Tweak your pre-screening to meet your client’s needs

By digging deeper than a basic pre-screening, you can not only uncover health concerns before they become big problems, but also supercharge your business by positioning yourself as a highly professional trainer, writes trainer and educator Clare Hozack.

KEY POINTS

• Conducting in-depth pre-screens with personal training clients can be daunting for both parties, but it has a number of benefits
• It can enable you to uncover health concerns before they become big problems for clients
• It can help stand you apart from the crowd by increasing your perceived professionalism
• It can better position you to build a solid referral network with allied health professionals
• By conducting a census of your client base, you can discover which areas to incorporate into your pre-screening process
• Researching the needs of your key demographics will also assist with marketing, because you’ll have a clearer idea of who you want to talk to, what their problems are, and where to find them.

As personal trainers, our Scope of Practice upon graduating is limited to working with relatively fit, healthy, and average-aged adults. To establish whether your client fits that definition, you’ll need to dig a little deeper than a basic pre-screening permits. While conducting an in-depth pre-screening may sound daunting, and potentially off-putting for some clients, it actually has the power to supercharge your business.

Reasons to delve deeper

Initially, it feels counterintuitive: do you really need to take a deep dive into every client’s history in order to find something ‘special’ about them that may result in having to refer them away from your business? Yes – and what’s more, it will be good for your business because it will enable you to:

1. Uncover health problems

A thorough screening process that searches for issues that can be affected by your client’s age, gender and lifestyle can uncover health concerns before they become big problems. Whether you’re looking for pelvic floor dysfunctions or prostate problems by screening for symptoms, if you catch them in the early phase of their disease or dysfunction, you’ve already changed your client’s life.

2. Give yourself a point of difference

The screening process is when you make your first impression on a client. An in-depth pre-screen establishes your thoroughness from the outset and is a powerful tool for building trust, rapport and reputation as a professional. Before you’ve even guided your client through their first kettlebell lift, you’ve already differentiated yourself and your business from the masses.

3. Build a solid referral network

A thorough screening process and a referral network will build trust and recognition among your community. By consistently sending clients to one physiotherapist or doctor, and then incorporating their advice into the exercise programs you deliver, you will develop solid lead generation for your business. Initially it will feel like the traffic is only going one way, but give it a year, and prove your methods with their patients, and the flow of referrals will go both ways.

4. Increase your knowledge

Discovering underlying health issues in an apparently ‘healthy’ client is also a fantastic learning opportunity for you. Every time an issue is uncovered, you add to your wealth of experience and this shines through in the training you deliver.

Taking your pre-screening deeper

So how do you tweak your pre-screen?

• If you don’t already, make sure you’ve got all the compulsory bases covered, as specified by your Duty of Care. These are general health questions that will automatically qualify someone for a GP visit before commencing training with you. You can click here to get a copy of these policies. The current pre-screening form for multiple regulatory bodies (including Fitness Australia, ESSA and ASCA) can be downloaded here.
• Next, run a census on your client base.  Key questions to answer include:
  – are they men or women?
  – do they identify as male or female?
  – how old are they?
  – what is their lifestyle like in terms of activity, eating, drinking, and stress?
• Identify key health issues in that population. For example, if 70% of your client base is sedentary men who regularly wine and dine as part of their job, obesity and alcoholism would be two fundamental issues to screen for. If 85% of your client base is mums, then pelvic floor dysfunctions are a must to screen for. If over half your clients are women who haven’t had kids, then you probably want to know about their menstrual cycle and whether or not they’re on the pill.
  This process will also help you with your marketing, because you’ll have a clearer idea of who you want to talk to, what their problems are, and where to find them.
  The importance of good quality research at this stage cannot be over-emphasised. If you’re not familiar with PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics you should get to know them.
• Incorporate questions that screen for these issues; a combination of direct questions, and others that look for symptoms that may indicate an undiagnosed issue are important.
• Develop relationships with health professionals to correct/treat those issues. In some cases, like that of a physio, you may need to physically go and see them, including booking and paying for an appointment. For others, it’s enough to call or email and discuss a mutual client’s plan. It can take some time to develop this relationship, so be persistent, consistent, and let your good work do your ‘selling’ for you.
• Over time, this will naturally develop your reputation as an expert, the one person the physio/cardiologist/GP will trust to prescribe exercise for their patients.

Asking the difficult questions

For many, asking clients and prospective ones, these necessary questions is not easy. Whether your client base is male or female, they have health complaints that will apply to their breasts, their bleeding, their prostates and other personal areas, and the intimacy of these questions may make you uncomfortable.

This is fair enough, but are you the right person to be training a mum if you can’t address the very high likelihood of her having some form of pelvic dysfunction? Not asking doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem, and the fact is that a key reason you became a personal trainer is to help people. If you really can’t discuss bowels, urinary tracts or vaginas, you should refer out immediately. Make it a pre-requisite of training with you that your mum clients see a women’s health physio and your dad clients over a certain age get their prostate checked.

Responding to what you uncover

Another hurdle is feeling out-of-depth with the answers that you receive from your in-depth pre-screening. Rather than viewing this as a negative, however, you should embrace the opportunity to learn something new!

As a PT, it is out of your Scope of Practice to diagnose. The good news is that the best health professionals in each field can teach you a little something with every client. Your client does not expect you to know why her back hurts every day, but you’ll change her life when you know that it is a sign to see a pelvic physio, and refer her accordingly. Similarly, you don’t have to know or decide someone has depression or anxiety to save their life, you only have to notice or screen for the change of mood or behaviour, then refer them to a GP for a mental health plan. If you’re training adolescents or young adults, the Mental Health First Aid course is highly recommended.

To get a head start on responding to health issues, you can take the pre-screening process online, using free form builders such as Google Forms or Wufoo. By streamlining your process in this way, you’ll have a chance to research any issues that come up prior to meeting new clients.

The old chestnut that referring people out is ‘bad for business’ can be dispelled. In addition to the clear business advantages of establishing a professional referral network, referring a client out will make them feel that their health is your first priority – particularly if you clearly explain to them your reasons for doing so. They will be back.

Take some time out to have a thorough look at your screening processes. Learn exactly who you’re training, and how you can add to the current recommended pre-screen to provide an even greater service to your clients. They will thank you for it, and so will your business.

Clare Hozack

A former athlete and strength and conditioning coach, Clare applies this experience to her work training and educating pre- and post natal women to help them develop ‘next level’ fitness for parenting. A trainer with IntoYou studio on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, she is also the Australian and NZ Master Trainer for Burrell Education, which delivers a range of women’s health and pregnancy-related courses. You can download Burrell Education’s free Pre-Screening tools for pregnant women here and post natal women here.

into-you.com.au / burrelleducation.com

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