selling

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.

Mindset Secrets to Successfully Selling Premium Coaching Packages

 in Guest Post  tagged boundary / client attraction / clients / coaching / codependency / fear / high end / Ling Wong / marketing / mindset / package / preconception / program / self-worth / selling / value

In this week’s guest post Ling Wong uses her expertise and knowledge as she shares:

Mindset Secrets to Successfully Selling Premium Coaching Packages

By ling wong

"Mindset Secrets to Successfully Selling Premium Coaching Packages" by Ling Wong

A lot of business trainings tell us to sell coaching packages instead of single sessions, and raise our fees while we are at it so we can earn more, work less and have more energy to deliver our best services to our clients. Some of these trainings probably showed you how to design a program and price it.

Sounds good in theory, but… let me ask you – how much are your clients actually paying you? Do you consider the amount you are paid “premium”? (hmm, can you take just one or two new clients a month to pay the bills and more?)

Maybe you have a premium package sitting somewhere on your website, but you somehow have never been paid a “premium” fee; or you revert back to selling the “old” lower-cost packages when the rubber meets the road, i.e. during your sales conversation, because fears and doubts creep in and you chicken out.

If you (intellectually) know offering a premium package is better for your business, and you also have the knowledge to create the package – why aren’t you selling it? Where is the disconnect?

YOU, hold the answer. It’s all in your head.

Everything can sound good on paper, until it comes time to ask for the money.

There are a lot of fears, pre/misconceptions and judgments around “selling”, self-worth and value. Until you bust through these mindset hurdles, you will never feel completely comfortable during a sales conversation.

Your comfort level in asking to get paid is proportional to how much you ultimately get paid.

Preconception

Nobody likes being pushed into buying, and we may perceive people selling to be “bad” because some salesperson gave us bad experience. If you had bad experience with sales people, it is easy to equate selling as “dishonest,” and who wants to be perceived as such? Of course you don’t want to, so you hold back from selling.

Plus, there are many unfavorable images we associate with people doing selling – e.g. the used car salesman, the late-night infomercial dude, even that pushy MLM friend who won’t let you off the hook until you reluctantly sign up for stuff that you don’t want.

What if I tell you, selling = serving? What if you can serve your potential clients while you sell them your services? Educational marketing is a great example. You give people information and provide value to raise awareness about a problem. When they understand the problem they have actually has a solution and you, standing right there, provides that service – they will want to seek you out without you pushing your wares.

I sign a lot more clients after I changed my approach in my discovery sessions from constantly worrying about “what can I say or ask to get them to buy my stuff?” to “what questions can I ask to help this person see a solution to her challenges?” This change in attitude can give the energy behind sales conversations a major overhaul.

QuestionHow can you lead your potential clients into exploring working with you by serving them?

Fears

What kind of selling works? Genuine selling. The kind that you don’t hide behind scripts and templates. The kind that you put yourself forward and connect with your potential clients. But our fears are making us hide… instead of making the connection so critical to getting “yes” from potential clients.

The Fear of Not Being Good Enough can make you feel that you, being yourself, are not enough. It makes you feel there gotta be a script that holds the key to the perfect sales conversation. Maybe you fear that you don’t know enough so you keep babbling on about what you know and where you were trained… completely negating the potential client (who just wants to be heard and be given a damn solution!)

Don’t forget that little voice in your head that keeps saying “who are you to ask for that much money?”

The Fear of Not Being Worthy can cause you to confuse “self-worth” to what people are paying you for – i.e. our services that will give them results. When you don’t feel worthy of being paid, guess what… you don’t get paid!

The Fear of Lack can make you discount or settle for the client purchasing a smaller package even though you know she needs something more extensive because you don’t want to end up with nothing! By settling for less, at least you get the client to pay you something… (note how this makes you come from a place of lack, and not one of service)

The Fear of Being Vulnerable can get you to puff up as a protective mechanism, setting up a wall that prevents you from deeply connecting with your potential clients (people buy high-ticket items with emotions, you need to make that connection). Or, maybe you are afraid of being criticized so you hide from having conversations with potential clients or JV partners. If you hide, they can’t find you!

