Pricing Considerations for Health/Fitness Professionals

I am thrilled to have Personal Trainer and Entrepreneur  Drasko Raicevic, share his insights on pricing considerations for health and fitness professionals.  Drasko has combined his business skills with his passion for health by founding the highly successful QuickBody Fitness in Mississauga, Ontario.  Below, Drasko shares some sound and actionable advice on how to price your services as a health and fitness professional…enjoy!

Pricing

Since we are always subconsciously fearing rejection, it’s very easy for us as health professionals to price ourselves low in order to close a sale or avoid the feeling of someone saying ‘no’ to our services. Despite these natural inclinations, there are a multitude of reasons to price yourself higher than comfortable and push beyond that mental barrier:

1. Higher Prices, Higher Standards: If you’re going to charge more, you need to deliver more, and putting yourself in a position that forces excellence is never a bad thing. If you’re uncomfortable charging a particular amount, you should ask yourself what kind of value you’d have to provide to justify that price point and set your focus on providing that much value instead of worrying about charging too much.
2. Anchors Your Standard: Setting a higher baseline price point works the same way as getting a raise in a traditional job. After your raise, your standard has increased and generally you will only work your way up from there. Setting a higher baseline price does the same thing so that when you get to a point of having to increase prices or offer additional products/services – all future improvements springboard from your baseline.
3. Bigger Negotiation Buffer: At some point you will offer discounts or promotions. This could be doing group classes, corporate fitness, or promotional deals for advertising. Since most of these involve offers or negations lower than your standard price, setting a higher standard price will allow you have a more flexible negotiation strategy as well as allow for more flexibility when offering promotions while still leaving plenty of room for profit.

You must also be conscious of the fact that pricing is a subtle marketing factor of your business. Depending on the price you charge, you will attract different types of clients. Anticipating what clients you might attract and whether you wish to work with them should be factored into your pricing strategy and in your decision to change your prices. In general, charging higher fees will attract more affluent clients which can also mean more demanding clients while the opposite could be true of charging lower and attracting lower income prospects. The bottom line is that there is no right answer but it’s important to consider what type of client you wish to work with, how to offer the best value for their particular needs, and then work to maximize the price you are able to charge.

Selling

Much like we price our services too low in order to avoid rejection, we often dread or avoid selling for this same reason. However, as health professionals, selling is one of the most important skills we have to learn over the course of our careers.

A good way to do get over the hesitation of selling is to reframe selling away from its usual associations (pushy, manipulative, needy etc.) and more towards a process of guiding a prospect into trusting us to deliver on our promises and that those promises are worth their investment of time and money.

The good news is that there is a structured way to do this! As highlighted in the book “The Personal MBA” by Josh Kaufman (you can check out the blog by the same name), there are 5 fundamental objections that arise in any sales situation and if your marketing and sales process can address them, you increase your chances of closing a prospecting dramatically. They are as follows:

1. It costs too much
2. It wont work
3. It wont work for me
4. I can wait
5. It’s too difficult

By addressing each of these objections, you offer a prospect a clearer sense of what you can do for them, highlight certain misconceptions they might have had, and help root your services as the solutions to their troubles. The way that you structure your process can be addressed with each point as well:

1. It costs too much: This just means that the prospect has either not fully understood or not fully internalized the value that you offer them. By reiterating the value you provide or reframing it, you provide a way to help them realize that the value meets and ideally exceeds their investment.
2. It wont work: This is where the use of testimonials, case studies, or examples can illustrate that what you offer does indeed work.
3. It wont work for me: Despite evidence that your offering delivers as promised, all clients will believe they are a special case. This is where you have to help them visualize what their life can be like when they implement and realize your solutions to their problems.
4. I can wait: To overcome the inclination to stall, you have to make your prospect aware of the consequences of waiting to begin working with you.
5. It’s too difficult: While improving one’s health can be difficult, the good news is that you are there to provide both guidance and support and thus illustrate how your presence will make the difficult, a lot easier!

As you can see all of these points involve thoughtful, genuine, and helpful information to help a prospect make an informed decision about buying your services. By internalizing this process you shift your perspective of sales and allow yourself to go forward and grow your business!