marketing

How to Get More Clients by Speaking Their Language 2

6 September 2013 in Guest Post tagged business / clients / guest post / language / Latrisha Jacobs / marketing / niche / sales copy

In today’s guest post Latrisha Jacobs provides advice about: "How to Get More Clients by Speaking Their Language" A guest post by Latrisha D. Jacobs

How to Get More Clients by Speaking Their Language

By Latrisha D. Jacobs

So, you want more clients? Cool, so does everyone. Everyone wants to know how to get more clients. But, there’s a reason why some people easily attract their ideal clients and never have to “need” a new client and why you may be struggling to get ideal paying clients on a consistent basis. The reason is simply because you’re trying to attract clients with what you think they need to hear from you instead of what they really want to hear.

In other words, you’re using marking jargon. This means you’re using words that people in your industry would use or words that you’ve made up in your head. But, this just doesn’t work. You have to be using words that your ideal clients know and relates to them.

You will find that when you start to use your ideal clients words you’ll get better results and you’ll almost immediately start pulling your ideal clients to you. Here are 3 really quick tips to help you get started attracting more clients by speaking their language.

Tip #1: Ask Them What They Want

The best way to get your ideal clients words and language is to ask them what they want. When you do this you’re getting it straight from them and then you don’t have to guess about what they want because they’re telling exactly what they want and need. More importantly they’re telling this in their own words and you can later use these to attract them to you. This is the best kind of target market research that you can ever do in your business.

Tip #2: Talk to Them and Not At Them

Your ideal clients want to be able to relate to everything that you have to say and they don’t want to feel like you’re talking at them. You want to make them feel like they’re having a conversation with you about their problems and how they think you can help them solve them. People buy from people that they know, like and trust. So, to build this relationship you have to be conversational and approachable for your ideal clients.

Tip #3: Use Their Words Exactly

One thing you don’t want to do is take the words and phrases that your ideal clients give you and turn it around into what you think it should be saying. The funny thing is that when it comes to this work you actually loose points for being creative. You want to use the exact words that your ideal clients give you. The reason is because they are giving you the exact words and phrases that describe their problem and that they can readily identify with these words. It hits their hot buttons because they gave you the words.

Your Assignment:

Go talk to 5-10 of your ideal clients and ask them what they want. Record it if you can and make sure to capture everything that they’re saying directly. Take note of exactly what they’re saying and where they show the most pain. These pain points will become your hot buttons that you’ll use in your marketing and sales copy.

About Latrisha Jacobs

Latrisha Jacobs, The Niche Breakthrough Specialist, works with service based change agents who lead with their heart first and who want to build big businesses and make an even bigger difference but they struggle with getting people to get what they do and want to invest in working with them and who would like to get more clarity, clients, and cash in 60 days or less.

She uses her Discover Your Thing System and book From Start Up to Success to lead seminars, groups, workshops, and retreats to teach new entrepreneurs how to use their business to make a difference.

Connect with Latrisha on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/latrishajacobsfans) or Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/latrishajacobs).

Article Source: How to Get More Clients by Speaking Their Language

Growing your client list

23 August 2013 in Guest Post tagged Ben Morton / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / growing client list / leadership / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / sales / TwentyOne Leadership

In today’s guest post, Ben Morton shares his experience and knowledge in a post that provides an answer to one of the “how to” questions that so many coaches have when they start their coaching business.

"Growing your client list" A guest post by Ben Morton

Growing your client list

By Ben Morton

If you are thinking about starting your own coaching practice there are two routes you can take. Both have their merits and both have some ‘big names’ in coaching purporting their benefits. Having recently stepped out of the corporate world to do just this, I have tried both and ended up coming full circle back to my original plan.

So what are the two routes?

Route 1 is to focus on getting clients whereas route 2 is about focusing on being a great coach.

But surely you can and should do both I hear you say! Well, yes you can but at the same time – no, you can’t. Or at least, I don’t believe you can do both well enough to really enable your coaching business to take off.

To be a successful coach you need to have clients. The natural extension of this thought process is to focus on how to get coaching clients, which is exactly what I spent some time trying to do.

There is a lot of advice out there that supports this approach and goes even further by saying that you shouldn’t give away your time for free. The reasons being that your time is both precious and valuable, by giving it away you are somehow devaluing your own worth.

That may all be true but the net result of focusing on getting clients is that you will not be spending time doing the thing that you love and are good at – coaching.

Now, considering the fact that coaching is an inherently personal intervention where success is largely based upon open, honest and often deeply personal conversations. Do we really believe that we will get clients through traditional marketing activity? It doesn’t mater how many adverts, tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook posts we make, people will not engage us based on this alone.

