Guest Post by Sohee Lee, NSCA-CSCS personal trainer, online coach and writer. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in human biology from Stanford University, she interned at Cressey Performance and worked at Peak Performace in NYC as a personal trainer. Sohee specializes in women’s fat loss and the fitness mindset.

Online trainers are a dime and dozen nowadays. More and more fitness professionals are making themselves available to provide their services to people all over the world via the Internet. For a fraction of the cost of hiring a personal trainer, people have access to quality coaching and never have to worry about having to cancel or re-schedule a training session.

This means that we’re able to expand our reach to more than the 10 clients we may train in the gym on any given day, and the fitness truth gets spread like wildfire.

And that’s excellent news.

But as an online trainer myself, I can understand that it might be slightly disconcerting. With a seemingly saturated market, how do I make myself stand out? How do I recruit clients, and more importantly, how do I get them to stick around?

Be prompt

I often read about coaches missing out on opportunities with prospective clients simply because they take forever to reply to an e-mail – or worse, never bother to get back to them. When an individual reaches out to you, that’s the prime opportunity to impress him with an immediate response and take the first step toward establishing a connection.

I understand that an online medium to recruit clients is different from in-person sales; we lack the face-to-face factor, and a lot can get lost in translation over email.

With that said, a 24-hour turnaround should be the absolute maximum to keep someone waiting when he’s inquiring about your services.

This simple tip can differentiate you from the rest of the herd of online coaches. I know that it sounds incredibly basic, but there are so many coaches out there who take over a week to respond to inquiries. This is not okay.

Once you impress their socks off and they hire you to help them with their fitness goals, it should be a given to continue to be prompt – perhaps even more so than before. If they ask you a question, answer as quickly as you can.

If there’s ever an instance when you know you won’t be able to respond for a designated time period (eg. traveling, jury duty) give them a heads up beforehand. They’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Be honest and clear about what to expect. Then follow through.

When a prospective client first reaches out to you, he wants to know not only the cost of the services you provide, but also what your services entail.

They likely want to know the answers to questions such as:

• What will my nutrition program consist of?
• How in-depth will you go with my training program?
• How often do you require check-ins?
• Do I get unlimited e-mail support with you?
• How often will you make changes to my program?
• Are there any prerequisites for becoming a client of yours?

It would make sense, then, to provide all of this information upfront. I like to be as detailed as possible about what the client should expect without actually giving the program away.

Once a prospective client becomes an actual client, the next logical step would be to actually follow through on your promises. Do not – absolutely do not – hype up your services by guaranteeing x, y, z, and then fail to deliver.

If you told him you update training programs every four weeks, then make sure you do so. Don’t be late. If you tell him you have a check-in turnaround of 2-3 business days, he will actually expect to hear back from you within that timeframe.

If you set up false expectations, not only will the client remember this, but he will make it a point to let his friends know. Then you will have lost not only the one client, but also potentially a handful of others as well.

Give a little extra.

This is perhaps my favorite part of coaching – delivering a little bit more than they were expecting and wowing them.

Overdeliver. If he sends in a check-in on a Tuesday and is supposed to hear back by Friday (as per your 3-business day turnaround), maybe send him an update on Wednesday. It’llcatch him off guard and he’ll appreciate you as a coach. Perhaps provide a free workout every once in a while, maybe when the holidays come around. For example, you could send all your clients a Mother’s Day partner workout that they can do with their mothers.

Just do something small. It doesn’t even have to cost you anything.

They’ll remember it forever, and I guarantee you they’ll be much more likely to stick around.

Reach out to them first.

One of the main reasons that people quit their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated at work. I imagine that this must be much the same way with clients leaving their online coaches.

Your clients want to feel like they matter to you. They don’t want to be just another dollar sign that helps pay your rent. They want you to genuinely care about their well-being.

Take the initiative to reach out to them first. If you haven’t heard from them in a few days or if they’ve missed a check-in – send over a quick e-mail asking if everything’s alright. If you know it was a client’s daughter’s birthday this past weekend, ask how it went.

Don’t just wait around for them to contact you. Simply assuming that their radio silence means that they’re doing just fine can be wildly inaccurate. Perhaps he’s missed his workouts for a week and he’s been feeling some guilt about it. If you ask him how he’s been doing with his fitness, you’ll help to establish trust with him, and he’ll be more likely to be honest about his struggles with you.

Establish camaraderie.

Whether it’s through a closed Facebook group reserved just for your clients or perhaps a separate fitness forum, you want to have a landing place for the like-minded folks to mingle.

Clients need to feel camaraderie, and they need to know that they’re not alone in their journeys. Simply whipping up a fitness program and sending them off on their merry way is not enough; they need the social support as well.

They probably like hearing from you, but they’ll love it that much more if they can establish relationships with your other clients as well. They can share recipes, offer advice, and celebrate small victories together.

Create a team; create a family. – Sohee

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