Four personality types can be found in a gym:
- Fact-based introverts
- Fact-based extroverts
- Relationship-based introverts
- Relationship-based extroverts
At the 2024 Two-Brain Summit, gym owner and mentor Brian Bott explained how you can improve your business dramatically if you understand these personality types.
Here, I’ll explain how you can improve your product—coaching—by tailoring your approach to clients in each group.
Coaching Fact-Based Introverts
Profile: These clients analyze everything. They’ll go through an InBody scan and check every number, they’ll log their workouts, and they’ll review all their data from wearables. They want to know the exact plan, and they will have questions about it. Don’t take offense. Fact-based introverts aren’t looking for a power struggle. They just want to know all the details, and if you provide them, these clients will love you.
Ideal Approach: You must explain exactly what’s going on. If you do, fact-based introverts will feel smart and confident—big wins for these people. You know how your other clients glaze over when you talk about linear periodization and heart-rate training zones? These client demand that sort of thing. Over-explain their programming. In fact, over-explain everything. The more you come back to “why and how,” the better.
Say Things Like This: “We’re going to increase your load by 5 percent. Your last deadlift day, we used 200 lb. for 10 reps. That means you should be able to do 210 for 8 today. That’s our goal.”
Coaching Fact-Based Extroverts
Profile: Loud and in charge, these people want to be the boss. You must allow them to feel like they have input in their training plans. They need to feel important, and they love being asked for opinions and feedback. They can cause problems when they assume they know something but don’t really have a clue.
Ideal Approach: Give them choices—they love choice—even if doing so creates a little extra work. For best results, ask for input in ways that allow you to win regardless of the answer (“Do you want to do presses with a barbell or dumbbells?”). If a headstrong client goes astray, steer them in the right direction. Don’t fight them or rub their noses in an error. If you get argumentative, they’re gone. If you keep them around, you can slowly nudge them in the right direction over time.
Say Things Like This: “What do you want to work on next?” and “Hey, if you’re already this good, I have one little tweak that will make it even better.”
Coaching Relationship-Based Introverts
Profile: These people are calm, laid back and not easy to excite. They fear upsetting others, and they don’t care who wins as long as no one gets hurt. They prefer to “be just like everyone else” and don’t often like independent activities. That said, private training can be perfect to start because they hate being singled out from a crowd and sometimes attempt to hide, which can lead to bad choices (”I’ll just use 135 lb., too.”).
Ideal Approach: Private training is perfect for these people to start, but they can eventually work out in a group if you coach them directly and not in front of others. Always provide one-to-one feedback—even in a group—and encourage your other leaders to give them one-to-one feedback, too. To help them settle in, reduce opportunities for them to make mistakes, especially when they’re new. Example: Grab the dumbbells for them so they don’t have a chance to pick the wrong ones. For programming, keep it simple. They won’t get bored, and they’re uncomfortable with change. But don’t take risks: They’d be mortified if they fell on a box jump. Early wins are more important for members of this group than for anyone else. They need to feel like “I can do this.”
Say Things Like This: “All of our members started this way and got some extra help. You’re going to meet people and fit right in. We will start with on-ramp and take great care of you before we introduce you to something else.”
Coaching Relationship-Based Extroverts
Profile: These are your high-energy, people-pleasing Tasmanian devils. They’re the life of the party, and they probably won’t listen when you explain the workout. These people couldn’t care less about your programming. They want to be energized and feel the burn. Relationship-based extroverts often need to be propped up until the party gets started, but once it’s in full swing, they can motivate others and take a lot of pressure off a coach.
Ideal Approach: Relationship-based extroverts don’t want a lot of explanation, and they don’t really care about the numbers, so you need to keep track of things for them. They might pick the wrong load, lose track of their reps in a workout or talk while the coach is speaking. They care about their results, but they care more about the experience, so you must feed them energy and excitement to keep them engaged. They might need more conditioning workouts and intensity than the average person. Instead of giving them details, ask how they’re feeling and tell them they going to “love eating this spicy meatball of a met-con. Let’s go!”
Say Things Like This: “We’re going to do 15 to 20!” and “Was this fun for you?”
Tailor Your Coaching
In a gym, coaching is your product, and you should strive to reach an A+ level.
Many gym owners think that means they must acquire more and more credentials—because certifying bodies tell them that’s the secret to success.
But it’s not.
Yes, great coaches should have a baseline level of technical knowledge. But the most important skill a coach can develop is the ability to motivate clients and keep them coming back, day after day and month after month.
If you identify the four personalities in your gym and tailor your coaching, your clients are going to get better results even if you can’t diagram the Krebs cycle for them.
If you teach your staff members how to work with these personalities, too, you’ll have a team of people who know how to keep clients for years.
The worst approach: behaving like the grizzled football coach who grabs facemasks, barks at everyone, and gives “my way or the highway” speeches because he knows everything there is to know and his charges can bloody well adapt to his style.
That approach will drive clients away.
Instead, go deeper to connect with clients on their level. If you do, your members and your gym will thrive.
Additional reading: Sales Secrets: The Four Personalities in Your Gym