Another pitfall of focusing on getting clients is that when we meet a prospect we naturally shift into ‘sell’ mode. As we go on looking for clients we place more and more pressure on our selves and subconsciously start to project a sense of desperation. There is nothing more un-attractive to a potential client than an overly ‘salesey’ and desperate coach.

So you can see that by focusing on getting clients we can actually end up sabotaging our own chances of success. And what’s more, our energy will slowly ebb away because we’re not doing what we love – helping others to develop and succeed.

What drives people to work with a new coach? Referrals, recommendations and social proof. None of which you will ever get if you aren’t actually coaching somebody. And it only needs to be somebody, anybody. One client is all you need because then you are into the land of referrals, which is where new clients live.

So route two is about focusing on being a great coach. Route two is about the virtuous circle, and this is how it can work…

You focus your efforts and energy on being a great coach, being the best coach you can be and being of service to people. You do what you love, do what gives you energy and do what makes you feel valuable. You focus on helping people solve their problems, helping future clients and in doing so you subconsciously project energy, confidence and enthusiasm – characteristics that are inherently attractive to potential clients.

It may be that when starting out you coach people for free, you offer them the first session free or you give them the option of paying you what they feel the session was worth.

This approach does two things. Firstly, it provides you with a happy client who will be willing to provide you with referrals. Secondly and most importantly, providing you have set the relationship up with well defined boundaries initially, it removes the difficult decision of them deciding whether to work with you or not. How? Because you are replacing the decision with a far, far less painful one of deciding whether or not to continue working with you. Research from neuroeconmics and neuromarketing has found that buying something can cause the pain centre in our brains to light up. It is therefore much easier for someone to buy when they have experienced the value of your coaching service as opposed to ‘buying blind’.

So those are two routes you can choose between. You can sit in your office developing a marketing plan, updating your LinkedIn profile and tweeting until the cows come home or you can get out there and do what you love.

I’ve tried both and I’m pretty clear which has had the biggest impact for me.

Coach

Obsessively

And

Clients

Happen

About the Author

Ben Morton is a Leadership Consultant at TwentyOne Leadership and a Chartered Member of the CIPD with approaching two decades experience in leadership and management. His work as a coach and trainer focuses on three key areas; helping clients to develop the leadership capability across all levels of the organisation, creating and delivering programmes to support key talent and helping to build highly effective, high performing teams.

You can find out more about Ben’s work via his blog, Leadership and Learning, or via his LinkedIn profile.

Call Yourself A Coach? 3

9 August 2013 in Guest Post tagged business / business card / change / change agent / clients / coach / coaching / coaching practice / executive coach / guest post / Judy Rees / label / life coach / marketing / mentor / name / personal consultant / sales / wellbeing coach / x-ray listening

“How do you get clients?” is a question I see and hear asked a lot. In today’s guest post Judy Rees shares her experience and knowledge in:

"Call Yourself A Coach?" A guest post by Judy Rees

Call Yourself A Coach?

By Judy Rees

Do you call yourself a coach? A life coach, an executive coach, a wellbeing coach? Are you a mentor, advisor or counsellor? Or does your business card claim that you’re a “change agent” or even a “personal consultant”?

And does it matter? I think it probably matters quite a lot.

At one level, all the above titles could refer to the same role – someone who helps other people make lasting changes in their life or work.

But some of them sound a whole lot more appealing than others, don’t they? Which would you choose when you wanted help to make a lasting change? And more to the point, which would your potential clients choose?

It’s important to remember that people tend to define words like Humpty Dumpty in Alice – they use words to mean just what they choose them to mean, not necessarily what you expect them to mean.

I had a lovely example of this when I went to Jordan as a volunteer ‘mentor’ for young entrepreneurs, with a UK-based organisation called Mowgli.

I was worried, because I expected that mentoring must mean giving advice – and I wasn’t at all sure my experiences would be useful or relevant in this new cultural context.

Mentors advise. Coaches ask questions. Instructors, trainers and teachers provide instruction. Those were my definitions.

But that’s not what Mowgli meant by mentoring.

Their view was that mentors ask questions, perhaps tell stories, but aren’t expected to give advice. It’s coaches that teach people to do things – to fly planes, for example. For them, the exact work I think of as ‘coaching’ was called ‘mentoring’.

If your potential clients think a ‘coach’ is someone who offers training in a subject, it’s no wonder that people searching for ‘coaching’ look for a subject-area expert, rather than a process-driven generalist whose business card just says ‘coach’.

