What Makes A High-Value Personal Trainer?

If you want better results for your clients, greater satisfaction in your work, and the reputation to charge more for your services, the answer to that question feeds all three.

(If you don’t want any of those things, are you sure you’re in the right profession?)

Figuring out the answer is your foundation towards providing people with greater return on their investment in your coaching.

Here's a simple lens. The value of any product, program or service comes down to how well it hits the intended outcome, and what the experience of getting there was like. Value = Results + Process.

Personal training has a strange quirk. Unlike most coaching relationships, you can get a few half-decent results without truly knowing what you're doing. Build a process clients enjoy, with sessions they look forward to, and they tend to stick with it

Any experienced trainer will tell you adherence is the main driver of progress for most of the population. When a client isn't progressing, the cause is usually how consistently and accurately they're training, not the contents of the program — and a scientifically-sound program nobody shows up for is worth nothing.

So "I make fitness fun" carries real weight, because plenty of people quietly dread working out, and that dread is the daily barrier. Worth noting, though: a good group class does the same job. Your client might prefer the privacy and attention of a one-to-one, but on fun alone the offer isn't far apart, and group classes tend to cost a quarter of a decent PT session. Fun and entertainment, on their own, are a low-value offering.

To justify a price well above a group class, the offer has to be well above it too. You can't only make fitness fun. You have to solve problems.

Problem-solvers are thinkers, and people lost in thought aren't much fun to be around. (Are you the life of the party with something heavy on your mind?) Solving a client's problem takes tools, mental and physical, and the more fluent you are with them, the less conscious thought each one demands. Once the tools are second nature, your attention comes back to the person in front of you, and you can lighten the room and make the session both effective and enjoyable.

So here's the answer. A high-value personal trainer is a skilled, well-versed professional who can solve complex problems using a client-friendly approach to create a client-focused environment.

Simple — right?

Learn how on RTS Level 1.