It can be hard when you’re first setting up as a business coach. You obviously want and need clients, but so often people will want to know how successful you are before they’ll work with you. It’s a typical chicken and egg scenario. But Lisa Wight has the answer. Read on to discover all…
I don’t think anyone will argue with me when I state that one of the biggest factors that can help a business coach to generate conversions is client testimonials and case studies. Any prospective client that you talk to will be looking for proof that you are who you say you are. And the most credible way to do this is by having people who have already worked with you say it for you.
But when you first open your business, you don’t have any clients. So how are you supposed to get case studies?
Short Term Case Study Acquisition Strategy
I’m calling this a “case study acquisition strategy” because what I’m about to propose must be a standalone activity. It has to be a short term solution that helps you to bridge the gap between no clients and lots of clients.
I think the quickest way to generating revenue as a business coach is to offer a restricted number of free sessions to a handful of clients. Perhaps two or three sessions to three or four clients.
Just to add in a caveat: when I say free, I mean that no money is exchanged for these sessions. But they still have to be transactional. You might not be charging pounds and pence, but the whole point is that you are offering these at no cost to get something else in return.
The agreement with the client is that although they will not pay a monetary value for these sessions, they will provide you with feedback. They will provide you with testimonials and a case study, and they’ll let you talk about their coaching experience in your marketing.
Be Strategic
I called this a case study acquisition strategy, so that means you have to be strategic in how you get these case studies. It’s not going to work if you just pick some random people, see if you can help them and then hope that they’ll give you some meaningful case studies.
What you need instead is a solid plan of action.
Firstly, only offer a fixed number of sessions. You will probably need two or three sessions to be able to deal with an issue and then review it. These clients will no doubt hit obstacles, and you’ll need time to coach them through these obstacles. However, don’t offer more than about three sessions. This is your valuable time, don’t forget.
Secondly, have in mind what sort of problem you want to solve and what case study you’d like to present. You need to have a very clear objective.
Are you trying to showcase how good your one to one coaching is? Or perhaps you’re trying to show how good you can help with conflict resolution, or with sales etc. Whatever it is that you really want to be promoting in your marketing, then that’s the kind of problem you need to be solving in these free sessions. And when you promote these “free” sessions, tell people you’re offering these sessions that deal with that particular issue.
You could say something like: “I’m offering three free sessions around boosting sales conversion rates. They’re typically worth £300 each, but I’m offering them for free to any business owner who has this problem and is willing to become a case study for me in return.”
Interview the clients who are looking for the free sessions and make sure that they fit your objective. And be totally transparent about that.
The idea is that over those two or three sessions, you should be able to help them move the needle far enough that you get some meaningful results. That way, when you’re talking to future prospective clients, you can share that you had just three sessions with a client and they went from a 5% net profit margin to an 8% profit margin. So have the meetings, but also capture that data. Don’t forget to capture that data.
Also to note, before you sign a client up to the free sessions, make sure you get written consent that they will allow you to collect and use the data as part of your case study. Be open and honest, and get things in writing.
As a bonus, it could be possible that these free clients end up as paying clients because they see how much you’re actually helping them. There are a lot of potential benefits from this approach.
Pitching
When you’ve got your new case studies all ready to go and neatly packed up in your toolbox, the next step is prepping for pitches.
If you’re presenting to a networking group or you’re having a conversation with a contact, as soon as they bring up a relevant challenge or say something like sales are really difficult at the moment, you can share the work you’ve done, and demonstrate how you managed to make a difference. Then you could offer to have a chat with them sometime to discuss the issue in more depth. Use your case studies to your advantage over and over and over.
You’ve got them. Now you need to use them.
Working in Those Free Sessions
To get the best possible case studies, you need to smash those client sessions. You want to provide an amazing experience for those clients with well structured sessions, solid action plans and a good follow up process.
If you’re new to coaching and you haven’t got a structure for your meetings set up yet, then do take a look at hubbix. Even if you just use it for a few months to help you find your feet, it could make the difference between a good case study and a fantastic one.
As Peter Basford, one of our users said: “One of the greatest benefits of hubbix is that it gives me a structure.” See how great testimonials are!
If you’d like to find out more about how hubbix could help you, I’d love to have a chat with you. Get in touch and let’s explore if it could be useful for you and your business.