Quick story from last night's personal training session... As a part of joining the local gym Steph and I were each given a free personal training session.
To start, the guy kicked my butt last night. I haven't lifted weights that hard in YEARS... and my muscles are paying the price today.
At the end of the personal training appointment they put the hard sell on you to sign up for a series of personal training sessions. Steph and I wouldn't mind meeting with a personal trainer once a week, if for no other reason than left to our own devices we wouldn't push ourselves as hard as these guys pushed us in these sessions. Basically a once a week butt kicking, sprinkled into our other activity might be good for us. But the reality is that we have lots of tutor expenses (Gigi homework tutor, Gigi character tutor, Gigi English tutor, Olivia Spanish tutor) and we haven't gotten our first full month electric bill to know what the air con costs are going to be!
So at the end of my session, the guy sits me down to start the negotiation. The negotiation itself went as you would imagine, I explain it's too much, he explains the value, I explain it's too much, he asks me what I am willing to pay, I tell him, he's offended... repeat, repeat.
The funny part - at least I thought it was funny - was the audience we attracted. At one point we had my trainer sitting across from me, his manager leaned over the table considering our 'offensive' offer and 4 other trainers looking over all our shoulders.
Then, we started to attract some of the folks there to work out... they just swung by while resting in between sets to take in the action. It's like they were fascinated to see if I could get a better deal than they did, or they were enjoying seeing the white guy getting worked over by 6 gym staff members!
I walked out with what I believe really is their best offer for personal training... mostly because I walked out with a written offer (they didn't call me back in as I walked away) and they seemed unhappy/resigned to the offer I left with.
It's still more than we are willing to pay, but it was a fun negotiation experience.
To start, the guy kicked my butt last night. I haven't lifted weights that hard in YEARS... and my muscles are paying the price today.
At the end of the personal training appointment they put the hard sell on you to sign up for a series of personal training sessions. Steph and I wouldn't mind meeting with a personal trainer once a week, if for no other reason than left to our own devices we wouldn't push ourselves as hard as these guys pushed us in these sessions. Basically a once a week butt kicking, sprinkled into our other activity might be good for us. But the reality is that we have lots of tutor expenses (Gigi homework tutor, Gigi character tutor, Gigi English tutor, Olivia Spanish tutor) and we haven't gotten our first full month electric bill to know what the air con costs are going to be!
So at the end of my session, the guy sits me down to start the negotiation. The negotiation itself went as you would imagine, I explain it's too much, he explains the value, I explain it's too much, he asks me what I am willing to pay, I tell him, he's offended... repeat, repeat.
The funny part - at least I thought it was funny - was the audience we attracted. At one point we had my trainer sitting across from me, his manager leaned over the table considering our 'offensive' offer and 4 other trainers looking over all our shoulders.
Then, we started to attract some of the folks there to work out... they just swung by while resting in between sets to take in the action. It's like they were fascinated to see if I could get a better deal than they did, or they were enjoying seeing the white guy getting worked over by 6 gym staff members!
I walked out with what I believe really is their best offer for personal training... mostly because I walked out with a written offer (they didn't call me back in as I walked away) and they seemed unhappy/resigned to the offer I left with.
It's still more than we are willing to pay, but it was a fun negotiation experience.
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