Big Name Gyms Hijacking the Personal Training Profession?
There is a growing stigma impacting the professional personal training community, and its time to spread the word: Members are having negative experience with sales trainers from big name gyms, and the fallout lands on real personal trainers.
"I got into this profession to help people, not to harass them." -Vanessa, after walking away from the interview process at a Big Name Gym in Eagan, MN.
Nessa Fitness is taking a stand against unethical personal training practice and pricing. Here's the basics of how it works: Gym owners in the Twin cities generally require personal trainers to pay the gym 50% - 60% (or more in many cases) of their earnings as a requirement to use the facilities. Gym owners know that professional personal trainers are well educated, and provide a service with such a high demand that prices can be set very high. The gym allows the trainer to charge at supply and demand rate, but takes every penny of profit at the supply and demand rate for trainers willing to work for low wages. This problem is market wide in the Twin Cities. That's right, if you've hired a personal trainer in the past, there is a good chance that only 40% (or even less) of your money was actually going to your trainer, before taxes. So what were you paying for? You've already paid the gym membership, so why are you paying 60% extra to the gym? See the problem? Some gyms only pay their trainers $8 - $10 per hour, and the client is completely unaware the gym owners are pocketing even more from them for absolutely no reason.
STEP BY STEP ECONOMICS: When gyms raise their takings from personal trainers, those personal trainers are forced to raise their prices in order to stay in business, which immediately reduces training demand, which takes work hours out of a personal trainers day, which leads to even higher prices to fill the void (and again demand falls, quite the conundrum!). As a consequence, professional personal trainers are forced out of the field by sales trainers who are better suited to compete in a sales oriented market. Even ethical and talented trainers who survive the sales market become sales trainers because they are focused on the sale in order to survive, instead of being focused on the client. Nessa Fitness has already conducted market research on Twin Cities gyms and has found that "Big Name" gyms are actively cycling out client oriented trainers in favor of anyone who can sell. These are sales trainers, and are making up a larger than ever percentage of the available personal trainers.
What is a sales trainer? A sales trainer usually works for a Big Name Gym, and is required to get their own clients so the gym does not have to hire sales staff to support the training program. The sales trainer will be well trained in personal training and have all the right credentials and certifications. Well what more could we want? We want them to care about their client! You will not find a sales trainer that spends as much time outside the gym on program development as they spend inside the gym with clients. Professional trainers make highly effective individual programs, sales trainers make calls. In essence: Professional Personal Trainers with good gym owners cost less, have the same qualifications, are not thinking about how to sell you, and are more effective.
It is a CORE BELIEF of Nessa Fitness that professional trainers should never specialize is sales. Personal Trainers should be focused on how to get better results out of individual clients, rather than focusing on how to get the client to buy more sessions at extortionate prices. Nessa Fitness understands this, and locates strategically so that gym owners that see personal trainers as ATM machines rather than supplements to fitness quality are avoided.
Farmington Anytime is an excellent location because trainers are allowed to give a fair percentage to the gym. This enhances the integrity of the training staff, and helps trainers to make just as much per client as trainers at Big Name Gyms charging $80 - $120 per session. Nessa Fitness in Farmington has been able to break even with only $45 - $55 per full hour client sessions for 6 months, far below the average, and is planning to continue without price increases for the foreseeable future.
"I got into this profession to help people, not to harass them." -Vanessa, after walking away from the interview process at a Big Name Gym in Eagan, MN.
Nessa Fitness is taking a stand against unethical personal training practice and pricing. Here's the basics of how it works: Gym owners in the Twin cities generally require personal trainers to pay the gym 50% - 60% (or more in many cases) of their earnings as a requirement to use the facilities. Gym owners know that professional personal trainers are well educated, and provide a service with such a high demand that prices can be set very high. The gym allows the trainer to charge at supply and demand rate, but takes every penny of profit at the supply and demand rate for trainers willing to work for low wages. This problem is market wide in the Twin Cities. That's right, if you've hired a personal trainer in the past, there is a good chance that only 40% (or even less) of your money was actually going to your trainer, before taxes. So what were you paying for? You've already paid the gym membership, so why are you paying 60% extra to the gym? See the problem? Some gyms only pay their trainers $8 - $10 per hour, and the client is completely unaware the gym owners are pocketing even more from them for absolutely no reason.
STEP BY STEP ECONOMICS: When gyms raise their takings from personal trainers, those personal trainers are forced to raise their prices in order to stay in business, which immediately reduces training demand, which takes work hours out of a personal trainers day, which leads to even higher prices to fill the void (and again demand falls, quite the conundrum!). As a consequence, professional personal trainers are forced out of the field by sales trainers who are better suited to compete in a sales oriented market. Even ethical and talented trainers who survive the sales market become sales trainers because they are focused on the sale in order to survive, instead of being focused on the client. Nessa Fitness has already conducted market research on Twin Cities gyms and has found that "Big Name" gyms are actively cycling out client oriented trainers in favor of anyone who can sell. These are sales trainers, and are making up a larger than ever percentage of the available personal trainers.
What is a sales trainer? A sales trainer usually works for a Big Name Gym, and is required to get their own clients so the gym does not have to hire sales staff to support the training program. The sales trainer will be well trained in personal training and have all the right credentials and certifications. Well what more could we want? We want them to care about their client! You will not find a sales trainer that spends as much time outside the gym on program development as they spend inside the gym with clients. Professional trainers make highly effective individual programs, sales trainers make calls. In essence: Professional Personal Trainers with good gym owners cost less, have the same qualifications, are not thinking about how to sell you, and are more effective.
It is a CORE BELIEF of Nessa Fitness that professional trainers should never specialize is sales. Personal Trainers should be focused on how to get better results out of individual clients, rather than focusing on how to get the client to buy more sessions at extortionate prices. Nessa Fitness understands this, and locates strategically so that gym owners that see personal trainers as ATM machines rather than supplements to fitness quality are avoided.
Farmington Anytime is an excellent location because trainers are allowed to give a fair percentage to the gym. This enhances the integrity of the training staff, and helps trainers to make just as much per client as trainers at Big Name Gyms charging $80 - $120 per session. Nessa Fitness in Farmington has been able to break even with only $45 - $55 per full hour client sessions for 6 months, far below the average, and is planning to continue without price increases for the foreseeable future.
