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How to build a successful coaching business?
Maybe you’re already investing time and money in your marketing and know a lot of successful coaching techniques but you’re still not seeing the success you would like to have?
Read these 14 reasons why you’re not winning as many clients for your coaching as you could (and tips how to do better!)…
1) You find it hard to communicate your offer.
Always try to communicate and explain your service in such a way that the benefit for the potential customer becomes obvious. A prospect is looking for a solution to a specific problem. Convince them that your coaching is the solution they are looking for.
2) You try to attract everyone. (Choose one target group!)
Especially new coaches without a certain amount of clients want to address everyone with their offer. The result will be that your offer and its benefits are described too generic.
For example, instead of work-life balance coaching, you could offer to coach to working mothers who are frustrated about not having enough “me-time”.
3) You don’t have a USP (Unique selling proposition) or you’re not communicating it properly.
Why should someone choose exactly your offer/program out of all the other coaching offers out there? What makes your coaching unique and what sets it apart from your competitors? If you’re not able to answer that, how should a prospect know?
4) You do not know your target market or it is too broad.
Do you know exactly who your coaching is suitable for? All self-employed or all women over 40 is not a well-defined target group. Your target group includes attributes, such as age, income, education, gender, geographic location, status or people with similar problems/goals.
5) You are trying to sell your coaching rather than solutions for the problems of your target audience.
Nobody is looking for coaching. People are looking for specific solutions to their problems or some support on the way to their goals. Try to inform and convince people why your coaching is exactly what they are looking for.
6) You find it hard to communicate your talents effectively.
You know exactly that your coaching would be the perfect choice for your target group. But unfortunately, you fail to show your talents and strengths to your prospects. Make sure you make people aware of your unique talents and personality during complimentary sessions and on your homepage.
7) You’re only guessing and believing to know what your target group wants.
Instead of paying close attention to what your target group says, wants or what they complain about, you are more likely to make assumptions based on your wishes and opinions.
Tip: Do some sales safari and research what problems and needs your target clients have. Use these insights to present laser-focused solutions with your coaching offer!
8) You have the constant feeling that you would need more qualifications and training before you’re ready to coach.
Many new coaches move from course to course and certificate to certificate. But the reason for these actions is not only the desire to become a better coach. These training courses are often a convenient excuse to postpone the unpleasant marketing part of your business.
Sooner or later, you’ll have to face the reality and accept that client acquisition is inevitable and a major part of being a coach. Therefore, consider whether you still need more training or maybe you’d rather start selling your service and gain practical experience.
9) You leave your clients alone!
One quality of successful coaches is that they don’t leave their client alone between sessions.
The coaching process can only be successful if the client implements the points and insights from your coaching in his daily life. Some coaches decide not to support their clients outside of the sessions at all.
They have to do the work, don’t they?
That’s true, but just feeling of being supported between sessions increases the success rate of your clients! Support means sending them some helpful tools & questionnaires between sessions and allow them to share their experiences and daily successes with you.
With CleverMemo you can achieve this support in a professional and time-saving way. Your clients can access the shared coaching stream whenever they want. You can send questionnaires, insights and “homework” with just a few clicks. Your clients can use it to journal about their progress and milestones.
10) The objectives, milestones, and progress are not tracked
A coaching goal should be SMART and the client should write it down on his own before starting the process. But not only the goal should be accessible to both you and your client in written form. All the hurdles and milestones should be tracked. The same applies to all documents, resources, questionnaires, and the tools you share with your clients. CleverMemo allows you to do that in a professional and easy-to-use way.
11) Your clients don’t prepare and wrap up their sessions.
Encourage your clients to write down the results and key insights of each session. Which steps did they agree to take until the next sessions? Which to-dos?
Let your clients wrap-up each session and assign them a questionnaire to focus on the upcoming meeting.
Ask them to share their progress and most relevant topics before each session (it’s a huge time-saver for you and makes your preparation a matter of minutes).
Writing things down strengthens the commitment! These coaching tools help are a great resource.
12) The coaching progress is not recorded
Each goal consists of many small steps and milestones. These small successes are often overlooked when your clients have the desired result in mind. The client does not see what he has already achieved and in the worst-case scenario even loses motivation to continue the coaching. With CleverMemo you both can easily record all the individual successes and milestones automatically. The success rate will increase big time and the coaching dropout rate will decrease!
13) Monitoring and evaluation only take place at the end of the process.
A regular review of the previous coaching session outcomes allows you to react to changes in your clients’ situation and to adapt your process and program accordingly. Besides, the clients realize their progress more consciously. This has an incredibly motivating effect and significantly increases the chances of achieving the desired outcomes. These questionnaires and coaching tools will support you.
14) Your complimentary session has no clear structure.
Are you satisfied with the number of people who become paying clients after your welcome/complimentary sessions?
If not, it is worth taking a look at the structure and procedure of these sessions. Potential clients may not recognize the value or benefit of your offer for themselves or you may not be able to convince the client sufficiently of your capabilities to help them.
The best way for the client to recognize how helpful your coaching would be is by answering several selected questions. This toolset includes the perfect questions to set up and structure your complimentary sessions. A great way to convince more prospectives to become paying clients!
How to build a successful coaching business?
We hope these 14 items gave you some new ideas on how to make your coaching business more successful. Check out our Ultimate Coaching Starter-Kit including 20 powerful resouces and tools.
