How to design personal training packages (step-by-step)

If you’re new to the fitness industry, it can be difficult to know how to create personal training packages that sell.

Building a client base is difficult when you’re just starting, and it can still be challenging even with a few years of experience.

After all, marketing and selling your services is time-consuming and a different skill altogether compared to coaching your clients’ fitness.

Here you’ll find everything you need to build your client base and boost retention. You can kill two birds with one stone through your pricing structure when you know the right method.

1. Know your niche

Nothing is more important than defining your unique selling point when developing personal training pricing packages.

Knowing the niche fitness market you’re targeting means you can build your packages with your client base in mind.

This means they’ll be better suited to your potential clients, who will then be more likely to sign up for your services.

If you present a general pricing structure that doesn’t include a variety of services or extras to benefit from, clients won’t see the value in what you’re selling.

To give a quick example, let’s compare the two personal trainer pricing structures.

This pricing structure was created by a PT who doesn’t necessarily target a niche fitness market.

They also sell block sessions rather than presenting clients with a recurring monthly subscription, and there’s no mention of any additional services such as nutritional advice or group fitness classes, for example.

Block sessions carry an end date and a potential gap in your income if clients decide not to rebook when their sessions end.

That’s not to say this can’t be a successful business model if you have plenty of potential clients in your area and you’re happy to put a lot of work into reselling your services.

But zoning in on a particular group of potential clients can make your life a lot easier and significantly boost your income.

If you want to secure a long-standing client base that doesn’t require constant reselling, then let’s look at an alternative pricing structure.

This personal training package example is from The Over 40s Personal Trainer, a PT who runs sessions from her home in Didsbury.

The clue is in her business name, but she primarily works with women over 40 looking to improve their fitness.

This information is displayed alongside her pricing packages, where she mentions her expertise in things such as menopause weight loss and eating to feel good.

Presenting her packages in this way means that anyone in this demographic will naturally be drawn to them, as they’re designed with them in mind.

They know that if they sign up, they’ll benefit from specialised fitness and nutrition advice to aid their training, rather than that of your regular personal trainer at the gym.

Many PTs are beginning to see the value in this kind of business model. Not only does having a niche bring in more clients, contrary to popular belief, but it truly boosts retention when they can’t find such specialised advice elsewhere.

To find your niche, try this simple process:

analyse your competitors
identify a gap in the market
research this ‘gap’
establish and market yourself as the go-to expert on this topic

There’s obviously some hard work involved in following this, but the steps are simple when you break them down.

2. Demonstrate value

Following on from our point above, it’s important to communicate the value of your services to potential clients.

While this includes specialist knowledge in your chosen area, you can make your personal training packages even more appealing by throwing in extra perks.

This is less about fitness and more about selling your services to clients. After all, you’re running a business, and you need to tap into your sales knowledge at times if you want it to be successful.

So, what extra value can you add to your personal trainer packages once you’ve chosen an area of the market to specialise in?

Here are some ideas:

free nutrition advice
free access to bootcamps
free group training sessions
protein powder/supplements
fitness journal
meal prep kit

The word ‘free’ will draw the attention of potential clients, as they’ll feel they’re getting more for their money.

Offering these additional services will be cost-effective for you and require little effort on top of your main service. So, it won’t affect your profit from signing new clients up.

Adding extra value to your services on top of your unique selling point creates a personalised selection of personal training packages for your potential clients.

This places you way ahead of competitors, especially if you’re operating in your local area rather than online.

Chances are many of them are selling block sessions or short-term bootcamps aimed at the general public, and they’re unaware of how they could improve their business model.

3. Create your personal training packages

Now that you know what makes personal training packages successful, it’s time to create your own.

We’ve put together two examples to help you out based on everything we’ve discussed. Feel free to use them as a template when designing your own, and don’t forget to check out our tips on selling your packages below.

Examples of strong personal training packages:

Notice how the price per session becomes lower as the monthly amount increases.

This draws attention to the fact the client is getting a better deal by spending more per month and encourages them to opt for the higher price.

The number of free services and gifts increases with the price, too, even though the client is technically only paying for the sessions. You should keep these extras valuable to the client yet minimal for yourself.

Here’s an example of how a set of packages targeted at pre and post-natal clients could look:

What you include in your packages will rely on your own areas of expertise and your target client base, but we hope these examples shed some light on what a strong and highly marketable pricing structure looks like.

