Is there more to you than meets the eye? I'd bet there is. Do your clients know?

Sometimes you have to let them know more about your business, because our clients tend to have tunnel vision. When they have been clients for any amount of time, they tend to forget all the wonderful programs and opportunities you offer, or perhaps you never told them. We can become complacent and assume that everyone knows everything we know about what we provide, but the reality is that we must educate our clients about everything we offer and can do for them and their family and friends. If we don't, they will only know what you do for them.

That point was driven home to me one day by a client who is also a CEO. I had been giving him copies of my corporate wellness articles to read. One day, on my way to a meeting with his HR director to discuss the Corporate Boot Camp I was setting up for them, our paths crossed. He introduced me to the business colleagues he was with and mentioned the articles I had written. His words hit home: "I knew you were good at the physical stuff, but I didn't know you were smart too."

What do your clients say about you or your club? Their perception of you is what they share with others and a testimonial to you as well as them. When they share information about you, the opportunity for a referral increases and a door opens to asking questions and seeking answers. Do you know what they are sharing about you?

Listen to your clients listen to you. If you only run your session and don't share other aspects of your business and skills, the opportunities you have to help them in other ways, they won't know.

W.H. Auden said, "Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods."

Your relationship with your clients began with your need for an income and career combined with their need for guidance and instruction in physical fitness. A mutual benefit that served both of you well, as
long as you delivered the goods.

As you grew your business, you introduced more 'goods' that you could deliver. Do all of your clients know this? Help them to be able to put it into words so they can be more effective spokespeople for you and your business.


Greg Justice, MA, CPT, is the founder of AYC Health & Fitness (www.aycfit.com) and the Corporate Boot Camp System (www.corporatebootcampsystem.com). He has been actively involved in the fitness industry for more than a quarter of a century as a club manager, owner, personal trainer and corporate wellnesssupervisor.