The biggest obstacle to overcome on your journey to becoming a business coach is yourself.
That’s right, it’s not the coaching, it’s not the time, it’s the fact that you are doubting your own capabilities.
And that’s ok, actually, it’s completely normal.
The fact that you are unsure about whether you will be a good coach is already a sign that you care about providing valuable and worthwhile services.
Going at this all at once is terrifying and daunting, and just thinking about all the things you will need to do and learn will definitely seem overwhelming. That’s why we have created this guide that breaks down the process into a preparation phase and then the 3 core pillars you need.
By the end of this guide, you will have the exact roadmap you need to start your coaching journey, we can’t wait for you to get started!
Table of Contents
Introduction
Who is this article for? Difference between a coach and a consultant How do I choose, Coach vs Consultant?
3 Pathways to becoming a Business Coach
Tactic x: Figure it out on your own Tactic x: Join A Business Coach Franchise Tactic x : Become A Certified Partner
Step 1: Core business
Tactic x : Decide how you want to work with clients Tactic x: Price your offer Tactic x : Your Dream Monthly Income Tactic x : Creating a 4-year Plan. Tactic x : Identify your targeted niche or core client Tactic x : Use Numbers & Timeframes In Your Messaging Tactic x : 5 levels of Marketplace differentiation
Step 2: Sign Clients
Tactic 8 : Lead generation Tactic x: Lead nurture Tactic x : Do not be too pushy when you are trying to make sales Tactic x: Do not forget to mention your coaching sessions Tactic x : Position yourself as the solution to the Sales call Tactic x : Finding and Farming people Tactic x : Assessment Tactic x : Sales Call Tactic x : Transition Tactic x : Be persistent if a prospect delays or cancels a cal
Step 3: Create a system
Tactic x : How to be a good coach Tactic x : Figure out why your clients leave Tactic x: Position yourself correctly Tactic x: Referral Marketing Tactic x: How to get Case Studies
Introduction
Who is this article for?
Business owners/ executives
People who have been successful business owners and are looking to pass on their knowledge. You don’t have to have grown a huge business on your own. Just having some knowledge of the business world; like a corporate background, being part of a team, or being in a management position is useful.
Coaches
If you are a new coach looking for advice on starting, or even if you have been coaching for a while but feel like you need some help to reach your goals.
Now that you know that this article is right for you, you will need to understand the next section. The difference between a coach and a consultant.
The difference between a coach and a consultant.
Often people use the words coach and consultant interchangeably when looking for assistance in their business. If we get down to it the differences between a coach and a consultant are the following:
Consultant:
A consultant is usually an expert in a specific field who provides technical and professional advice to clients.
The purpose of a business consultant is to assist you to reach your business goals by improving systems within your business structure. They will offer custom guidance that will increase the company momentum for their client.
Business coach
The coaching process of a business coach is different because it is client lead. As a coach, your job is to unlock a person’s potential to maximize their performance. You help the client clarify their vision, control the velocity of growth and create value in the business. The desired outcome for a business coach is to help the client to learn rather than teaching them (though you do sometimes do a bit of teaching!).
A business coach is there to help facilitate the generation of their client’s ideas, behaviours, and systems. It’s a knowledge transfer to the client and that you need very little industry knowledge.
How do I choose between coaching and consulting?
The first thing to understand is that in the most recent research survey done by the International Federation of Coaching, it showed that 94% of coaches also provided other services. The most popular of which was consulting.
It thus absolutely works to be both a combination of a coach and a consultant. We do however believe that consulting is a good add-on to coaching, whereas coaching is not necessarily a great add-on to consulting.
Why do we say this?
When you set up a consulting agreement it is usually to do with a fixed amount of time, around a specific project, and you are the one doing most of the work. If you try and switch that to coaching, and try and facilitate the generation of the owners own ideas they might not appreciate it.
With consulting you are mainly working on the business, whereas with coaching you are working on the person. So it’s hard to go from consulting to coaching, but it’s easier to start with coaching and add in the consulting aspects later. The coaching relationship is set up for a more long term period, whereas consulting is a very time-specific business relationship.
