Should You Really Offer A Free Consultation?

by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN

As a marketing and business coach for personal trainers, one of the questions I am always being asked is whether or not to offer a free consultation. It’s a heated debate in the fitness industry and rather than just give you my opinion, I’m going to just present some facts to you and let you be the judge.

First, why would you want to offer a free session or consultation? The first reason that comes to my mind is that it’s basically giving them a sample. You are giving them valuable information and your time, but even more importantly, they are giving you a chance to WOW them. People do business with people – so people you meet with for a free session are far more likely to take advantage of your service than someone who sees your ad in the paper.

Another thought is that by getting in front of the person, face to face, you can do a better job with your presentation than you would be able to with a website, brochure, newspaper ad, or by phone.

Offering a free session also gives people who might be sitting on the fence about whether or not it’s for them, the chance to experience your service. Another reason might be, if you don’t have a full schedule, by doing free consultations you are getting out there and are being seen which gives you more exposure.

For example, you may be doing a free consultation with someone in a gym, and while you are WOWing them, the lady on the inner thigh machine wasting her time is listening in and is amazed by your knowledge. I know many of you reading this have experienced something similar and then the person approaches you after your session (sometimes they’ll even interrupt you in the middle of a session!).

Those are just a few of the benefits I can think of, but let’s talk now about some of the down sides, or reasons you wouldn’t want to offer a free consultation. The biggest problem I see with free sessions is when the person has not been qualified before hand and you end up wasting an hour or more of your time with someone who is either not interested in your service or can’t afford it, or both.

Another potential downside is that you are spending time with someone but not making money, which, depending upon how you look at it may or may not be a problem. If you think short-term like most trainers do, you probably think that it’s a waste of your time to do a free session. However, some of you, including myself, see the long-term value and potential. This one person may not only end up becoming a client, but they might be one of those great clients who not only stay with you for years but also send you a bunch of referrals.

Some trainers argue that your time is valuable and that be offering a free session you decrease the perceived value of your service. I agree that your time is valuable, as is mine, however, if the person you are giving the free consultation to is not only qualified, but is also aware of the service you offer and the rates, it’s a slightly different story.

What do I mean by qualified??? Basically, to make offering a free session work, you need to have a screening process in place. It could be as simple as a few questions you ask along with an explanation you give of what they can expect from the session, or even a more complex sign up or registration in which you gather personal information which you can use to determine whether or not it makes sense for them to sign up for a free session.

You can even handle the registration process online using your website like I do. You can see an example of this at my website here: www.achieve-fitness.com/freept.htm. What I do is drive people to this page on my website by using fliers and business cards that not only offer the free session but also mention that programs we offer. This strategy worked extremely well during slower times of the year (which we don’t experience anymore because of all the marketing systems we have in place) and I rarely use it now and if we do the trainers working for me do the free session as it’s a chance for them to pick up a new client.

I look at it this way… would you buy a car without test driving it? I know I wouldn’t. So why try to sell personal training, which is perceived as an expensive, luxury service without giving them a test drive?

I’ve recently heard some trainers compare us to medical doctors and they said “doctors don’t give free sessions, why should we?” The problem is, we are not doctors and who ever said doctors know anything about business! The fact is people like to do business with people, not large corporations and by offering free sessions you give them a chance to sample your service and get to know you. Also, many people want to know exactly what it is they are getting into before they start.

Here’s what I recommend you do…

Offer a free consultation when business is slow for you and or if you have other trainers working for you to do the sessions. Also, be sure to qualify and target the people you offer free sessions to. For example, you wouldn’t want to put a flier at the local Wal-mart offering a free session because the most of the people shopping there aren’t likely to be your ideal client (I said most). Offer the free sessions to your ideal clients and again only when necessary. I’m not one for wasting my time either, but I can tell you this, I have personally signed up dozens of clients who started with a free session. 

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, if you have other lead generation systems in place you probably won’t even need to offer free sessions. To learn what the best methods are for generating leads be sure to check out my new manual, Fitness Profit Explosion here: www.fitnessprofitexplosion.com

Well, I hope that you found this article informative and helpful and I challenge you to not only think seriously about the way people think and buy, but to give a shot and see for yourself. I’m sure you’ll be amazed be the results!