Do you find it difficult to create a continuous flow of new clients for your coaching business? I’m guessing you are a really well-trained life coach or holistic practitioner who has some wonderful gifts. You transform your client’s lives but need an unstoppable coaching lead funnel so you have more clients to work with. You have these gifts but where are the clients?
How do you FEEL about “selling “your services as a coach?
One of the biggest concerns coaches have is how to not come across sounding like a “sleazy salesperson”. You likely don’t want to have to persuade your clients to sign a contract or do any hard selling.
Think about it. What is your favorite thing about being a coach … is it selling or is it coaching?
Most coaches, given the choice, would prefer to not have to sell at all. Coaches love coaching but hate selling. Give them a lineup of clients and they will gladly coach all day long. They love to serve their clients but, when it comes to selling, there can be a mental block that gets in their way and stops them. Continue reading
Here is my list of some of the most common types of coaching that you can use to design & launch your very own high-ticket coaching program.
Start by selecting your top 3 niche ideas. Followed up by my 7 steps to creating a high-ticket coaching program. Continue reading
Who wants to be able to receive coaching leads and consult requests on a regular basis without having to work really hard? If you fall into that category then you are going to love this idea. Get connected with your ideal client through collaborations with other companies they are already buying products from. This system will bring a solution to the problem of hit and miss when it comes to getting clients on a regular basis. It has been key to my ability in creating multiple six-figure coaching offers in the last 5-6 years.
Start by finding a company that is not in direct competition with you. A company this already selling products or services to your ideal target market. This way when they have sold everything they are capable of offering to their client the next step is for them to send that person over to you as a referral. This company is already an established business. They are working with your ideal client. With just this one relationship you could potentially obtain a limitless supply of clients.
Joint venture implies that there is a shared risk involved for both parties. Rather a setup of this nature is more of a collaboration. There is no risk to the company signing on with you as they already have these people as their clients. Choosing to connect with you means that they have no plans to host a coaching program themselves. This agreement instead gives them a new way to add more value to their current offers for their clients. While also giving them the opportunity to make a few more dollars in return for sharing them as a referral with you.
In turn, there is no risk involved on your end either. In fact, it does the opposite for you. By setting up a few of these with different companies you will not have to pay for advertising and or marketing. As payment to the referral company is only made if and when the client they send actually buys a coaching package from you. No risk involved on either end and only added value brought into a client based business that already exists.
Now that I have my coaching leads figured out where should I start? –The best partnerships that I have put together over and over again have been with seminar companies. These are companies that do not have their own coaching program, nor do they have any plans to set one up. They are in the business of doing their seminars and retreats only. Their clientele is the perfect candidate to now be upsold into a high-ticket coaching program. Retreats, books, courses, and software programs are all tangible products that your audience would be interested in buying. Therefore you need to focus on connecting with the companies that deal in those areas some way.
For instance, let’s say you are a relationship coach, where would you start looking for companies that align with your offerings? Personally, I would start with places like; wedding venues, notaries, and lawyers. When starting to think about who to contact you want to ask yourself; where do your ideal clients go? What products are they buying? What self-help books are they interested in? Even what kind of seminars do they sign up for? This is where knowing your ideal client and having a set niche will come in handy.
Now that you have an idea on what market you are trying to connect with and have decided on who you would like to reach out to; you may be thinking, “Let’s go!”. Instead, I would encourage you to take a little step back at this moment. You don’t want to go into a meeting unprepared. The second step in this process is to do your homework and determine how exactly it is that you can be of help to these companies. These questions are a good place to start:
By asking these kinds of questions and others you are ensuring that you have a clear understanding about the company, as well as what you have to offer before ever approaching them. Doing your homework ahead of time shows the business that this isn’t just a brainstorm idea but that you have in fact put some thought into this connection.
Now that we have a list of companies, we’ve done our homework and we really understand our business choices, the third thing that we need to do initiate the conversation so that we can start talking to them.
The best way to get the ball rolling is to find someone that can make the introduction for you. I suggest this because coaches are not salespeople. In fact, most are not comfortable with just reaching out to a company where they don’t know anyone. However, if you are awesome with cold calling then I say go for it. If that is not you a middleman will come in handy.
