How To Make Money As A Personal Trainer

Just like any other job, making money as a personal trainer can be a tricky thing to start and even more tricky to optimise. 

That’s why we’re here to help you get started with earning serious money on the job. Essentially, it all boils down to taking 3 vital steps:

• Improving your marketing skills
• Increasing the amount of services you offer
• Getting better at selling your services

Mastering these 3 steps will practically guarantee you more money and boost your career forwards drastically, so let’s get into it. 

But just before we do, have you considered diversifying your personal training portfolio to increase your earnings? You could take our advanced Level 4 Sports Nutrition course, to market yourself as both a personal trainer and nutritionist.

Take a look at our full course prospectus to find something you’re interested in!

STEP 1 - How to Earn Money As A Personal Trainer: Use These 5 Marketing Strategies 

Personal trainer marketing is one of the most important things to get right when running a business or brand, especially when it comes down to the personal training industry.

With no shortage of competition, you need adept marketing skills to sell yourself and stand out amidst the crowd of coaches. 

Here’s a list of helpful tips you can use to boost your business marketing and show you how to make money as a coach. 

#1 Make Money as a Personal Trainer by Starting a Referral Scheme

A referral scheme is the idea of asking your existing clients to bring a friend or family member to one of their PT sessions with the aim of enrolling them as a new client.

This is most effective when you offer the existing client a reward in return for their friend or family member signing up.

This reward could be anything you see fit; whether it be:

• A cash prize
• A free PT session
• A free product like a supplement or bundle of energy drinks

Referral programs are one of the best ways of making money as a personal trainer without any upfront costs since you only pay out once you get a new client via the scheme, at which point you’ll have made a profit that you can dip into to fund your chosen reward.

Another benefit to this marketing method is that people are far more likely to trust the word of a friend or family member than they are to trust an advert online. 

This means there’s a potentially far stronger chance that you’ll accrue new, trusting clients eager to pay for your services.

Word of mouth marketing is extremely effective in this way, as trust is an extremely difficult thing to buy when it comes to advertising to potential consumers. 

For an example, just take a look at how Fit4Life Health Clubs operates their referral scheme:

After referring a friend, existing clients can choose the reward they want (as seen above), further incentivising them to use the referral scheme in the first place. 

As a large chain of gyms, Fit4Life has access to a mobile app to carry out their referral program, but to the individual business owner, this isn’t always practical.

You could take Combat Fitness Cult as a more accessible example.

This referral system is as simple as having your existing client show up with a friend, and should they enrol on to your training regime, you grant your chosen reward to the existing client. 

#2 - Prioritise Client Retention to Make Good Money as a Personal Trainer

Client retention is vital to making money as a personal trainer for a variety of reasons.

First of all, it’s far easier and cheaper to maintain existing clients than it is to go out and find new ones. 

Having a consistent group of people paying you for your weekly services provides a financial safety net for you to rely on- there may be times when you earn more or less money than expected, but these core, retained clients will remain as a constant stream of income.

Another key reason is that retention generates loyalty, possibly the most powerful dynamic in the relationship between a trainer and their clients. 

A client’s loyalty makes them and their money more dependable, a true virtue in the business of a PT. 

Loyalty also helps to massively strengthen your reputation, particularly when it comes to word of mouth.

If your clients have faith and trust in you, they’re far more likely to spread great things about you and your business, promoting you to new potential clients for free. 

So, how can you make efforts to prioritise client retention?

Well, you could start by acknowledging your client’s performances and achievements. Nothing promotes loyalty and retention more than positive and constructive feedback, so you should always be aware of the individual goals and milestones of all of your clients and celebrate them!

This could be as simple as an enthusiastic pat on the back, or you could even promote their progress on your business’ social media accounts to celebrate them publicly.

Joe Neill Fitness is a personal training brand that does this excellently on Facebook, promoting the life-changing transformations his clients have gone through.

A step further than this could be to start a reward scheme.

You could do this by giving small rewards when a client reaches a certain milestone, such as:

• A free sample of a supplement
• A discounted session
• Cheap workout attire
• Free session for a friend

If you want a more in-depth breakdown of the many facets of PT client retention, you can take a look at our article by clicking the link above which will explain everything you need to know.

