Adrian Ulsh Interview

Adrian what is it that you do?

I’m the director of franchise sales for OneCoach. Essentially, we’re business strategist. We help entrepreneurs and professionals increase their small business revenues so they can achieve financial freedom and live extraordinary lives. We do that by upgrading their mental conditioning so they stay focused on the right things… then we give them market dominating strategies and tactics… coupled with professional back end support that literally ensures their success.

How important is marketing for a personal training business?

It’s not important… it’s MANDATORY. And not for just personal trainers… but for any and all businesses. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you’re really not a personal trainer… you’re a marketer of personal training services. Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. Dan Kennedy said it best… You need to transition from a doer of your thing, to a marketer of your thing. It’s easier to find a bean counter than a bean getter. Personal trainers MUST learn how to become “bean getters.”

When you consider that the average personal trainer earns less than $30k per year, it emphasizes the tremendous need for marketing in this area. And you couldn’t ask for a better time to be marketing personal training services… with the unbelievable number of baby-boomers getting ready to retire over the next 10 to 15 years.

These people have no intention of “retiring” as we’re used to hearing about. After all, this is the group that created rock n’ roll, the Beatles, Woodstock, and bell bottoms. When we go out, we’re going out kicking and screaming. Baby-boomers have every intention of re-writing the books on retirement by remaining active and healthy well into our 80’s and 90’s.

Personal trainers have a unique opportunity to cash in on this trend… if they learn how to properly market to this group. That’s going to require personal trainers to be able to immediately know and understand the demographic, psychographic and behavioral profile of the prospects in their respective areas.

So what is would be the best way to market to them?

I would use a direct marketing approach… which means you develop a marketing program that speaks directly to your target market. Finding the right niche and marketing directly to that niche is a hard and labor–intensive job requiring time and effort, creativity, ingenuity, sales expertise, and the ability to deal with people in a pleasant and positive manner. Trainers MUST be absolutely sure they’re ready for the job… that they have the proper skills and strategies in place.

Why is that so important?

Because they only have 3 choices in how they do it. They can do it themselves… but again, they better know exactly what they’re doing or they’ll spend a fortune and get zero results. They can find someone that will do it for them… except there are VERY few people on the planet with that type of expertise… or they can hire someone to do it for them… and that usually runs in the range of $5k per month… and that doesn’t include the actual advertising… that’s just the consultant’s fee.

But Chris, that’s why we started OneCoach. We wanted to help business owners learn the proper skills and strategies so they can build their own million dollar business. But even more important than that… once they learn HOW to do that… once they learn the right information… in the right order… they can use that information to build as many million dollar businesses as they want… for themselves, their friends and their families.

Can you tell us about the steps you teach at OneCoach?

Sure, first we teach them how to create the basic fundamentals that EVERY business MUST have in place… such as:

Building A Client Profile:

Just exactly who is your customer? Do you really know for sure? Which ones do you consider “ideal”… and which ones are nothing but work and frustration? Which type do you really want to deal with? Now you’ll know. We’ll teach you how to identify your “ideal” client profile so you can attract the type of client to your personal training business that you’ll actually enjoy working with, and that will pay, stay and refer their friends, relatives and associates for years to come.

We’ll help you develop your USP:

A USP is your Unique Selling Proposition. It represents the single, most important benefit your business provides its customers that is different or unique from your competitors. It separates your business from your competition, and then eliminates them in the minds of your customers.

We’re going to reveal the shortcuts that will enable trainers to develop a USP so powerful, it will leave your customers saying just one thing… “I would be an absolute fool if I did business with anyone else but you… regardless of price.”

We’ll help you understanding your customer’s decision making process and buying criteria:

Do your customers make planned purchases or impulse purchases? If the purchase is planned, how long does it take them to make that final decision? How many times do you need to contact them to help them decide to buy… and to buy from you?

And when they DO decide to buy, what criteria do they use to make that all important final decision? We’re about to take the guesswork out of these critical questions.

