Don’t Train More Clients, Charge More Money

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By Sal | April 21, 2010

This may seem sacrilegious in some professional quarters, and far too many personal trainers and strength coaches are loathe to talk about it publically, but all if you're good at what you do you should charge top dollar - you should want to charge top dollar. And in the long run good personal trainers should strive to charge the highest per session fee possible with the goal of - in the long run - having to train fewer clients, not more.

Now certainly, if you want to charge more and train people all day, and can do it, more power to you.  But the longer you are in the game, the less likely it is that you will want to, or will be able to, train 40+ sessions per week.  And for those personal trainers who can/want to train at this rate for the long term, my feeling is that you may be missing other professional opportunities.

The way I look at it, if I can earn the same amount of money by training 30 sessions per week at a higher rate versus training 40 sessions at a lower rate...well do I even have to finish this statement?

In my experience, far too many of the better personal trainers that I have known have been hesitant to charge a rate that is concomitant with their high level of professional excellence. There's almost a sense that if you're good and committed to the profession, that somehow there's something wrong with also wanting to be successful financially.  There's this crazy situation in the arts, and particularly in music where some people look down on artists who want to be successful critically, commercially and financially.

This is pure nonsense.

People who display a high-degree of proficiency and excellence in any field - sports, law, painting, home construction, cooking - deserve to be paid accordingly. There's nothing honorable about performing excellent work at cut-rate prices.  If you want to call me a crass capitalist, I'm guilty as charged.

If you are hesitant to think this way, I have some questions that I want to ask you.

Do you work as hard as you can with all of your clients?

Do you design and implement programs that are truly unique and suited for the individual needs of each of your clients?

Are you aware of other personal trainers who charge more money than you and find yourself a bit envious and maybe a little pissed-off?

Do you regularly read your professional journals in an effort to improve yourself and incorporate this new knowledge into your workouts?

Do you practice what you preach and include in your personal workouts the same elements that you use with your clients?

Do you spend money to improve yourself professionally, purchase information, and attend seminars?

Anyone who answered, "Yes," to any of these questions should be charging top-dollar for providing their personal training services.  Now this rate depends what's going on in your local market¸ but if you do your homework you will know exactly how much you should charge for your time. Don't be shy, don't hold back, have confidence in your abilities.

And if you are willing and able to train 40+ appointments per week, by all means continue to do so for as long as you are willing and able.  But make sure that you are charging a rate that you deserve.

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Topics: Personal Trainer Coaching, Pricing, Sales and Marketing | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Don’t Train More Clients, Charge More Money”

  1. Christian cantu
    10:13 pm on April 21st, 2010

    I agree with you Sal
    I answer yes to all of them
    that was so interesting to read

  2. Sal
    6:32 am on April 22nd, 2010

    Christian
    Thanks much!

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