#3 How to Make Money as a Fitness Instructor with Facebook/Instagram Ads

Advertising your business on social media platforms has never been easier, with sites like Facebook and Instagram being an extremely accessible and affordable way to market your PT business.

Opposed to just posting on Facebook and Instagram, using Ads shows your business page to people who may be interested in your services but don’t already ‘follow’ or ‘like’ your page.

When your posts are shown to people who wouldn’t otherwise know about your business, it grants you access to a whole new pool of potential clients; this means more inquiries, helping you to make more money.

One of the best things about Facebook and Instagram Ads is their capabilities when it comes to targeted marketing.

The biggest issue with advertising in a more traditional sense (such as buying space in a newspaper) is that it can be extremely difficult to target your service to the right market, often leaving your advertisement falling on deaf ears.

This problem is solved with Facebook advertising, as you can target specific demographics that are more likely to be interested in your personal training business, filtering categories such as:

• Interests
• Age range 
• Location

You can promote yourself to local and ideal clients with the click of a button.

According to this article from ‘eclincher.com’, you can even target people who like the pages of your competitors, allowing you to potentially swoop up clients from industry rivals!

By taking advantage of Instagram’s user database algorithms, you can market your business directly to people who are already interested in closely related topics, heightening the likelihood of them engaging with you.

This process is done automatically, you can just sit back and let the social media giant do the outreaching for you.

One of the most effective ways to use this tool, is to have your posts pop up in between people’s stories, like this:

Having posts appear amidst the popular stories section is a great way to make your advertisements appear as natural and genuine as possible. 

Including a link on the Ad, as shown above, is a great way to source potential clients and have them visit your site to make an inquiry or sign up for a consultation.

This is among the best ways to make money as a personal trainer, as you’re actively targeting potential clients on sites that they spend a lot of time on.

It’s really easy to start this online advertising process- for a deep-dive into the nitty gritty of it all, you can take a look at this video:

Taking advantage of social media outlets is a great way to make more money as a personal trainer, if you're interested to explore more on the topic, then check out the following:

• Personal Trainer Social Media: Ideas, Examples and Schedule
• Personal Trainer Marketing Strategies and Tips
• Types of Professional Development for Personal Trainers

#4 Use Google Ads to Make Money as a Personal Trainer

Using Google Ads is essential when it comes to marketing your business online. Think about it, when you want to buy a product or service, what do you do? You Google it! 

So, when you’re thinking of how to make money as a personal trainer online, it just makes sense to advertise in Google.

With Google Ads, you can target key phrases that you think prospective clients will be searching when looking for a PT.

So, should a client search for a key phrase along the lines of ‘personal trainer one to one session’, for example, Google Ads can put your business and website at the top of the search results.

This makes it far easier for potential clients to click on your page and go on to make an inquiry.

As long as you have the skills to convert these inquiries into paying clients, this is one of the best ways to make money as a personal trainer.

Having your business highlighted above others not only makes you more visible to potential clients, but also lends an air of authenticity to your brand and your business, since you’ll be promoted above rival trainers.

Take Andy Griffiths, for instance.

Andy’s training business leaps to the top of the Google homepage upon searching for keywords heavily related to personal training services, such as ‘personal trainer for weight loss’.

Because of this, his business is benefitting directly from his investment into Google Ads, enabling him to be ranked above his peers, likely getting more inquiries and therefore earning more money from this move.

Another example would be this PT, having taken advantage of a localised keyword, in this case ‘Personal Trainer Chester’.

Just as KT Chaloner has, you can take advantage of a keyword relevant to your local area to find clients nearby, rather than having your ad pop up for people so far away that your service becomes inaccessible.

Google Ads are pretty cheap, too. 

You only pay for them if an interested user clicks on your ad link, and if you’re worried about your link becoming so popular that you end up bankrupt, then don’t fret- you can add a monthly spending cap to any of your ad campaigns.

It’s incredibly easy to set up Google Ads. To start with, you’ll need a Google account. 

Once you have that, you’ll need to access the Google Ads site and select what exactly you want to achieve from your advert, whether that’s more clicks to your site or more phone call enquiries.

