Written by SugarWOD partner The Gains Lab
We’ve been coaching remote clients all over the world since 2017. These are the guidelines we’ve used to help give our clients support and results along the way.
1. Be caring toward your clients
Caring about your clients, their intentions, and their goals is the most important trait for a coach.
Listen and seek to understand your clients. Fitness is a well-worn path, but no 2 individuals are exactly alike.
Get to know your clients. With some clients, this will be easy, and you’ll empathize right away. With others, the coaching relationship will evolve slowly.
Clients are individuals with unique temperaments and preferences. Get to know each client as if they are your only client.
Focus on serving your clients, even if you only have a few. The best way to attract clients is through referrals, and those start to happen when you provide excellent service and develop a network of satisfied clients.
2. Chase competence
Invest in your fitness knowledge. Read every day. Seek out experience and continuing education.
Coaching is more than sets, reps, and physiology. It’s also understanding human behavior.
Ask yourself these questions to assess your current level of competence as a fitness coach:
- Are your clients consistently reaching their goals? If not, why is that?
- Are you managing their timelines around the goals they set?
- Does the program provide the right amount of challenge for your client?
3. Respond to client questions within 24 hours
Being available and responsive shows your clients that you care. We recommend a coaching platform to help you create a workflow.
4. Share what you’re learning with your remote clients
Updating your clients holds you accountable to learning, expands their knowledge, and shows them that you are chasing competence.
It’s more important to show your clients that you value learning than it is to show them how much you already know.
Check out The Gains Lab in the SugarSHOP
We hope this blog helps you form meaningful connections with your clients. If you want to check out our programming, we have 3 individual programming tracks available in the SugarSHOP.