You will often see an overlap between consulting and coaching, it just depends on your personality style and what the client needs. Now that you are familiar with the terms and concepts, let’s get started on your 3 step coaching journey!
The coaching industry is very flexible in terms of the qualifications that people need in order to call themselves a coach. Having said that- you will struggle to be successful if you go into your job with no idea what you are doing.
There are three main ways that most people go about acquiring the knowledge they need to become a business coach.
• Figure It Out On Your Own- Courses, books, interview people.
• Join A Business Coach Franchise– leverage their brand and materials
• Become A Certified Partner– have greater flexibility but still get training & tools
Tactic x: Figure it out on your own
There are many elements and components of being a successful business coach, some of which you may already be good at, and others that will require a significant amount of time, dedication and practice to develop. These skills include:
• becoming an effective motivator
• giving constructive feedback
• setting performance plans
• delegating empowering others
• and many more.
If you are looking to improve your skills in any of these areas you could: read books or podcasts on the topic; enrol in some business courses; speak to someone in a role similar to the one you are aspiring to; or try and learn on the job as you go along.
Pros
• You can save money on franchising and licensing fees.
• If you are already knowledgeable in business coaching then you can start practising right away and don’t have to wait to complete a course.
• You are also able to run your business on your own terms.
Cons
• It is difficult for you to gauge if you are progressing. As you won’t have anything to compare yourself against.
• It is also difficult to start getting clients and breaking into the industry if you don’t have any certification or experience to back you up.
• It will be difficult for you to prove that you have the skills and knowledge that are required.
• Finding clients can also be difficult without any industry knowledge, or a network for you to tap into.
• It could take you months before you land your first client and start making money.
This route could work for you if you are an extremely successful business owner, with a lot of experience, and previous businesses to use as examples of your work. If you don’t have any business experience, or if this is your first business endeavour then this is not the preferred route for you to take.
Tactic x: Join A Business Coach Franchise
If you have the money to invest and want a bit of security going into the business coaching industry, then becoming part of a franchise is another popular option. By paying an upfront fee you sign a contract to become part of a brand that is already well known in the industry. You can then pay a monthly fee to be able to use all their marketing material and branding in order to boost your own coaching business.
Pros
• Franchises are great if you don’t want to spend too much time on your own branding
• They can help you with marketing.
• A franchise offers you ongoing support and training so that you can upskill yourself.
• It’s a business in a box so you are immediately prepared for your clients (if you choose a good one – link to franchise article).
Cons
• The Fees!! Upfront & Ongoing- To become part of the franchise can be expensive, as you’ll need a substantial amount of capital to start out.
• You will also have to keep paying a monthly fee to remain part of the franchise.
• A percentage of your revenue will also have to be given back to the company.
• Becoming part of a franchise doesn’t give you a lot of flexibility, or individuality.
• You are restricted in the materials you use, where you coach, and the branding that represents you.
• Most franchises also limit you to a specific territory. This means you cannot offer your services to anyone outside of your allocated space.
A franchise could work for you if you need minimal training and you have the capital for the initial investment. You should also be quite confident that you will be able to attract clients within your designated territory.
Tactic x: Become A Certified Partner
Becoming part of a certified partnership, allows you to complete training offered by a certified company. Once you complete the training you become a licensed coach. A once-off fee is paid for the initial training plus a yearly license. This allows you to use the framework, done for your coaching tools, branding, and marketing resources.
Pros
• You are not limited to operating under the name of the business when you form part of a certified partnership.
• There is a lot of freedom and flexibility in the way you operate and market yourself.
• You are also provided with a variety of resources, tools, and materials. This makes starting your own business as seamless as possible. You are, however, under no obligation to use these.
• It is also never required from you, to give any of your revenue back to the company, and what you earn is yours to keep.
• As part of the cost, you receive comprehensive training. This means you can become certified even if you are a complete novice at business coaching and have no prior business experience.
• You will finish the training with extensive knowledge and the appropriate skills to be a valuable asset to your clients.
Cons
• Taking part in a Certified Partnership does cost more than doing it alone or just buying a basic one-off course.
• You will need the appropriate capital to invest in the training as well as your own marketing.
