A simple question but its one that has major

impact on how well you can market your services

and training to potential clients.

We all have different representations and ways of

modeling information we receive in our daily

lives. As Jay Conrad Levinson and Paul Haney put

it in the groundbreaking marketing book Guerrilla

Marketing, we all have different blue elephants.

Or a more relevant example for the fitness

industry, what I see as being fit, what you see

as being fit and, most importantly, what your

clients see as being fit will all be different.

You can split the representational systems into

three primary categories, the visual, the

auditory and the kinesthetic. We all use these to

some degree in how we represent our view of the

world and typically one aspect will dominate over

the others.

As marketers we can use these categories to model

how we describe the benefits offered to our

clients. Find out which representational model

dominates and tailor your response to cater for

it. This will create greater rapport as you've

taken the time to understand the client and makes

it easier to accept the benefits you bring.

Here's a common problem we'll be using as an

example on how you can use representation

modeling to change someones perspective.

Weight training is one of the best forms of

exercise available, especially for women who are

at risk from osteoporosis in their later years.

However, the majority of women shun weight

training in the (misguided) belief it will make

them "bulk up"

Imagine that you are Trainer X and you have a

female client looking to get into shape. If you

start off by telling them they'll be on a regime

of heavy deadlifts and squats, power cleans and

whatnot, the likely outcome will be that they run

away very fast. You may have inadvertently gotten

them to start exercising but unfortunately you

won't get paid for it.

Disheartened, you stumble across this blog entry

and try out some of the representation techniques.

After an initial chat with your client, you feel

that they'll respond best to kinesthetic stimulus

so you'll tell them how much better they'll feel

when they take up weight training, how they'll

stop aching so much, how they'll feel stronger,

more energetic. You can see how this helps move

your prospect into a frame of mind where they'll

be more receptive to your plans for them and how

they'll be more inclined to agree rather than the

first approach.

There's a lot more on this subject which we'll go

into at a further date.

Ken Liu is a director of the UK's top kettlebell

company, www.

londonkettlebells.com and is an independent

fitness marketing consultant and can be contacted

through his website

www.kenliu.co.uk