Rules for managing personal trainers for profit and performance

Managing a team of personal trainers for profit and performance within fitness clubs requires a number of leadership and management strategies to be integrated into the processes of an organisation.

Wendy Sweet, New Zealand’s pioneer of gym-based personal training, believes that when this isn’t done effectively, clubs will experience a high turnover of trainers – a situation currently being experienced by many clubs.

Sweet, whose experience includes building up a team of over 80 personal trainers who paid regular rent to the club, increasing the profit and loss by well over $2 million per annum says there are five issues clubs need to address to meet their financial goals with their personal training programs: 

1. Club management must fully understand the purpose of having trainers in their clubs in accordance with member needs and current industry surveys and deliver the right support that trainer’s need from a club.
2. Confusion reigns in current and new members as well as sales teamsabout the divergent roles offered by gym instructors versus personal trainers. These need to be clearly established.
3. New trainers are typically great at exercise prescription but also need to fully understand their ‘product’ within the health-club environment.
4. New trainers and club management must understand the lifestyle behaviour-change research associated with exercise-uptake and adherence of new exercisers, including the difference between women and men with respect to this. This can have a significant impact on the delivery of PT sessions in the first instance by trainers.
5. New trainers should be given a clear pathway from club management for developing themselves into experienced, successful trainers. 

Sweet believes that with the right approach taken towards developing a team of personal trainers, a club can maximise both the profit and performance of individual trainers.

She explains “this then leads to positive financial and member-satisfaction benefits resulting in eventual growth of the personal training program.”

Wendy Sweet will be addressing this issue at the upcoming FILEX Fitness Convention being held from Friday 29th April to Sunday 1st May at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. 

For details of her session Manage your PT team for profit and performance, click here.

FILEX 2016 runs alongside the Fitness & Health Expo at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Click here to view event details in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Calendar.

26th February 2016 - STUDY FINDS PERSONAL TRAINING SET TO BE A STABLE FUTURE JOB

11th December 2015 - FILEX FITNESS CONVENTION TO OFFER NEW FEATURES IN 2016

3rd December 2014 - REPORT IDENTIFIES GROWTH IN PERSONAL TRAINING LED BY RISING LEVELS OF HEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS

13th August 2014 - FITNESS INDUSTRY SURVEY IDENTIFIES POTENTIAL OF PERSONAL TRAINING

19th April 2013 - ARE WE CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENTS FOR YOUTH FITNESS?

24th October 2008 - NEW CHAIR AND REGISTRAR FOR NZ REGISTRATION BODY 

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