Looking to generate a regular stream of paying coaching and consulting clients?
As a coach or consultant, your competence is based on the ability to help people make the transition from where they are to where they want to be. But the ability to generate a steady flow of income depends on adopting systems that work for you and grow your business!
In this post, I will be sharing with you a business re-positioning system that will take things to a different level. I call it the coaching-client webinar system.
Caution: this system is based on the assumption that you are a competent coach who wants to generate paying clients and have a packaged solution that is ready to be offered.
The coaching-client webinar system
The coaching-client webinar system is a system that I put together in 2012 that generated lots of clients for me. The whole idea is to use webinars to generate clients––people in your target market who will pay you for your coaching and consulting services.
This is not the only client-generating system I have but one that literally incorporates all the 4 parts of the 4-part profit model.
(I use the 4-part profit model and this particular system is built around it. To learn more about the 4-part profit model, click here.)
1) Webinar Registration Page
The first step is to identify a problem your community is facing and put together a registration page. This page is what your promote. It is the gateway for people to come into your community. Then, you teach a webinar to address that concern. During that webinar, solve that problem or show them how to solve that problem.
Follow up emails
Of course, you will send webinar links to people on your list to click on the day of the webinar. But what I do differently is send a short video explaining what I do and how I will help them.
One of the follow-up emails that I also send is a question form asking them what their biggest challenge is. Ask your community what is the biggest challenge they are facing right now in their business. This is a very crucial step in beginning the back and forth engagement.
Value-added content
Another follow up email I send is the value-added content. I share with my community videos on how to use Facebook to grow their impact and influence. I also send videos on how make simple tweaks to their websites to generate clients. This is before they even attend the webinar.
The trick is to add enough value that justifies their decision to get on your email list.
Invitation to other pipelines.
You might think that is a distraction but not necessarily. If they’re interested in one thing, they might be interested in something else from you. Invite them to a different free gift that solves a different problem for your target market.
Social Shares
Make social buttons available on your webinar registration pages and in your follow-up emails. What I’ve come to realize is that, at this stage, they are very likely to click on Facebook and twitter shares, which gets more traction and people coming in.
2) Automated Webinars
You can use live webinars but for this particular system, I use a recorded webinar. Automated webinars are powerful because it gives massive leverage. Your community registers for a webinar on the date and time specified on the page and shows up to watch a pre-recorded training.
Position
During the webinar, position yourself as someone who is qualified to solve their problems. In my webinars, I share some examples and personal stories which creates that connection and also communicates that I know what it feels like to be where they are right now.
Establish Credibility, Likability, & Authority
You want to share in 30 minutes the wisdom and knowledge that they’ve been missing in the last 3 years of business. Don’t give fluff. Open up their eyes to what really works. the quality of what you share is really important. Don’t be afraid of people who will run with your stuff; people who want to work with you will work with you. Some people are not soloists and would want to work with someone who knows their stuff. Share your best stuff!
Make discounted offer
Even though I do recommend free sessions in certain situations, you don’t have to offer free sessions here.
Instead, make huge discounted offers. Let’s say your normal charges are $300 an hour. During the webinar add so much value and move towards making an offer. Let them know your standard rates. Then you can say something to this effect:
“However, some of you would really love to have me sit with you to _____. I’m doing a special offer tonight––almost 90% and you could get a one hour session with me. Please understand that this is a discounted offer so that you could experience me helping you move forward. Offer it somewhere along the lines of 37 – 97 dollars.
Now, pay attention: If you offered free sessions, time wasters would fill up your schedule.
What if you do want to offer free sessions?
If you want to offer free sessions, I’d recommend you ask them to pay a fully refundable deposit, it doesn’t matter how much it is, even if it’s $10. You then promise to refund it to them during your session with them.
By doing this you will eliminate time wasters who’d just book an appointment and not show up.
If you’ve done the positioning and training properly, when you get to the offer, they will take you up on the offer and book you. The better you get at this, the higher your rates will be.
3) Discounted Session
Treat the discounted session as if they paid a standard rate. Treat a $99 coaching session like a $500 coaching session. Prepare for it, plan for it, and make sure they’re getting 5x the value of what they paid. You can run your coaching sessions through Skype, Web-ex or Zoom (slap on a zoom virtual background before you start a meeting on zoom).
Connect: This is the first thing you do. By doing this, you build rapport and even beyond that, you connects with their frustration, challenges, and difficulties.
Project: Projecting means talking about where they want to be. With my clients, we set a time in the future and talk about what they would love to experience by then.
Define the gap: When you define the gap, you’re addressing the difference between what they know and what’s working vs what they don’t know and what’s not working. Now, this is where I oftentimes bring in my consulting expertise––because that is what my clients want. They don’t just want coaching; they want coaching and advice.
Design the map: After defining the gap, think of ways to bridge the gap. To do this, you design a map––the map is the bridge, and you design it from where they are to where they want to be. Show them how to make that transition. I call this a game plan or strategy.
Paint the picture: This is the next step. In this step, I then––with my clients, begin to paint the picture of traveling that journey to get the that point where they want to be. Make sure that you use the language “we” so that they begin to believe it is possible.
Invite to upgrade: This is where you invite them to upgrade. Because you’ve listened to them and literally shown them “how” to get to where they want to be, they want you to help them. You basically say, “Would you want me to help you make this journey?”10 out of 10 times they will say yes.
4) New Coaching Client
Once they say yes, you then sit with them, show them your program, how it works, and make them an offer.
That’s it, you now have a new client.
Now that your system is all set up, all you need to do is to drive traffic to your webinar page.