We’re going to show you how to figure out the process your customers go through when deciding what and who to buy from… as well as when to buy. We’ll help you understand the criteria they use to judge your product or service and whether or not that meets their wants and needs.

We’ll teach you how to create lead generators:

Now that you know for certain WHO your ideal client is… you’ve differentiated your business from your competition… and you know the process and criteria your customers will use to make their final decision… now let’s start communicating with them in a way that speaks DIRECTLY to them.

We’re going to teach you Marketing 101. You’ll now fully understand exactly how to create a marketing message that’s so powerful, you will literally dominate your market. We’ll unlock the vault and show you how to structure your marketing message by following an actual “marketing equation” that NEVER misses its intended target. We’ll even provide you with the tools to help you design and construct your ads in the most effective way possible.

We’ll also provide you with the top 116 all-time, world’s MOST powerful headlines so you can immediately capture the attention of your “ideal” customer. We’ll make it as easy as cut and paste.

We’ll also help you develop lead conversion techniques:

Once you generate leads, you still have to convert them into actual sales. We’re going to take the guesswork out of this critical final step for you. We’ll teach you the power of scripts… so you and your staff know EXACTLY what to say… and EXACTLY when to say it to get your prospects to engage your services.

We’ll unveil the little known secret that the ad agencies don’t want you to know… a secret so powerful it can literally explode your revenues. We’ll teach you how to set up a money-making “drip” campaign that automatically sends out to your prospects the required number of follow-up contacts to establish trust so your prospects will buy from ONLY you.

We can even teach trainers what to say as they’re training to get customers to upgrade their services and hire you for additional services you could provide, such as nutritional advice and supplements. We can even teach you how to set up back end product lines so you make money even when you’re NOT working.

It’s this workshop that completes the foundation for you to build your million dollar business.

What kind of a website should personal trainers have?

I don’t know that I would even worry about having a website initially. Trainers have to ask themselves whether a website is going to help them produce revenue. That means they would have to develop an extremely powerful message that sells their services. We can definitely show them how to do that. But then once that’s developed, HOW will you drive traffic to that site… and is that additional step required to convert prospects into sales?

Chris, do you see where we’re at. We’re right back to those fundamentals I just covered. Unless we identify our ideal client… and fully understand their decision making and buying criteria, we simply won’t know if we even require a website or not… not to mention the type of message we need to develop to put on that website.

So many businesses today are taking the approach of ready, fire, aim. It has to stop… it’s just not profitable to take that approach. You’re just throwing money out there and hoping and praying you hit someone with it. Unless a website serves as a critical link in your prospect’s decision making process, you don’t need to go to all the trouble and expense to have one developed.

What is the first thing someone is thinking when they come to a website?

Same thing they’re thinking when they see an ad in the paper… a flyer on their door… or a postcard in their mail. They ONLY want to know how your product or service will benefit them. WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?

Personally, I just can’t see someone sitting around and saying to themselves… you know, I think I want to hire a personal trainer… and I think I’ll go to the internet and Google personal training and pull up over a million and a half sites that aren’t even in my immediate area and see if I can find the one that’s right for me. It’s just not going to happen.

How important is it to show benefits?

Chris, there are ONLY 7 reasons WHY people buy… to make money, to save money, to save time, to save effort, to improve health, to increase pleasure or to eliminate pain. The more of these powerful benefits you can incorporate into a single ad, the more effective it will be.

The problem is that most personal training ads I see don’t even list the benefits… they list features. Features are things like licensed trainer, fitness evaluation, nutrition specialists, supervised free weights, injury rehab, strength and endurance training, weight loss supervision. People don’t buy personal training for weight loss or nutrition… they buy personal training to look fantastic to the opposite sex… to have that body I had back in high school… to feel great all day instead of feeling tired and run down like I do now. THAT’S what they WANT.

And Chris, here’s probably the single, most important thing to remember about marketing. You HAVE to sell them what they WANT… and then give them what they NEED. I WANT my high school body… so I’ll NEED to weight lift, do cardio and focus on weight loss to accomplish that. Wants are MUCH more powerful than needs… so you have to market to their wants.

