The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 15% jump in the number of fitness trainers and consultants in the next decade. It’s significant given that the average growth rate of the labor force is pegged at 4%.
This is a clear indication that fitness consultant jobs are becoming more important than ever. Should a gym or a health club owner hop onto the bandwagon and hire a fitness consultant?
Before getting into the details, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a small difference between personal trainers and fitness consultants. A personal trainer’s primary job is to assist clients during the sessions and help them follow a steadfast training routine.
On the other hand, a fitness consultant is a guide of sorts. The person helps in curating specialized workouts and injury management with minimal lifestyle changes.
Fitness consultants can be a great addition to your team. They can retain clients, bolster your business with their expertise, and motivate your team to do better. Plus, having an expert on the roster means better branding for the fitness club. In this article, we will look at what a fitness consultant is, how a fitness consultant can help your gym become successful and what qualities to look out for in a fitness consultant.
Skip ahead to:
- What Is a Fitness Consultant?
- 5 Ways in Which Fitness Consultants Help Your Gym Prosper
- 5 Things to Look for in a Fitness Consultant
What Is a Fitness Consultant?
As the name suggests, fitness consultants primarily advise clients to keep them fit and help them meet their weight goals.
Typically, this is done by combining key concepts of fitness and nutrition. So, factors like cardiovascular health and eating patterns become as important as muscle building.
The services of a fitness consultant are much needed for two categories of people – athletes and those chasing a fitness goal. It’s because they can curate customized plans while keeping physiological factors, training frequency, and diet in mind. Plus, they achieve such targets without enforcing risky exercises that cause injuries.
Now, how do fitness consultants add value to your gym business?
5 Ways in Which Fitness Consultants Help Your Gym Prosper
Hiring a fitness consultant might sure seem expensive on paper. But it’s important to factor in the long-term benefits. There’s a bunch of things they bring to the table. They:
Add Credibility
Having a fitness consultant on your team shows the world that you mean business.
And it’s not just about the optics. They often have allied areas of expertise such as fitness management, sports medicine, and the likes. So, you can expect the consultant to become a health and wellness guru for your members.
Become Brand Ambassadors
Let’s face it – fitness influencers receive more traction than any gym. A brand like Gold’s Gym is yet to reach 500K followers, whereas the top fitness influencers have at least a few million of them.
So, your fitness consultants can become the brand’s face. When they plug your gym in their social media handles, you might receive massive traction. We’re talking thousands of followers and hundreds of sales with just one post!
Besides, you can save money on models and ad agencies. Forget about video advertisements and promotional blurbs for your brand. Just tape a session with the fitness coach and post a snippet on your digital channels. There’s nothing better than a real class doing all the talking.
Read More: Top Ad Ideas For Your Fitness Business
Bring in Their Own Clients
Fitness consultants are typically employed on a freelance or a part-time basis. They work with their own clients and have a network of people who look up to them for fitness tips. This opens up a new sales opportunity through referrals.
There’s a sense of trust in working with a known individual. By offering your gym’s space and a few other perks, you can onboard the consultant’s clients. Who knows, these customers might even go on to be longstanding patrons of your gym.
The key lies in leveraging the fitness consultant’s network to benefit everyone in the deal.
Get Better Bottom-Line Figures
This one’s a direct economic benefit of hiring a fitness consultant.
Clients who pay $600 a year might not stick around for long unless you have a strong retention game. On the other hand, the ones who cough up $30 an hour for personalized sessions will remain with you for a longer duration.
A personal training drill usually helps in creating a better rapport with customers. More importantly, the margins for such sessions are way better than the ones on traditional gym memberships.
Read More: Paul Bedford’s Top Retention Tips
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Discover more Provide Advice on Hiring and Purchasing Matters
Are you having mixed feelings about splurging on an advanced functional trainer? In moments like these, you can rely on the advice of the in-house expert. Their experience of working in different setups makes them the better judge when it comes to fitness equipment.
