Guarantee
Example
them feel better. If you’re a vegetarian,
think about what a plumber does for
someone. The benefit they offer is that
when the plumber gets done with fixing
your pipes, they work properly again
and you can resume a clean life of
using the restroom and bathing without
accidentally flooding your home.
Do you understand yet how different
the benefits are from the features? A
plumber may mention how he or she
has 12 years of experience for example,
which is a feature. Or he may mention his
number of years as an apprentice at a
respected company, or how many years
he’s been certified.
While these are all great features, they
aren’t the same as the benefits they can
offer their customers.
A ‘benefit’ is defined as something good
you or I can do for or give to our clients.
On the other hand, a ‘feature’ is nothing
but a component.
When you offer any
kind of guarantee,
you set yourself
apart from the pack
in at least one way.
You position yourself
in people’s minds
as a different kind of
personal trainer.
22
While the plumber may have spent
years as an apprentice and has been
practicing for decades, when your toilet
explodes at 3 o’clock in the morning, you
don’t care about these things; instead,
you care about getting the problem
solved!
The benefit of training with you could be
all manner of different things. You may
be excellent at helping people drop
a great amount of body fat in a short
period in time. You could be incredible
at helping middle aged executives to
pump up their energy levels and reduce
their stress levels. Or maybe you’re all
about helping new mums feel better and
get back into shape.
Addressing Their Fears
Every client you ever have will harbour
fears of some sort. For example, some
may feel afraid of having a shortened
life due to being in poor health, others
may fear not being able to move as
quickly due to stiffening joints, or not
being able to enjoy their days because
their energy levels are low. These are all
potentially very valid fears that you can
help eliminate when they train with you.
It’s important to realise that a lot of
people aren’t really sure exactly what a
personal trainer does. I mean, have you
ever had a new potential client call up
and say ‘I was just wondering if you do
single-arm inverted pulls, super-setted
with jumping lunges on a tabata timing
format?’ The reason you haven’t is
because most prospective new clients
have no idea what we do; and because
of this, they’re often instinctively afraid of
or unsure about the benefits they’ll get
from training with us.
The impact of this mystery and their
perception of risk means they’re less
likely to want to invest in our services. It
may also mean that people in the wider
population simply think that personal
trainers are all the same.
There’s one very certain way you can
allay your potential clients’ fears better
than any other – and that’s by offering
them a guarantee.
The $100 Guarantee
When you offer any kind of guarantee,
you set yourself apart from the pack in
at least one way. You position yourself
in people’s minds as a different kind
of personal trainer, because your
guarantee addresses the fears they
have, as well as triggering their interest.
Think about some of the guarantees
you’ve most likely heard from other kinds
of companies.
In the 1980s, Dominos Pizza used to
guarantee that their pizzas would get
there within half an hour or they would
be free. This addresses the fear that my
pizza is going to get to me hours later,
when I’m all but starving.
Believe it or not, a lot of people have no
idea what makes one personal trainer
different from any other. To a lot of folks
the idea of a ‘different’ personal trainer
is something they may never have even
considered before. You can set yourself
miles ahead of the pack, just by offering
your potential clients something that
allays their fears and, obviously, gives
them something of value.
There are other reasons why offering a
guarantee is a great idea. For one thing,
your guarantee can actually bring you
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - SUMMER 2016