How do you know what your client wants? You ask.

But how do you know what your client needs? That is a little more involved.

To truly understand your client’s needs, you must ask questions and listen to answers. Keep in mind that some people just know what to say and when to say it. You can’t always take an answer at face value.

Get To Know Your Clients

Spend some time getting to know your clients. Listen to the things they talk about, their likes and dislikes. If they despise waking up early and you put them on a workout schedule that begins at 6 a.m., your client might not be likely to stick with it. A night owl schedule might serve them better.
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As a personal trainer, your career has been built on your ability to communicate effectively to your clients; how else would they have been able to achieve such fantastic results if not for your constant advice and encouragement? But when it comes to heading up your own personal training business, you’ll need to hone your speaking skills to perfection, as your verbal skills could make or break professional relationships. But don’t stress – here’s a few expert suggestions for increasing your verbal effectiveness that’ll wow both your clients and your professional peers.

Make Eye Contact
Maybe eye contact isn’t stressed as a necessity in communicating with your clients – after all, you can’t exactly face them when they’re doing a push up – but when you’re meeting with professionals, look them in the eye while you’re speaking. If your vision is constantly wandering while talking to a nutritional product supplier, they’re going to perceive you as incompetent…and your relationship will suffer.
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When personal trainers are building their business, they have a tendency to do a lot of talking. After all, a good personal trainer believes in his or her services and wants to share the excitement with clients and potential clients. Sometimes the fear of not knowing what to say, or saying the wrong thing, will cause a conflict for the personal trainer.  While it is important to relate to your clients, don’t forget that part of relating is actually asking good questions and listening.

What is a good question? You will have questions that evoke a simple yes or no answer. Ask those questions because they are important. But a really good question gets the client talking, not just answering.

Instead of asking, “How was your day at work”?” say “Tell me about your day.”  Your client will likely fill you in on the day’s events which will help you determine the stress level of his or her job.

The more your client talks, the more you will learn about him or her. That knowledge will help you gauge the perfect plan of action for each client.

Once you begin asking the good questions, the ones that don’t evoke a one word answer like “yes,” “no,” or “fine,” you have the responsibility to actually listen. Unless you are really listening to your clients, you are doing them and your business an injustice.

Since our society tends to focus so much on building the speaking skills of our leaders, we have not given adequate attention to developing listening skills. Listening requires just as much work and practice as speaking!

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Sincerity is a virtue. You cannot fake sincerity. As a personal trainer, you will need to be sincere with your clients.

Sincerity refers to genuineness and honesty. Your clients need to know they can trust you. If you are not sincerely trying to help them reach their goals, they will be able to detect it. Their story of dissatisfaction could spread rapidly and you business would suffer.

Do you need to work on your sincerity? Try these steps:

1. Be the real you. This may seem difficult if you are working toward building your own self-confidence or self-esteem. So many of those exercises tell you to imagine your goal has been met and begin to live like it has. That’s not deception – that’s positive thinking. When your clients know that you are working toward a goal yourself and they see your positive thinking in action, they will know that is a part of the real you.
    
2. Volunteer. Do something to help out, not for a reward or favor. Giving happily without expecting a reward or recognition is an act of sincerity. You can learn a lot about other people (and yourself) by offering your time to a cause.
    
3. Believe in what you say or do. Your passion will shine through!
    
4. Resist the urge to be perfect. When a client asks a question, resist the urge to add a little sugar coating to your answer. One aspect of sincerity is spontaneity. If you take time to think of just the right wording or worry about political correctness, you will sound fake or overly cautious. You will lose your sincerity.
    
5. Be welcoming – but know that you are welcoming people, plus the possibility of exposure. If your actions are not sincere, you will be exposed as a phony. That’s never good for business! When you genuinely open up to others, they will seek you, as in the “Law of Attraction.”

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