sales

Sales Tips For Coaches

 in Guest Post  tagged business success / Dan Storey / finding clients / more clients / sales / sales conversations / selling

In today’s guest post Dan Storey shares some of his experience and knowledge as he focuses on a topic many coaches have questions about:

Sales Tips For Coaches

by Dan Storey

"Sales Tips For Coaches" by Dan Storey

One of the biggest challenges I hear from coaches I work with is that they don’t have enough clients. They give away free session after free session, host free talks, webinars and interviews and have hundreds of people interested in working with them, but when you ask them how many clients they actually work with, the answer is usually “not enough!”. “Not enough” often translates into financial terms as well, which means that great coaches often cannot do enough great coaching because they are unable to earn enough money to make it a sustainable business. Sound familiar?

Coaching, in its various formats, is a multi billion dollar industry with millions of people around the world paying experts to help them improve some area of their life. People can see the value in coaching and are willing to invest money in themselves when they see the potential return. There are people in your niche making plenty of money right now, and the reason they are making the money is because they have learned how to generate enquiries and turn them into paying clients.

This is the essence of selling, often a dirty word amongst coaches. After all, you do such a great job as a coach, you shouldn’t have to sell your services. Plus if someone wanted to work with you, they would just buy. If you have to push them to do something, eventually they are going to resent it and that will damage your relationship with them.

If you have ever heard yourself saying any of the above, you have “stuff” around selling. “Stuff” is the not-so-technical term for limiting beliefs and associations that are attached to a concept. If you want to go into it a little deeper (which I am not sure we have time for in this post), then coaches face an additional challenge of selling themselves, which raises all sorts of self-worth type questions. However, assuming for the moment that you are confident in the value of what you are selling, let’s look a little at the issues around selling you have, and some practical tips on what you can do to get over this fast.

Issue 1 – Salespeople are…

How do you complete this phrase? Are you full of glowing compliments for salespeople, or do you immediately think of the stereotypical fast-talking, only-interested-in-the-deal kind of hustler that is only interested in your money? Many peoples’s global beliefs and generalisations around salespeople immediately push them away from any personal associations with sales and selling. However, to be great at what you do, you have to sell. For example, do you want to be a great author or a “best-selling” author? Maybe it is time to examine your personal beliefs around sales people.

Issue 2 – What Do I Say?

Have you heard of the Xanadu close? Or the Orchid sales strategy? Or what about the PAWS approach to asking questions? I hope not, I just made those three things up. However, there are a million and one sales tactics out there designed to make you better at selling. The problem is not really ‘what do you say’ but more ‘what DON’T you say’! Information overload happens everywhere, and sales is no different, and where there is confusion there is usually inertia. Shortly you will learn that sales is simply a conversation with a desired outcome, so lets keep it simple.

Issue 3 – What If They Reject Me?

Ok, now we raise the big issue of rejection. You are a great coach, you can build rapport with anyone easily and you develop close relationships that allow you to help people improve their lives. So what if they say “no” when you ask them to buy something. Yikes! This is the biggest fear for all salespeople, not just coaches, so first of all, lets just accept that it exists. Yes, you will face rejection, and even if you are a great salesperson, you will probably hear “no” more often than “yes”. Just accept that you don’t like rejection, and that it is a natural part of selling. As Susan Jeffers wrote ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. Just remember that you have a bigger dream for yourself which you won’t let this fear hold you back from.

Ok, now we know the issues, take a deep breath and leet them go… feel better? Do those issues still exist? Of course, they aren’t going to go away over night. However, now that you have addressed them and accepted them, we can move forward.

So how do we sell? Rather than try and get you to do everything all at once, here are my top three tips for people who want to start selling more.

Action 1 – Tell Them Right From The Start

I’m sure you have heard of the Aristotlian triptych of “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them”? Setting the agenda and telling people what is going to happen up front allows them to relax and enjoy the process. If you suddenly spring a sales pitch on someone unawares, this will seem out of place and therefore have a lower chance of success. For example, if you are conducting a free session, introduce the session by saying “we are going to go through a number of process and then, when we are finished, we will look at the possible ways we can work together moving forward”. Throw in a couple of nicely worded presuppositions if you like, but when you start to tell them about your options, they won’t react adversely.

Action 2 – Be Prescriptive

Imagine going to the doctors. You sit down and before you open your mouth, the doctor starts telling you all of the different treatments that exist for all the different possible illnesses. Is that what normally happens? No, you usually have a consultation where the doctor examines you and then you are prescribed a course of treatment. As people, we trust people with expertise to make the best decision for us, and your potential client probably wants a little guidance on what direction to take rather than leaving the choice in their hands. Being prescriptive with your sales offering makes it easier for your client to say yes by removing any superfluous options.