Remember, never devalue your services by adding discounts to your actual prices.

They should always stay the same–your time is valuable and offering extra sessions or token gifts is a great way around signing clients up through discounts.

Although, offering a 10% discount to clients who pay in full for the 6-month minimum duration is a great tip. If a client pays in full for the Standard package at £296 per month, for example, that’s £1,776 on the spot.

This is great for you and makes your packages easier to sell without devaluing them if a client asks for a discount. But more on this below.

4. Tips for selling your personal training packages

The final step of creating your personal training packages is knowing how to sell them.

Effectively promote your packages

Once you’ve created your personal trainer price list, you need to get it in front of clients. Places you can display your pricing structure include:

your website
your social media pages
gym noticeboard
community noticeboards
local shop windows

While there are various promotion methods, you should focus on those most relevant to your business.

For example, if you’re operating mostly out of your local gym or a purpose-built client training area in your own home, you’ll want to focus on attracting potential clients in your area.

It would make more sense to partner with local businesses and spread the word of your services that way, rather than putting your efforts into online marketing.

However, this can still be useful if you stick to optimising your website and socials around location-based keywords.

On the other hand, it wouldn’t make much sense to focus on marketing to your local community if you’re looking to attract online clients. Instead, you would focus on growing traffic to your website and social channels using niche-specific keywords.

You can learn more about becoming a successful online PT here.

Another fool proof way of promoting your personal training packages that applies to all business models is through referrals.

Encouraging your clients to ‘refer a friend’ works extremely well, as it’s mutually beneficial. You gain more clients, and they benefit from incentives for promoting your services.

For example, you could offer £50 cash to clients who successfully refer a friend. That’s a huge incentive for them, and it’s a small price to pay for getting a new client signed up for a recurring monthly package.

Remember that the reward doesn’t need to be cash—you could offer any benefit you feel your client would value.

Create urgency when price presenting

This applies to in-person and online PTs and is perhaps one of the most important aspects of selling your personal training packages.

Implying that your product won’t be available with such a good deal in the future creates a sense of urgency and encourages potential clients to act fast.

It makes your services seem more desirable compared to competitors, especially if you do your research and make sure you present your packages this way. It will ultimately increase your sales rate.

But, how do you achieve this sense of urgency?

Setting a deadline for your offers is a fool proof way of signing up new clients on the spot.

It reduces the likelihood of a client making an excuse, such as ‘I need to speak with my partner first’ before signing up, which happens more often than you’d think.

For example, you could state, ‘I have an offer for the Advanced Package ending today. It’s 10% off if you pay in full, and I’m throwing in free nutrition advice as part of the plan.’

Or, if you’re promoting your packages online, incorporate this offer into the copy on your website or social media description.

This form of discount gives the client a push towards finalising the sale without you having to devalue your services, as reducing the monthly rate can significantly reduce your income and annoy other clients who are currently paying more.

If they pay in full for the Advanced Package at a monthly rate of £544 with a 10% discount, that’s £2,937 on the spot. Not bad for one client.

BONUS TIP: Using social proof to emphasise the value and popularity of your product is a great way to follow this up.

You could say, ‘twelve people have already signed up for this offer today, so you don’t want to miss out!’.

It would help if you also displayed testimonials and reviews across your website and social media channels, as this form of social proof is incredibly powerful for customers making a purchase decision.

Include a clear CTA

This is important if you’re promoting your personal training price list online.

Your CTA, or ‘call to action’ should be as clear as possible and direct potential clients straight to the point of contact.

Try not to use vague language such as ‘get in touch’. Instead, show them exactly how to contact you, so they don’t think twice before enquiring.

Here’s an example of a strong CTA to use on a social media post:

Want to get this offer before it ends? DM me today, or call (insert phone number), and I’ll get you signed up straight away.

From this, the clients know where and how to contact you, and that they need to do so promptly.

Specialist personal trainer insurance with Insure4Sport

Personal training is a hugely rewarding and lucrative career path, but things can go wrong. That’s why you may want to consider protecting yourself through insurance.

With Insure4Sport, specialist personal trainer insurance is designed to cover you if your equipment is lost, damaged, or stolen or a client makes a claim against you.

If you suffer a serious injury while carrying out your PT sessions, you’ll also be covered for loss of earnings for up to 52 weeks.

Discover more about how we can help here, or click the button below to get an instant online quote.