Personal Training Blasphemy?

Can I ask you a question?

When was the last time you walked into Amazon, Barnes and Noble or even your local bookstore to buy a book?

Was it recently?

When you were browsing around reading the book-sleeve, did an attendant run up to you and say "Quick! There's only 2 left! Buy it before they go!"?

What about the last time you bought a book?

Did you hand over the book and the money only to find out that they'd thrown 18 other books, a CD collection, a bunch of book tokens, the author's telephone number and a money-off voucher to Starbucks in your bag?

No?

I wonder why that is?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it's because bookstores generally value the works of each individual author and rely upon the fact that people are buying, say, a Stephen King novel because they actually like his work, value his craftsmanship actually WANT his book.

Nothing more, nothing less than that.

It's funny then, that in the internet publishing world we tend to do the exact opposite.

We tell people that 'There's only 4 left!' or that 'The price will go up at midnight... I can't guarantee the price!' or that 'Due to such high demand we'll be discontinuing the book but when we bring it back it'll be twice as expensive".

Worse still, we sell the book itself and then bundle it with a stack of bonuses so large that it would take 2 solid months of 8 hour days to get through them.. even if they wanted to!

(I recently looked at a product that had 103 'bonus' items attached to it!)

Excuse me, but this is just nuts!

I mean, seriously, what does it tell your prospect about you and your product?

1. That book is not good enough to be sold as a stand alone product.

If it were, it would be. That simple.

Borders doesn't give you 10 books as bonuses for the simple reason that each book on its shelves MUST be good enough to be there under its own merits and, that being the case, you should pay a fair price for it.

No ifs, no buts.

2. That you're not as confident of your materials as you should be.

If you were then you wouldn't want to bribe me with other stuff that, in many cases, doesn't support the primary offering.

And hey, if you're not confident then why should I be?

3. That you don't care whether or not I read your book.

If you really wanted me to read YOUR book and take what you're saying seriously, why on Earth would you want to distract me with 10 or more works from other people

Seriously, in this day and age the thing that people are most short on is time.

They want to be told what to do, how to do it and why in the shortest, quickest most concise way possible.

They don't want to read through War and Peace 10 times over from different people to figure out what they should be doing to get better abs.

In fact, they already get THAT kind of confusion for free on Google, so why should they pay YOU for adding even more?

4. That you want their money... BADLY!

What other message do you think people are getting when you say 'you can have this, and this, and this, and... oh yes, and don't forget this!'?

They're getting the message that for you it's all about the sale, nothing more, nothing less and that you'll keep bribing until they say 'yes'.

Now, the thing is, this has worked on the internet up until now but will it last?

Can it last?

Will we all find ourselves playing the 'He with the biggest pile of bonuses wins' game ad infinitum?

Will we see 500 bonus gift bundles in the not too distant future?

Who knows, but I hope not!

"But Dax, a lot of the 'big boys' have made a huge fortune this way... I want some of that"

Too true, over the years there has been some great money made from this approach but I don't think it'll last. I sincerely hope it doesn't!

You see, every one of these 'super bundles' just reinforces to the world at large that we're not 'real' authors.

They believe that we're 'just' e-book authors and that we're deserving of lesser status.

And, to be honest, most of the time they'd be right!

Yes, I know that much of this is coming off as marketing blasphemy but it's what I believe.

You may even think it's a bit rich coming from someone who's got e-books of his own but if you take a look at my MAGIC Hundred ($150,000 this year) and my Scientific Advertising ($37,000) you'll see that I offer no bonuses, no bribes and no slick sales techniques.

I simply offer what I'm selling in a (hopefully) captivating way and trust that those who want my books will buy and those that don't won't.

Yes, there are those who make far , far larger sales than I and yes, they use the bonus method to do so but I'm certain as certain can be that those days are coming to a close.

Regardless, the question is not just 'How many sales can I make?' but, 'what difference am I making when someone reads my book?'

If you're stealing precious time from them by loading them down with 15 books instead of just 1 good one, then are you really doing them a service? Are you really making a difference?

I'd love you hear your thoughts.

Dax
http://www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com/

Wanted: Personal Trainer To Help Me Train... Top Dollar paid

...That's the email you'll never get, yet you still couldn't help but be attracted to the subject line right? : )

Neither will you ever meet someone who went to Google, and typed in 'Wanted: Personal trainer to stand by treadmill, have pleasant conversation with and count to 10 a lot'.

And you certainly won't meet the person who type in 'Workout Wanted'

I know, I know, this is obvious right?

So why am I bringing it up?

Well, over the last couple of weeks as I've been putting together the
12 days of fitness , I've had the opportunity to look at the websites of literally hundreds of personal trainers who have told me that they're having trouble filling their lists, getting new clients and charging what they're worth.

They tell me that they're great trainers, have a lot to offer and yet, well, they never get the breaks they're hoping for.

They tell me that it's harder in 'their town'.

That people think differently where they come from.

That people won't spend the same kind of money where they live.

Know what I think?

That's B.S!

I know it is because I work with people from all over the world who live in towns just like 'their town' and after next to no time they're charging more, working less and earning serious incomes.

I know because I sell my goal achievement books to literally every corner of the world to people who shouldn't even be able to afford them... but they do. (I've sold books in Nepal, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Timbuktu... seriously!).

I know because I'm currently the most expensive coach in the UK with my clients paying £130 an hour ($260) to work with me and my mentoring students paying as much as $10,000 a pop to join my mentoring program.

I'm not bragging, that's just the way it is.

I make A LOT of money and I help others make a lot too but not one of those people ever had a client Google them in the way I described at the start of this email... and they never will!

You see, as I looked over the many hundreds of websites I noticed a common 'fatal flaw' in all but a handful of sites I came across.

They were selling the workout. They were selling the process. They were selling the expertise and qualifications of the trainers themselves but rarely (and I'm taking about 12 sites out of over 400) did they say anything about the one thing that made the prospect go to the site in the first place.

NO ONE'S TALKING ABOUT RESULTS!!!

And trust me, that's all that the client is looking for.

It's a bonus that you're a 'nice' person, it's a bonus that you're experiencesd and qualified and it's a bonus that you do kettlebell conditioning, sandbag training or 'functional' training.

It's just a bonus.

They really don't care, you know it and I know it.

What they want to know, plain and simple, is 'what do I get in return for my time, money and effort?'

Tell 'em on your site and you get a hot prospect, tell 'em in person and they're scorching, SHOW them by actually focusing on delivering the result and not just the workout process and they'll be on fire with enthusiasm and won't be able to stop sending you referrals.

Harldy rocket science is it?

So stop waiting for the email that's never coming, instead focus your entire site, your advertising and your training around results and you'll soon see a major difference... even in your town! : )

Truth, joy and love

Dax

P.S - If you want to learn how write more 'results-oriented' marketing materials then take a look at http://www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com/html/sciad.htm where you can find a step-by-step blueprint for writing winning marketing copy specifically for the PT and fitness market.

Just a suggestion... you could always just write it yourself : )