Then, using a simple slider mechanic, decide the proximity that you want your ad to reach; this could be your local city centre or the entire country, but it’s best you market yourself within your ability to meet expectations, so choose wisely.

Now you’ll need to design what people see when your ad first pops up. This could be a few carefully written lines about the skills you possess or a snappy header to catch a client’s eye, but whatever it is, make sure it’s engaging.

Then comes spending cap management, a relatively simple process whereby you allocate a certain amount of money you’re willing to spend on Google Ads per month.

Just like that, you’re good to go live! 

If you’re wondering how to make a living as a fitness instructor, then investing in Google ads is a surefire way to promote your business online, attract clients, and start earning money.

#5 How to Make More Money as a Personal Trainer With Google My Business 

Google My Business is the most straightforward method of marketing yourself on the web, and it can be a valuable tool when it comes to how to make money as an online personal trainer.

Best of all, it’s totally free!

By signing up your personal training business with this service, you’ll pop up on Google amidst other local businesses in the area as an icon over a map. 

It’s an extremely easy way for people to find your brand online and proceed to locate your place of business immediately and easily.

Here’s an example of what to expect- no doubt you’ve seen this section of Google before, so go ahead and get your business registered to appear on the front page of Google!

This is where customers and clients find the most basic, foundational information about a business which should include:

• Contact number 
• Address of your place of business 
• Operating times

In terms of set-up, it’s intuitive and straightforward.

All you need to do is log into Google Business Profile Manager with your Google account. From there, simply add in your business details and contact information.

Then it’s just a case of verifying your request, and you’re good to go! A significant marketing strategy promoting your training business online for free, bound to help you make more money.

If you want to learn how to use Google My Business as a personal trainer, then click the link to read our article breaking down everything you need to know about the online marketing service.

If you’re looking to begin your money-making endeavour on a budget, then it’d be worth your time to watch our video, ‘How to Start a Personal Training Business with No Money’ and start earning as a fitness instructor.

STEP 2 - How to Make Money Being a Personal Trainer: 6 Ways You Can Expand Your Services

Expanding your services is one of the most important things you can do to make more money as a personal trainer due to the simple fact that you’ll get more clients.

Offering a variety of services means you can cast out a wider net to attract a larger, more diverse client pool - which is a great way to pull together the largest number of clients possible.

This, in turn, leads to more sales opportunities, which of course results in far more money.

Your clients also get more value for their money, as you’re offering extra opportunities for them to participate in and benefit from. This not only means you can make more money per client, but it also serves to boost your reputation and could be the reason why clients choose you over a rival PT.

With all that said, let’s get into the ways you can expand your services to make more money as a personal trainer.

#1 Making Money as a Personal Trainer With Small Group Training

Small group personal training can be done in one of two different ways, either by having all clients in the group performing the same exercises or managing each person individually.

The idea is that you run a session with 3-4 clients at a time offering a reduced price for each client, so that it’s cheaper for them but, overall, you make more money for your time than you would have by just coaching one person.

An example would be that say, for a 1-on-1 session, you’d normally charge £20 an hour, but for a 1-on-4 group session, you charge each client £10 for the hour. This means you’ll be making £40, getting double the money for the same amount of time, whilst your client only has to pay half price. 

It’s a win-win, right? 

Victory Lap Fitness manages this offer very effectively.

By committing to this expanded service, you can reach additional clients that don’t have the disposable income to pay for a full 1-on-1 session, therefore increasing your client pool and making more money for your time simultaneously.

Implementing small group classes into your schedule is among the best ways to make money as a personal trainer by maximising your income per hour.

#2 Offer Sports Massage Therapy Sessions to Make More Money as a Personal Trainer

Getting qualified in sports massage therapy is a great avenue to help earn some extra cash, as it’s a skill with high demand. 

Having this qualification on your CV would mean you can refer clients between services, increasing your money-earning potential.

SMT goes hand-in-hand with personal training, as it’s likely that a client might need your skills to make their recovery more effective after a particularly tough workout or injury, so an extension of your services is only natural. 

On the flip side, people who come to you exclusively for sports massage may be interested in acquiring a PT, so you’d likely be the first option. 

This is something that Vale Muscle Therapy has taken advantage of by offering both sports massage and personal training services.

