If you’ve ever tried to set up your own business, you’ve probably been inundated with business-building tips, tools and resources. But take them all with a grain of salt – some advice may sound legit but can actually derail your business success, cause you to spend money in unnecessary places and even loose money.
When we hear coaches talking about any one of the following strategies we’re about to share with you, we warn them:
‘You’re not prepared!
Your enthusiasm might have you ready, but you’re not prepared.
While it’s good advice, during the start-up phase of your business, it’s too early for you to listen to it. If you do pursue that strategy, you’re setting self up for being scattered and overwhelmed with your head spinning. That path is going to cause you a lot of
hard work behind the scenes of you business.’
Here are 7 tips you want to reconsider:
SCATTERED STRATEGY: As soon as you finish coach training, start marketing to get clients.
1. SAVVY STRATEGY: Get prepared first! When you complete your training you’re wearing the hat of the coach and your enthusiasm and passion has you ready to make money and start serving clients. However, you are not yet prepared as the business owner for finding or receiving clients and you’re not yet prepared to ask for or receive money. There are a few behind-the-scenes systems to put into place FIRST so you are fully prepared. Investing a small amount of time, in advance, to be prepared and organized will convey confidence, credibility and professionalism right out of the gate.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: Use the list of resources and technologies your mentor or trainer shared with you to implement the strategies they just taught you.
2. SAVVY STRATEGY: Understand all your needs up front to implement one cohesive platform. Often at the end of a training program you may have taken (on marketing strategies for example) your teachers, trainers and mentors generously share with you what resources and technologies you’ll need in place to accomplish the strategies you just learned from them. While this list of resources is helpful, it can often trigger more time and money invested in additional trainings to begin to learn the technologies necessary to get the results promised in the training. This also leads to “piecemealing” your back-office and you end up spending your time figuring out how to manage multiple technologies. One, cohesive platform that accomplishes all of your marketing, client support and financial systems will minimize your time spent behind the scenes of your business. And it will eliminate the need for more time and money spent on additional trainings. Spend that dedicated time up front to understand all your needs so you can locate the one-cohesive and most effective platform for your business.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: Just sell coaching and show up for the call.
3. SAVVY STRATEGY: Provide a value-add approach of exquisite client support. If you buy into this advice of just selling your coaching, then what you’re actually creating is a hobby, not a business. Nothing wrong with that, we just want you to know it. In today’s world it’s no longer enough just to deliver what the client asks for (coaching). First of all this will keep you locked in the trading-time-for-money world, which is very limiting in its possibilities. The most effective strategy is called the value-add package approach and is based on providing more than what the client wants, but rather what they ultimately need to create the optimal experience and the greatest results. Rather than just selling coaching to a prospect, position “Exquisite Client Support” as part of your coaching package. That way when a client is interested in your services they receive so much more from you than just your coaching expertise. They receive:
– a specific # of coaching sessions over a typical timeframe
– support prior to each session to help them (and you) get organized
– support after each coaching session for post-session accountability
– support in-between coaching sessions for the ‘just in time’ coaching needs that arise.
– a way to interact with you for homework review and to share recommended resources.
– money back guarantee
By providing the value-add approach of exquisite client support now you’re immediately engaging your new clients to begin to quickly experience the value of coaching and creating their ROI. Setting up systems to streamline and automate this level of support makes it easy for you to implement without it taking up more of your time.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: Wait until you have a full, completed website before you launch your business.
4. SAVVY STRATEGY: Start with an effective template immediately, however simple it may be, so you can grow your list and make money while you’re (a) getting clear on your niche and copy language and (b) creating a marketing website. Tip: Use it as a steppingstone and allow it to evolve with you. Don’t wait for perfection or a certain number of contacts to launch your business. When you do you’ll be growing your list and generating revenue WHILE you’re behind the scenes creating your full-blown marketing website.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: Save all your welcome packet material, forms, documents and other client supporting material on your computer to send to your clients via email once they sign up.
5. SAVVY STRATEGY: Have your clients access and retrieve the material. So many trainers and mentors provide their students and clients, like you, with an incredible amount of templates for welcome packet material, agreements and other documents to support their clients. When you save all that material to your computer, then when a client starts their engagement is dependent on YOU (a) being able to locate those documents, (b) customizing them for each client and (c) remembering to send them in an email that’s going to get lost in their inbox anyways. As a savvy business owner automate the delivery of this material and help your clients be organized right from the very beginning. Create a private client website where clients log in to access and retrieve this material rather then you having to send anything. This gets your clients engaged more quickly and gets them experiencing the power of coaching often before their first session.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: If previous clients want to re-hire you, they’ll be in touch with you when they’re ready.
6. SAVVY STRATEGY: Always keep in touch with your in-active clients. Your previous clients are actually your #1 source for new clients. Getting new clients from referrals is the best business-building strategy (and the funnest). Keep your former clients organize into a group/segment in your contact list and create an autoresponder series that will ‘touch’ them after 1 month of completing their work with you, again after 3 months and again after 5 months. These simple “touches” can re-ignite areas they’re stuck in and help them remember to utilize you as their coach, activating a new coaching agreement.
SCATTERED STRATEGY: Ask your clients for testimonials and referrals.
7. SAVVY STRATEGY: Re-think the way you ask!Yes, this too seems counter-intuitive. Often a coach that has a great experience with a client will literally say “Hey Client Susie, would you be willing to provide me with a testimonial?” And of course the client is a raving fan of yours so they blurt out an enthusiastic “YES!” However, after a week or so, you don’t receive a testimonial… and you start taking it personally. The problem is NOT that they don’t love you. The problem is they don’t know what to write or how to write it. When they do, it usually sounds something like “My coach is so amazing to work with!” which isn’t really effective at all. Don’t ask for a testimonial. Instead ask your clients to answer a few basic questions (and their answers then form the testimonial).
Same for referrals. Often we see coaches stating (sometimes even in their agreement): “My practice fills by referrals. Please let me know if you know someone interested in working with me.” Instead when approaching your clients, phrase the request “who do you know that would like to experience the same _____{insert benefits and results___} that you are experiencing?” By having your clients think of the results they’re experiencing it will allow them to easier recall friends, family members and colleagues that they know are interested in the same.
The final tip for this is to automate the asking for both testimonials and referrals so you don’t have to rely on your memory. When you do, you’ll get an effective testimonial and a referral from every client every time.
Use these 7 tips to check the health of your business. Are you scattered and working against yourself by implementing well-intentioned advice that is actually derailing your business success? You’re invited to join the complimentary webinar training “The Truth Behind The Business Of Coaching: What You MUST Know To Get Clients, Earn Money & Make Your Biggest Impact!” Sign up here – it’s free!
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