What words do your potential clients use to describe what you do? And how do these sit with your marketing?

About Judy Rees

My business card says “Judy Rees: X-Ray Listener”. At least it gets people to ask, “What’s that then?” 🙂 I tell them it means I help people to get un-stuck and make big changes in their lives by working with the metaphors which underpin their thinking and which drive their behaviour. For example, if they’re thinking of making “a big career jump” I help them decide if that’s the right jump, at the right time, for them, and help them build the fitness they need to make it. Hear more – and book a free sample session – at www.xraylistening.com

Discover the No. 1 Secret that will transform your business

3 July 2013 in live event / Resource tagged business / Karen Williams / live event / marketing / resource / Star Biz Conference

A variation of “How to get more coaching clients?” or “How do I run a successful coaching business?” is one of the many questions I get from readers. So I wanted to share the following event happening this weekend:

The Star Biz conference is a fabulous live event being run by last week’s returning guest poster Karen Williams. This one day event with a difference will be showing you simple and powerful techniques to get extraordinary results in your business.

Star Biz Conference 2013

Talking place on Saturday 6 July in Dorking, Surrey, Karen promises an action packed, inspirational and business shifting day. You will get to the root of what you could do differently in your business. Those things that can help you to make more money, get more clients, whilst making a difference and doing what you love.

Get your ticket here

If you are serious about standing out in your business, join Karen and:

Get crystal clear on your business vision; get to the essence of what you want to create and why it is important, then develop a plan to make it happen
Overcome everything that stops you, sabotages your success or keeps you stuck
Discover how to get your message totally congruent with what you stand for
Become that go-to-person you know you are already
Learn the strategies you need to take NOW to get noticed in your business

There is no better time to step up, stand out and be a star in your business!

You can find out more about the event here and save money when you bring a friend here. This is going to be a great event, so don’t wait to book.

One last thing, this is a conference with a difference – last year Karen put on a firewalk and I know that she has something else up her sleeve this year too!

So go ahead and join the fun, book your place at this fantastic event and I’d love to hear your experiences and the difference it makes for you and your coaching business.

From Invisible to Visible in 7 Easy Steps 2

28 June 2013 in Guest Post tagged business / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / invisible / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Self Discovery Coaching / Star Biz Conference / success / visible

In today’s guest post Karen Williams shares some her expertise and knowledge around the business of running a coaching practice.

"From Invisible to Visible in 7 Easy Steps" A guest post by Karen Williams

From Invisible to Visible in 7 Easy Steps

By Karen Williams

It’s not easy being visible in business.

You’ve got to fight through the noise of everyone else out there who does something similar to you.

You’ve got to understand what makes you shine.

And you have to find a way to clearly and succinctly tell people what you do, that enables you to stand out with ease.

Many solopreneurs, especially coaches, start their business because they want to make a difference. You want to give back and help others, so becoming visible may not be the first ‘to do’ item on your list.

It may not be in your nature to “big yourself up”, celebrate your uniqueness, or shout your successes from the rooftops. Yet unless you tell people you exist, you won’t be creating the successful business that you dreamt of, or reaching those who need you.

You have a choice whether to become visible in your business or remain invisible. You can stay the world’s best kept secret or make the decision to step up, stand out and do something different.

It isn’t always easy to stand out in your business, which is why I teach this to my clients. As a Business Coach and Mentor, I use my own 7 Step Success System to help them to put the foundations in place to become more visible and create a successful business. And I get great results! Just like Steve who contacted me last week and said “I had my highest paying client on Saturday, and it was all down to the business strategies that I have learnt from working with you!” and Alex who told me “When I started your 90 day programme I was at the stage of getting a ‘proper’ job and now I’m very busy meeting prospective clients, working with other organisations and most importantly signing up new ones”.

It can be difficult to acknowledge what makes you different. We’ve all got blind spots, hidden areas, and characteristics that we don’t recognise or know about ourselves. The key is to strengthen your own self-awareness to discover what makes you stand out. Here are 8 tips to help you to do so:

1. Ask your current clients for their feedback – what do they see as your strengths and areas of expertise?

2. Review your client testimonials. What have your past clients said about your skills or the way you work with them?

3. Carry out a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to delve into that hidden area and create greater self-awareness.

4. Listen to your client’s language. What do they want? How do you help them? What do you do that makes you stand out?

5. Work with business mentor, as they will point out the things you make you different – (it’s more than your Unique Selling Proposition!) and help you to develop your uniqueness and expertise further.

