Coaching Tools to help Coaches Get More Coaching Clients. Suzan Schmitt: The Coach Marketer

Coaching Business: Getting new clients and how they pay

July 30, 2008

Got Clients, Got Office, Need Payment!  Doesn't anyone use cash anymore?

Alright, got an office and clients are coming in for coaching.  So here we sit at the end of a coaching session and it is time to pay.  How weird can that get?  No one carries cash anymore and I have clients paying by the session so what do we do?  They scramble to get cash to pay me each time or they dig out a checkbook from some deep storage area and use the antiquated means of payment know as a check.  How shall I put this…PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!!  Plus every time they have to pay it becomes an opportunity to think about how much it costs and if they should continue.  Amazingly, I get the idea this is not optimal!

Now it is time to tell my clients that we are about to have a change.  After a great deal of thought, I decided that I should ask clients to coach for 6 months as a minimum and that I should be able to accept credit cards.  I would like to set up a monthly credit card charge that automatically bills their credit card once a month.  I figure that way I don't have to play bookkeeper.  Great thinking Suzan…now how the hell do I do that?

How cool is the Internet?  I explore to discover that there are companies, who for a small fee, will allow me to do everything I want and more!  I found a couple of these Kick Start Cart and Practice Pay Solutions.  The first step is to get a separate bank account for my business.  Then I can open a merchant account with one of these companies.  This process was pretty easy and painless.  Now I can get my client's credit card information and have them on recurring billing!  That means every month their credit card is automatically charged my monthly fee and I don't have to do anything!

Now all I need is more clients.

I know…I should join ICF locally!  They want an annual fee and a meeting fee to join so I will go to a few meetings first and decide if I want to do that.  So I go to a few ICF meetings and figure out that I am only going to meet other coaches and this is not going to help me get clients.  Next move.  One of my clients tell me about BNI a national referral group or as some call it networking group.  That sounds better because it is comprised of people in different business categories who help each other with referrals.  I think I will go to a meeting.  Gotta love the Internet again…I go and find that there are about 25 groups of BNI in my city.  How do I pick one?  I know I will just go to a meeting and see how I like the group.  I go and this seems like a good thing and it seems like I could get some business this way.  I try several groups and pick the one that is most comfortable to me and join it.  Not real cheap but I figure two clients will more than cover the cost.

Someone suggests I start doing speaking events to get clients.   Aaaahhhh!  Public Speaking?

After the initial flood of fear…I realized that new clients are not just going to come knock on my door so I decide to think about this idea a bit more.  I could speak but that leads me to the question of what the heck am I going to talk about?  I start to think about what my clients talk most about because I figure if there is something they all have as a common issue then many other people would have the same issue.  Gosh, I am a smart one!!! 

It seems that everyone of my clients is too busy and feels overwhelmed in life.  Great topic for a workshop or presentation, Life Balance.  Now it is time to start writing and thinking about how I can help people during my presentation and still make them want to become my clients as well.  I have to give them some value and get across a sales pitch at the same time.  I was in advertising for many years so I should be able to handle this.

What Have I Learned?

1)  It has to be easy for your clients to pay you

2)  Clients should know that they will be working with you for several months.

3)  You have to market and network to get clients.

4)  One great way to get new clients is through public speaking.

5)  Workshops and seminars have to provide people with some value and learning rather than being one big fat sales pitch for coaching.

6)  Here is a way to start a merchant account so you can take credit cards.

Practice Pay Solutions delivers personalized, convenient, and affordable credit card, electronic check, and e-commerce processing solutions.  I endorse them because of their integrity and dedication in delivering these business services to professionals and entrepreneurs like us.  To learn more about their services go to http://www.profcs.com/app/
aftrack.asp?afid=864954.

Related posts:

1. Got a website now what do I say on it?
2. Coaching Business: Marketing and Making it Grow
3. Starting a Coaching Business: Start-Up and Client Attraction Phase
4. Business cards and website
5. Coach Marketing: Bringing in The Clients and Signing Them Up

Filed under: Marketing and Public Speaking

Tags: coach marketing, coaching business, coaching clients, getting new clients, selling coaching, suzan schmitt