The Fear of Rejection can make you not ask for more money under the misconception that you will get more “no’s” if your price is higher. If you have this fear, the problem is not the price, the problem is you not having figured out how to communicate the value you deliver.

Question

Can you recognize when you fears kick in during your sales conversations?

Boundary and Codependency

In this article, I explored money boundary and codependency extensively. Here is the highlight:

  • If you are undercharging and not asking for a “premium price,” you may feel that you need to give everyone access to your service and you have the limiting belief or misconception that you can “help more people” by charging less. (You are trying to give everyone your stuff whether they want it or not – and this, is a violation of the other person’s boundary.)
  • If you are over-delivering (e.g. going overtime during your sessions, writing pages after pages of support emails, “throwing in” extras), essentially giving “premium” services without being compensated for it, you may be feeling responsible for your clients’ results even though they need to do the work to succeed. Because you feel responsible, you would bend over backwards – compromising your own boundaries in order to “help” that person with the misconception that somehow, you can do the work for your client (By the way, the client may or may not want to be helped, so in a way, you are violating that her personal choice.)
  • If you have been constantly discounting, you may be buying into the client’s money stories and somehow made felt responsible that your fee will turn into the cause of her distress so you discount to make yourself feel better. (By the way, you have no rights to decided for the other person what she can or cannot afford… it’s her priority and her decisions to make.)
  • If you have been giving away services for free – STOP! This is martyr mentality stemming from a fear of not being worthy (you are trying to prove to yourself that you are) and can turn into victimhood that kicks you off the driver’s seat altogether.

When your boundary is overstepped, it is you who allows that to happen.

QuestionIf it’s your boundary crime to commit, can you recognize your triggers and “rehearse” what you can do or say in those situations?

Self-Worth vs the Value of Your Program

I have a bone with the phrase “charge what you are worth” – I explained it in this post.

If you can separate your self-worth from the value you deliver through your program, then the question “how can my time be worth that much” will not even enter the equation.

Focus on the value your clients get out of your program or service package, not how much time you spend on the phone with them.

If they get a more out of your service than what they pay you, then offering them your package is doing them a service. The key, again, is to communicate effectively so they understand the value of your program, and the impact it has on their lives.

ExerciseWrite down how your work impacts your clients in the areas of health, career, finance, relationship and personal growth. Then put a monetary value (wherever possible) against each item. Now, add it all up and see for yourself how much value you deliver. Can you charge more?

***

Selling, and selling high-ticket items, is not scary. You can sell more with integrity by having the right mindset and perspective, overcoming your fears, strengthening your boundaries, and properly communicating the value of your offer.

About Ling Wong

Ling offers “Business Soulwork + Marketing Activation” to help coaches nail their Messages, claim their Superpowers and muster up the Guts to monetize their Truth so they can build a purposeful and profitable Personality-Driven business that is a full expression of their individuality and creativity.

Through her “left brain meets right brain” approach, Ling helps her clients tap into their intuition and ground those light bulb moments with practical strategies and marketing tactics to build a profitable and sustainable business.

Ready to Nail Your Message, Claim Your Superpowers and Monetize Your Truth for a Personality-Driven business? Get your FREE “Monetize Your Truth Mindset + Marketing Training” here.

Small Business Owners: Do This, Don’t Do That

 in Guest Post  tagged business / business owners / coaching business / genius work / marketing / outsourcing / Peggy Champlin / selling / small business / solopreneurs

In today’s guest post Peggy Champlin offers advice about how to have a successful coaching business.

Small Business Owners: Do This, Don't Do That by Peggy Champlin

Small Business Owners: Do This, Don’t Do That

by Peggy Champlin

I feel strongly that business owners, especially solopreneurs, should spend their time on those things only they can do for their businesses – and only those things. It’s tempting for the coaches, consultants, healers, and others I work with to try to do everything themselves. Sometimes it’s an effort to save money. Sometimes it’s about not wanting to give up control. Sometimes they think it will take too much time to train someone else to help them.

Even though it might be challenging for any of the reasons I’ve listed for you to consider getting help in your business, I urge you to do just that. Below are the only tasks you should be doing personally.

