Pricing your personal training services is hard, right? I've spoken to hundreds of personal trainers about the best way to price their fitness packages and other personal trainer services and one thing is clear; it's not the same for everyone.
Each personal trainer has their own business structure, their own packages and different things they want to offer. With that said, we should all be pricing our personal trainer services differently. Here are 5 personal trainer pricing ideas and how to list your prices on your personal trainer website. Some of which might surprise you.
1. The Going Rate
The going rate is very much dictated by what your competitors are charging. It;s pretty much the go-to method most PT's use when deciding on what to charge their own clients. A lot of personal trainers would argue that you need to figure out what you feel your time is worth and what you think your experience and qualifications should say about your personal trainer prices.
For new personal trainer, this simply isn't an option. I sure as shit didn't know what I was worth when I first started PT-ing. I didn't even know what I was worth when I started building personal trainer websites. I'm still not even sure now! I just know I'm really good at both, my clients are happy and I'm happy with what I make from doing it.
With that said, there are a couple of things to watch out for when using "the going rate" to dictate the price of your services. Go in too high and you risk losing business. Go in too low and you risk devaluing your service.
My advice: If you want to use this method to price your personal trainer services, aim for an average of all of your competitors and be sure to add in a little extra value for money to sweeten the deal.
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." - Warren Buffett [Tweet This].
2. Fixed Cost
I think most of us are guilty of this. When a client asks how much it is per session, we instinctively give an answer like £30/session or $60/session. It's hard not to answer when we know that the answer to the question is probably going to be a deciding factor to the client. Unfortunately, that's just how the brain works; "this is what I want, how much does it cost?"
The trouble with fixed cost pricing is that it assumes that everyone who comes to you needs the same service with the same amount of attention and resources. Which of course, is never true. Every client has different needs and levels of attention.
My advice: Although a lot of seasoned personal trainers argue that pricing your personal trainer services should be based on each individual client, fixed cost pricing is great if you have a rough idea of how much time and resources it will take to help your clients to achieve their goals. This, ironically, makes fixed cost pricing a better solution for the seasoned PT's who are more aware of how much time and resources their service will cost.
If you'd rather not list exact fees, you can always say "between x and x amount".
Just be sure to add on a 10% contingency in your budget. If you don't use it up these fees on your time or resources you can always buy the client a gift for doing well which will likely get you a client for life!
3. Story Price
Every price tells a story. If you bought something in a shop for £120 it would have been sold to the retailer for £80 and produced in a warehouse for £20. A personal trainer story, however, is much more personal.
A personal trainer can charge based on their story when they them self have become the brand. This can be due to 'X' amount of years experience, having a particularly successful system, going through an amazing transformation or simply having such a massive portfolio of testimonials that it's all too clear they are the "go to guy" for a particular service.
My advice: Ask yourself, are you able to charge more because you are more exclusive, your brand, your position in the market and your target audience?
To be able to charge high prices, you will need to provide excellent customer service throughout the entire selling process, have a proven business system, and need to be able to show your creativity and expertise to achieve these higher prices.
If you find that others in your market (who do similar work for similar clients as you) that are charging a lot more, then start to work out why it is possible for them to charge more. If you have worked that out in detail then you will have a great action plan for your own business to work on too!
"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." - Henry David Thoreau [Tweet This].
4. Bundle Price
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Again, this is another pricing structure that seems to be very popular among PT's. Personally, I think it has the best practical application of all the types of pricing. Bundle pricing is simply offering a discounted fee for block bookings. You've probably seen it before. Buy 12 sessions for the price of 10. It's really common and I think it's because it works for the PT and the client. If the client buys more and ensures your financial security, they get a discount. |
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Pro Tip: Bundle pricing works well but be careful with how you phrase this type of pricing structure on your website or leaflets. Appearing to give sessions away for free can devalue your service. Instead, simply state the percentage of discount they get.
5. Results Based Pricing
This is my favourite pricing structure as it's the one that has worked best for my personal trainer business. Basing your prices on the results your clients could achieve does not only scream "I know what I'm doing!!" but it also connects with your client emotionally.
When a client purchases your services they aren't buying in to a PT, they're buying in to the idea that you can help them achieve their goals. I wrote a blog about this a long time ago called Naming Your Personal Trainer Packages. I changed my package names from Bronze, Silver and Gold to Muscle & Size, Fat Loss for Women and Fit For Life. The results were extraordinary and all because the name of the package appealed to the goals of my clients more.
My advice: It can be pretty tricky to figure out how much it should cost a client to lose 10lb. Impossible in fact as it might mean more to one than it does to another. This is where a combination of all the different pricing structures work well together. You can use your testimonials and the going rate to create a fixed bundle price (<-- can't believe that made sense).
What have I missed? How do you price your services?
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