They charge £30 an hour for an SMT session- using this pricing model, let's take a look at the numbers.

If you were to spare just 3 hours a week for additional sessions, you could be earning almost an extra £100 per week. By ramping up the amount of sessions you provide or simply by charging more (given that £30 is relatively cheap for a specialist service), you could see a huge bump in your revenue!

#3 How to Make More Money as a Personal Trainer Using Boot Camps

Starting a boot camp would be a great way to diversify your current services- just think along the lines of small group training but on a considerably larger scale. 

Adding this service to your resume could entice some on-the-fence clients who might not be too keen on paying for or participating in 1-1 sessions, again allowing you to access a wider demographic of clients and ultimately allowing you to earn more money.

In terms of cost, hosting a class in a public space is totally free, meaning you can maximise your profits. Again, following the same logic of the small group training, you could charge the individual client less but still earn more per hour than a 1-to-1 session, creating a mutually beneficial session. 

Starting a boot camp is actually much more straightforward than you might think.

Firstly, you’d need to find a suitable location. Any large outdoor space like a park or the beach is ideal, especially in the summer. 

Next, you’d need to have a decent amount of basic gym equipment. This could include:

• Barbell
• Kettlebell
• Medicine ball

Fortunately, you can minimise the amount of equipment you need by including plenty of bodyweight exercise and centering your boot camps around high intensity interval training (HIIT) and circuit-style training, having clients doing different exercises and using various equipment simultaneously. 

You could follow the footsteps of Boot Camp UK and adapt their successful pricing model.

This business is offering 6 hour-long boot camps a month for a fee of £31.99- now, with just a little speculation, let’s say you get 10 additional clients interested in signing up for this service…

For just 6 hours of your time, you’d be making over £300 extra per month, just imagine if you decided to upscale your operation and add more classes!

The bottom line is, you could make a lot of cash compared to the amount of time you’d need to commit to this service.

If you’re asking yourself how to make good money as a personal trainer, there aren’t many better ways than to get qualified in a specialist subject to enhance your services. 

#4 Sell Online Programmes to Earn More Money as a Personal Trainer

Selling an online programme is one of the easiest additional ways to make money as a personal trainer simply by creating a number of standardised services.

This could include specific programmes catered around:

• Losing weight 
• Gaining muscle 
• Eating healthier 

The main benefit of providing this offer is that you only have to put in the work once- after you initially create the programme, you just need to advertise it well and it becomes a source of passive income.

Personal training can be a time consuming profession, so any way that you can generate passive income is a phenomenal way to earn more money as a personal trainer. 

Take for example the programmes that Mad Muscle provides:

Not only do they provide a valuable service, but they also give clients the option to subscribe to an extended plan for less per month, but more overall.

Using Mad Muscle’s pricing scheme as an example, we can see that subscriptions are broken up into 3 distinct and simple packages. We have:

• 1 month plan
• 2 month plan
• 3 month plan

Each of these plans come customised with an individual client’s goal in mind, meaning a client who seeks to lose weight will be referred to a separate plan than a client who wishes to gain muscle.

Offering a variety of packages for different purposes under a variety of subscription times gives your business an incredible amount of versatility when it comes to satisfying a client’s needs.

This is a great idea to implement if you want to make more money, as the passive income can stack up into a significant amount if just a few of your clients were to subscribe.

It also makes you look more legitimate and professional, as potential clients are always on the lookout for useful bonus services.

#5 Generate Additional Income By Selling Supplements 

This is a pretty niche but effective and easy way to make more money as a personal trainer.

There are many companies that offer affiliate schemes for you to sign up with, which allow you to sell products on their behalf and take a cut of the profits for yourself. 

It doesn’t take much work at all, especially as it’s likely that your clients and followers will be buying supplements anyway. Just some products you could promote and sell include:

• Protein powder
• Pre-made meals
• Pre-workout

Considering your clients and followers are either interested in or already buying supplements, it’s no real hassle to promote your affiliate status and have them buy their supplements through a scheme that’ll benefit your bank account.

Take a look at MyProtein, for instance:

All you have to do is get in touch via the link above, enter your details and you could be earning as much as 8% commission on any sales that you drive to their website.