Identify Your Genius

The most important thing you need to do as a business owner is to clarify what talents, skills, intuition, knowledge, and experience you have that others would benefit from and be willing to pay for. Some combination of these factors will make you unique and allow you to position yourself as ‘special’ in the marketplace.

In my case, I have a technical background along with business experience and coach training. Over the years I’ve been in business, I have learned I thrive when supporting other business owners in the strategic and technical aspects of their businesses. I enjoy not only coaching, but actually getting things done for my clients.

Define Your Target Market

Once you know your genius, you need to identify those people who will value it. These are the ones who will see what you offer and want it. A key point here is that they need to be able to pay for it. A high priced coaching program for the unemployed may be quite valuable to them, but many may not be able to pay for it.

I enjoy working with small businesses, usually solopreneurs. They are most in need of the services and experience I offer, and don’t generally have employees to help them.

Decide on Your Portfolio

How will you offer your genius to your target market? Will it be coaching or consulting? Will you create tools to sell? Will you create artistic works? Will you offer services or products, or both?

Right now, I serve all my clients one to one, on an hourly or custom project basis. I’m currently creating service packages that will still be one on one, and am looking ahead to creating programs to help small business owners in larger numbers.

Market Your Genius

Notice I didn’t say “market your services/products”. Your services and products are the way you package your genius. Your genius produces the benefits your customers will pay for.

Now that you know what to sell to whom, you need to focus on how to become visible to them and attract them to your business. Also known as marketing.

Sell Your Genius

Yes, you will need to sell. I know many of you cringe at the thought, and “sell” doesn’t mean you have to be pushy or hype-y or sales-y. But if you want people to pay you for something, you’re going to have to sell it to them, whether one on one, in a teleseminar or webinar, or via a sales letter on your website.

Deliver Your Genius

Once people have expressed interest by coming to your site, subscribing to your list, registering for your webinar, or paying you, you now must deliver. It’s up to you to create content that captures your genius and delivers its benefits to your audience. Some of this content will be free and some will be paid, but this is where the rubber hits the road. Delight your audience and some will become customers. You’ll also be able to attract a bigger audience.

OK, that’s it. Everything else can be outsourced – and should be. You shouldn’t be spending time on creating web pages or formatting ezines. Why? Because others can do that as well or better than you, and no one else can identify, package, market, and sell your genius better than you. So you do that bit and get help for all the other bits.

About Peggy Champlin

Peggy Champlin’s business, Success With Ease, has been providing a full suite of services and products to help small companies build their businesses online since 2002. Visit Success With Ease to receive a free report, “The Top 10 Mistakes Small Business Websites Make”.

 

Article Source: Small Business Owners: Do This, Don’t Do That

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.

 

Selling Made Simple 1

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / cost / executive coach / Lawrence Platt / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / Michael Neill / money / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / price / Rich Litvin / sales as service / sales thorugh service / self-worth / selling / serve / Steve Chandler / success / supercoach / SuperCoach Academy / Transformative Coaching

Supercoach Michael Neill shares some thoughts on selling in this week’s guest post.

Selling Made Simple

by Michael Neill

Over the past couple of days, I’ve really enjoyed participating on a “Creating Clients” seminar given by Supercoach Academy faculty members Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin. We were challenged, cajoled, and at times even coddled through the process of facing up to and breaking through our fears about enrolling clients and selling our products and services in the world.

While there were a number of wonderful strategies shared throughout the weekend for inviting conversations and making powerful proposals, I became fascinated early on by a simple question that was being asked by the still, small voice in the back of my head:

What would selling be like if I didn’t know anything about how to do it and was completely comfortable with that fact?

The first thing I realized is that I would show up without much on my mind. I wouldn’t fill my head with affirmations about my self-worth or “visualize success”. If I had any intention at all, it would simply be to see what I could best do to assist, help, or serve the person in front of me.

Not having much on my mind would leave me very present. This quality of presence would ensure both high quality listening and a natural, unforced human connection.

I wouldn’t need to prepare any questions because anything I wanted to ask would arise instinctively out of my curiosity and interest in answering fundamental questions like “what would make the biggest positive difference in your life right now?”, “how can I serve you?”, and for myself, “do I want to?”

