Archive for 'Client Attraction'

How to Get Repeat Business from Your Coaching Clients

December 14, 2010 | Read 2 comments and join the discussion

I hope you’re enjoying the week before Solstice and Christmas! Wouldn’t it be great to amp up your coaching income to cover all your holiday cheer? Repeat business from your current or past clients is the least effort, most profitable way.

An often overlooked approach is to simply call your previous 1:1 or group coaching clients to come back for more. You might feel shy about doing that, but don’t. Your call may come at the perfect time and they’ll be thrilled. At the very least, you’ll show once again that your curious about their life and supportive.

  1. Check in about something you worked on together before. Where are they on that now?
  2. What do they want most for the near future? That gap is your next step together.
  3. Have a program or coaching package at the ready. Don’t forget to pay yourself well.

Call rather than email and don’t leave a message. Try again until you reach your past client directly. The high touch approach really works.

Seed Repeat Business Early On

The best overall approach to repeat business is to “seed” the idea of their return before your clients are finished with their current coaching program. Design a natural flow with all your programs that drives clients to your next step. This is known as a funnel or pyramid.

Seed Repeat Business Early OnIt begins with listening to what people in your niche market specifically want:

  1. Relief from pain, correct mistakes.
  2. Solutions to challenges, filling holes in their knowledge base.
  3. Guidance to achieve their ultimate desired outcome.

Convert that “intel” into valuable freebies and programs that will inspire and motivate your prospects to invest. Catchall programs and topics don’t draw as well as very specific outcomes your market wants.

Continue reading How to Get Repeat Business from Your Coaching Clients

Topics: Coaching Business Tips
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How to Create a High Ticket Coaching Package

November 29, 2010 | Read 3 comments and join the discussion

Is it time for you to have your own high ticket coaching package? If you prefer to work with clients at a deep level, but want to move on from classic one to one coaching into long term group coaching, then you’re ready to create a bundled program your clients will love! And why not significantly amp up your profits while you’re at it?

Go for high quality, high impact time with your clients. But be sure to play to your strengths while also considering what people in your market really want. Some markets will be too busy for individual calls and prefer live events at an exciting destination where they can tack on vacation time. Some markets will want more “hand holding”, so you’ll want to load on opportunities for both group and private support.

Bundle Together Lots of Goodies

It’s really “anything goes” when it comes to designing your high ticket coaching package so feel free to get really creative as long as you know it will please you and your market. Here are a few tried and true features you can mix and match.

Keep in mind, what makes a program worth the big ticket price is proximity to you and in depth experiences.

Create a High Ticket Coaching PackageGroup calls — Offer one type or a combination of group coaching, mentoring, educational teleseminars, and/or mastermind calls.

Small group support —Break your larger group into sub-groups with mini-masterminds or monthly or weekly accountability buddies.

Private coaching by phone — Include 1:1 sessions of any length that are pre-scheduled or set “open coaching” time periods on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Live events — These could be private or group half-day or full-day intensives or retreats.

Online connection — Provide some sort of low touch venue for members in your group to connect, ask questions, share wins and challenges, such as private social networks or Q&A forums.


Continue reading How to Create a High Ticket Coaching Package

Topics: Coaching Revenue Streams
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Consults: The #1 Easiest Way to Enroll Coaching Clients

October 19, 2010 | Read 5 comments and join the discussion

Are you offering consults to prospective coaching clients? If not, I hope by the end of this post you will take my 90 day challenge and find out how the habit of giving consults can bring you clients right now. In fact, I double dog dare you to find anything better to enroll new clients into your high value programs!

It’s easy to pour your time into Internet marketing, thinking that social networking and blogging alone will get you all the clients you need. But those methods are best for building a leads list and bringing you future clients. If you want more coaching clients right now — real time connection is still the easiest, most direct and most effective way to engage new clients. And it’s fun!

Enrolling is a simple coaching skill that will do more than any other approach to get you high paying private clients. And you can easily adapt the enrollment process to preview teleclasses and public speaking, to enroll people into your group programs too.

Should I Give a Sample Session or Consult?

Enrolling Clients with Sample Sessions or Consultations

Most coaching schools recommend delivering a full blown coaching session as a sample to enroll clients. There’s nothing better for stretching your coaching skills as you’re first getting started. And, if you are vigilant about keeping your time boundaries, avoiding over-delivery, and acing the close; prospects will become your clients through sample sessions.

But, after a while, you might find that sample sessions are too time consuming. Coaches also tell me that in sample sessions they tend to focus more on their technique than engaging the client. From sample coaching, prospects often slip away from the full session feeling “done” rather than primed for long-term support.

A different approach is to set up a short, themed consult as a simple discovery process to enroll clients. You still get to use your coaching skills – asking powerful questions and listening – to quickly uncover where your prospect wants to go, where they are now, and the gap in between.

Then it’s easy to show them how you can help them bridge that GAP.

Continue reading Consults: The #1 Easiest Way to Enroll Coaching Clients

Topics: Client Attraction for Coaches
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5 Tips To Make More As A Coach

October 11, 2010 | Read 2 comments and join the discussion

Last year, the coaching industry magazine choice featured an issue devoted to “The M Word” — too discreet to even print the word in large type. Money is perhaps the most taboo topic, yet it’s in the back of every coach’s mind – how to make more of it, more easily and consistently.

