How To Get More Personal Training Referrals In A Month Than You Now Get All Year

By Eric Ruth

Referrals should be the life-blood of your personal training business. But I’ll bet that’s not the case. In fact, my guess is that you get a couple here and there, are thrilled when you get them, but have no clue how to ensure you keep getting them…consistently and automatically.

Well, we’re going to change that…right now. I’d like to show you a tested and proven referral-generating system that can bring you more personal training referrals in one month than you now get all year.

First, let’s look at how incredibly valuable referrals are to you.

A referred client does not need to be sold.

Unlike other prospects, a referral comes to you 95% pre-qualified and predisposed to doing business with you. Whoever referred to you gave you an explicit endorsement, thereby nullifying the vast majority of the prospect’s objections or excuses for inaction.

A referred client will refer to you.

When a client comes to you by way of a referral, she is much more likely to refer to you as well. It’s a behavioral thing. The best referrers have generally been referred.

A referred client is easier to work with.

In most cases, a referred client is more motivated, more trusting and more loyal. This is a function of the referral process. The referrer most likely said some very positive things about you. The referrer trusts you enough to refer to you. The referral trusts the referrer, that’s why she’s come to you. And now that trust has been logically extended to you.

A referred client can be more profitable.

The marketing investment to obtain referrals can be comparatively inexpensive, sometimes even free. Plus they are more likely to refer to you, are generally easier to work with and tend to stay with you longer.

Clearly, referrals rule. The benefits to you are astounding.

If you’re not getting a steady, predictable flow of referrals, there can only be three reasons.

You’re not EARNING the referral. There’s a value-gap.
You’re not ASKING for the referral in multiple ways. You lack a system for referral programming.
You’re not RECOGNIZING and REWARDING for the referral. You must reinforce the behavior you want.

If you neglect any of these three, referrals are random at best.

EARN

Obviously, you’ve got to be good at what you do. You’ve got to be a professional. Show up on time and give 100% during each and every session. Educate. Inform. Build the relationship. Earn the referral.

There are some folks who believe you must maintain professional “distance” from your clients. Don’t get personal, they say. I couldn’t disagree more strongly. People do business with people, not cold, faceless businesses. You know the saying “he has good bedside manner” in reference to physicians? Well, nothing (other than being competent) is more important than your bedside manner. It’s about personality. It’s about giving of yourself as a human being. That’s how you develop strong relationships. And personal training is most definitely a relationship business.

So, assuming you’re a competent professional and real human being with your clients, what else can you do to bridge the value-gap and earn the referral?

WOW! You Clients

Mail a hand-written thank you note to every new client the same day you sign them. Include a gift. A nice shirt with your company name and logo, a subscription to a good health or fitness magazine, a free sample of a supplement you like, whatever. Just send a gift.

Educate. Write and send articles, special reports, have your spouse interview you on tape about Ten Secrets To A Healthy And Fit You. Give the tape to your clients to listen to in their car. Clip great articles you read, copy them and send them to your clients with a yellow sticky note saying, “Bill, I thought you’d like to read this.” Overwhelm your clients with your caring attitude and emphasis on information and education. They may never read or listen to the stuff you send them. Doesn’t matter one lick. Just the fact that you send it to them is what matters. They will fall in love with you.

The more you give, the more you’ll get.

ASK

Would you like to have an unpaid sales force of 50 to 500 people sending you new business? You can, if you implement this strategy.

Let’s take it step-by-step.

Step #1: You need a list.

Your list will contain the names, addresses, phone numbers and any other pertinent information of people fitting into these two groups:

Your Fortune Fifty. These are fifty High Impact People (HIPs). They could be doctors, lawyers, dentists, media personalities, realtors, corporate executives, local celebrities, etc. Essentially, anyone who has the ability to communicate with and influence large numbers of people in your area. You want two things from these HIPs. You’d like to have them as clients and you’d like to have them as champions. A champion is someone who endorses you – who refers to you. A champion is the single most important person to your business. The best case is to turn each of your clients into champions or vice versa.

Your Sphere Of Influence (SOI). Everyone who knows you or knows of you: past and present clients, prospects, business contacts and referrers.

Your list should be maintained in a database or spreadsheet program. Microsoft Excel is very simple to use for this purpose. As you get more proficient, you may want to upgrade to something like ACT! The bottom line is you’ve got to have this list in a program which makes it fast and easy for you to generate mailings or to make phone calls.

You need to know it’s at this very step, step #1, that most people totally drop the ball. They just wont take the time to create the list. If you won’t take the time to do this, then stop reading right now because the rest of this article will be a waste of your time.

Look, I’ve been in the marketing game for over twelve years. I’ve pulled millions of dollars in revenue out of very small lists. Marketing is everything when it comes to building your business. You can’t market without targets. Your list contains your targets.

And your targets WILL refer to you if you earn, ask, recognize and reward.

If you’re serious about business-building through referrals, you’ve got to get serious about list-building.

Step #2: Set-up a production calendar.

You need to be mailing to your list at least once a month. This is one of the ways you program for referrals. You should set a specific date each month (like the 15th) when you will kick out some sort of mailing to your entire list, without fail. Consistency is critical.