Because I’m comfortable not knowing what I don’t know, if you asked me anything that I hadn’t thought about, I would just think about it in the moment. If a satisfactory answer didn’t come, I would promise to get back to you when I had an answer and then keep my promise.

I wouldn’t have any fear about telling you the cost of my product or service because (as Steve repeatedly pointed out throughout the weekend) it would be no more significant than giving you my phone number so you could get in touch if you wanted to speak further. And if I hadn’t already decided what my fee was, I would make it up based on what would make me want to choose you as the next person to serve.

My lack of agenda would inoculate against the appearance of much “sales resistance”, and concepts like “overcoming objections” would become irrelevant because my job is to find a way to serve you, not to find a way to get you to do what I want. In fact, selling would never feel forced or manipulative because if I couldn’t find a way to serve you that I actually wanted to do, I would just move on to the next person.

If I wasn’t enjoying my sales and enrollment conversations, I would know that either I had slipped into thinking my job was to “make a sale”, or that perhaps I wasn’t terribly convinced that what I had to offer would actually be of service.

As the essayist Lawrence Platt writes:

“If you’re experiencing enrolling others in your possibility as a chore, it’s likely you haven’t yet completely distinguished your possibility. If you possibility is authentic, if it’s clear, if it’s genuine, then it’s inspiring to you. When it’s inspiring to you, then it’s inspiring to others. No effort is required for it to be enrolling. Inspiration grounded in possibility is naturally contagious: everyone gets it, everyone wants it. It literally enrolls others by itself.”

When we began enrolling Supercoach Academy three years ago, my first instruction to the enrollment team was that I would evaluate their effectiveness by how often I was thanked by potential students for allowing them the chance to speak with my team. I figured that if we found a way for people to feel grateful for being “sold to”, chances were we would not only wind up making sales, we’d also wind up building strong relationships for the future.

What made my reflections this weekend so powerful was the realization that “sales as service” isn’t just a clever ideology – it is the most natural and unforced way to sell, and as such will provoke the least internal resistance to the process.

In other words, when selling is really about you, not me, it’s really fun to do. Since I’m enjoying doing it, I’ll do more of it. As I do more and more of it, I’ll get better at it. And when I start getting noticeably better at it, chances are I’ll begin to enjoy it even more…

Have fun, learn heaps, and a belated Happy Mother’s Day to all!

With all my love,

Michael

About the author

Michael Neill is an internationally renowned success coach and the best-selling author of You Can Have What You Want, Feel Happy Now!, the Effortless Success audio program and Supercoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life. He has spent the past 21 years as a coach, adviser, friend, mentor and creative spark plug to celebrities, CEO’s, royalty, and people who want to get more out of their lives. His books have been translated into 13 languages, and his public talks and seminars have been well received at the United Nations and around the world.

Copyright © 2012 Michael Neill. All Rights Reserved

 

 

How to get coaching clients 1

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / Coaching Prosperity / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / connections / contacts / conversations / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / selling / Steve Chandler

In today’s guest post successful coach Steve Chandler shares his expertise and thoughts about reaching more people, selling coaching and solving problems.

How to get coaching clients

By Steve Chandler

I run a prosperity school for coaches that teaches them how to get clients which is my passion and mission in life which is why I love this site of Jen Waller’s so much….it is such a SERVICE to coaches.

Most of the coaches I work with make the mistake of thinking in the plural. They always talk about “more clients” and “more contacts” and making more connects, all in the plural. And that demoralizes them. Because the mind can only do one thing at a time. So when you give it more than that…like thinking you need “more clients” it shuts down and becomes depressed.

Rather than reaching “more people,” what about reaching one person?

But really reaching that person in a deep, profound and transformative way…so that her world is altered by talking with you. And then you might move on to another person, and do the same with that second individual.

You will increase your billings when you slow down. Not when you speed up, trying to reach more and more people.…it gets back to who you are BEING with people that grows your practice rapidly…. you coaches all have a great WAY about you, and a totally supportive, problem-solving way of being….. so make sure that individual human beings get to experience you during the day…..it’s not all about contacts and marketing and scamming and spamming and spreading the WORD about you…..it’s about connecting with one real person.