Action 3 – Follow Up

Many people do not like to be forced into making decisions and prefer to think about it first. Many sales approaches discourage thinking and tell you to strike while the iron is hot, and whilst this may work in some situations, it might not be as conducive to coaching. If someone enjoys your session and then wants to think about their options then this is fine. What is not fine, however, is that you put the emphasis on them to call you back and buy. Follow up with them, via email at least but I would recommend in person where possible, to give them a second or third chance to buy. If they don’t want to work with you, that is one thing, but if they aren’t ready to work with you yet, then that is something completely different. Maintain contact, keep in touch, and give them plenty of opportunities to say yes in the future.

If you adopt these three behaviours, you will see significant improvements in your sales rates as a coach. At first, it might seem a little clunky and awkward, but practice will make you more effective and better able to include these elements in your normal coaching conversations. Please post any comments and thoughts you may have below.

About Dan Storey

Dan Storey is the author of Next Level Persuasion – Sell anything to anyone and have them thank you for it! which is available on Amazon in paperback and kindle formats. Dan spends his time training businesses and sales teams how to sell more effectively using neuro-linguistic programming, basing much of the training on the content from the book. Click here to find out more about Dan Storey and Next Level Persuasion or buy the book on Amazon here.

Close More Sales With Killer Testimonials

 in Guest Post  tagged clients / marketing / Mikhail Yourtaev / sales / sales process / satisfied customers / testimonials / video testimonials

In today’s guest post Mikhail Yourtaev shares some of his sales expertise and knowledge in:

Close More Sales With Killer Testimonials

by Mikhail Yourtaev

"Close More Sales With Killer Testimonials" by Mikhail Yourtaev

Every sales process should have testimonials to build trust with a prospect.There is no doubt that powerful testimonials from previous or existing customers will boost your chances of converting new sales because testimonials connect with the natural human desire to find consensus before making a purchase. Most people are followers and before deciding to make a purchase, people love to comfort themselves that they are making the correct decision by researching what others are saying about the product or service that you are offering.

3 Types of Testimonials

  • Written testimonials
  • Audio testimonials
  • Video testimonials.

Nail these 3 types of testimonials and you will increase your sales. Prepare to delve deeper into each of these testimonials.

Written Testimonials

Written testimonials are the least effective of the three types. This is because there is not a lot of trust that can be built as new age consumers are more savvy than they were previously and realize that written testimonials can be fake. Therefore because scammers use fake written testimonials as a sales conversion technique to profiteer from selling bad products or services to customers, genuine ethical marketers suffer as well. Thus the need arises for a different type of testimonial.

Audio Testimonials

Audio testimonials are better than written as there is a genuine human voice that can be heard. Your prospect can also hear the emotions in your satisfied customers voice. If those emotions are positive, which they should be than your prospect attributes these positive emotions to your service or product. Your prospect can imagine themselves being in the same position as your satisfied customer for whom you have solved a problem.

Video Testimonials

Video testimonials are the best type of testimonial that you can acquire from a satisfied customer. This is because your prospect can now not only hear but also see your customers. Your prospect can also see and hear the emotions that your satisfied customers are experiencing when they are talking about your service or product. This builds trust between you and your prospect. Therefore bringing them closer in buying your service or product.

Bonus Super Tactic

Get awesome results by using this simple template when acquiring testimonials to use in your sales process. Ask your customers the following 3 questions to get killer results.

What was life, like before using your service or product?

What is life, like now using your product or service?

What will life, be like in 12 months and beyond using your product or service?

These 3 questions create a big brighter future for your prospects. Your prospects can see and hear how your product or service has added value to the life of your satisfied customers and your prospects will imagine the same transformation in their lives. Thus building trust and bringing them a step closer in buying from you.

What if the prospect does not buy?

Well you have built trust and can now enjoy building a relationship with your new prospect and you never know this prospect can turn into a life-long customer.

Conclusion

Do what ever it takes to acquire killer testimonials from satisfied customers, especially video testimonials. Try to gather these testimonials when your customers emotions are highest, which is when they are using your service and product and it is adding value to their lives. Happy testimonial hunting.