6. Remember that what makes you unique is you, so how can you express this clearly and concisely in your message?

7. Don’t follow the crowd when it comes to your online presence or elevator pitch, think benefits, outcomes and solutions rather than the method in which it is delivered.

8. Know why you are running your business. When you know why it is important to you, it makes the how so much easier.

“There are 5 frogs are sitting on a log. 4 decide to jump off. How many are left? 5. Why? Because there is a difference between deciding and doing.”

What decisions and choices are you making today to become visible?

What are you going to do to make it happen?

Karen is running the Star Biz conference on Saturday 6 July, which is a conference with a difference. Last year she had a firewalk and she has something else up her sleeve this year too. Karen promises an action packed, inspirational and business shifting day. You will get to the root of what you could do differently in your business. Those things that can help you to make more money, get more clients, whilst making a difference and doing what you love.

About the Karen Williams

As a business coach and mentor, author, speaker, and firewalk instructor, Karen Williams, from Self Discovery Coaching, works with coaches and solopreneurs who are ready to step up in their business. She helps them to develop the foundations for a successful business, stand out from the crowd and enjoy every step of the way.

Karen is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon. Her second book, How to Stand Out in your Business, was published in 2012. In the second book she shares the 7 Step Success System that she uses to help her clients to become more visible and create a successful business. She is half way through writing her third book.

You can sign up for Karen’s free EBook ’30 Ways to Stand Out in your Business in 30 Minutes or Less’ on her website here.

Recapping January – March 2012 guest posts 1

28 December 2012 in Guest Post / site news tagged Amber Fogarty / Angus MacLennan / beliefs / blue monday / business / change / Cindy Hillsey / clients / coaches / coaching / content / counselling / goals / guest post / habit / ideal client / Karen Williams / Karen Wise / knowledge / Lenny Deverill-West / Liz Scott / Lorraine Hurst / Marie Yates / marketing / Mei Qi Tan / mindset / networking / new year / niching / Nicky Kriel / Parallel conversations / plans / Relationship / relationships / Richard Nugent / success / Toni Knights / websites

Over the next few days I’m going to briefly recap the last years worth of guest posts that appear here each Friday.

Today we start by looking at the first three months of this year.

Image showing first January on a diary with pen on isolated color background with fine clipping path.

January

In the first post of 2012 Amber Fogarty shared how she is in the “habit change business” discussing something she talks about a lot with clients in “Developing Better Habits”.

Coach and trainer Lorraine Hurst then followed with a post that could be of use to both yourself and your clients. “Blue Monday – what colour will yours be?” was published just prior to the third Monday of the year – read the post to see the significance of that date!

Coach and author of “Secrets of Successful Coaches”, Karen Williams, shared her expertise and knowledge in the third guest post of the year: “How does your mindset affect your business?” Read how Karen believes mindset, marketing and business knowledge will affect a successful coaching business.

The final post in January saw Karen Wise sharing a personal experience in the post “Relationship drama.” How familiar is this incident in either your own life or with what your clients tell you?

Image showing 14th February a Valentine day with heart symbol & message.

February

As we started the second month of the year, coach Marie Yates turned her attention to the action taken to the goals and plans made at the start of the New Year. This post contains a series of questions to assist you to make progress. Read “The warm up is complete… It is time for the main event.” 11 months since this was first published – what would your answers to these questions be today?

Liz Scott loves bringing coaches together to share experiences and knowledge. Her post focused upon “Parallel conversations and coaching”, using her personal experience as a lesson to be used in coaching sessions.

Lenny Deverill-West shared how he has been practically incorporating other teachings into his own work with clients. Read more about what he is doing in “The Coaching Aha!”

Social Media coach Nicky Kriel discussed errors she’s seen coaches make attempting one particular marketing approach. Are you making any of the blunders featured in “5 Big Mistakes that Life Coaches make Networking”?

March

Coach Richard Nugent invited you to “Explore Some Half Truths Of Coaching” with the aim of getting you to think about your own professional beliefs that could help you be more successful.

A coaching website is on many new coaches to do list, in the second guest post in March Mei Qi Tan shared her expertise and knowledge about what to focus upon. Read her post “Websites: It’s not just about content – it’s about users.”

Coach Angus MacLennan, who delivers practical Business Support to Business Owners, turned his attention to the subject that can have many new coaching business owners scratching their heads in the post “Niching Has Failed”

How to market your coaching is an often requested topic, in our next guest post coach Cindy Hillsey shared her expertise and knowledge in “Marketing and your Ideal Client”

In the final guest post in March Coach Toni Knights discussed what she considers to decide if it is necessary to refer clients for additional help, in her post “Identifying When Clients Need Counselling”

Visit tomorrow

Come back tomorrow for a post recapping April – June, or if you can’t wait, clicking here will bring a list of every post that has been published on this site labelled as a guest post.

