What are the basic qualities and skills that a fitness professional must have to succeed with their clients?
If you have recently graduated in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, surely now you would like to start working as a personal trainer or even launch your own training business. If so, this article will be great for you to start working in those competencies necessary to be considered a qualified person and that perhaps, you had not yet been able to develop them during the period of study and preparation. Let's go and see them!
#1 Continue to reinforce your knowledge about Sports and Health (at a scientific level)
Having adequate training is the first step in becoming a personal trainer, Yoga Instructor, Crossfit, physiotherapist or any other professional in the sector. In the previous article we talked about the importance of being up to date with what is happening in the sector, in addition to having the necessary resources or tools to make our services more professional every day. This first point, as you can see, is closely linked to the issue of being trained in the area, only here we emphasize keeping ourselves in constant training. It progresses, new needs and even new pathologies appear that every fitness and health professional should know. This is no longer just about knowing what your client needs or has in order to help him, it is also about being able to attend to or attack more and more points, to expand the concept of your business (translating this, in the future, into more customers and more sales for your business) .We leave you here
5 fitness and health databases that we consider to be the most complete to reinforce your knowledge.
#2 Understand the needs of your customers
Identifying the needs of our clients and/or target audience has to be the first thing we should think about when creating their training programs or nutritional plans. And since it is a fundamental step in improving their physical condition and establishing routine planning, having good listening skills is an indispensable aspect, so here you have two options:
- Conduct surveys, interviews, or consult online studies/reports to help you collect this data.
- Try to place yourself in the shoes of the profile of your ideal training client, to define that or those problems.
At this point we add a skill which was mentioned at a meeting organized by EOSE (European Observatory of Sport and Employment) in Helsinki (2019). To put you in context, this event aimed to discuss trends in the sports and fitness labor market, including the skills and abilities that their professionals should improve. The skill we are talking about ranges from Being able and able to work with people with disabilities, a very related point when we talk about meeting the needs present in our target audience.
#3 Strengthen your Sales and Marketing skills
It is not news to anyone that, in order to have more customers and increase the revenues of our business, we need to be able to communicate persuasively to attract or retain customers. This translates into sales and marketing techniques, two areas that every fitness professional should know at least at a basic level. To make it easier for you to work on this point, we will mention below some qualities that you will need to boost your business:
- Be able to relate
Be empathetic and attentive, each person has a different need or objective that needs to be listened to and addressed with total professionalism, so we recommend that you start to see your customers as your friends and not as simple people looking for a timely service.
- Maintain healthy optimism
We know that it is not easy to prepare the material and training for each client, and even that it is not easy to seek correct solutions when problems or disagreements arise. Start looking at these actions as part of the process of improving your business and your development as a person and continue to move forward. It's not about living in a fantasy but about knowing that reality is faced with the best attitude.
- Show that you love what you do
Believe in your services and your knowledge, this is the key to differentiating yourself from other trainers or professionals. Think that, thanks to what you do and offer, you help other people to feel better about themselves.
- Be creative
Become a narrator of anecdotes and experiences to entertain and make your customers feel identified. Think about it, if your intention to sell is hidden behind every story, the hiring process will be much more pleasant and enjoyable.
- Seize the moments
If you start to notice disinterest or lack of motivation in your clients, be able to quickly think of a new way to get their attention. Organize different routines, incentives or, since many activities will take place outdoors, look for new places that allow you not to fall into monotony.
#4 Learn to work as a team
If you work in a gym or have a business made up of different professionals in the sector, having a multidisciplinary team will be essential to achieve high performance, go further and have more impact. Some of the reasons why teamwork is necessary are:
- Empower each of your colleagues to eliminate barriers in the development of their tasks.
- It promotes a more flexible work development with less pressure.
- It promotes multidisciplinary work.
- It promotes responsibility and the capacity to respond to change.
- It promotes a sense of achievement, equity and friendship.
#5 Communicate in a transparent and continuous way
Transparent and sincere communication is essential to make your business and your work inspire trust. This is not only about informing what you offer in your platform to train your clients and manage your business, it also has to do with all the communications you make to your customers, whether through the chat within the platform itself or through social networks. Your customers want to be aware of everything that happens in the business, think that, if you change a kind of place or have improved your training program (for example), they will not like to arrive and not be aware of it. To this point we also add to keeping customers aware of the new members of your work team or even new projects that you are working on (as long as and when have an impact or involve them).
#6 Promotes innovation
Every year everything changes, evolves, and our sector is the one that is most often affected for different reasons:
- People are increasingly looking for disciplines or training that are of their liking, interest and satisfaction.
- Others seek to respond to a present need or problem, which can cause demotivation and laziness when doing exercises that are not to their liking.
- Then there are those who seek to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle from any time and place. This is a problem for many gyms or in-person sports centers.
If you look at it, everything points to the fact that monotony doesn't please or motivate anyone. You should start planning your workouts always thinking about offering something different every day. In the end, it's about offering your client a experience, a moment of disconnection from everything that surrounds you and not a simple training... Start offering unique experiences 100% adapted to the needs of your customers with the fitness business management platform Most TOP in the market
