Our founder, Lisa Wight, shares the secrets of how business coaches can successfully generate leads.
I worked as a business coach for many years, and I had a clear strategy that generated me £80,000 within 18 months of launching. To give you context, the average business coach salary in the UK is £30k-£50k a year. So this strategy WORKED and it worked quickly.
This blog isn’t a 4 step process that will automatically rocket you to success. Success takes time and focus, and you need to know who you’re targeting. But I did manage to realise something very important that opened many doors for me. And that’s what I’m sharing in this blog. I hope it can open doors for you too.
Before we get into the detail, you first need to understand what type of customer you’re looking for. Are you a one to one business coach that works directly with individual business owners/leaders, or are you trying to sell online courses, for example, where you need a one to many approach? The two approaches will take very different strategies.
As one to one coaching is the most popular route for business coaches, and it’s what I used to do, this blog focuses on that.
One to One Coaching
There are two vital actions that matter most when you’re looking for clients on a one to one basis. This is because, essentially, it’s all about relationships. Stop thinking of marketing as a tactical task and instead start thinking about how you need to build relationships.
When I turned over £80,000 per year, the only strategy I had was relationship building. I didn’t use LinkedIn, and I had no particular online presence. But I understood that I was looking for a one to one relationship, so my actions had to be more personal.
Remember, you are going to be your clients’ confident and sounding board – the person they can be 100% honest with. When picking a coach to work with, they want to make sure you won’t judge them or criticise them. They will want to feel very comfortable with you. They will be looking for someone who is on their side and someone they can have a two way honest and open relationship with. They will want advice and they will want to vent, and your job is to hold that safe space for them.
In reality, how could you pick a business coach to have that relationship with if you’ve never had a conversation with them? People won’t just pick someone random out of the Yellow Pages or be convinced by a stream of impersonal posts on social media. It has to be conversation led. They will need to feel that vibe before they’ll be inclined to move ahead.
Here are the only two ways I believe you can really build those relationships and grow your pipeline.
1. Networking
This is all about meeting people. These are the people who are going to be your clients or who will be able to introduce you to potential clients. You need to be connecting with them, letting them see what type of person you are, and showing them how you could help.
To find our top tips on how to get the most out of networking meetings, take a look at our networking blog.
Just remember, whatever you do, put in the time and effort in a savvy way. Focus on results and you’ll increase your chance of getting them.
2. Build key referral partnerships
This activity is golden. These are the people who can recommend you regularly to lots of potential clients. Ideally, they will have a vested interest in recommending you because your services will lead on to make their services easier. For example, build a partnership with an accountant. If they have clients who are struggling, they will recommend your services to help. Think about it, the accountant won’t want to lose that client, so it’s in their best interest to introduce you, ensuring that they stay a client of the accountant for many years to come. It’s a win win situation.
Find as many win win situations as you can and create those strong referral partnerships. This could also work both ways where you introduce them too. You’ll get multiple referrals per one referral partner. It can take time to build a relationship with a prospective client before they start to work with you. If you put in the same effort with a key referral partner, then you’ll potentially get multiple clients for the same amount of work, and these referred leads will be much more likely to work with you as they’ve been pointed in your direction by someone they trust. So not only do you get more leads, but they’re better quality leads as well. Now that’s win win.
While you shouldn’t just stop such things as your social media activity, the more you understand that those activities are there to supplement your more personal work rather than being sole lead generators in themselves, the more success you’ll have. Trust me, I know.
Retain Those Clients
Once you’re generating leads and having conversations with clients, they will want to know that you have a process for helping them to achieve their goals efficiently and effectively. That’s where hubbix can help. It can take your sales conversations to the next level, without you even revealing that you use it.
Explore our website to find out more about how hubbix can help you to deliver stand out action plans. Or if you’d like to delve into more detail, why not opt for a FREE 30 day trial? This will allow you to see for yourself why so many business coaches are already using hubbix to enhance their service offering.