By being an expert communicator, you’ll be able to effectively sell yourself to new prospects and present your services in a way that makes them irresistible. If you want to increase your earning power, you’ll benefit significantly from being able to discuss your expertise in a way that makes it attractive to new clients. You’ll be able to sell yourself to prospective clients by highlighting your core strengths and showing how they can benefit from their specific situation. If you want to increase your earning potential, you must be able to communicate what you do and how you can help your particular target market. If you can’t do this, you’ll miss countless opportunities. Being an expert communicator will put you on the right track to discovering new clients and opening your business up to a new revenue stream.
I was pretty excited when Rick agreed to let me write a guest post for www.ExerciseForInjuries.com. You see, I’m quite a fan.
Our industry needs more channels for fitness professionals of all ability levels to access such descriptive knowledge. Rick’s circle of colleagues represents some of our industry’s elite, which allows trainers new to the industry to learn from some of the best.
Our industry needs more of this.
Let me get to my article.
I love personalized training; I love being able to help clients overcome specific situations and knowing I’ve had an impact on their lives.
The determination to develop my skills has persisted throughout my career as I completed certification after certification and attended conference after conference.
I spend the majority of My Time Here.
Despite not having a kinesiology degree, I dedicated most of my time to correcting muscle imbalances to improve posture and reduce pain. I even worked double-time to expand my skills, pursuing full-time education in treatment-based massage therapy. I’ve personally completed over 30,000 client sessions in more than 15 years.
You can accomplish a lot by working with people to improve muscle balance and function, as well as scapular stabilization and hip function if you can highlight the importance of these activities to inspire the same level of passion, enthusiasm, and concern in your patients as you have for proper bodily functioning.
Some of the brightest trainers and practitioners I’ve ever met were also those who seemed to struggle the most to develop a career providing the financial reward they deserve.
Yet Mary Jane Consumer associates this with a sense of fun, community, belonging, and The Biggest Loser.
We Need to Think Like Our Clients
It shouldn’t be this way and doesn’t have to be. We have to learn to put our analytical, technical minds aside for a moment to focus on how Mary Jane Consumer thinks, understands, and makes decisions.
Most people (outside of athletes, which is generally a tiny, hard-to-reach, and not super profitable audience for most) associate some plans as usual. They don’t acknowledge the outward rotations of feet when they walk, the unevenness of their shoes, or that their shoulder blades may protrude from their back like an extraterrestrial being. These things are unnoticed and can’t be related to the nagging knee pain that prevents them from playing recreational volleyball on the weekends like they used to love to do, oust going for a run, or even playing with the grandkids.
Your Words Much Match Your Client’s Thoughts
Our level of communication with our clients and prospects needs to match their vocabulary. Communicating our progressive ideas and their importance can be much more effectively accomplished when presented in a question format that allows them to determine it was their idea. I often think this must be much like parenting. I think most parents would agree that most children are resistant to what they are “told” to do instead of what they “decide” to do on their own.
Being Technical Can Be a Problem, Here is Why
It may not be accurate for everyone, but I usually find that the more technical a trainer is, the more difficulty they have communicating with a client who thinks much more emotionally. The expert is analytical, systematic, and task-oriented, the prospect is not, or they wouldn’t be looking for you in the first place. It makes sense.
Point 1. How to effectively communicate with a prospect:
Ask relevant emotional questions:
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- What brought you here today?
- When was the last time you did what you enjoyed most for as long as you wanted?
- What stops you from doing what you enjoy most (or used to do)?
- When did you feel your best regarding how you look and physically feel? What do you think has changed from then to now?
- If you could change anything today, what would you change?
- What other things have you tried that have failed you?
By asking these relevant questions, you gain a proper understanding of how they feel and what they will identify with or validate value and success when combined with a descriptive health history. Often what we think is a success isn’t perceived the same by our clients (For example, weight loss clients who don’t lose 10lbs in the first week. No one should, but many are disappointed because traditional weight loss says otherwise. Or the client you’ve worked with for months can finally perform a proper air squat and can’t understand why you’re so excited.)
Learn to associate your technical knowledge in a manner that identifies with the answers to the above questions, leaving Mary Jane Consumer feeling confident about her success rather than self-conscious about her lack of understanding.
Point 2. Demonstrate how you will identify progress and why that’s important.
One of the best things I ever did was match terminology with the questions above with descriptive materials representing a more technical language.
For instance, Bill has dysfunctional glutes, shortened quadriceps as a result, and hip flexors trying to make up for those weak abs. He’ll never understand what is so apparent to you; he knows that volleyball is now out of the question because he can’t get out of bed for three days. After all, his knees hurt so badly.
Being an Expert Communicator is Good for Improving your Skills
To become an expert, you must first become proficient in the basics. If being an expert communicator is one of your core goals, you’ll benefit from taking the time to improve your communication skills. Being an expert communicator is about more than knowing the right words. It is about understanding the emotions behind communication and reading your audience to deliver your message effectively. A top-tier consultant has the skill set of an expert communicator. To become that person, you need to develop the skills of an expert communicator. Being an expert communicator requires an understanding of how communication works and an awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. To become an expert communicator, you must first identify where you are currently. You can then work on building your muscles and minimizing your weaknesses.
But if we first show Bill
- We might use a diagram of assessment protocols to assess these areas.
- And while showing it to him, visually associate it with how it can improve his life.
- Then provide examples of the most common exercises he’s likely seen others do in gyms that are making it worse.
- She was followed by assessing to show him his current function.
- And he finished with a practical exercise to begin improving the situation.
We now have a method of communication that applies our technical knowledge to the emotional pattern of the people that need us the most thinking.
As a qualified expert, you should never have to compete, compare, or consider Bob’s Boot Camp down the street, yet this is a grim reality for many ultra-capable fitness professionals. I think this shows what many of us already know: we’re continually developing our skills, but for each of us, the skill set that needs creating is likely different. I hope you’ve found this interesting and helpful.
This is an example of what I do with my clients and the fitness professionals I mentor to help them reach 100K. If you want more details on how I heal personal trainers and help other fitness professionals get 100K, look at my 100K Personal Trainer System.
About Cabel McElderry
After struggling for eight years as a Personal Trainer, Cabel McElderry challenged the typical gym setup and created quite a reputation for himself.
His 7-figure studio, now five years old, has won multiple awards for business excellence.
He has been recognized as one of North America’s top 100 fitness entrepreneurs and is currently one of 50 nominees for Optimum Nutrition’s Canadian Trainer of the Year.
Cabel now mentors fitness professionals worldwide with his 100K Personal Trainer System to help them achieve similar or better results than his own.
Cabel’s advice and writing can be found amongst some of the biggest blogs online, and he is constantly called upon to offer his advice and strategies at some of the most significant fitness events worldwide. ProfitablePersonalTrainer.com
Big thanks to Cabel.
Cabel has been on EFI before. I interviewed him on 3 Steps to Getting Medical Referrals.
Another article that might interest you is The Mature Market: The Fitness Industry Perfect Storm.
That is it. If you know someone who might benefit from this article, feel free to forward it to them.
Rick Kaselj, MS