The simplest thing you can do is to produce a 2-4 page newsletter. Your newsletter should contain at least four elements:

An article you’ve written. This demonstrates your expertise and positions you as a true professional. (Here’s a MAJOR tip for you: The principle of reusable assets – each article you write for your newsletter can become the foundation for a chapter in your book. After 12 articles, you’ve basically got yourself a book which you can now begin selling as a front-end lead generator.)
Referral programming. List out the names of those people who have referred to you (recognition). Start a referral rewards club. Offer a great gift for referrals. Essentially, let everyone on your list know that you want and need referrals. Do not be afraid to ask for them.
Offers. A special offer each month for a particular product or service you sell. Offers for additional, valuable information.
Success stories. Write a short story about one of your clients and how they have reached a particular goal. Include a testimonial from that client. This is another way to recognize and reward, but it also serves to establish your credibility.

Step #3: Get in the mail.

This step is pretty self-explanatory. If you’re not actually in the mail, don’t expect any results.

You can supplement this system with email marketing, but email is NOT a replacement for regular snail mail. Email has many benefits and you should be doing it, too. Just don’t rely on it exclusively.

There is no more powerful marketing medium than direct mail. The internet is great, and it’s low cost is a siren song to many budding marketers, but I assure you that direct mail remains the most dominant, most personalized and most effective tool in your arsenal.

Is this expensive?

Plan on a cost of about $1 per name, per month in printing and mailing costs. If you’ve got 250 targets on your list, that’s $250 per month. Is this expensive?

No. It’s the best marketing investment you can make. How much is a new client worth to you? You’ve got to know the lifetime value of a client in order to properly assess return on investment. And ultimately, ROI is all that matters in marketing.

RECOGNIZE AND REWARD

Want to train your dog? Show him how to sit. Give him a treat and lots of loving pats and “good boy’s” when he sits. He’ll soon be sitting every time you ask him.

Same applies to referrals. This is very, very important. When you get a referral you must go overboard in recognizing and rewarding the referrer. A personal phone call. A hand written thank you card. A special gift. Do it all. Remember, that person just gave you CASH! You must recognize and reward that behavior.

Getting Consistent Referrals

The occasional referral is great. If you don’t do anything other than just be a really good Fitness Professional, you’ll probably continue to get one here and there. But generating consistent referrals requires the implementation and consistent utilization of a system.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Geez, Eric, this system sounds like a lot of work!”

Yup. It will probably take you one full day each month to produce and mail your newsletter. It isn’t easy. But nothing worthwhile is. I can assure you, however, that if you implement this system, you will begin to see absolutely amazing results. And the major reason for the results is that your competition is not doing this!

You will dramatically DIFFERENTIATE yourself and POSITION yourself as THE health and fitness expert in the eyes of your targets.

There will probably be just a trickle of response in the beginning. But as you progress and become more proficient and consistent, you will be shocked as the response grows and grows. You will gain momentum. Your list will grow. The referrals and sales will compound. If you are consistent and endeavor to deliver real value (content), recognition and reward (referral programming), compelling sales messages (offers) and credibility enhancement (success stories), within 180 days you can be getting more personal training referrals each month than you now get all year.

Avoid Myopia

Myopia – shortsightedness – is a dangerous affliction to all businesspeople. If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you could be in trouble. I say that because what I have just outlined for you is a legitimate, tested and proven relationship-building, referral and sales-generating system. A system that works, but only if you will work it.

Most fitness professionals target an upscale demographic. That’s wise. Educated and affluent people tend to better appreciate the value of personal training. And of course, they can afford it.

People in this socio-economic category rely heavily on referrals when choosing their providers. They generally do not respond well to advertising. That’s why this personalized relationship-building system works so well. Email is impersonal. Snail mail is personal. An informative newsletter gives you the proper positioning in the eyes of your targets. It’s not perceived as advertising. It’s perceived as informative – as educational – as valuable. And perception is everything.

The sad reality, however, is that you may already be thinking why you can’t do this. And your objections are probably these: takes too much time and costs too much money.

If that’s your thinking, you’re being myopic.

The first key to growing your business is to spend more time working ON your business, rather than IN your business (read Michael Gerber’s seminal book, The E-Myth).

The second key to growing your business is to view marketing as an INVESTMENT, not as a cost. If you’re not investing in your business, it will stagnate, or worse…die.

I titled this section, “How To Get More Personal Training Referrals In A Month Than You Now Get All Year.”

Great titles are very important in marketing. Like headlines, titles are the ad for your ad or the ad for your book, article, special report, etc. Have I over-promised with this title and under-delivered? Is there a value-gap?

Absolutely not. I did not promise to show you how to get more referrals this month than you now get all year. This system takes commitment and time to realize the full benefits. It may produce a handful of referrals and sales the very first month you implement it. But more likely it will build slowly and steadily. There is no magic bullet that will suddenly change your business overnight. I hope you really, really understand that. Otherwise you will jump from one (apparent) quick-fix to the next.

If you want serious, steady, consistent, reliable and practically automatic business growth, you must begin investing in the marketing of your business right now. Just as your IRA investment will compound over time, so will your marketing investment. It is a process, not an event.

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