About Mikhail Yourtaev

Do you want to learn more timeless sales strategies? Grab your FREE training HERE: http://www.easysalestraining.com

 

Article Source: Close More Sales With Killer Testimonials

Article expert: Mikhail Yourtaev

Do You Take Your Business Personally?

 in Guest Post  tagged business / client / coach / empowerment / invite / Kim Ravida / negative self-talk / negativity / personally / proposal / sales / saying no / taking things personally / victim

In today’s guest post Kim Ravida addresses something that often gets in the way of coaches setting up and running their coaching business successfully.

Do You Take Your Business Personally?

By Kim Ravida

"Do You Take Your Business Personally?" By Kim Ravida Do you take your business personally? It’s an honest question. Most people say “It’s business, don’t take it personally.” But really, is that possible? I don’t think so. I think business is personal. Let’s face it, we are people. We are people who have lives, who love and care for others. As humans we are compassionate, thoughtful and we have feelings. So how can we take the feelings out of business? We can’t. We can, however, take the negativity out of it.

What do I mean by take the negativity out of it? A lot of business owners take ‘no’ personally. Let’s take a look at a service-based business such as a coach, personal trainer, massage therapist or even a virtual assistant. In these businesses it is customary to make offers to prospects to come and benefit from our services. Yet, when we hear ‘no’, we can take it to mean that the prospect is saying ‘no’ to us personally, when in fact it is to the services we provide.

I call this type of behavior victim behavior. It means that when we are told ‘no’, we feel as if we have been rejected and then we go down the “I’m not good enough” path… which never leads to anything positive. That is what I mean when I say take the negativity out of it. YOU are good enough. When you go into victim-mode your energy dwindles, you have less drive to get things done, and you certainly don’t feel like making another offer because — gosh forbid — if that person says ‘no’ too, you just won’t be able to deal with it.

Yes, we do take our businesses personally. I have been there. I have felt down and out when someone has said ‘no’ to me. I have felt like maybe I’m not good at this and who would want to work with me anyway. It wasn’t until I realized that I was being a victim and I was taking ‘no’ personally. What they were saying ‘no’ to, in reality, is themselves. They are saying no to their growth, their potential and their happiness.

Here is a secret: usually when someone who is a good fit for you says no, it is because they aren’t feeling as if they are good enough. They may be feeling they won’t get the great results you are telling them they can have. They may feel it will be too hard (another negative and certainly an excuse) and they won’t be able to live up to your expectations… or even their own.

Just so you know; many people use money as an excuse and truly sometimes it is a valid reason. However, if they have looked you up and asked to talk to you, chances are it is time for them to move forward and they may be fearful and in the victim mentality.

Thus, here are several “rules” to remember so that you don’t take ‘no’ personally in your business:

Rule #1: You are good enough, right here and right now!

Rule #2: You have what it takes to be powerful in every situation.

Rule #3: You are not your business – if someone says no, it isn’t ‘no’ personally.

Rule #4: Keep a list of the things that you excel at, and if you do take a ‘no’ personally pull those out and read them.

Rule #5: Remember Rule #1

Everyone feels as if they might not live up to expectations and therefore they might not even try. Whenever you hear a ‘no’, try to keep in mind also that it is a no now but not forever. I know I’m not the only one who has had a potential client say no and then come to me at another point in time and said yes. Oftentimes people need to think on things and to process it. Yes, sometimes they need to feel the pain of the struggle a little longer before they can say yes to themselves… which, remember, is who they ultimately are saying yes to.

A wise mentor once said to me, “You take yourself everywhere, so why not take the best of yourself each time, leaving behind the possibility to take things personally because it never serves you well.”

About Kim Ravida

Kim Ravida is a lifestyle and business coach who helps women in business take powerful money actions and make solid, productive business decisions that positively impact their life and their business. Stop banging your head against the wall trying to figure out what to do first, wasting time and money. Kim Ravida Coaching can help you. Having been there herself, she has developed a specific system that sets the foundation for a business that brings in more clients, makes more money and saves tons of time so you truly can reach your goals and dreams. Find free resources at http://kimravida.com/resources/.

 

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kim_Ravida

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Growing your client list

 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 MortonBen 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

 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

“Without a vision people will perish” 1

 in Guest Post  tagged Andrew A. Faccone / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / goals / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / plan / sales / vission

In today’s guest post Andrew A Faccone combines his personal beliefs and experience to share some thoughts around success.

"Without a vision people will perish" A guest post by Andrew A.Faccone

“Without a vision people will perish”

By Andrew A.Faccone

“Where there is no vision the people perish.”

(Proverbs 29:18)

The majority of our modern society is removed from many of each day’s activities, caught in the cycle of keeping up with what everyone else is doing and not focusing on themselves or their own long term goals, which will impact their life personally and professionally.

