balance and stability exercises. When in reality the trainer should be designing a well thought out, customized training program that includes both beginner cardiovascular training as well as some light resistance training work to help their client build up their muscles first before trying to teach complex advanced full body movements in which the client may risk injuring him or herself.

At Forever Fit we listen to our clients. If a client comes to me and tells me that her goal is to lose roughly 30lbs then my job is to help them achieve this goal in the quickest, most effective and safest manner possible. I don’t just design a program for the client that I know I will enjoy teaching. This is not professional nor is it practical for the client. At the end of the day my clients help me pay my bills and allow me to continue to do what I love to do. So when they tell me what they want, I’m going to damn well try my best to give it to them.

Well that’s it. That’s all I’ve got right now. I’m obviously no business guru and I continue to make mistakes and learn new things in business everyday. But whenever business gets slow for a few weeks or I feel that we need to pick things up again I always go back to what’s worked for us in the past and I think if I continue to do this then as a business we will continue to succeed.

Nick Cosgrove