January & Febuary image © Indianeye | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
Visit tomorrow image © Renata2k | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

How do you really get to know your clients? 1

26 October 2012 in Guest Post tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / niche / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / sales / Self Discovery Coaching / Star Biz Conference / successful coaches

In today’s guest post, Karen Williams answers a question pondered by many looking to start, or grow, a coaching business.

How do you really get to know your clients?

by Karen Williams

Have you been told you need to niche? Perhaps you are reluctant as you don’t want to restrict your market or maybe you don’t know where to start? Even if you know your niche already, how do you really get to know your clients and what they want?

If you don’t get to know your clients, your message is going to get lost. They will be clicking off your website as soon as they arrive, they won’t get where you are coming from or perhaps they won’t find you in the first place.

If you’re not getting the results you want right now in your business, here’s 3 things to look at first:

Check that the language you are using on your website is pitched at the right level. When you create your website, your blog or any other literature, make sure you are using your client’s language and ask yourself ‘will my clients understand what I mean?’ Keep it simple. For example, you might want to use ‘say’ instead of ‘verbalise’.
How much jargon are you using when you are communicating with others – both in writing and face-to-face? For example, you might get a better reaction if you say ‘I help you to manage the way you feel…’ rather than ‘I help you to get in the right state’.
How clear is your message? I mentioned this in my blog recently, where I give suggestions about how to master your message to get the right response.

So how do you actually reach your clients and find out what they want?

I was talking to a client this week and I simply asked him, ‘who do you know in this field who can help you?’ and when he reeled off people he knew, I suggested that he take them for a coffee. Talking to people who are either in your target client group, or are connected to this group, is a great first step to finding out what they want.

If you already know some of your ideal clients, why not do a survey to find out what their problems are and what you can do to help them? I regularly survey the people on my contact list by using Survey Monkey. I also ask questions via my social media contacts. When you do this using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative questions (i.e. to get some figures and more lengthy responses), you can start to understand the dreams and challenges of the group and the actual language they are using.

Lastly, check out your competitors. Even if you have chosen the most unique niche, there are probably other people doing something similar to what you do. Find out what they do well, what you can model and what you can do differently to meet your client’s needs.

There are a lot of coaches in the industry doing something similar to what you do. To be successful you can’t be the same as everyone else and need to stand out from the crowd. By doing your research, you’ll quickly understand what makes you different, how you can be distinctive from everyone else, yet still give people the results that they desire.

About Karen Williams

As a business coach and mentor, author, speaker, and firewalk instructor, Karen Williams, from Self Discovery Coaching, works with coaches and solopreneurs who are breaking free from the corporate world and want to create a successful business. She helps them to develop the foundations for a successful business, stand out from the crowd and enjoy every step of the way.

Karen is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon and has just released her second book, How to Stand Out in your Business, which you can order now.

Karen is also running the Star Biz conference on 3 and 4 November, with 8 expert speakers and a firewalk experience. In this unique two day event, you will discover what makes you outstanding, how you can express this uniqueness in your business, and leave with a 90 day step-by-step plan to transform your business and double your clients.
Top Image: © Tatiana53 | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Quick question:

3 October 2012 in Products and Kits / Resource / websites tagged Elizabeth Purvis / high end program / marketing / resource

What’s the fastest, simplest, and most elegant way to create 6-figures in your business while being of greatest service to others?

It’s NOT selling information products, membership websites or “passive” revenue. Nor do you need a big list. (Or any list!)

The fastest way to 6-figures is to package the incredible work you do into high-end, or “Platinum style” programs that create massive transformation – for your clients, and for YOU.

That’s why I’m so excited to recommend this all-new, high-content video series from my friend, and previous guest poster, Elizabeth Purvis:

“How To Create Your First – Or Next! – 6 Figures In Record Time:
3 Insider Secrets To Creating, Marketing And Filling Lucrative High-End Programs
(Even If You Don’t Have A Big List Or Think You’re ‘Not Ready Yet’ 😉 )”

Every business has the opportunity to offer a high-end program – including yours! All you need is a deep desire to help others with your Heart Work and some practical how-to info to get started. That’s exactly what Elizabeth is sharing in these no-cost videos – check them out:

http://www.marketinggoddess.com