Picture it, an abundance of your ideal clients, a wait list, all eagerly waiting your coaching services. Are you ready to welcome more of your perfect customers? Great, read on. To be clear, there is no silver bullet to attracting more clients. We both know that kind of hypey marketing is not for you. Although there is no quick fix there are several steps you can take to amplify your client list, in the next thirty days.
Before we dive into client attraction strategies, let’s revisit two key pillars, fundamental to attracting your ideal client.
Your People.
So you know who you love to work with, now what? You’ve nailed your customer avatar, you know what they read and where they hang out. This is super helpful but until you have the answers to what you desire and feel when working with these people, you are missing a piece to the puzzle.
Just like your website or your branding needs refreshing and updating, so too does your target market. Let’s revisit your people and answer the following questions.
– Can I empathise with my audience, really listen and understand them?
– Would I like to have coffee with them?
– Can I have a two-way conversation with my prospective clients? If not why?
– Can I share and feel safe being vulnerable with them?
– Can I lead them to the result they are looking for?
Your answers will guide you and redirect you, if needs be. If you answered no or are not sure to any of these questions then you may not be serving the client that is right for you. Perhaps you can tighten your niche, share more, and question more. You have to want to be with your people before they choose to be with you.
Your Offer.
As a coach, you are your offer. Working on professional global brands in the marketplace for many years, I was comfortable working behind the scenes. When it came to representing myself and what I stood for, I was quite out of practice! What’s my voice? My message? Am I ready to be visible? How do I package my expertise?
If you have your signature system, that go-to program or offer you’re known for then you know how impactful it can be.
Package your skills, your irresistible offer with these three steps.
– Clarify your Value
What do you represent? Embrace it and own it. Your message will become clearer and you will start to attract the right kind of customer, without having to put it into words. Women’s empowerment is one of my guiding values and I express this through my branding and visual marketing.
– Solve a Problem
What is it you help your people with? The more specific your can be, the better. Nobody googles health coach, they google things like ‘diabetes’ ‘lose 20lb’ or ‘paleo.’ Become known for that thing and then grow and expand from there.
– Communicate the Benefits
The old saying ‘features tell, benefits sell’ is a true one. Your clients and prospects want to hear what your work will do for them. They are on the WIIFM channel, what’s in it for me? Focus on the results you can achieve for your clients, then your clients will listen.
Now that we’ve rejuvenated what you’re selling and to whom, it’s time to get out there and start looking for your clients.
There is a time and place for complex marketing strategies, SEO, landing pages, guest blogging, joint ventures, affiliate marketing, paid traffic and so on. Perfect if you’re experienced and have a regular client list. These are slow builds and take time to gain momentum and a return on investment.
If you’re still in the early stages of business, keep it simple. Too many strategies can be a form of procrastination and delay you from action and seeing results. My advice is to always start with your first five paying clients and then course redirect from there.
Here are 7 client attraction strategies you can implement straight away:
Follow Up
So often forgotten, follow up is an absolute essential for your business, otherwise you are leaving money on the table. I’m talking about following up with people who have expressed an interest in your work, or have worked with you in the past. Call, email or speak in person with previous clients and prospects, not in a ‘stalky’ way but in a ‘generous being of service’ kind of way.
Networking
Introverts, before you sigh, stick with me. It’ doesn’t have to be the elevator pitch type of networking. There are some great groups that offer a more relaxed environment for women entrepreneurs coming together to share and learn.
The League of Extraordinary Women is a great one that takes place in eight cities across Australia. There are numerous online forums and Facebook groups you can join too. It’s always good to get yourself out from behind the computer so challenge yourself to go to at least one live event every month.
Social Media
Before you go down this rabbit hole set some boundaries. Have a certain goal in mind, for a specific period of time and you will certainly see the benefits.
It’s important to be present and contribute helpful advice, before you start offering your services. Create links to your hot free offer, blog, cheat sheet, checklist or latest online challenge and get people acting. Aim to transition your audience from social media to a deeper connection on your own real estate, your website.
Speaking and Workshops
I’m not talking about your next Tedx talk here. Start with what’s on in your area and approach the event organizer, if your work complements theirs. Or perhaps there’s an online summit, or an event being hosted through one of your online forums.
If you know and love your subject matter you are an expert already and others can learn from you. Think about hosting a free hour-long workshop to demonstrate your skills, share your expertise and then offer a special invite to work with you on a deeper level.
Discovery Sessions
You’re likely already implementing a form of exploratory or discovery session with prospective clients already. These ‘getting to know you’ sessions are not free coaching sessions.
While you both get to see if you’re a good fit to work together, you can share a clear plan of action, the what, without coaching them on the how.
Get creative and compelling with your offer. If you’re a relationship coach you might offer a ‘find your soul mate’ session with specific deliverables such as a next step action plan to uncovering connection and love in your life.
Referrals
There’s nothing sweeter than a previous client sharing your great work for you. But you have to ask them to! And yes, you can do this without appearing pushy. You can initiate your request by letting them know how much you loved working with them and how you’d love to serve more ideal clients like them. You can build in an incentive for the referral if you like, that’s up to you.
Once you start it’s like the snowball effect and referrals then refer and your client base grows beautifully and organically.
Conscious Language
If you go around all day saying you’ve no clients well guess what, that’s what you will get. The universe has ears and your thoughts do become things. Detach from the outcome and believe, once you are taking your own inspired action, the universe will deliver. Let the ego go, that inner critic. It’s not about you, it’s about the work you do to transform the lives of your clients.
Focus on including only conscious language in your day. Use sentences that lead with: I am, I can, I have, I will, I create, I choose, I love, I enjoy. Your high vibration and positive energy will in itself be a client magnet.
Now commit to a sales figure for the next thirty days, write it down and put it somewhere you will see it every day. And go for it. All the greatest ideas in the world will fall flat unless you take inspired action. Focus on a couple of these strategies at a time, repeat, build momentum and you will see a healthy client list in no time.