Having a greater vision of where you want your life to be at any given moment is within reach of every person who is envisioning the end result, where they want to be. What mark will you leave on this world?

Each day is truly a gift and with the gift you and you alone are allowed to determine the outcome of your actions. Think back to a time in your younger years when you were asked if you wanted a special gift for your birthday, graduation from school, or from Santa Clause.

The young child will make grandiose requests for a shiny toy, a certain electronic gadget and the more important clothes item that “all the other kids have”. Then after a lengthy sales pitch, prolonged reminders and constant communication by the child that desires it, the item will ultimately find its way into that child’s possession.

The teenage years bring about the same types of requests with even more specifics geared toward the latest and greatest item. I am very fortunate to coach both my daughter Juliana’s basketball and softball teams along with my son Drew’s basketball, little league and travel baseball teams. Many of the requests that come from my children are from the sports related, electronic communication devices (can we say Apple) and fashion minded clothing apparel wish list.

We truly need to be more like our children in our thinking and our approach to life. A bigger picture of life with unlimited boundaries with very little stress? Have you ever seen a child under 12 years of age stressed out?

What is our purpose in life? What do we hope to accomplish, achieve, conquer and leave our mark creating our legacy during our life? Some of us will teach, some will coach, be parents, work in the various service industries, trades using your given talents, become writers, bloggers, social media experts and some will even become entrepreneurs based upon the previous mentioned talents.

Paired with our purpose we also create the vision for what our future will be, we determine our future with the words we are saying. Proverbs 18:21 says the tongue has the power of life and death. We don’t realize what power our words can have impacting positively or negatively in all situations we come in contact with in our day to day lives.

In preparation for writing this blog piece I was reflecting on many of the various goals I had made for myself, work diligently toward, readjusted my course of action and ultimately overcame the many challenges and achieved what I had sought after. My life has been a series of goals, actions steps and ultimately achievement through a step by step approach. Hard work & determination can achieve anything when paired together to overcome the tallest of challenges and the most difficult of goals.

The hardest part of any journey is the first step. Where do you envision yourself in 3 months, 6months, 1 year, 2 years and even 10 years from the time you read this article. What do you picture yourself doing, how detailed are you in that vision of success?

Another key element to fulfilling that vision of success is having a burning desire. A desire that burns to your inner core, that same desire that will reinvigorate you on the darkest of days and make the brightest of days even more meaningful because you are one step closer to achieving that goal. Your vision is your picture of your future – your desire is what will transform your dream into a reality.

My career is in healthcare sales. My day to day activities are different than many people in other career choices. In sales, you and you alone have to motivate yourself, execute your plan, readjust your plan and then repeat the successful part of that plan daily. Day after day, week after week and year after year. The sales goals will get bigger and the demands of the position will increase. It takes a time tested approach, a vision and a burning desire to achieve what you truly want in life.

When you finish reading this article, think about something that you have been putting off, something you would like to do, but haven’t gotten to it. When its important enough to act upon and follow through on, that is when the vision will become a reality.

Most importantly believe in yourself, your abilities and what you are truly capable of. You have been successful throughout your life to this point, why wouldn’t you continue to achieve greater things as your progress forward. When the challenges become more demanding a more creative plan is required. That creative plan will enable you to achieve that desired result. Just as we have all found this blog site from various parts of the world, that same vision and desire will allow you to explore new boundaries of opportunity within yourself creating greater outcomes and endless opportunities for greater success.

Make that goal, be daring, really stretch yourself, have the desire to see it through and you will amaze yourself in what you will be able to accomplish. Make it quickly because tomorrow is coming faster than you think.

I look forward to hearing of your successes and accomplishments. Can Do! Yes, you Can!

About the Author/Further Resources

Andrew A.Faccone, MBA can provide insight regarding his expertise within the healthcare industry. He can also provide valuable business acumen and coaching insights.Andrew is available for speaking engagements for any size business organization as well as personalized business & career coaching.

Email aa****@***oo.com

Linkedin Contact Info www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-a-faccone-mba/24/291/3b2/

Is there any value to developing a coaching presence online?

 in Guest Post  tagged Beverley Ireland-Symonds / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / confidence / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / nlp coach / online / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / profile / revenue / sales / selling / Tags: business coach / website

Beverley Ireland-Symond shares her experience and knowledge in today’s guest post as she asks:

"Is there any value to developing a coaching presence online?" A guest post by Beverley Ireland-Symonds

Is there any value to developing a coaching presence online?

By Beverley Ireland-Symonds

One of the dilemmas for all coaches new or experienced is how they should market themselves and their coaching business.