• If you want to keep using the marketing and coaching collateral you will have to pay yearly fees (but these are much lower than franchise fees)
• You will have to be willing to put in the time to grow your business. It can take a while to establish yourself as a trustworthy coach.
This is a good option if you enjoy flexibility, and are looking to leverage a credible brand or have the flexibility to develop your own. If you are invested in honing your skills and educating yourself on the best business practices, this would be a good choice for you.
Tactic x: Decide how you want to work with clients
Deciding how you will work with clients is a key question for you to decide. And you want to do for yourself what you do with clients. One of the beauties of being a business coach is you can be extremely flexible with how you work in terms of the practicalities of structuring your coaching sessions.
What you do with clients is you get them to establish the life they want to live before you help them design the business. Because if you design the business and start implementing all these things that don’t match the life they want to live they are going to be really unmotivated and unhappy and they are not going to stay with you.
You need to do the same for yourself. You need to decide:
• How many hours do you want to work a week?
• What kind of people do you want to be working with?
• Would you rather have one or two high-value clients that you only see once a month or do you want 10 clients that you see weekly?
• Start with how you want to live and work backwards towards the packages you create.
How you could structure your consulting packages:
Weekly
You will work with the client once a week whether it is an hour on the phone, or in person. Maybe they can contact you via email if they need assistance, you can decide on the boundaries. You can charge anywhere from $1000 to $5000 a month. Usually, it works out around $500 per coaching session.
Fortnight/ monthly
You could separate your coaching sessions. Instead of it being weekly it can be every two weeks, or it could even be monthly. You might lower the monthly fee depending on this. Usually, coaches will charge around $500 a month for monthly coaching.
Once-off
You could also get everything done in one day. You can decide you are only going to work with people who want a full day once a month. Then you are going to charge $2000- $5000 for the full day. You can deliver content and have it all mapped out on what exactly a day would look like.
Check-ins
Another package could be a few hours a month and then just have a check-in every now and again. Coaches might do 2-3 hours a month with proper sessions and then accompany that with a phone call every 2-weeks.
One important thing to remember is that you don’t want to have too many packages.
Tactic x: Create & Price Your Consulting Offer
What you will earn per client is one of the most important metrics for business coaches to realise. It factors in two of the most critical things, how long you keep a client and the prices you’re charging.
Find the balance
If you’re keeping your clients for a long time but charging them very little, you’re not going to earn that much. If you’re charging high prices but you can’t keep the client then you’re not going to earn a lot either. You want to find the sweet spot between high prices and keeping a client for a long time.
On average coaches are notoriously bad at keeping clients. The ICF reported that most coaches only keep their clients for around 4 months.
When you know how to properly position a relationship you can keep clients 12 months and longer.
Pricing
On average you can charge a client $2000 a month for weekly coaching, that’s worth $24000 yearly. If you end up keeping them for 5 years that’s $120 000 per client.
That’s why you don’t need to have thousands of clients, you just need the right people who you can serve and deliver high value to the long term.
Have a system in place
So you can see how by keeping a client that long and expanding the revenue by working and growing with the business that the client was worth over half a million dollars to pam.
You need to focus on having a system to help you be prepared and find high-value clients. Once you have signed a client you need to follow the client rulebook that we provide you with as part of our Certified Partner Programme.
This will teach you how to avoid the things that cause clients to leave, and how to get your clients to stay with you long term. By following our proven system you can continue getting a high-end fee and your clients will love paying it because they are getting such great results.
So instead of being an average coach earning $4000 per client because you can only keep them a few months, you want to be charging higher prices and keeping them long-term. Your goal should always be to sign clients that could potentially end up being worth over 6 figures.
Tactic x: Figuring out your dream monthly Income
When you decide on the pricing for your coaching sessions, you need to be working with a goal in mind. How much do you need to be earning each month to have your dream life?
This number will vary for everyone, but you need to establish this so that you have a clear goal that you are working towards and that you can put a strategy in place so that you can hit your monthly targets.
We have created a tool that will help you define exactly how much you need to be earning each month to have your dream life!
The way that we have structured the levels of monthly earnings is:
• Security
• Freedom
• Wealth
The simple point of this tool is to provide complete clarity on the specific number you wanted to earn broken down by exactly how you can get there.