You’ll be given a unique partner code that your clients can enter at the checkout, giving them a discount on the product they want and giving you a little extra cash. 

Being affiliated with a well-known brand such as MyProtein will do wonders for your own brand and business- people see this as a stamp of authenticity, and are more likely to trust in you and engage in your services. 

When it comes to how to make money as a coach, associating yourself with a nationwide brand via an affiliate scheme is a great place to start.

This is something that personal trainers on Instagram are taking advantage of daily, such as Noagaspar.

This goes to show that even one person running a small business operation can partner with a brand (in this case Protein World) to make more money as a personal trainer.

#6 Sell Meal Plans to Increase Your Income as a Personal Trainer

Selling a meal plan is relatively similar to providing an online programme, in that it requires little little time and can yield a lot of money in return.

If you wanted to take this service a step further, you could begin to work closely with individual clients to develop custom, bespoke meal plans tailored exclusively to their needs.

Because of this, you can charge a lot more as you’d have to craft a new meal plan each time for different clients, relative to their 

• Goals
• Preferences
• Lifestyle
• Dietary requirements

Having said this, you’ll need to have adept knowledge in the field of nutrition. 

If you haven’t got that experience already, completing our Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition course would give you the knowledge to write meal plans for any client with any goal, and for a hefty price at that. 

The course can be completed in as little as 2 weeks and can even be done entirely online to adhere to your schedule, and it’s even CIMSPA approved!

Just look at local business, Phil Davis Personal Training.

As you can see, Phil’s service includes everything a client will need to get their new diet plan up and running.

This is something that you can easily implement yourself! 

The process starts with asking the client an obvious question- what do they want?

Once you have a clear picture of their goal within a certain time frame, you can get to work on crafting a sustainable diet plan that your client can successfully adhere to. 

Then you need to get into the specifics, as Phil does. Offer unique insights into the micronutrients your client will be consuming, and emphasise why they should be eating what they’re eating.

Next comes something basic but really important- a shopping list! By providing your client with a list of everything they'll need to make the meals in their tailored plan, you can make it as easy as possible for them to stay on track and see results.

Finally, of course, you need to offer specific instructions when it comes to putting together recipes. If you miss even a single step from the process, then your client’s progress could be negatively impacted, so stay on the ball. 

In terms of money, the nature of these bespoke plans means more work and more hours you’ll need to put in, so be sure to charge extra to compensate and tap into one of the best ways to make money as a personal trainer.

STEP 3 - Use These Sales Techniques to Make More Money As A Personal Trainer

The ability to sell your personal training skills is one of, if not the, most important skills to have if you want to make a lot of money as a PT. 

It’s all about streamlining your service, from reaching out to prospects all the way down to sealing the deal, and the right sales strategy is the difference between just getting by and making a lot of money as a personal trainer.

The bottom line is, these techniques will determine how much money you make from your clients, so let’s go ahead and get into the list!

#1 Offer Packages Rather Than Block Sessions

Just before we start, if you’d prefer to watch a video explaining the intricacies of PT packages, then just click below!

This is definitely one of the most vital sales techniques you can take advantage of to make money as a personal trainer.

Let’s break down how exactly this should work.

Firstly, your packages should follow the pricing structure of a monthly payment that clients pay via direct debit over a contracted period. We recommend having clients sign up for a 6 month contract.

Selling PT services as monthly packages alleviates frequent issues found with a block session plan, specifically in that block sessions come with a defined end date.

To elaborate, let’s say that you charge a client for a block of 10 sessions for your given price… what next? Here are the main problems stemming from this issue:

Reselling Halts Your Income

When the sessions are up, you have to resell them to the client. This alone is a time-consuming hassle, but let’s take it a step further- what if the client isn’t inclined to immediately sign back on with you due to:

• Holidays
• Events 
• Other obligations

That could see you having gaps in your income, whilst clients decide whether they want to buy another block of sessions or worse, losing the client altogether!

Selling in Block Sessions Causes Financial Insecurity

For the reasons outlined above, selling blocks of sessions can leave you in a position of financial insecurity, which is less than ideal considering your income depends on your ability to secure and maintain clients. 