For me, it boils down to this question – why do some coaches make more than others? I’m studying this right now, not only for myself, but also for coaches who seem to only get pro bono or trade clients. And for the coaches who continuously over-deliver, under-fill their business, place a low value on their services, and haven’t yet realized how the power of coaching grows when clients fully invest in themselves.  It can be different for you, if you really want it to be.

Financial success in coaching

The Big Secret

The #1 reason why some coaches make more than others — they ask for it! That’s the big secret.

You’ve heard “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. That applies here too. It’s not about being smarter – except for the fact that they are smart enough to ask. You don’t need more coaching skills and certifications. And it’s not about having more experience or being better at coaching and marketing. But you do have to believe in yourself enough to ask for more.

People who make a great living in coaching think strategically about money often enough to plan for it. They analyze their sales, and innovate ways to increase them. That doesn’t mean they are obsessed with the bottom line or less heartful than other coaches. In fact, some of the highest earning coaches are very spiritual in their approach to business, knowing that abundance means there’s enough for all.

What else do coaches who earn more know, that you can apply right now?

Continue reading 5 Tips To Make More As A Coach

Topics: Charge What You're Worth
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What Keeps Coaches From Narrowing Their Niche Enough?

October 5, 2010 | Read 4 comments and join the discussion

Who, besides me, says that narrowing your coaching niche is the shortest, smoothest road to success in coaching? Coach training schools, industry leaders, business gurus – and of course, coaches who have done this. We all agree that choosing a viable coaching niche is the first key step to a sustainable coaching business.

So why don’t more coaches give themselves this powerful advantage?

I want your input on this, and here is what I’ve repeatedly heard from coaches so far:

  • “I don’t know what makes a niche viable.”
  • “I thought I had chosen a viable niche, but I guess I didn’t, because it’s not working.”
  • “Don’t I have to be an expert to target a narrow niche?”
  • “I don’t know how to narrow.”

All understandable. So, let’s break these down one by one.

Continue reading What Keeps Coaches From Narrowing Their Niche Enough?

Topics: Niche Marketing for Coaches
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My Biggest Mistake As A Life Coach

August 9, 2010 | Read 5 comments and join the discussion

Want to know? The single biggest mistake I made as a life coach was trying to sell coaching. I didn’t realize that few people seek out coaching as a solution. Add to that, I was trying to attract big groups of people that weren’t easy to reach — women in transition and later, midlife women.

Just thinking about it makes me tired.

I didn’t know any better. All my peers were picking a topic they felt passionate about as their coaching niche. I blindly followed them onto that rocky road and never stopped to question whether that was the way to make a good living as a coach. Turns out, it wasn’t.

missed target

After two years, very few clients and paltry income later, I did shift to targeting a niche market — women entrepreneurs — which was way too big of a market with massive competition. And still I was scraping by, feeling like a fraud, and running frighteningly low on resources.

Still, whenever I did get a client, they valued my coaching. And I loved it. But I knew what I was doing wasn’t sustainable. I was working too hard for poor results.

Continue reading My Biggest Mistake As A Life Coach

Topics: Niche Marketing for Coaches
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How to Be Influential in Your Coaching Niche

July 20, 2010 | Read 13 comments and join the discussion

Influence is a new watchword in the world of client attraction. It turns out that being influential is not about knowing it all, having all the answers or being right. It starts with getting meaningful conversations going with the people you serve. Coaches are good at this, so I invite you to apply this with your niche market for 90 days and see what happens.

be influential with your coaching niche

Recently, a company called ThoughtLead offered “the shortest marketing conference ever”. The Influencer Project featured 60 thought leaders who offered sixty seconds worth of their best advice on how to increase your influence online. I’m impressed with the creative way that ThoughtLead offered value, started a meaningful conversation and built more influence with their market.

Six Tips to Build Influence With Your Coaching Niche

Here are six influence tips that you might not have thought of before. The first two are social media tips. The last four tips have a common theme weaving through them. Did you catch it?

Continue reading How to Be Influential in Your Coaching Niche

Topics: Featured, Niche Marketing for Coaches
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      • Barbara "Thank you for responding.  Yes, I'm still doing pro bono work. I have not taken this to the level where I'm getting paid.  You make a good point and although there are a vast number of women in this category, it does make me wonder if you're on the mark here. I was told to focus in on..." in response to How to Attract Clients in a More Coach-Like Way
      • Barbara "Wonderful article Rhonda.  I have been a "pro bono" coach for as long as I can remember.  I have gone through a program, hired and worked with a mentor coach, have a company and domain name,  business cards and a Pay Pal account.  Sounds great you might say!  Well, I haven't been able to take it..." in response to How to Attract Clients in a More Coach-Like Way
      • Angela "I truly truly credit you Rhonda with making me realize how incredibly important this is in business.  Now I run around telling everyone how much THEY need to do it!  Still working on my rebranding but it's coming together soon :) ..." in response to How to Attract Clients in a More Coach-Like Way
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