Stop Doing It Wrong! Learn How to Truly Identify a Client's Goals

Most trainers or fitness sales people turn a goal discovery conversation into an opportunity to squeeze a training prospect into one of those neat little cliche fitness goal boxes. i.e. "lose 20 lbs", "tone up", "feel better", or "fit into my dress"; you get the point. The problem is these are not the real goals. They are simply measurements of a goal or possibly something people have been programmed to say even though they don't truly believe in them or really know what they want. Instead, we should focus on what they truly want from this fitness and exercise thing? What exactly do they want to look and feel like? You need them to paint you a picture that does not include any bias from you based on previous clients. It is our job as fitness professionals to push past the cliches and dig in to identify the real goals.

It's important to point out that we must not only define what they want, but also why they want it. For example, why will achieving these goals impact their life? Too many times we think because it makes sense based on what we have seen with other people, that it makes it true for this person. Nope! Only their reason for their "why" is going to be their emotional driver.

Identifying the true WHAT and WHY of a prospect's fitness goals is very difficult, so I have included a few strategies to conquer this challenge.

The What:

This is easier to find, but can still be challenging to find the actual truth. To illustrate what I mean, think about the poster we've all seen with an iceberg showing a small portion of it's mass above the water, while most of the ice is submersed beneath the ocean's surface. Relate this to how a prospect will open up to you in a consultation or a goals conversation. They will answer your questions with what they want to reveal to you or what they think you want to hear (generic answers, common answers, stereotypes, etc.). This is the 10% of their “iceberg” that they willingly to show you. But the TRUE answers are in the 90% of their “iceberg” that’s underwater. This is the information we need to truly be able to help them.

So how do we get to the other 90%? 

1.      We ask great follow-up questions. “Tell me more about…” “Can you explain the reason you…” “Can you clarify that for me?” 

For example, someone says “I want to tone up.” Respond with “So I understand you, what exactly does tone up mean to you?”

Or if someone says “I’d like to lose 20 lbs.” Respond with “Can you explain the reason you chose 20lbs as the weight you want to lose?.” Afterall, you’re not after a measurement, you’re after a goal. What’s 20lbs? Why not 18lbs? Or 22 ? lbs? Identify the real goal, then you can pick how best to measure it.

2.      We LISTEN. We listen at least 90% of the time. If we are talking too much, they close off instead of opening up like we want them to.

3.      We make it about them. Stop talking about your fitness biography or the other people you have helped, or how Arnold recommends it! That information may be good and your time to use it is coming, but that’s not yet! So, ask questions about them and be quiet. Make them feel like the most important person in the gym.

The Why:

Know this is the hard part. This is where we identify the emotional attachment to the “what”. In order to be successful in finding their ”why”, we have to know what to look for and what to ask.

Here is how we find the “why”:

1.      Listen to Body Language and Tone. Listening to words is great for finding facts or the “what”, but if we want the “why”, we need to listen to emotions. Emotions are expressed through body language and tone. For example, if someone is speaking to you in a foreign language, you won’t know what they are saying, but you will be able to tell how they feel when they say it and through this, you can find the emotional attachment to what they’re saying. This is the “why”!

2.      Ask questions and offer reflections based on body language and tone, not just words. For example, ever had someone say, “I’M NOT ANGRY?!!”. Their words say one thing, but the emotion behind the words say the opposite. You would be wrong to follow up with a response that only addressed their words and not their body language and tone.

Additional Key Tips to Goal discovery with a Prospect:

Write it down!! This is a part we often skip or forget. We get so caught up in listening and conversation that we forget we need to record what we're are learning. We write it down so we can refer to it later in a price presentation, as well as not forget for future follow ups. We might need this info months or even years later!

The good news is, I have a secret trick to writing it down. You WRITE AS YOU RECAP. So for each section/question…once you feel you have asked the great questions and found the real “whats” and “whys”, you recap what you learned by saying it back to them and writing it down. This does two things- It makes sure you are writing neatly and that you heard correctly what you want to write down. It also shows the prospect you were actually listening and care enough to record it accurately!

For example, “To make sure I got this right Susan, you said you want to tone up. By tone up, you mean you want to lose some weight while keeping the shape in your legs. This is extremely important to you because you will be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer and you really want to stand out and look good. Would you say this is correct?”

Conclusion...

I hope this helps you with your next training prospect. The keys is to use these principles and integrate them into your system. Just avoid making every prospect's goal discussion a cliche and attempting to fit them into a stereotypical client "box"! Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, or suggestions. Go change some lives!