This insecurity also hinders your ability to forecast your earnings, meaning you can’t properly calculate what your cost of living should be since your incoming payments are inconsistent due to gaps.

Selling Blocks of Sessions Can Result in Dilution of Price

Another difficulty with reselling is that a client might try to haggle you, having maybe found a lower price from a competitor. 

You never want to undersell yourself, but without having the client locked into a sturdy payment system over a long period of time, you may be put in a position where you have no choice but to compromise.

How to Make More Money As A Personal Trainer With Monthly Packages

Now that we’ve established why you shouldn’t use block sessions as an infrastructure for your classes, let’s get into what makes a good subscription-based packaging model.

Make Your Package Options As Simple As Possible

First things first, you want to make sure that your packages are as simple for a client to digest as possible. A major pitfall of weaker package options is that they complicate things with too many options, catering to every available price or time frame a client may want to occupy.

This will drastically alter your closing sales ratios during the point of consultation, purely by overcomplicating your sales package structure, which you need to avoid if you want to make good money as a personal trainer.

Let’s take a look at a good example of simple yet effective pricing structure:

Following this subscription model will streamline your business, having clients easily fit into 3 categories rather than an unmanageable number caused by too many variables. 

The constant, rolling monthly contract means you’re able to guarantee income by locking in clients. 

The idea here is that you have control over your time and your finances by limiting the amount of freedom a client has to customise their experience with you.

Ask Clients to Set Up A Direct Debit

Once your clients have chosen their PT package, the easiest way to get them to pay (and keep paying) is to ask clients to set up a monthly direct debit payment to pay for your services.

Overtime, clients will start to see their monthly direct debit as one of their standard bills, improving client retention and helping you to earn a stable income.

Whilst clients might be inclined to ‘forget’ to transfer you money every month or suddenly decide that they no longer want to pay for your services, having clients set up a direct debit makes it much less likely that this will happen.

If your clients have a direct debit in place, you’ll know exactly when you’ll receive their payment. Plus, it’s a lot more effort to cancel and set-up a new direct debit, which means clients will be less inclined to do so.

Make Your Monthly Packages Easy to Upsell

The key to making money as a personal trainer and an important tip to keep in mind when tailoring your unique pricing model is to always upsell to your highest package(s). This means that you shouldn't even offer your lowest packages to potential clients- you always want to highlight your most expensive offers, such as a Silver or Gold package.

People will always be drawn to cheaper options, so make sure you don't highlight the cheapest option you have; promote a middling option as a cheaper alternative!

The idea behind this is relatively straightforward once you’re aware of it. Using the above table, let’s say that you had 25 clients subscribed to the bronze package as it’s the cheapest per month. 

Now, should you only advertise the gold package to prospective clients, you’re likely to sell less as it’s more expensive, so say 15 clients sign up. 

Let’s look at how much you make per month with these numbers in each model. 

25 clients on Bronze= £3,000

15 clients on Gold= £4,320

As you can see, you’ll be making considerably more money despite the fact that you actually have less clients with the Gold model, but the advantages don’t stop there.

By cutting clients and increasing costs, you’ll actually have a far easier time managing your business given that you have less people to look after. This has a ripple effect on the rest of your administrative obligations, including less:

• Scheduling
• Phone calls
• Emailing 

Following the model of the Gold package further, clients are more inclined to spend more on a larger package if they see that they’re getting more value for money.

When you consider that the Bronze package works out at £30 an hour and the Gold is just £24, it’s enticing for a prospect to go for the larger package, allowing you to make more money as a personal trainer.

Finding your stride when it comes to customising your payment packages can be tough- if you’re looking for personal training package ideas and inspiration, then look no further than our site by clicking the link above!

#2 Do Market Research to See if You Can Charge More as a Personal Trainer

When considering what prices to sell your training services at, you need to constantly be aware of the competition as well as your own offers and qualifications.

You should head online and put some research into rival trainers, mark down their prices per hour or month and compare it against your own in a table.

If you can’t find a competitor’s pricing, then you should do a ‘mystery shop’ by making a fake enquiry and asking them directly. 

