3 Killer Referral Strategies

Physician Referrals

If you want to set yourself apart from other fitness pros in your community, send a health and fitness report to your clients’ physicians. This professional courtesy is designed to create a line of communication between the doctor and yourself – and as a bonus, it positions you as a credible resource for the doctor when making recommendations to patients. The report might include the following:

• Weight
• Bodyfat Percentage
• Resting Heart Rate
• Blood Pressure
• Muscular Strength Assessment
• Flexibility/Mobility Assessment

Include whatever else goes into your assessment process. You can send this report each time you update your assessment. This single approach can set you apart from other fitness pros and fitness providers in the eyes of your community’s medical professional.

Referral Stimulator Email

This is very simple to do. Just send a personal email to clients and ask for referrals. Here’s an example:

Subj: I Need Your Help!

Dear Ms. Jones,

I think you can help me with a problem I have. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but marketing for new clients can be pretty expensive. And after I spend all that money on marketing, I’m still not guaranteed to get one single new client.

“Word of Mouth” marketing is still the best type of marketing. And frankly, I’d rather reward you for sending me new clients than spend all my money on radio or newspaper. Many happy clients have mentioned that their friends, acquaintances, and family members have expressed an interest in improving their health and fitness. With this in mind, I came up with my new…

Referral Reward Program!

Here’s how it works. For every referral that you send me who becomes a client, I’ll give you 20% off of your monthly rate for the next 3 months.

So if you refer just 5 people you’ll get your next 3 months of training FREE!

I know that I don’t have to offer rewards for referring friends, but I think it’s important to show that I value you as a client and appreciate your referrals.

When you think about people that you might refer, keep these ideas in MIND:

• People you work with

• Friends listed in your phone or email address book

• Neighbors

• People you know from your hobbies and other interests

• Family members

• People you do business with

• People who attend your church

Hopefully, that will jog your memory a little. If you just spend a few minutes thinking about it, I’m sure you’ll come up with quite a few people you know who would like to experience all the benefits that you’ve experienced while working with me.

All you need to do is reply with the people you think would be interested in finding out more about my services and their contact information. I’ll contact them and offer them a free gift of 2 weeks of my fitness bootcamp as a gift from you.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to rewarding you soon!

“Bring a Friend” Sessions

If you offer group training, this is the most simple referral system you can put in place. Just announce a “Bring A Friend Week” in which all of your clients can bring a guest free of charge to participate in a week of workouts.

Announce the event about a week prior to the actual day, and continue to promote it leading up to the event. You can combine this with another referral system and offer incentives or a preferred rate for any guest that becomes a client. Have a way to capture the contact information of each guest and continue to market to them via a newsletter or other promotional material. Have a free report and a special offer for upcoming events available to them at the conclusion of the session.

This works almost as well with standard one-on-one or semi-private training, it just takes a little more preparation for the actual sessions. You can develop a standardized entry-level program for the guests to follow for their workouts.

If you want to really take this to the next level, hold a contest with prizes for the client that brings the most friends during the week, and give them their next month free.

Now you have 3 easy to use referral strategies at your disposal. Pick 2 and plug them into your business next week so you can start getting these referrals rolling in.

By Pat Rigsby