Because what most people do is overestimate what they need. They think they need to be earning $1 million a year to be happy. And then when they calculate everything out on their wealth level, it only totals to $300 0000/ $500 000 and this makes it much more real, and much more believable.
Also, it often happens that when they’ve done the million, they’ve forgotten to factor in tax and everything or they don’t know how it would be spent. The Deam Life Calculator gives you exactly the answer.
This tool is something you want to come back to over and over again. You’ve got a map to show you what you need to pay down to become debt free. You’ve got exactly what the numbers are and then a step further you’ve got exactly how many clients you would need.
Dreamlife calculator link.
Tactic x: Creating a 4-year plan
It is so important to have a good long term plan in place, that will help give you direction and allow you to make sure that you are on track with your progress.
We have found that the best way to do this is to have a four-year plan, stipulating how much you will need to earn each year. This will allow you to regulate how many clients you need to have each year, how many hours you need to work, and how much marketing you will have to do.
The BCA has created a great tool that will make it simple to calculate all this data. The tool we have provided is completely editable, and you can tweak it and change it to suit your own needs.
For explanatory purposes, we provided you with what we think the standard could be if you were starting from zero. So if you’ve already got clients, you’re ahead of the game and it’s a bonus. But if you are starting at zero, don’t worry, we’ve got this outline for you.
The entire model works with repeating stacks, which allows you to get five clients done in one day. So the goal is to position coaching to be delivered on the first and third Wednesday of the month, and you fit five clients in that.
Once you’ve blocked all your clients together, all your other days can just be focused on marketing and growing your business.
Now, if you want to go and later build another stack and you want to go and get another five clients, then you can go and put that on, say, the second and the third Tuesday that of that month.
The goal is one stack per quarter. So every 90 days you are going to be trying to get one new stack.
Each year you will then be building on to your original stack until you have reached your yearly income goals.
4-year plan link
Tactic x: Identify your targeted niche or core client
Making sure you have identified the right audience is a critical part of signing clients. You can have the best sales pitch, and send out thousands of emails- but if you’re speaking to the wrong people you’re not going to sign clients.
Many coaches fear they are limiting themselves when they pick a core client. However, the reality is that if you are too broad in who you serve no one will be interested because of the second mistake coaches make…
Tactic x: Use Numbers & Timeframes In Your Messaging (When possible)
If your audience group is vague, then your messaging will be vague too. A client isn’t going to be intrigued by messaging that could apply to anyone. Make sure you highlight specific issues that you address and specific skills that allow you to be the best person to address them. Use the language of the industry you are targeting.
Tactic x: 5 Levels of a Marketplace sophistication
Companies can have the same product, but vastly different ways of marketing. The more specific you can become with your marketing, the better your marketing will be.
There are 5 tactics you can use to increase your level of marketing sophistication:
1. Result
– This will not differentiate me in the marketplace at all.
2. Specificity of the result.
How can you communicate your specificity of results to start to get something that’s much more specific for people to have a look at?
You could say;
So now you are starting to make yourself sound different to other companies, by giving a specific timeframe and result.
3. Unique mechanism
What is the unique mechanism that you use in your business that differentiates you from your competitors?
4. Unique Mechanism for a specific group
Next, you want to start targeting a specific group of people.
Now, we’ve got a specific type of industry as well. So if somebody is an accountant, and they’re looking for a business coach they will read this and think “yes that’s me”.
5. Curiosity
To make your marketing stand out, you also need to add something that will spark the reader’s curiosity. People have read most advertising claims about a certain niche, so try and incorporate something that they haven’t heard before. An example of this would be adding something to your copy like “ Using a sneaky trick ”.
Which of these is more powerful to a contractor?
Sometimes, while trying to be concise, coaches forget to mention important details like why they are the best option available, or how they work specifically. Clients need to see a clear path from A to Z – they want to know the steps they need to take to receive the value the proposal promises.
Distinguish yourself from others in the industry by researching each client to learn what they toneedThen customize and personalize your messages and proposals based on those needs. Address pain points you see them struggling with, and clearly state why and how you can help.