From this, you’ll need to analyse whether or not you can justify raising your prices by looking at metrics such as:

• If a significant amount of competitors are charging more than you
• If you offer more services than those who are are charging more
• If you’re more qualified than those charging more

On the flip side of this, you need to be careful when bumping your prices up- you need to be conscious of your business and your ability. If you’re newly established, it’s important to find a base of clients and boost your reputation before even considering upping your prices.

You shouldn’t immediately charge more than someone who’s been known and trusted in the industry for years simply because you might be more qualified or offer more services. 

Take your time and assess your peers regularly to monitor any trends or changes in your local PT sphere. This will not only inform you of whether or not you could be making more money, you could also pick up a thing or two about optimising your marketing strategies. 

Let’s visualise this as a hypothetical example:

If the most popular personal trainer in your area charges £40 per hour, and you consider yourself as good as them but only charge £30, you should consider rising to £35. This way, you’re notably closer to matching their profits without exceeding them, so you still stand out as a cheaper alternative.

Putting this increase into action, if you have 20 client sessions a week at £30, you’d be taking home a weekly £600.

If you run with the raised price of £35 per hour, you make £700- an extra £100 every week without taking on any more clients or doing any additional work. 

One thing to consider when hiking up your prices is to know your market and don’t stray too far from it; you want to be careful not to totally price-out the loyal clients you’ve built up over time and jump to a totally new market threshold where you don’t have as much influence. 

If you’re wondering how to make a living as a personal trainer, then you need to keep a sharp eye on the local market and adjust your prices and services accordingly.

#3 Get Better at Converting Leads Into Clients

Converting leads is the process of marrying your marketing efforts with your sales strategy to ultimately make money.

By this, we mean that the main aim of marketing is to increase the amount of enquiries your business receives, and the aim of sales is to then convert these enquiries into clients.

Getting better at this conversion is incredibly important to your business, since you can have the best marketing strategies in the world but at the end of the day if you can't make a sale, you won’t last very long! 

If you're wondering how to make good money as a personal trainer, here's how to help you seal the deal with a client. 

Add a Joiner’s Discount

By implementing something such as a discount on the first month of training, you’ll entice the prospect in further and create a sort of ‘now or never’ scenario for them to take advantage of the deal.

Better yet, if you say you’re ending the deal soon, and give a specific date and time, it adds a ticking clock to their decision, putting them on the spot and adding positive pressure. 

Take our strategy as an example; the deadline for the deal is specific, clarifying the window of time your potential client will need to seal the deal.

Summarise

Whilst this one seems obvious, you’d be surprised how easily you can miss it off if you’re not focusing. The idea is to wrap up all the positive services you offer at the end of a consultation.

Firstly, start off by simply summarising everything beneficial about your personal training business and how it will positively impact the potential client.

You really want to sell yourself here, it’d even help to mention previous examples of client success stories that you’ve overseen.

Next, you need to go into serious detail regarding your skills and what exactly you can do for your client-to-be to make their goals a reality.

Being vague isn’t enough as you’ll come across as unprepared and unsure of how to help them as an individual. 

Finally, stay efficient! There’s probably a lot of information you want to pack into this summary, but you need to make sure you don’t ramble on and on.

Finding a sweet spot between valuable information and the time it takes to convey it will wrap your consultation up neatly. 

Ask a Question

Here you need to ask leading, closed questions that portray you in a positive light whilst also giving you the chance to dispel any doubt that the prospective client may have. For example, instead of asking “Would you like to sign up?” which gives clients the option to answer yes or no, ask:

‘’Which option suits you more, the Gold package or the Silver package?’’

This phrasing prompts the potential client to lock into one of your packages without giving them an explicit avenue to refuse your offer.

It’s a simple psychological trick designed to ensure a customer, so it’s worth utilising as you attempt to turn leads into clients. 

Each of these prompts and techniques are designed with the same end goal in mind: secure a client and help you with how to make the most money as a personal trainer that you possibly can.

Before You Go!

Now you’ve learned how to make more money as a personal trainer by utilising these essential skills in your own business.

As we all know, adding to your services is a great way to increase income - you can do this with specialist courses such as our Level 4 Sports Nutrition Course and make money by marketing yourself as both a personal trainer and nutritionist.

Or find something else that works for you by taking a look at our full course prospectus!