Getting more client referrals

Referrals

Getting a referral is one of the best ways to acquire new members. Being referred to by the members of your gym or your clients means that you are delivering excellent service.

There are various reasons why a coach or a personal trainer should seek referrals. Referrals allow you to hit the vision and mission that you set up as a business. By being referred to, you are getting more opportunities to help more people achieve their fitness goals and, by extension, serve your community better. Lastly, getting referrals saves a lot of time and energy for the marketing and sales team and it can also help them gather information to create the ideal client profile.

There are three keys as to how to make referrals successful:

1. Create Results!

One of the best ways to be referrable is to create results. Creating results means that every workout session should feel like the best one for every client that you handle. Make sure that your clients also feel that your business is progressing, whether you’re handling a gym or doing your personal training business on your own. Once your clients feel very good about your services and business, they will naturally spread the word about your services which will eventually lead to a referral.

2. Be Clear with What You Can Offer

As a business, be clear with what services you can offer. Being clear on what you can offer will make it easier for your clients to refer you to potential clients as you have clearly defined what your services are. A great example would be body transformation challenges. These challenges naturally gravitate to people who need to lose weight. As a result, your clients will refer their friends who are in need of losing weight to this challenge.

3. Don’t Wait for The Pipeline to Dry Up

It’s important as an entrepreneur to be proactive. Do not wait for the day when you run out of clients to set up a referral program. Your referral program should be a constant in running your gym or your personal training business.

Getting referrals, unfortunately, is easier said than done. We listed down ten ways to help you get more referrals:

1. Recognize!

Being humble and thankful goes a long way especially with referrals. Show the people who referred your services appreciation for their referral. There are various ways to show it: via a Facebook post, an Instagram Story, a blog post, etc.

2. Make Your Promotions Known!

Promotions are great to get your clients to refer your services. One way of promoting is by the help of ambassadors or social media influencers. Ask a social media influencer who works out in your gym and let them promote your services via Instagram stories or Facebook posts. This will expand your reach farther than promoting your services by yourself.

Another way to promote is through contests or competitions especially referral contests. Make sure that this is known to all your clients so that they can refer your services to your friends ASAP. You can add a personal touch by calling your members on the phone or chatting with them online to let them know about the contest. It’s ideal to have these contests every 3-4 times a year.

3. Use Online Links

Referrals shouldn’t be hard for your clients to do. There are ways to make it easier like using online links to your Wufoo. Make sure that there are links in every post that you make as well so that you can track your referrals even if it’s a photo from one of your clients.

4. Reward Your Clients for Their Referrals

The best way to show appreciation for the referrals that you got is by giving rewards. It can be in the form of free trial, gift cards, or clothing. Make sure that your reward feels special as it will make the person who referred you feel special as well. Be creative with your rewards and avoid being redundant with your reward ideas.

5. Over Deliver

Don’t settle for less as far as delivering your service is concerned. Give it your all and then some and your clients and the people who referred your service to will greatly appreciate it. Their appreciation can turn into another form of referral.

6. Create Valuable Content

Valuable content in the form of blogs, articles, vlogs, and testimonials of how your client became successful can help your brand tremendously. The more valuable content you put out, the more people will want to try your service which can turn into a referral.

7. Build Relationships

Having a relationship within just your workout session is not enough as building relationship with your clients is very important. More than their name, know their nicknames, what their occupation is, what their hobbies are, etc. Getting to know them will eventually help in building your brand as they will feel that they are involved in that process.

8. Give Referrals

The best way to give back to your clients is to refer their businesses to others. A person you helped will help you back eventually in the future. In the long term, this can lead to a lot of other business opportunities outside of fitness.

9. Ask

Never be afraid to ask your clients as asking can eventually lead to a referral. The approaches to asking can range from asking if a client knows someone who needs a weight loss program to asking if anyone needs your coaching.

10. Treat Your Clients Like Gold

Last but not the least is to treat all your clients like gold as your clients are the building blocks of your gym or coaching business. There are various ways to take care of your clients. You can create a closed or private Facebook group to discuss various topics. You can also give them freebies as a token of your appreciation for making your business grow. But never forget though to give your absolute best to them every workout session as they paid you not only to workout but to have an hour of their time to take care of themselves physically.