This article talks about how clients choose PTs, and how I choose clients. I don't speak for other trainers.
The 3+3 of the PT-client relationship:
Trainers must show competence – establish trust – establish rapport
Clients must be likeable – reliable - hardworking
What makes a client choose a PT to train them? It's not a hard sell from the PT, that's for sure. Hard selling works for products, but not for services. If someone is pressured into buying a car, once they drive it out of the lot, that's that, any regrets, tough. But services are ongoing, so if the PT does the hard sell, the client will certainly sign up – but two weeks later they'll be gone. "How to choose a personal trainer" articles are all over the place, but nobody is going to follow a 10-point checklist to do it. I'm writing about what happens in practice.
To recruit a client, the personal trainer must,
- show competence – this doesn't mean showing certificates or testimonials or before and after photos, rather that something the PT says or does must make the person think, "this person knows what they're doing, and can help me with my physical issues and goals."
- establish trust – the client is going to be spending a lot of time with the trainer, they're going to have successes and failures, be embarrassed by their failures and childishly happy at their successes. The client may be obese or have previous injuries they don't want to experience again. So there has to be trust.
- establish rapport – the two of you have to get along. This doesn't mean you have to be bestest mates forever or share all your secrets with each-other, but nor should you irritate each-other.
Obviously depending on the trainer and client, different aspects will be more or less important. But all will become important as the relationship progresses. And of course, sometimes clients are not recruited by the trainer directly but come to the gym and ask for a PT, and the manager assigns the client to you – so these 3 things may or may not happen then. I would suggest that if the PT does not demonstrate competence, establish trust and rapport, then they will not get or keep clients.
"What about getting them results?" you may ask. Getting results is obviously an aspect of trainer competence. But the truth is that many clients stick with their trainers for a long time with no results after the newbie gains of the first 6-12 weeks – there's so much trust and rapport they don't care. As a trainer, I am going to strive to help my clients get results. But the honest truth is that results are not a priority for all clients.
So much for how the client chooses a trainer. How does a trainer choose a client? Obviously at the beginning of their career the PT's selection criteria will be, "Whoever will take me." Everyone's got to start somewhere, someone has to be a new PT's first client. But some trainers will be more fussy, refusing the "but I just want to tone up" clients or only having those who can train between 2 and 4 o'clock in the afternoons on Mondays and Wednesdays, or only hot chicks, or whatever. This leads to career failure, and the PT becomes yet another one lasting less than 12 months in the industry.
But I should only speak for myself. I look for three things in a client,
- likeability – this is part of rapport, but goes a bit further – do I look forward to seeing them, when they talk between sets to get more rest time, am I interested in what they say? If I see them outside sessions, do I want to stop and chat and see how they're going? Do they treat me like a person or a disdained servant?
- reliability – can they set a regular time to do sessions and stick to it, or do the events of their life (high pressure job, kids) or their lack of organisation mean I'm never sure if they'll show or not, and on time? If they can't make a session, do they let me know as soon as they know, or tell me 15 minutes before the Monday 0600 start time when I've already arrived at the gym?
- hardworking – do they come with a good "I'll give it a go!" attitude? Do they make excuses all the time and say, "I can't do that" when they just did? Do they complain of pain and restriction of movement which is serious enough to stop them doing exercises properly but never enough to send them to a medical professional? Do they rise to challenges? This is what gets results.
For me to keep a client, they must have 2 out of 3 of these aspects. If I don't really like them but they work hard and are very reliable, I will work with them because they deserve it, and really I'm not at the gym to make friends. If I like them, they always show up on time but are a bit slack, or they're somewhat unreliable but work hard when they do show up, I can forgive the slackness a bit. I'll keep working with them.
But if they are merely likeable and unreliable and lazy, or annoying and some combination of unreliable and lazy, or if even worse they're annoying, unreliable and lazy – I fire them. In some cases I'll refer them to another trainer – after all, perhaps it's just me, I don't know how to get through to them, we just don't match as trainer and client. And that's okay. But just as there are some hopeless trainers who no amount of work can help, so too there are some hopeless clients.
If a client has all 3 of those aspects, then I will spend extra time and effort with them. Provided there are no other appointments, the 0700-0730 session becomes perhaps 0700-0750. If they sign up for 2 sessions a week I might give them a free third session. I will email or text praise for their efforts in that session, remind them of their achievements, give them workout journals, t-shirts, and so on.
If someone is likeable, reliable and hardworking, I want to keep them as a client, want them to hang around, since they'll get results which make me look good and build my career, and more importantly they'll make my working day more pleasant.
Trainers must show competence – establish trust – establish rapport
Clients must be likeable – reliable - hardworking
