What You Were Never Taught To Get Your Clients To Do What You Say - Part 2
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by Scott Schutte and Janine Stichter, Ph.D.
“If clients would just do what I tell them to do they would get the results they want.”
(If you want the origin story check out Part 1 here.
Scott here and I want to share a thought experiment with you.
Imagine this scenario: You’re training a client, maybe even multiple clients (if that’s your jam) and they are doing a superset of barbell back squats, and incline bench press. While this is going on the music is pumping (which it should be), there are other clients and trainers around, and you’re having to do a decent amount of coaching (as a good coach should.)
Now, one of your clients makes a comment about struggling to stop drinking her two glasses of wine each night and hasn’t been able to get over 75g of protein in. What do you do?
Here is what I did before Dr. J influenced how I train: I spent the 60 second break we had in between sets trying to triage the situation. Guess how effective that was? Not at all. And it wasn’t because the information I was sharing was inaccurate or not relevant. It was good stuff. They just weren’t doing what I recommended.
Here is where a Nutrition Coach reading this article might chime in here and say:
“But Scott I do Nutrition Coaching.”
To which I would respond:
“Great, I also did Nutrition Coaching before Dr. J but that was also limiting in it’s effectiveness due to the fact that it only addresses a small portion of the bigger issue.” We’ll get more into that in a later article.
To better understand why the above scenario isn’t ideal, let’s turn to the expert.
So doc why is that not the ideal approach?
Have you ever been introduced to someone and then literally a few seconds later forgot their name? Most of us have. This happens for a variety of reasons including: a lack of repetition, motivation, and focus.
When clients are training with you their primary focus is on getting their body to move the way you ask, keep balance and coordination and regulate their breath. And as Scott mentioned, the environment is not set up for deep reflective thought, it's designed to get the adrenaline flowing for the workout. The training floor was not designed to talk about lifestyle changes like nutrition, stress management habits, and alcohol consumption etc.
We do not process when our brains are focused on other things. We can all come up with personal examples of this. Your clients are nodding their heads but they do not have the capacity to fully process the information and retain it later. So they come back with a “sorta kinda maybe did” a smidge of what you recommended. Also, guess who else is not fully processing or remembering- it's you the coach. The coach is distracted as the primary focus is the training program and having many of these conversations without documentation there is no way to remember it all.
Also as a coach, you are not getting the right information from your clients when these conversations happen on the floor. Out of breath and physically working hard, they are not fully recalling. So their report on how many drinks they had or their food recall or the amount of activity they did, it's going to be really inaccurate. They also do not have the energy to say “yeah but..” or “let me tell you about my values and what I am not wanting to give up as part of my fitness journey.” So you can not really tailor a plan for them. That 60 second break between sets is not enough.
Finally, vulnerability is an issue for most clients. People need a designated time and space to share what is really going on for them, where they struggle, what they are self conscious about and what their true goals are. Just because they come in bubbly and chatty does not mean they are sharing what you really need to know to help.
So you need to prioritize time off the floor for quick and effective communication so that you can be the guide on a journey and not the HIIT trainer of lifestyle advice.
-Dr. J
Thanks, Doc.
Learning this changed how I ran my membership model and how I worked with clients. Currently everyone that trains at my facility has a minimum of one of these designated sessions per month, we call them Lifestyle Coaching sessions to clients but they are really Behavior Coaching Sessions, and the additional cost is just built in. We also have these sessions as a stand alone service where we get people that like to train elsewhere, don’t live near us, and people who want change but aren’t ready to start training yet. What I love about having this service is it’s a way for us to stand out in marketing (so more leads), it’s a way for us to eventually convince people to start also training with us (so more sales), it’s a way to have more 1 on 1 check ins with clients so better results (so longer retention).
I got into this business because I liked helping people and when I do something I want to be the best. Adding this as a service that you provide will allow you to help more people, be one of the best in your areas, and make more money while you do it.
Next month, check out Part 3 of our series:
“What you were never taught but need to know to get your clients to do what you say. ”
You can learn more about behavior coaching and how this can improve your income and impact at www.healthybehaviorinstitute.com
Janine Stichter & Scott Schutte
Scott Schutte is a personal trainer, weight loss behavior coach, gym owner, and fitness educator. He has successfully guided thousands of people on their fitness journey. His education and experience have led him to work with many clients and educate other fitness professionals on how to be successful coaches with an emphasis on behavior change.
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Dr. Janine Stichter has been in the field of behavior change for over 20 years as a researcher, author, educator and practitioner. She understands the importance of behavior science for client success. Her career has focused on understanding the why behind behavior and identifying clear practices that are practical and result in sustained change.
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Most recently they co-founded the Healthy Behavior Institute, an educational platform for fitness professionals and gym owners that specialize in behavior modification. Their educational materials provide professionals with a clear system to add an additional service for better client results and increased revenue.