Step 2: Sign Clients
Tactic x: Lead Generation
Getting leads is the absolute core of any successful business. But it’s a time consuming and tricky business. People will tell you there are hundreds of ways to get leads, but that’s just not true. In reality, there are really just 3 ways to grow your number of leads.
These can be broken down into
• Free
• Paid
• Partnership
1. Free
Free leads are basically any form of marketing outreach that doesn’t cost you anything financially.
The great thing about this type of lead generating is that it costs you nothing, but on the flip side, it can become very time-consuming. It also requires a lot of manpower, as it cannot be easily automated and it’s not scalable. To get leads can also take more time.
A good idea would be to start with this kind of lead generating method until you have gained enough capital to branch out.
2. Paid
Paid leads are marketing tactics that you have to pay for. These can include sponsored or boosted social media posts, PPC, radio, TV, Social media, Trade shows and online marketing.
The great things about paid marketing are that it is so trackable and so scalable. You can easily amp up the number of people you reach daily just by paying more money to your advertising campaign.
As long as you have defined a clear target audience that is relevant to your niche, this is a great way to get leads. The only downside is it can get very expensive very quickly, so make sure you have the financial means to get involved in this kind of marketing.
3. Partnership
A partnership is when you team up with someone in the same or similar niche as you. This allows you to leverage off of each other’s audiences and tap into a larger target market. You can do joint ventures, create content together or work out a referral system.
Depending on the type of partnership you join into it can be free or paid. Usually, if it is free you will have to compensate for the partnership in some other way, like referring people to them or helping them create content on their channels.
Creating a good partnership can be complicated and take time to establish, but if it is done well it can be very valuable.
Method
Ideally, you want to pick just one strategy and focus on that. Otherwise, you’ll be trying to spread yourself too thin. Decide what your goals are, and your budget and then decide which one will suit your business type the best.
If later you want to expand your other strategy then it’s fine, as long as you’re already successfully managing your first strategy.
Tactic X: Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of building and maintaining a continuous relationship with potential clients.
Successful lead nurturing focuses on listening to the needs of prospects and providing the information and answers they need to build trust, increase brand awareness, and maintain a connection until prospects are ready to make a purchase.
There are various ways to implement lead nurturing, but we will discuss our top picks below.
Tactic x: Nurture campaign
Nurture campaigns are time-based emails (or follow up Linkedin message) that are sent out to your audience in order to keep adding value and over time, build trust and motivate them to take some sort of action, like taking advantage of a free call.
The emails should aim to be informative, as well as persuasive, and should move the client to the next stage of your funnel.
A nurture campaign usually starts with an email describing the product and service and then follows up with a series of emails describing the different benefits and positive attributes.
Tactic x: Do not be too pushy when you are trying to make sales
You can’t bombard people with sales pitches and marketing material and then expect them to trust you as a coach.
Before you start selling your services, start building trust with your audience and show them you can provide real value.
Once you have their attention, you can then start discussing the next steps towards a coaching relationship and moving towards signing them as clients.
Tactic x: Do not forget to mention your coaching sessions
Don’t just have discussions and leave it at that. Once you have a conversation going you need to mention booking in a 15-minute introductory call or a strategy session (a sales call to you).
Don’t overwhelm your audience with sales pitches, but a nudge in the right direction is definitely needed.
Tactic x: Position yourself as the solution on the Sales call
A reason why many coaches can’t sign clients after the sales call is that they haven’t been clear on exactly what they do or created a good enough reason or incentive for their clients to accept their offer.
First, you have to dig for the problems the prospect is facing and the pain it is causing. Then (if you are a good fit to help) you have to be able to express to others what you do in a clear way that is understandable to them. Potential clients should them able to realise their pain point and see that you are the best solution to solve it.
A big mistake that many coaches make is they try and sell coaching rather than selling the after results- the pain point being rid off. You should make this very clear in your messaging, eg:
Instead of saying; “If you would like help or to work with me reach out”
Say instead: “If you want to increase your profits by £50,000 next quarter reach out”
IMPORTANT : Notice I didn’t say “If you want “help” to increase your…”
No one wants to work with you, they want to achieve the outcome, not the coaching.