Most coaches have business cards, some have leaflets or posters and some have a mixture of a website, a facebook page, a twitter account and/or a google plus account. It can be a challenge to know what is right for you and your coaching business.

I was recently asked whether it was essential as a coach to have a presence online, but it’s not one of those questions which I could give a simple yes or no to. There are a number of different issues that if you’re thinking about setting up some sort of presence or want to expand or improve on what you’re currently doing online that you should be thinking about.

What are some of the online options?

Having an online presence doesn’t mean you have to have a website. I’ve already mentioned facebook, twitter, a google plus account and I would add to that list Pinterest or LinkedIn. These are all places where you can promote yourself as an expert coach.

You can also write articles and post to article directories , write guest blogs and you can join relevant forums in your niche, post comments and ask and answer questions. None of these require you to have a website.

But if you do choose to go the website route there are different options for what you have. You can choose a very simple site that really acts as an information page about you and your coaching services encouraging visitors to the site to get in touch with you, or you can choose to do something a lot more comprehensive and build what’s known as an authority site – showcasing yours and others expertise.

So what are some of the advantages of having an online presence?

Increased reach

Having your own website is a great opportunity not only to showcase your own knowledge, experience and expertise but also those of your fellow coaches as Jen does on this site. This means you’re increasing your profile not only with potential customers but also with other professionals.

It’s easy to underestimate the power of potential online relationships. I’ve never met Jen, but I value the opportunity that she’s given me over the last three years to be a guest blogger and I guest blog for other people. I have a fellow hypnotherapist who regularly refers clients to me for confidence coaching that I met online, firstly through my website and then through Twitter.

In my case developing an online presence has also allowed me to extend my customer base and I’ve coached a number of clients in the United States who I would never have come across otherwise.

I have built my online presence by writing a lot of articles and posting to article directories, developing my own coaching site which is regularly updated and in the past I have been vocal on twitter.

Opportunities to share, educate and sell

Developing your own website or guest blogging allows you to share your experiences and what you’ve learnt. You can also take the opportunity to educate others through holding webinars, creating podcasts and creating resources. You can also build your own email list and send out regular newsletters.

And let’s not forget, it’s also an opportunity to sell. It may be that you only want to promote your services as a coach. I advertise an introductory coaching session and visitors can book a slot directly online. But you can also diversify and look at other opportunities to create income streams . Examples include writing your own coaching blog and earning money through advertising, writing your own coaching book related to your niche or developing an online coaching programme.

Of course it’s not for everyone. Some coaches want only to focus on their core business of coaching face to face or over the telephone and rely on word of mouth advertising. If that’s what works for you – great but if you want to try your hand at something different or you just want to extend the profile of your coaching services, why not explore further.

Pitfalls to look out for

Well of course there are pitfalls and I’ve experience many of them over the last three years. I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing when I started out building a website, having a twitter account etc so I had to learn everything as I went along. This means I didn’t plan and my website took on a life of its own and I found myself spending far too much time on it.

I built my own site but I didn’t have the skills initially and I often did silly things such as turning off the comments on my website so no one could discuss my articles. This means although I do actually have a lot of traffic (about 5000 visitors a month) – I don’t appear to have anyone engaging with my content.

I also don’t have testimonials on my site like many other coaches do and this is down to my niche. A lot of people want to keep quiet that they have used the services of a ‘Confidence Coach’. I just have to accept that this is the case and compare myself to others. It’s not a reflection on my ability as a coach.

Should you have a presence online?

I think this entirely depends on you, your particular niche, your marketing and business plan. No one should be compelled to have their own online presence – but if you decide it’s something that you want to do and it would be advantageous to you and your business then make sure you research how you might do it and avoid the mistakes I made and do some initial planning before you plunge in.

Summarised below are some of the key points of having an online presence

Pros

  • Opportunity to promote your services as a coach
  • Opportunity to generate discussions
  • Can help you to reach a wider audience
  • Can raise your personal profile an expert in a particular niche
  • Opportunity to create different revenue streams

Cons

  • Can be a challenge to identify and take advantage of the benefits
  • Can be time consuming
  • Can get out of hand if you’re not organised
  • Can act as a distraction if it’s not part of a proper marketing plan
  • Can be expensive if you don’t have the skills to run your own website

About the Author/Further Resources

Beverley Ireland-Symonds is an NLP Practitioner and NLP Coach, specialising in Confidence Coaching, working with clients both in the UK and America. She writes extensively on a range of issues including self esteem, confidence and personal development and having developed he own online coaching programme is currently editing her first book.