Archives – May, 2009
Staying in communication with your prospects and providing value is the key to getting more clients and growing your coaching business. Get the secrets to making timely and valuable offers that will attract clients to your coaching business like crazy.
If you want a growing contact list and coaching business you want to stay in contact with your clients by offering them high quality products, services they desire, and provide added value on a consistent basis. Always deliver more than the client expects.
The key is to provide value on a consistent and regular basis so that your services and products will remain top of mind with your clients and potential clients. The best way to do this is to have a schedule of regular marketing activities.
Consider all of the following elements when setting up a schedule for your marketing.
What is the main message you want to deliver to your clients?
I suggest that you decide on a message theme for each month or every couple of weeks. Write articles, blog posts, and deliver added value pertaining to the same topic. So if your topic is life balance then you could communicate topics like meditation, visioning, good nutrition, and rest.
Develop a schedule for delivering your communication and offers.
Use a calendar to schedule your promotions and offers. How often will you schedule articles, teleclasses, product launches, and newsletters. The frequency you use to contact your potential clients will depend on your target coaching niche and what you judge appropriate.
I suggest that you communicate with your target coaching niche at least two times per month using different modalities. Don't be afraid that you are bothering them because you will be offering information they are interested in and they always have the ability to unsubscribe from your list.
Determine what products and services you are going to offer.
Once you have determined a topic then you can decide what products you want to offer. You can offer the same product that relates to several topics, you can offer several products relating to the same topic or you can offer a specific product for each topic. Products can include special reports, audio recordings, teleseminars, webinars, videos and workshops.
What will you charge for your product and what will you give away for free?
Let's talk about client attraction and giving great value for free. You should always let potential client sample your products or services by giving away valuable free information. I suggest that you give a free report or do a free teleclass at least once a month.
Determining what you will promote what you will give away and what you will sell and scheduling them to reach your target coaching niche on a regular basis will ensure that you gain top of mind awareness as a valuable resource to your clients and prospective clients.
Staying in communication with your prospects and providing value is the key to getting more clients and growing your coaching business. Get the secrets to making timely and valuable offers that will attract clients to your coaching business like crazy.
May 31, 2009
Find a Person Who Has Done What You Want to Do and Follow Them
Years ago people who wanted to learn any skill or trade would follow a person that had spent years perfecting their practice of that skill by becoming an apprentice. An apprentice watches a master as they perform their art taking advice from that master and closely following their instruction.
Apprentices do this because they have respect for the time the master has invested in perfecting their skill and the apprentices realizes that to attain that level of skill they too will have to invest time and effort.
Does that mean that all the work done before reaching the level of mastery are without value? No, absolutely not. They have a great deal of value and the apprentice is paid according to the level of skill he or she has achieved.
The same is true of coaching! At first, you may not feel comfortable charging hundreds of dollars per session for your coaching. You may not even feel comfortable charging at all and that is fine.
Just start coaching and you will soon
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May 27, 2009
There are several challenges that hold coaches back from creating the thriving coaching business they desire. Make certain that you are not falling prey to this thinking. If you have suscribed to this thinking then you can quickly change once you have identified it.
Education Stagnation
Months of learning in coaching school and tons of role playing session just does not cut it when it comes to confidence in your ability to coach another person who comes to you for help. I don't know a single coach who graduates from coaching school feeling that they are really qualified to coach clients and have no reservations about their skill level.
Many coaches have a hard time hanging up their sign and inviting clients to coach with them because they lack the inner confidence they need to ask others to pay for their services. So instead of getting started coaching they decide they will be a better coach if they take one more coaching course or get, one more certification, or learn one more coaching technique.
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May 25, 2009
I have decided not to be gentle in this article because too many coaches are sitting around doing the same thing they did a year ago and losing clients or not gaining more clients. Enough, this type of economic climate presents an interesting dichotomy because people are less likely to feel they can afford coaching yet this is a time when they probably need it the most!
What has happened in our economy is not good or bad it is what happened but it has a dramatic effect on most people in some way. I think our view of the world and the way things work has been forever altered. In other words, most of us will not look at our lives or finances in the same way we did four years ago. I think that is a good thing but the point is that there has been a shift in perspective and it has affected everyone!
More Need for Coaching
You can choose to sit back and say that you can't get new clients because people don't have the money for coaching or you can see that these changing times provide a great opportunity for coaches. Many people feel they are facing a lot of challenges some they have never faced before. That describes a person who could benefit from coaching and that means a potential client for you!
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May 22, 2009
Your job as a coach is to get your clients to take action and make changes in their thoughts, behavior, ideas that will lead them to greater fulfillment and happiness. We know that people make decisions based on emotion primarily and logic secondarily so to be effective at getting new coaching clients you must use emotionally charged language to encourage potential clients to become coaching clients with you.