That’s your true strength and source of wealth.

GROW your coaching practice by coaching. Any time you get a speaking gig or a training gig make sure your package contains some coaching in it….integrate coaching everywhere……this coming week INCREASE your conversations for coaching….and if you have an upcoming speech, call them and say, “Did I tell you my talk comes with four coaching sessions? I’m sorry I forget to mention that. To whom shall I deliver the coaching?”

I have a friend who started coaching a year ago…he has created, for himself (because it’s always a creation) very very high professional self esteem. He can’t STOP the inflow of coaching clients, and I mean this literally….he went on a vacation and the person next to him on the plane asked him what he did for a living and he said he worked with people so that the life they were living could be lived more fully with more fun and less fear, more financial security and less frustration and they were talking about his coaching for an hour on the flight…that person begged him to take him on as a client….a casual conversation with another couple at dinner resulted in the same thing and finally his wife asked him to not mention his profession any more until the vacation was over. It isn’t that he brags about himself…it’s the opposite…he is excited about the PROCESS of coaching people.

I know what it’s like to not make money at coaching. I remember telling my wife Kathy a few years ago that I simply could not COULD NOT sell my work, sell my seminars or coaching, and that I was now going to get a job as a copywriter and creative director at a small ad agency. At least we would have a regular living…maybe get 9k a month in salary. Benefits. A job to go to.

Then it hit me. If I had to, absolutely had to, if my life depended on it, I could sell a company a $9,000 seminar. So, as an experiment, I went to work contacting people AS IF I HAD TO DO THIS AND EVERYTHING DEPENDED ON IT. Not like I was playing around with it trying it out. Within three days I had sold a 9k workshop. So I had made a month’s wages right there. Then I played the game of having to sell ten more of those in the next 50 days. And I did it. It was just a game, but I played it as if it were my whole life being at stake. That made it more fun. Then I hired a coach to make sure I’d NEVER EVER let that growth curve that I had begun with selling taper off. And believe me he did not.

So my question to you is What would you do if you had to have enough weekly billings to support your family? If you had to? Please answer that one, not for me but for you. And not from pressure but from fun.

I had a person call me this morning about a program of mine he was considering that cost $10,000 to join and he was scared and skeptical and uneasy about it and I said to him, “How much time do you and I have right now?” and he said he had an hour, and I was in San Diego and needed to begin my seminar there in a little over an hour so I said, “Good! Let’s say you have paid your 10k, you are in my program already, and you and I are working together, we have time traveled into the future, what is the first challenge in your life that you would want you and me to SOLVE together? What would that be? And he told me about a big challenge he had and I asked a lot of questions about it and found out all his thoughts and feelings about it and all his wife’s thoughts and all his thoughts about his wife’s thoughts and we then looked at how his future would always be the same unless he ERASED this pattern in his life that he had set in motion and REPLACED it with a thoroughly re-written future, which he and I proceeded to WRITE for him on the SPOT. The hour ended WAY to soon for him and he said the check was on its way.

So that’s why I always say DEMONSTRATE…do your good work for them…..if you do, they will ask YOU if they can work with you. Coaches are always trying to sell people the concept of coaching instead of just DEMONSTRATING its power.

To whom will you demonstrate today? Honor your computer and the clients it hold for you that you don’t realize are there.

Set an hour or two aside to surf lazily through emails you have received over the past six months. Put some Hawaiian music on. Surf some more. These are clients you are looking at. Send each one of them a simple e-mail that says, “How can I serve or assist you right now? What’ the biggest problem you face?” ((or something like that that you like even better than that.))

You will be surprised at your responses…and when you get a response that is positive (and you’ll get many), answer that one with this: “Call me.”

Then when they call, don’t “sell” them, but solve their problem. Tell them the truth about the source of the problem. After the conversation, they will hire you.

About the Author/Further Resources

Steve Chandler is the author of dozens of books including the current bestseller, Time Warrior.

You can reach him at www.stevechandler.com.