Always focus on showcasing the value of what you do for people. When people don’t understand the true value (pain relievers & gain creators) – aka the BENEFITS and RESULTS – you provide, it’s very easy for the consumer to think ‘This is too expensive!’ and walk away.
Implement the FAST Funnel
Tactic x: Finding and Farming people:
This is being really specific about who you work with, and who your experience is aligned to work with. You can go out and send your message directly to clients that are relevant to you, and immediately position yourself to get sales calls.
Tactic x: Assessment:
This will happen during a 15-minute phone call with your client. During this call, you should raise the client’s problems and position yourself as the solution.
If you and the client are the right fit, they should leave wanting to book the longer sales call.
Tactic x: Sales Call:
We show you exactly how to do the sales call. We even give you what we call the Godfather Script, which is an amazing script that tells you exactly what to say to position yourself as a coach that can add value to your client.
Tactic x: Transition, taking payment:
The last part of the funnel is how you get the payment and transition into the eventual coaching plan and onboarding process.
Each of your clients could potentially be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, so you need to have a targeted approach.
This is much more effective than trying to appeal to everyone and hoping that someone resonates with what you’re saying, which they won’t because you’re being so generic.
Tactic x: Be persistent if a prospect delays or cancels a call
Advice for all coaches : when a prospect cancels or delays a call, find out the reason. If they are continuously rescheduling then clearly there is interest and life is getting in the way for them. They need a coach!
Often they are dealing with so much chaos, which is a big part of the reason they want to speak with you. They then end up prioritising dealing with the latest fire instead of their call with you. It’s a clear sign they need your support and guidance if they can’t even commit to and keep a phone appointment.
Messaging Examples
You don’t want people continuously booking with you then not turning up. So on the third attempt, I’d ‘be the coach’ and write to them. Say something along these lines (to suit your own personality):
Another approach I’ve used is,
4th time of a postpone/reschedule or cancellation and I would write ‘being the coach’.
Short and sweet – actually not so sweet version,
The latter usually results in a higher deselection rate. Those who are sparked in a good way by it, usually convert. They are fearful of it being taken away. Some take exceptions so you need to decide what you are prepared to do. Remember, Truth hurts. There’s no wrong or right, it’s a personal preference. I certainly would not use the last message for the first three rebookings.
It always pays off to go after the people who show initial interest. You never know the reasons why a prospect cancels or delays a call. And a little prompt from you could be just what they needed!
Step 3: Create a System
Tactic x: To be a good business coach you need to do the following:
Present your clients with challenges
Make sure that you push your client out of their comfort zone. Changing a client’s self-identity and improving their lifestyle is not easy, and it’s up to you to make sure the client is constantly pushed to do better and be better.
Do however be sensitive towards the abilities of your client, never push them too far and allow them to feel overwhelmed or out of their depth.
Have a Proven System to work from
No one wants to hire a person who has no idea what they are doing. You should have a structured system in place and a framework that has had proven results.
Improve your listening skills
You need to be able to listen and understand your client. You are not there to just lecture the client during a coaching session. If you do, that’s not coaching!
You need to make sure that your client feels comfortable talking to you and telling you their fears and doubts. You are there as the authority, but you also need to understand the issues of the person you are working with and make it about their agenda.
Be Flexible
Help your clients set strict deadlines and do everything you can to ensure your client achieves them. However, sometimes things do not always go according to plan and you need to be adaptable.
Do not make the client feel bad if they go over the deadline. Rather help them come up with a new action plan that will motivate and help them achieve what they set out to do.
Hold your clients Accountable
Holding your clients accountable for their actions is your responsibility. Part of helping businesses be as successful as they can be letting people know when they aren’t following the plan.
One of the key parts of the job will be challenging clients. They need to make the space to do the things that are going to move them forward long-term. Clients will make excuses from time to time, and while you need to remain empathetic, you must stand firm when it comes to progress.
Tactic x: Figure out why your clients leave
Figuring out why your clients leave is one of the most important problems you need to focus on in your coaching business. Why?
The easiest way to grow a profitable coaching business and hit your ideal client base is to not lose any clients.