There are some very basic emotions that motivate all people though they motivate each of us differently. Using words that appeal to these emotions will increase your ability to move potential coaching clients to take action and sign up for coaching with you.
Fear of Loss
Fear is one of the strongest and most basic human emotions because it helps us survive as a species. Appealing to the fear of something or the safety of something is a dynamic way to speak directly to the heart of an issue. You want to let the client know how your coaching will help them to overcome that fear. Words like protect, save, avoid, conquer, overcome, and safe address a person's fear of loss.
Greed or the Fear of Not Getting What You Want
This is a powerful emotion that can drive us to take action even to take inappropriate action. If people did not have greed or the need to get what they want few would take action to do much in their lives. So this emotion does serve a good purpose. Get, amass, proven, results, more, all, and everything are all words that appeal to the emotion of greed and motivate people to take action so they will get or not lose out.
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May 18, 2009
To have a successful life coaching business, you must answer the question "what motivates people to begin coaching"? Why do potential clients make the decision to purchase your coaching or your products? Is it because you appeal to their sense of logic? No, not a chance, the fact is people buy based on emotion. They buy because they want something that they believe will benefit them.
If you make a strong emotional appeal to their needs then potential clients will buy your coaching. The question is how do you do that, when do you make that appeal, and where do you make that emotional connection?
Answer the question "What does your coaching client want or need"?
You must have defined and know your target coaching niche before you can think about determining their wants or needs. Once you have defined your target coaching niche, ask yourself and your clients or potential clients what their problems and challenges are. If you have not defined your target coaching niche then get "Coaching Business Blast Off" home study program and use the niche evaluator to clearly define your target coaching niche and describe them. You have some idea if you have researched your target but the best way is to speak directly to your market and get their answers. Survey you target coaching niche and determine the ten greatest challenges, needs and desires. Then determine all the smaller problems that result from the larger more basic challenges.
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May 16, 2009
Marketing and advertising are not one in the same. Marketing is part of every aspect of your coaching business. Advertising is only one component of your marketing plan. Successful marketing required a well thought out plan and a marketing mindset.
Getting rich on the internet is possible but doing it overnight with little work is not the way it works. You have to set your intention on success and then follow through with consistent action.
Be determined to succeed
I would like for this or that to happen is not enough to succeed. You must be absolutely determined to accomplish your goals. You have to be absolutely resolved to succeed in your endeavor and in your marketing. Visualize what your success will look like and
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May 13, 2009
You are the core of your coaching business so how you present yourself is how others will see your coaching business. Be conscious of how you are perceived by clients and potential clients and how that will reflect on their decisions to use your services. There is no need to be manipulative or calculating in how you present yourself and your business but you should be aware of the image you project and you should make sure you are projecting the image you desire.
Self Confidence
Self confidence can be a difficult area for new coaches. The best way to gain confidence in your coaching is to coach a lot. I suggest that new coaches try to coach 100 sessions in three months even if that means coaching for a super low fee like $10.00. This will build your experience and confidence while getting the 100 coaching hours required by the ICF for certification. "Coaching Business Blast Off" helps new coaches have confidence starting a prosperous coaching business.
Experience
New coaches don't have a ton of coaching experience to talk about but all coaches have life experience. Most coaches have a valuable life experience that often is the thing that brought them to coaching in the first place. Tell people about your experience and how that relates to your coaching business.
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May 11, 2009
One of the questions I hear most often from coaches is “What
can I do to get more potential coaching clients to my website”? The answer is
there are many things you can do to build your website traffic and my question is,
“are you doing them”?
It is hard to keep up with client appointments, record
keeping, billing and promote your coaching business. That is why you must make
a plan to fit all these activities into your schedule. You must also have the
commitment to success required to diligently promote your coaching business
while being a superior coach for your clients.
I suggest that you
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May 3, 2009
Keywords are
very important is a lot of different internet marketing strategies. You need
good key words to find your niche, use in headlines, use in your domain name,
use in titles and countless other uses. But that is one area that I have to
admit I have not done as good a job as I should have. I don’t know why I have not
spent as much time as I should but the honest truth is that I have not. Perhaps,
it is just not exciting enough for me. Do you think you have researched your
key words fully?
Simple easy
steps are always a good way to approach any challenge so let’s look at some
steps to researching your target coaching niche and key words. If you have not clearly defined or chosen your target coaching niche then I suggest you complete "Coaching Business Blast Off" because a clearly defined coaching niche is an essential before you can choose keywords. This process
will also give you great words and ideas for
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May 1, 2009
