The Perfect Elevator Pitch: A Fill-In-The-Blank Template for Health & Fitness Pros

Marketing and selling isn’t about you, your products, or your services. Rather, it’s about painting a hopeful future for your prospective clients and customers. Here’s how to do just that, using an easy-to-follow, fill-in-the-blank template.

I Just Don’t Know What To Say

Many health and fitness professionals bristle at the idea of marketing and selling because, when approached by prospects, they get embarrassed, flustered, and conflicted.

Many tell me they “just don’t know what to say.”

On the one hand…

They feel like they need a great pitch that covers all the features and benefits of what they’re offering. Something compelling. Something powerful. Something convincing.

On the other hand…

They feel like long boastful monologues about themselves, their products, and their services are annoying. Off putting. Unpalatable.

You know, they’re actually right about that last part. Boastful (and boring) monologues are unpalatable.

That’s why I recommend a totally different approach.

Marketing and Selling Isn’t About You

What many aspiring health and fitness professionals fail to realize is that marketing and selling aren’t about them. Or their products. Or their services. Marketing and selling aren’t even about the features or benefits of their product or service.

Rather, marketing and selling are about painting a compelling and hopeful future for prospective clients and customers.

This cartoon sums it up perfectly:

Get it?

When telling people about your product or service you shouldn’t be talking about what it is and what it does.

Rather, you should be talking about what they can do with it.

The first is about you. The second is about them. And, when buying things, people aren’t thinking about you. They’re thinking about how to solve some sort of problem in their own lives.

Try This “Hopeful Future” Activity

To get a better handle on this “hopeful future” idea, try the following activity.

Step 1:
Write down who you are and what you do.

Example: My name is John and I run a company called Precision Nutrition that offers coaching for clients, certification for professionals, and coaching software for certified professionals.

Step 2:
Write down the features of your product or service.

Example: The Precision Nutrition certification includes a) a 600-page definitive textbook covering the art and science of nutrition coaching, b) an online learning portal with videos, lessons, and quizzes, and c) a group forum for interacting with instructors, coaches, and other students.

Step 3:
Write down the benefits of your product or service.

Example: The Precision Nutrition Certification helps you master the science of nutrition and the art of coaching using a university-level curriculum without having to quit your job and go back to school. Study at your own pace, anywhere, take the quizzes online, and earn a certificate in exercise nutrition.

Step 4:
Write down the hopeful future people can expect with you.

Example: With the Precision Nutrition Certification you’ll master the industry’s most effective nutrition coaching system, helping you get life-changing results for yourself and the people who come to you for advice. You’ll feel, competent, and credible in any coaching scenario, with any client. And you’ll be able to deliver advice that you know is right, in a way that helps your clients put it into action immediately, without resistance, and without eventually falling off the wagon.

Now look back at your answers and consider whether you’re spending enough time thinking about, and talking about, your prospective clients and customers and the hopeful future they’re looking for.

Here’s An Example from Precision Nutrition

Above I’ve included some prompts from Precision Nutrition’s certification program for health and fitness professionals. Now let’s dig into how PN puts this into action when marketing their coaching programs.

For starters, there isn’t much talk much about habits, sustainable change, or lessons and thought exercises, even though these are the cornerstones of PN’s coaching programs. Nor is there much talk about workout details, diets, meal plans, or menus.

Instead, Precision Nutrition talks about helping clients:

Eat better, without dieting or feeling deprived.
Get active, no matter what shape they’re in now.
Ditch the food rules, dropping the fad diets and conflicting advice.
Build fitness into their life, without it taking over.
Achieve, and maintain, their goals, even when life gets busy.

PN even goes on to tell clients them how they’ll end up:

Losing the weight/fat they haven’t been able to shed for years.
Building physical strength and confidence in their body.
Gaining mental confidence, no longer hiding their gifts and talents.
Letting go of food confusion, learning what to do, how to do it.
Getting off the diet roller coaster once and for all, and never looking back.

However, to really paint a hopeful future, Precision Nutrition helps prospective clients imagine a life where they can…

…feel physically and mentally strong, capable of taking on any challenge without worrying that their energy levels or body weight will get in the way.

…run around with their kids, or grandkids, without feeling pain, winded, or tired; and they can do it again the next day.

…excitedly book a beach vacation without wondering how they’ll look (or feel) in a swimsuit, walking along the beach.

…look forward to having their picture taken without being shocked at how different they actually look from how they imagine themselves to look.

…feel like food is their friend, not their enemy, and never diet again.

Even better, PN shows them real examples of other people they’ve helped live this more hopeful future with more than 1,000 before and after pictures, hundreds of testimonials and quotes, and dozens of feature-length interviews with and stories about our successful clients.

It’s okay if you don’t have this volume of evidence. Even a handful of compelling success stories is a good start and enough to convince your next handful of clients to give your products and services a try.

Now Let’s Work On Your Elevator Pitch

To help paint a crystal-clear picture of what you do, who you serve, and the hopeful future you can provide people with, use your answers above to help you fill in the blanks below.

I help {kind of person}

to {action/benefit}

so that they can {brighter future/more inspiring benefit}

Here are some examples of what you might come up with:

“I help new moms
to get active and eat better
so that they can drop their baby weight and feel more energy.”

“I help busy executives
to find time in their schedule for healthy habits
so they can finally get their health under control.”

“I help people with back pain
to move freely again
so that they can live their lives without pain and disability.”

“I help young athletes
to improve their movement quality
so that they can dominate on the playing field & injury-proof themselves.”

“I help women with health challenges
to figure out what’s going on with their bodies
so that they can manage their symptoms and feel in control of their lives.”

“I help people in their 60s and 70s
to begin a new movement practice
so they can walk, jump, run, and play with their grandkids.”

Give it a try. And, more importantly, once you’ve come up with a good pitch, start sharing it with those you hope to serve.

Want to learn more?

Then check out Dr John Berardi’s one-of-a-kind book – winner of the 2021 Axiom Business Book of the Year – Change Maker: Turn Your Passion For Health and Fitness into a Powerful Purpose and a Wildly Successful Career.

The health and fitness industry is huge, highly competitive, and often confusing to navigate. Dr. Berardi helps you make sense of the chaos, laying out a clear roadmap to help you achieve both personal and professional success.