Creating Chaos - For Fitness & Sport Professionals

This may appear a strange title for a blog, after all, there can't be that many occasions when trainers are looking to off-load clients. Moving abroad? Industry change? I'm sure you can agree that most coaches would be far more interested in how to keep hold of clients. This is quite a difficult art to get across as it is completely relative to the type of clients you have and their behaviours. So why am I writing this? Well, after years of managing, mentoring and assisting personal trainers, it's much easier to point out the things that send clients packing. Therefore, if you can avoid making these mistakes, you'll be well on your way to keeping hold of those coveted lifetime clients:

• Making suggestions is better than being a dictator. Ok, we've all got areas of expertise and great knowledge that can hugely benefit clients. Some clients will take your suggestions on board straight away, others may have the best intentions and lack the execution and others may dismiss it. That's just life and we all have different beliefs that can often shape how we accept information. Being a personal trainer is a very privileged position and clients will often confide in you leaving you advising on all sorts of areas of their life. Demanding clients to make certain choices is patronising and an abuse on the client-trainer relationship. Not only does telling clients what to do pre-suggest they don't understand right from wrong, it also pre-supposes that what you are saying is absolute fact. Unless you've conducted your own empirical research, your knowledge is based on the teaching of others and we all work in a fast moving industry where research can often contradict the practises of decades. The last thing you want is a client turning up in a few years time blaming you for telling them to make a certain decision. Simply make suggestions.
• Give your clients choice. Some more than others but we all enjoy a degree of control, especially in our day to day lives. Giving your clients choice over the exercises they do, the food choices they make and the paths they lead will not only help them to start making more informed choices, it also gives them a certain ownership over the programme which will aid their level of commitment.
• Listen to your client. It baffles me how many assumptions are made by people working in the fitness industry. A friend of my wife recently joined a gym. For the purposes of this article, let's call her Sarah. Upon Sarah's induction, she was met with a young and enthusiastic fitness instructor who's job was to fully introduce Sarah to the gym and give her a tailored programme. Sarah is sporty and has been for years. Her aim was to improve her strength and her performance in hockey. "So, where are you looking to lose weight from?" was the first enquiry of the instructor. "I'm not looking to lose weight, I just want to improve my performance in hockey, improve my speed and strength". "Ok, obliged the instructor". The first machine introduced was a seated adductor machine "This will help you lose weight and tone around your inner thigh". Sarah retorted "I'm not looking to lose weight, I just want to know how to increase strength". This went on and 3 or 4 more exercise stations were shown that could apparently burn fat like no other. Whilst many clients are looking to change aesthetics in someway, this isn't a pre-cursor for every client. Listen to what your client wants and relate everything to that. There's a big hint in what clients want. This is precisely what they value.

There's plenty more examples of common errors that are made. I'm sure you've seen some too. Please add to this with experiences that you've witnessed.