Hiring the right personnel for your gym might be tough. Don’t know whether a prospective floor manager can run the show? Reach out to the consultant. They will help you make a better assessment. It’s even better if you ask the fitness consultant to tag along for interviews and screening sessions.
5 Things to Look for in a Fitness Consultant
It has become very easy to get onto the career path of fitness. There are a number of institutes that offer relevant courses, and the eligibility is just a high-school diploma.
As a consequence, there are nearly 400K fitness professionals in the US. So, finding a full-time fitness consultant might be easy, but finding the right one needs some effort. We have listed a few ideal traits that you should look for before hiring one.
1. Good Communicator
Communication is the key to success. Everything else won’t matter if your fitness consultants aren’t able to convey their thoughts effectively. You’ll start losing clients sooner than you know if they don’t hit it off with the customers.
The instructions and feedback should be clear so that your clients can achieve the desired results. This helps in preventing injuries and other mishaps. Besides, it will ensure that your client remains excited about the idea of hitting the gym regularly.
The same applies to internal communication. While fitness consultants might be used to working in silos, exchanging ideas with other team members is important. At the end of the day, they’re responsible for creating a conducive environment with encouraging feedback and constructive criticism.
2. Culturally Fit
Every workplace has its own culture. When it comes to the fitness industry, there are different priorities for every gym. Some focus only on rigorous workouts, while others try to include new dimensions like aerobics, yoga, and more.
So, what happens when you bring a CrossFit expert to a gym full of Calisthenics trainers? It depends. While the ideal fitness consultant should have a unique identity of their own, their vision for your business should match yours. They should be ready to accept and embrace your fitness studio’s culture. Else, you might have more problems than solutions.
It’s always good to ask for references before hiring. This lets you check if the fitness consultant gels with clients and team members well. Any history of bad behavior or use of unsafe exercise techniques is going to be a major red flag
3. Knowledgeable
This one’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? A fitness consultant should have adequate knowledge of the fitness industry and must be able to apply the concepts. Besides, they should be able to convince clients that a 10-minute HIIT workout won’t burn 1000 calories!
Don’t fall for work experience, certifications, upscale clientele, or a massive social media following. While these aspects are good for your business, they don’t matter if your consultant can’t walk the talk.
Test your prospective candidate to make sure that they are good at fitness consulting. After all, half-baked or no knowledge of the gym business could lead to injuries and even lawsuits!
4. Empathetic
Your prospective fitness consultant must be caring and understanding. They should be able to accommodate clients’ special needs in the best possible manner.
In the fitness business, you may come across someone who an ambitious weight-loss target. And another first-timer who wants to train for a full marathon in a month. So what is the best way to handle such requests? Instead of snubbing or dissuading your clients, the ideal fitness consultant should take the time out to chart realistic goals for them.
A fitness consultant has to deal with millennials, middle-aged persons, and elders equally well. They should be rigid with the intensity but flexible with the workout types.
Moreover, they should be able to help out colleagues with their pain points. This shows that your fitness consultant is a great team player who can weather any storm with ease.
5. Ready to Accept Challenges
While ‘Run the Edge’ and ‘Plank Challenge’ are solid exercise routines, those aren’t the only challenges we’re talking about. On the business front, they should do their bit to help the gym business flourish. Whether it’s managing a heavy workload or adopting a new gym management software, they should have all hands on deck.
The gym industry is an ever-changing business. You might need to adopt a hybrid model, organize open days, and launch new fitness programs. The consultant should be onboard and take up such activities enthusiastically.
In Summary
We now know how the perfect fitness consultant for your gym looks like. Here are all the takeaways from this article.
- Unlike certified personal trainers, they require all-around expertise in topics such as fitness, wellness, and nutrition.
- They can play a big role in promoting your gym in the local circles
- Your sales might jump due to new clientele and better retention figures
- Their expertise can improve the overall decision-making in your gym
- Ideally, they have good communication skills, know a great deal about fitness, and come off as empathetic individuals
- They are always ready to try something new, especially if it has to do with the betterment of business
- Hiring a big name always helps, but ensure that they have the credentials and the requisite skills for the job
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