How important is the headline?

It’s absolutely the single, most critical part of ANY ad… whether that’s direct mail, a website, or even a radio or TV ad. It’s the first thing the prospect sees or hears. It MUST capture their attention by hitting what we call a “hot button.” That’s a major problem or frustration the prospect’s face in that particular industry. In personal training, it would be something like… the 7 hidden secrets to getting back your high school figure.

Or if you really want to grab someone’s attention, go to the negative. The negative is much more powerful than the positive because people attach more emotion to it. Something like… 3 Deceptive Practices That Most Personal Trainers Use That Can Compromise Your Health… Deplete Your Wallet… And Leave You In Worse Shape Than Before You Started. I guarantee that will get them reading, listening or watching your ad.

What is the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Probably this. What should a personal trainer use to really make money for themselves? If I were going to hire a personal trainer, I would first check with my present club to see what services were available… or I would ask family or friends for a referral. I would also notice a direct mail piece that had an eye-catching headline. The problem with direct mail is that the overall market for personal training is so small, it just wouldn’t be cost effective in my opinion.

Personally, I think the greatest opportunity lies in speaking directly with members as they’re working out. Chris, I belong to Bally’s, and I work out 7 days a week. I have NEVER been approached by any of their counselors EVER. No one has ever asked me if I would be interested in personal training. In fact, no one has ever asked me about anything.

If I were a personal trainer, I would be on that floor every minute I was there. I would be walking around an providing free advice and guidance in proper lifting techniques… proper nutritional advice… the latest research findings in the fitness arena. Anything that might be of interest to the people that work out there.

You can tell just by looking at them what their needs are. You know the regulars… the ones that are always there… same time every day. They are usually in pretty decent shape. They are more interested in advanced training techniques, since they have already mastered the basics. If a trainer were to inform them that they could provide them with the latest and greatest methods for improving their gym performance… and made them a terrific initial offer to try their services without any long term commitments, most people would jump at the chance.

The members that still look out of shape are obviously not doing something right. Either their techniques are flawed… or their diet is out of whack. Talk to these people with empathy. Let them know you know how they feel and what they’re going through. Tell them you can make a huge difference in their lives… and get them immediate results that will last them a lifetime. THAT’S what people WANT to hear.

Chris, I would even suggest that personal trainers develop specific scripts to use in ALL of these various situations so they know EXACTLY what to say and how to say it.

This is the key to getting business and making money. This can help trainers reach 6 figure incomes. But here’s the ONLY problem with personal training. A trainer is trading their time for dollars… and they only have so much time in a week. Eventually their income tops out.

That’s when we can show trainers how to create a real business where they add staff members to take over the training part of their business… and they simply generate the leads and take a percentage of the business. This allows them to train as much or as little as they want. We can show them how to establish marketing partners… referral programs… and even affiliate programs that can make their training revenues look paltry in comparison.

Adrian, what’s this program called… and what’s the cost of it?

Chris, we call the program Business Mastery. We set it up as a 12 month program so we could make sure we help business owners put all the fundamentals in place in a timely fashion. Now, that doesn’t mean it takes 12 months to do that… depending on how much time can be devoted to this, the fundamentals could be in place within 30 days. It just depends on the business owner.

We also didn’t want the price of the program to be prohibitive to ANY serious business owner that wanted to join, so we set the program price at $3000 for the entire year. If monthly payments work better, we made it $300 per month. This price includes 90 minutes of personal, one-on-one coaching with a professional OneCoach business advisor… weekly conference calls with our experts… access to our archived library of expert, state-of-the-art information, 24/7… and attendance to our 4 day live event.

If anyone on this call would like to check all of this out, just go to www.onecoach.com an click on Business Mastery. We were recently featured on Larry King several weeks ago and our listeners can watch those clips right on our website. We’re also going to be featured on Ellen December 1st. Talk about credibility for what we do… the response to this program has been astronomical.