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Trying to get coaching clients?
Today I'm sharing how to stand out as a life coach so you can get more clients! My first coaching business failed, but my second business was fully booked within two months. I'm excited to share what I learned so you don't make the same mistakes and you can have a successful coaching business the first time.
When you're done with life coach training and you're starting your business, a lot of coaches can struggle with explaining what it is that they do as a coach. They might use coachy phrases like I help heart centered women feel more empowered in life, and here's the deal. You just finished coach training.
So you've been given this incredible gift and you're excited and you're just trying to communicate to people, the kind of transformation they can have. Just like you probably went through a major transformation with your coach training. So really you're trying to convey to others just how powerful coaching can be and what they can experience as a result of coaching.
You want it to be infectious, you really want them to experience some kind of transformation just like you did.
And I totally get that.
Unfortunately, other people don't really know what you mean when you say something like I help heart centered women empower themselves to have a better life.
Our human mind needs specifics. Without specifics, we get confused. And if people get confused about what it is you can help them with, they are less likely to buy your services.
So here's what you can do to stand out as a life coach, to get more clients.
Number one: Talk about your coaching in terms of a specific solution or outcome.
So using the example earlier, instead of helping women feel more empowered in life, find a specific area that you'd like to help them feel more empowered in. Maybe they want to have more confidence at work so they can get their next promotion. That's pretty empowering.
Maybe they want to start dating again after divorce. Also very empowering. You can have fun with this and really think of a list of coaching solutions that you'd like to provide based on things you would love to help people with or experiences that you have had and succeeded with on your own. Also, by thinking about what kind of connection you want to have with what kind of people.
Number two: Once you have a coaching solution in mind, you're going to go out and validate it.
That means you're not just going to assume people want this solution or that it's awesome.
You're going to go out and prove it. So you'll go looking to verify that people are actually already buying that solution. This sounds really simple, but it is a very important step because you could create something brand new and then go out to the market and try to sell it, and without knowing for sure that people want to buy it, it's harder to sell.
It's so much easier to sell a solution that you already know people want to buy. Speaking of creating something that people didn't want to buy, well only a few people wanted to buy! When I was first starting my coaching business, I wanted to create an eBook for moms and I wanted it to be around the holidays. I really didn't have many clients at this point in time and I dedicated tons of hours, tons of resources.
I hired an editor and was very official with it. I did all these things and I created this eBook and it was a really great eBook according to me! What I didn't do though, was validate the idea. I didn't go out to the market to see the eBook that I was choosing to create, which was how to help moms was stressed in the holidays. There was a very, very, very small market for people that wanted such a book.
I sold a few copies on Amazon. I sold a few copies to my community and that was it. Not enough at all to even break even with the costs and definitely not with my time and that could've been avoided if I would have verified my idea first.
When you go out there to look and verify, don't get caught up in how much it's selling for who's selling it. Just find good examples of something being sold that's similar to your coaching solution because even if there are other coaches that are selling it, that doesn't mean that you can't sell it successfully. And also what you deliver is going to be different based on your target market, your personality and also where you trained for life coaching.
And speaking of life coach training, I'd love to know where you got your life coach training. So comment below and let me know. I was a 2016 Martha Beck graduate. So I'd love to hear where you went to get your training as well.
Number three: Practice it on real people.
Now that you have picked a coaching solution, you've gone out there and validated that it's a sellable idea. Next thing you're going to do is practice it, wait for it. It's kind of scary. Practice it on real people.
Now this is going to be different than practicing with your coach cadets or the people that you met in your coach training and you partnered up with to practice because you are looking for people that have this specific problem so that you can practice your coaching solution with them. Now here's where you might get stuck. That's really scary.
You're definitely taking another step out there, right out there as an in scary land of doing the thing. But I want you to try to take some of the pressure off of yourself and really stop thinking about making it hard, making it a big deal, and rather just think about it in terms of connecting with new people. So, you don't even have to think about it in terms of trying to sell your coaching services at this point, but just rather that getting used to using the language that those clients would use, getting comfortable testing out, if you like working with this kind of person and what tools you, you want to practice to help bring this solution to that person.
And it's really just a way to gain valuable experience and make sure that you're in the right lane for your coaching solution.
And that's how you stand out as a life coach.
Because if you are a life coach out there with generic words or confusing words for your potential clients, you will not stand out.
They won't understand what you're saying, which means they won't pay attention. But if you can offer a clear solution using specific language that your clients would, that your potential clients would use, that is how you stand out.
So you walk by a store, your problem is listed. The solution is there and your eyes hone right in on it. And you're like, yes, that's what I need.
You'll stand out because you're offering a specific coaching solution, your message won't be confusing, you've validated that your coaching solution is sellable and you'll practice your coaching skills and that solution on people that are actually having the problem, which means you'll get practice, but you'll also gain confidence and probably some referrals along the way too.
Do you want more guidance on how to stand out and get more coaching clients? It's so much easier when you have a clear message itself and a hot market. Click below to download my guide 7 STEPS TO GUARANTEE A PROFITABLE MESSAGE & MARKET.
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Feel confident when you introduce yourself to people as a coach.
Know exactly what to put on your website so clients want to work with you.
Uncover a profitable target market you love to work with.
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Learn how to work through the fear of putting yourself out there and marketing.