Apprentice star Katie Bulmer Cooke has become one of the leading figures in the UK personal training industry. Her many awards and accolades include UK Personal Trainer of the Year 2012 and UK Fitness Professional of the Year 2012. We met with Katie to learn how she is now helping countless other personal trainers develop stronger client relationships for more money and in less time.

One thing that always stands out to me is how much we all undervalue the service we deliver. We’re taking years of experience and passion and using it to make people healthier, stronger and happier, and yet we’re forever offering more of our time for less money. You start at 6:00 in the morning, work through to 9:00 at night, with virtually no break, and then get up the next day and do it all over again. Your own training, nutrition and sleep starts to suffer, and soon you’re in complete meltdown. I’ve seen it happen to so many trainers but it doesn’t have to be that way.

One of the first things I try and do with any PT or club that I’m working with is to make them realise that their revenue doesn’t need to be directly linked to their time. It’s possible to add value in all sorts of different ways, many of which are far more scalable than selling hours.

“One thing that always stands out to me is how much we all undervalue the service we deliver”

Step 1 - Identify where the value can come from:

- Nutritional plans

- Exercise videos

- Food journals

- Cook books

- Apps

- Access to exclusive members area on the website

- Email support

- And yes, the training sessions themselves…

Step 2 - Attach a value to each of these items. How much would your client pay if they bought the recipe book in a shop? How much would they pay for an app of similar quality online? Step 3 - Work out the total. This is the price of your premium offering. Step 4 - Work out how much discount you can apply to certain groups:

- Those who commit to a certain time period

- Those who pay by direct debit

- Those who book as a group

- Etc…

So now you have your new pricing structure that you can easily explain to the client, and believe me, the clients will love it! They will appreciate that they are getting a far more holistic service from a trainer who is fully committed to helping them achieve results. Of course you’ll get the occasional client who rejects this approach and insists upon nothing more than their hour a week of getting beasted, but these are the clients you don’t want in your life. They won’t buy into your approach, they won’t get results and sooner or later they’ll quit. On the other hand, the ones who commit to the full package will throw every bit of themselves into the plan, achieve their targets and be walking billboards for your brand!