Avoiding Digital Offer Mistakes

When I talk to rehab professionals about turning their in-person process into a digital one, I hear the same line a lot:

“I tried that… and it didn’t work.”

No offense if that’s something you’ve said, but over here, I’ve been obsessively refining how to help performance-based PTs, chiros, and movement pros not just offer this model, but actually get buy-in for it.

Because most of the time, the issue isn’t the offer itself. It’s how it’s positioned.

And the only reason I’m so certain of this is because… I’ve made every single mistake myself.

Here are the top 3 mistakes I see when people try to implement a digital offer:

1. Your offer sounds like a fitness offer.

That’s not a delivery problem, it’s a messaging problem.

This is exactly why we call it a Prescriptive Exercise Program.

It doesn’t just sound different, it is different. The PEP isn’t here to compete with someone’s gym membership. It solves a specific problem that fitness doesn’t.

In many cases with active individuals our clients already have a fitness solution. So, why would they pay for something that sounds like or is more of the same?

Your offer must act as a differentiator. 

2. Your offer actually is a fitness offer.

This one’s harder to hear, but important.

If what you’re offering doesn’t solve a specific problem outside of fitness, and it’s not integrated into your standard client journey… It's going to be a tough sell.

This is an offer–avatar solution mismatch.

An even bigger issue is if your best referral source is a gym or training facility, and your digital offer feels like you’re competing with them, you’re biting the hand that feeds. That’s how relationships sour.

Instead, your PEP needs to complement those relationships, not threaten them.

3. You’re pitching the digital offer too late.

Put yourself in your client’s shoes:

They come to you in pain. You help them feel better. Win, right?

The problem with the traditional way PT is consumed, in their mind, feeling better = journey complete.

So if you wait until the end to pitch the PEP, you’re now introducing a new problem they didn’t know they had. And that can feel salesy, even with the best intentions.

That’s why we frame the digital offer from Day 1.

Not as a pitch, as part of the plan.

We talk about the eventual transition up front (even though most clients should start on day 1), so when it’s time to shift away from in-person and into remote, it feels expected… not like another sale.

Bonus mistake: You’re trading in-person time for digital time.

Nooooo.

The whole point of the blended model is leverage.

Your digital delivery mechanism should still get great outcomes, but in less time, so you can 4–5x your hourly rate.

If you’ve just swapped sessions for Zooms, that’s not a new model. That’s a lateral move.

Don’t rob yourself of the best of both worlds.

Before you write off the digital offer as “not clicking with my people”… check these variables.

In most cases, it’s not your audience, it’s the way the offer is framed, packaged, or introduced.

Dial those in, and it starts to click real fast.