The more people you have on your list the more coaching clients you will have. You will also have the opportunity to sell other products and services to increase your coaching business revenue. Learn how to build a large list with blogging.
Continue Leave a Comment January 26, 2010
When I talk about marketing coaches tend to take off their coaching hat and put on their salesperson hat. In most cases that is not such a good idea because they also go from being authentic or real to being the salesperson they imagine they should be.
We all have an image of sales people and most of the time that image is not very attractive so why put on a salesperson hat or persona to attract clients? Does not make sense does it? It is important to stay who you are as a coach when you are inviting people to coach with you and avoid becoming the salesperson you think you should be.
I would like to share some things to think about the next time you have the opportunity to talk with someone about coaching with you or the next time you are at a networking or marketing event and interacting with clients.
Customers or Clients are Humans Too
It is funny how we take on a role in a given situation and see the other person as a role and not a human being just like us. Your customers have the same hopes, dreams, desires, challenges and fears that you do or that you have had.
With the age of internet and email we forget that there is another human on the other end of that email or sales copy. Try to interact as personally as possible to all emails and customers to create a win-win relationship.
When you are writing copy for a sales letter or an email picture one of your clients in your mind and write specifically to them. This will help you keep the tone more personal.
Leave a Comment June 5, 2009
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.
Leave a Comment July 30, 2008