A good starting place to connect with people online is LinkedIn. If you have not used LinkedIn before it is a great place to make connections and find quality coaching leads. It is where you can look up and learn who the decision makers, managers and owners of companies are. It will show you how you are connected to others and their companies. Chances are you will find at least one company that you have a direct connection with already. This makes the connection more personal as it becomes you talking to a friend that with regards to an introduction to their company connection. Check your LinkedIn and see who it is that can make you the introduction today.
If you are, you are increasing your chances of pushing them away. If the company feels the agreement is more about you they will shut down the conversation before it has even started.
We need to shift that, we need to figure out a way to give first, and receive second. What you need to think about is, what’s in it for them? We want to approach this person and their company with, how can you benefit them? How can you increase their revenue?
Approach them from the standpoint that you are looking to add value to what they are already offering their clients. By offering them something like a free ebook to give their customers you are making them the hero and creating a pathway to you and your program.
In the interest of giving before receiving we want to allow them to dip a toe here. In step number 5 we want to propose a short-term trial arrangement. Perhaps a project for 2-3 months is a good starting point. Inform them that you will handle their clients with the utmost care. Providing only your very best coaching programs and skills. Mention that during this time period you will both have the chance to see how much extra revenue you can earn for them. Keep your setup offer simple; perhaps an email is created that they send out to all their clients.Then at the end of the term if all things have gone as well as both parties hoped you can start talking about doing it on an ongoing basis.
If you are dealing with a company that has extremely high volume and top-notch coaching leads that are top notch then maybe do a 50/50 split. The volume you receive will justify giving them half. Although, I am not going to suggest doing that all the time. A good starting point I believe is 80/20 or 75/25 or maybe even 60/40.
Always keep the higher amount for yourself as this is a service-based business.
The draw for the company is that this costs them nothing to produce and gives them an additional stream of revenue that they would not normally have. You get the higher amount because you are the service and need to be paid well for your time. For the most part, you won’t receive a whole lot of resistance from companies. Most will probably come in at around a 75/25 split unless it is a larger company. Which then you may have to expect them to haggle a bit more before reaching an agreement with you.
– Have the Courage – Today we have outlined the steps of how you can approach companies and embed your consultation offerings into their product offerings so you can get that consistent flow of clients. Looking for companies that sell to your target market and determining how you can help them is the easy part. Where it starts to fall down a little bit, is in putting yourself out there and making that first contact. I have seen a lot of coaches fail at this because they just spam email companies instead of reaching out to talk to someone personally. There needs to be an actual conversation. Emails can be ignored and or deleted. This is where your courage and the need to trust yourself comes into play. If you enter the situation from a place of “you can absolutely do this”, then when you are actually having those conversations they won’t be as scary as you first thought.
Pump yourself up and find that person who can make the introduction. Start the conversation and begin to see a steady flow of new clients come streaming into your programs. This potentially could eliminate all other forms of marketing because you will have a full roster of clients without having to go looking for them.
Three years ago I conducted a weird sign-up test, how to sign up clients in my coaching business and the results really shocked me. The results were not what I was expecting whatsoever and that’s the reason I call it how to sign up clients, a “weird sign-up test”.
So what was so weird about my sign up test? For the longest time I was doing what coaches do, I was signing clients up in the traditional way, the way that people are taught when they go through coaching certification programs or techniques they learned in sales training. Those courses usually recommend the practice of signing up a new client by offering a free coaching session.
I conducted a “weird” sign up test and here are the results……
What keeps coaches struggling to get clients now? Find out what the 3 Costly Mistakes That Coaches & Consultants Make. This is what I call “ 3 costly mistakes that even smart coaches make that keep them struggling to get new clients” These are real scenarios from either my own business or from some of my clients businesses. Continue reading
Did you know that I almost quit coaching in my first year?
Not earning enough money from my coaching almost put me out of business several times in my first year as a coach. Even after that, it was a constant struggle to get new clients consistently and earn a full time living from coaching.
I’ve recorded this short personal message that explains what happened and how I’ve turned things around to create multiple 6-figure coaching businesses. Continue reading