Show notes:
As I keep saying, the fitness industry and personal training business works so much better when it is built on relationships.
Good relationships means great communication with your people, it means knowing how to serve them in the best way possible. And it also means loyalty both ways which benefits you and your clients or members.
Another way to use the power of relationships is by growing a network of special people where each of you can help get support and advice but also help grow each other's businesses.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about other experts that you can work with that are in a complimentary business or industry to personal training that you can learn from and get referrals from and vise-versa.
So here is a quick list of my top 5 people that are experts in their given area that you should be in relationships with as soon as possible.
Other personal trainers
So you should have a good network of trainers that firstly are in a different speciality to you. So let’s say you are right now a transformation trainer. And a lady comes to you wanting to transform herself after giving birth to her first child a few months ago.
Now, if you ask me, that is ideally a job for a specialist and someone that has even gone through the process themselves.
So, if you have a connection to a trainer that works with women in this situation, you can take care of this client in the best way possible by referring them to another trainer.
By doing this you can give great service and also potentially earn some kind of commission for the referral. Or, you can have a standing arrangement with the other trainer so that they will send clients your way when someone comes along that doesn’t quite fit their business.
Let’s say this same lady client doesn’t go to you, but straight to their specialist trainer. She is having a great experience and is getting results. She tells her trainer that her husband wants to start some training and is there a trainer she recommends since she doesn’t work with men.
You can be that trainer that she recommends!
You should also have relationships with trainers in the same specialty as you. You can always send each other business if someone comes your way, but you can’t train them for a reason such as travel distance, price or something like just the calendars are not matching up and you can’t fit them in.
Instead of just letting them go, you can refer them to another trainer that will do the same for you meaning you will still gain clients in the long run.
So get to know some other trainers that are good trainers so you feel comfortable recommending them. But also, these trainers need to be on the same wavelength as you so you know they see the benefit of these arrangements and you can trust they will give in return.
Physiotherapist
Pretty much everyone gets injured at some point in their life, and the gym can be a dangerous place which I think increases your chance of injury.
But no matter if it is a training injury, an accident in the home or a repetitive issue from sitting all day, most people will see a physio.
If that is one of your clients, it is great for you if you can refer your clients to a great physio that will take care of them.
Yes, you will lose their business for a while, but you will anyway if they can’t train. And if your client's recovery is over sooner, they will be back training with you sooner!
Plus, you will be showing that you are putting your client first in a professional way and they really will appreciate that.
Another reason for this is that people that go to see a physio very rarely complete all their treatment and programs till the end.
After a few sessions, they are feeling a bit better and they have a list of exercises that they feel they can now do on their own. Although that hardly ever happens too.
As a trainer in good communication with a physio, you can help provide a kind of extended aftercare under the guidance of a physical therapist’s eye and recommendations to help their patients complete all of their program.
This is a great value add for the physio and a great way of getting new business for you.
One more smaller thing you can do as well is with connections like physios that have that high level expertise, if you can go to them for advice.
If a new potential client comes to you with issues that you’re not aware of you can go to your physio connection and ask them directly about this condition or injury and what is the best course of action.
That action might be for you to train them with a bit of new information from your physio or it might be to refer them over and work with them and the client in the way I just mentioned.
The client starts with the physio as your referral, then you work with the physio on the aftercare and then you start to train them normally after their recovery is complete.
Now this same or similar type of arrangement can also happen with other therapists that make up number 3 and 4.
Those are at number 4 - sports massage therapists and at number 4 chiropractors.
You can make very similar arrangements with them as you will and can do with your physiotherapist.
Finally, number 5 is a nutritionist or dietician. While most personal trainers are ok to give nutritional guidance and advice, there are occasions where you have a client that needs some higher level nutrition help that can only be done by a nutritionist or dietician.
On the flip side, these guys are never delivering exercise programs, so they can easily send people your way when they have a client that needs that help.
Again, all the benefits there are pretty much the same with your physio so go make and make some notes about that part of today's session or go check out the show notes this is session, which again is session number 20.
Now, to make these connections, you’re going to need to approach these people in some way. It’s always best to do it in person, and even better if you yourself have been a client of theirs at some point in the past, you already have a connection.
It's far better to recommend a person or service if you can speak from the experience of actually having worked with them. Plus, that existing relationship means they are far more likely to be responsive to your ideas as the know, like and trust is already there.
But if you don’t already have existing relationships with these people then you can start right now by paying them a visit, and paying them for a session or two so you can get things off on the right foot.
By liking up with these experts you will learn a lot, plus, grow your business through a personal network that helps each other grow within the community that is driven by referrals.
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