Putting it like this might make it seem super simple, but it’s something that a lot of coaches forget. It’s easy to put all your focus on getting new clients and taking the ones you have for granted.
However, it takes much longer to sign a new client than it does to keep an existing one. It also helps avoid you having a rollercoaster of earnings month to month and being stuck on the marketing hamster wheel.
No one wants a leaky bucket for a business where you are trying to add clients as fast as they are pouring out. Ok enough with the metaphors, I think you get the point…
Make sure you are aware of where your clients are emotionally so that you can react accordingly. We have compiled some guidelines that you can follow to make your clients feel as comfortable as possible.
Tactic x: Do not overwhelm your client
There are three main types of overwhelm that you usually have to deal with when dealing with clients.
1.1 Time
They feel like they are too busy and will never have the time to fit in the coaching sessions and other things you have discussed to improve their business. When you are setting goals with your clients it is important to be realistic about the time needed for them to complete that goal.
That’s why even though it seems basic at the start of every coaching relationship the coach should do some form of time assessment and help the client free up some extra time.
Also remind your client that it can take a long time to produce a positive, long-term change in behaviour.
Habits that have been developed over years will not go away in a week. By realising this, it will ensure that when they are faced with time challenges they will not feel like there is something “wrong” with them. They will realize that this is a normal part of the change process.
1.2. Information
You have given them too much information at a time and they feel like they can’t take it all in. Even though you might have a lot of knowledge that you want to impart to your client, make sure you deliver it in bite-sized pieces. Rather spread things out over a series of weeks than trying to cram everything into one coaching session.
What will change the business and get clients results is implementation, not information?
If you give them too much information they may love it but eventually, they will pause or cancel the coaching to implement everything they have learned.
1.3. Expectation
Never allow your client to feel like you are expecting too much from them or they have put too many expectations on themselves. Often if you set too many goals for them at once, or make the goals too big or too soon, it can make them nervous.
They will then feel like they will never be able to achieve them. Wait for some goals to be achieved before implementing new ones, to ensure that the client always feels in control.
Tactic x: Position yourself correctly
People often think that surely once you’ve solved a person’s problem, your work is done and there will be no more need for a coach.
You’re helping people figure out what their goals are, and you as a coach are the bridge that helps them get from where they are to where they want to be. When you know how to structure a relationship long term, your clients will continuously look to you to help them achieve their goals.
When you set up 3-year, 5-year, or even 10-year goals, your clients will continuously want to use you- especially if you have helped them achieve their short-term goals successfully.
Tactic x: Referral Marketing
A great way to ensure that you are getting new leads consistently is to have a referral system.
A referral system is a word-of-mouth initiative designed by a company to incentivize existing customers to introduce their family, friends and contacts to become new customers. In this way, referral marketing turns your current customers into brand advocates.
This type of marketing is a great way to build trust among prospective customers, as people would much rather take recommendations from people they know than from a company
Examples of this can be “email our website link to 5 friends to receive a 10% discount at checkout”.
Tactic x: How to get a Case Study
A great set of videos where your best clients openly talk about you and the results you’ve helped them gain is undoubtedly the most potent sales collateral you can ever possess.
As it’s not what you say that matters most… it’s what your clients say.
The best time to ask your client is when they have just told you about a great result and are excited about their business.
Whether it’s a personal breakthrough or a business result, they will likely say yes because they are buoyed up about their achievement. Plus, it’s a great time because their enthusiasm will come across in the video.
Just drop in a simple statement such as, “Hey, this is a great result. Listen, I love the way that you feel so proud about what you’ve accomplished. Would you be willing to help me, help more business owners also enjoy the same benefits as you’re experiencing working with me?”
Note the positioning of that question.
It puts a supposition in their head that they are enjoying the benefits you’ve helped them gain.
The positioning also means it’s unlikely they’ll say no to helping you help others get the same results – though if they do, which is their right, just say thank you, it’s not a problem.
However, most business owners will say yes and ask how they can help.
This is when you just say that your best clients are helping you by having a simple conversation about the results they’ve seen over a recorded zoom call. So would they be happy to do the same?
That’s it.
Book a time in the diary in the very near future. Or even do it there and then if suitable.
