Auto Debit for the Personal Trainer

How'd you like to never have to resell your service again? Would you like to know that your clients will be with you for at least 3 months, 6 months or a year?

Many trainers sell packages of sessions. The problem with that is, once the sessions are all used up the trainer has to resell in his services. It can be an uncomfortable will moment for the client and the trainer.

I don't know about you, but when most of the time people spend money they get a weird feeling. They don't like it. That is because people want to keep their money. The same is probably true of your client. Every time reaches into his pocket to pull out his check book; he or she gets that weird spending money feeling. The thought goes through their head, is this service really worth it? What do I value more, this training or my money? And guess what, if it just happens to be a tight month for them financially, or they just sent off a big check to the IRS, or they have a lot of Christmas presents to buy this holiday seasons, they just may value different things than your services.

When your clients are constantly having to renew packages or when they pay you with a monthly check they are constantly being forced to reevaluate the situation, and determine whether or not they would like to pay again.

And you as a trainer have to bring it a when it's time to sell a new package of sessions. You have to take a sometimes uncomfortable action, just to get paid.

I've found a better way.

What if you never had to resell your services again? What if every month you had a guaranteed amount of income? What if you never had to take another action again to get paid by your client? What if your client had taken action not to pay you?

Rather than sell packages I like to play clients, and something called auto debit. I charge a monthly fee that comes directly out of my clients bank account and go into my. Just like many of the large gym do with memberships that way, the issue of money is almost completely taking out of the trainer client relationship. The money just comes directly out of their account, it’s basically out of sight and out of mind.

Think about it, you probably have bills that are automatically withdrawn from your account every month. It just comes out and it’s no big deal, you probably don’t even think about it But when you need to write a check every month, you’re again forced to determine what you value more, the product or service you’re paying for or your money

Let's say someone is going to train with me. Three times a week at the $50 per session that he is three sessions per week times 52 weeks per year for 156 workouts per year multiplied by $50 equals $7,800 divided by 12 months in the year comes to $650 per month, or 13 workouts per month. I would then charge a monthly fee of $650 per month for training three times per week. It’s almost as good as guaranteed money in the bank.

Now the longer they sign up for the lower my price will be. For example currently I charge $55 for month by month cancel any month, $45 for a 3 month contract and $39 per workout for a 6 month agreement.

Most people see the drop in price and automatically either go for the 3 month or the 6 month. I pretty much only have the month by month price on there to make the other prices look low by comparison.

And on top of that, after the terms of the 3 or 6 month are met, my contracts keep going until the person decides to cancel, but they must stick with it for the minimum term as described in the contract. So say someone does a 6 month contract, after the 6 months the payments keep coming out until the person tell me they want to cancel. I’ve found that most people stay with me far beyond the length of the original contract.

This method is a great way to ensure income. Especially when things can get slow around the holidays or for clients, who are good with money management or don't make a lot of money when training groups.

Also, this can help the trainer focus on being a trainer instead of a bill collector. A lot of trainers who take monthly checks from their clients are always having to remind their clients that the checks are do, often putting a strange energy into the relationship. It can become quite a challenge to collect money from all of those clients every month. With auto debits, all he needs to check your bank account in your remit reports, and you're going to go. Better yet, you can your assistant check your reports so you can focus on the truly important things like sales and marketing.

I do offer monthly cash or check price but it’s at a much higher rate than the auto debit which makes it look much less appealing than the auto debit price. If someone doesn’t want to do the auto debit I’ll allow them to get get the lower prices by paying off the full term of the contract, whether it be 3 months or 6 months, in cash or check in advance.

Another good part about auto debit is now not only do clients not have to take a regular action to pay you, like they would if you we’re being payed in cash or check, but now they actually have to take an action not to pay you. Now if they don’t want to pay you they need to take an action by telling you to cancel their monthly payments. So now you’ve completely turned the tables.

I know a lot of trainers who don’t use auto debit and I can tell you they have much greater fluctuations in their business, have a much bigger turn around rate and spend a great deal of time every month reminding people to bring in their checks, going to banks and logging payments. The personal trainers I know who use auto debit just simply don’t have most of those problems

By your Irvine Fitness Trainer