Steve has generously offered to share pdf copy of his book “The Life Coaching Connection: How Coaching Changes Lives”. If you would like a copy drop an email to St***************@*******************co.uk

I “Sell” Coaching! 1

 in Guest Post  tagged belief / Billy Moyer / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / decision makers / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / needs urgent / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / products services / selling / SOS Coaching Network

In this week’s guest post Billy Moyer shares his thoughts and experience about what he thinks is the most important thing that we do as coaches …

I “Sell” Coaching!

By Billy Moyer

One of the biggest misconceptions in the coaching industry is that we are coaches first. We are sales people first and that is the most important thing we do. That is not to take away from the power of our coaching, but it is impossible to coach someone if you do not first sell them on working with you.

I work with a lot of coaches as part of my company, the SOS Coaching Network. I ask coaches what their biggest challenges are and I always get the same answers: Business development and sales.

Why are business development and sales the biggest challenge? Most coaches focus too much on everything else. They want to create their own content, when they could easily use someone else’s.

The SOS Coaching Network offers great content that is customized for the coach to make it look like it is theirs. We do this to get the coach to focus not on creating content, but on selling that content! Coaches are the masters at “I will make those calls later”, “I have to finish writing this article” or “I have to go speak to a group of non-prospects.”

The key to success in coaching is the same as every other industry, SELLING!

We just hired a new associate and eventually he will do coaching himself. But he has no background in it. He was simply a client who really took a liking to the business and decided he wanted to be a part of it. His background is in sales. He is the perfect person to bring on. His focus for his first six months will be to sell our services. He will not do any coaching. After six months of selling this business he will be more ready to build a successful coaching business than 90 percent of people who come into the business.

Here are some reasons people fail at sales:

  • Inadequate Preparation
  • Working with the wrong decision makers
  • Talking products and services too early
  • Failure to make needs urgent
  • Failure to uncover and influence decision criteria
  • Key concerns not addressed
  • Lack of belief

Lack of belief is really an important one to focus on. I can always tell when a “coach” does not believe in coaching. How do I know? They do no invest in coaching themselves. How can you sell someone else on coaching when you do not believe enough in it to have a coach?

The keys to success in selling coaching are simply belief and accountability. You can get both of those by investing in your own coach. If you want to grow your coaching business then commit to it. Get out there and find prospects. Get on the phone. Make sales! Hire a coach to hold you to these things. If you do all of this, you will be successful in this business.

Remember you are not a coach. You “sell” coaching!

About the Author/Further Resources

Billy Moyer is the co-founder and president of the SOS Coaching Network, which unites an elite group of coaches, trainers, and consultants from around the world, providing them with personalized programs, one-on-one and group coaching, and tools to help them succeed in the rapidly growing coaching industry. He is a Coach to Coaches. Learn more at www.soscoachingnetwork.com.

Do coaches need to be confident? 6

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching model / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / confidence / confident / executive coach / explaining coaching / fake / focus / Free resource / inner critic / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / listening / negative thinking / negative thought / performance coaching / personal development / questions / selling / thinking / thoughts

I’m often interested to see the searches that people do that lead to this blog for coaches. Some are quite frankly mystifying but one recently attracted my attention as it was the simple question, “do coaches need to be confident?”

So my coaching related post today is going to give my own personal answer, with reasons. I invite you to consider your own answer, as well as how that fits into how you are currently coaching.

Now considering one of the programs I offer to support coaches is “From feeling a fake to confident coach” my actual answer may surprise some. No, I personally do not think that coaches need to be confident. I think that it is perfectly possible to run a coaching session without feeling confident.

Confidence is one of those things that we cannot nip down to the local supermarket and pick up a tin of – it means something slightly different to each person. Just so that I am perfectly clear, I’m talking about feeling confident. I’m not talking about someone’s competence with my previous statement.

For some it may be true that a reason for them feeling a lack of confidence is genuinely because their skill levels have not been developed – it’s not always the case, hence my statement that you do not need to be confident to run a coaching session.

I do think that there are many benefits to being a confident coach. Here are just 7 of my initial thoughts:

It’s often makes coaching easier

How does your lack of confidence effect your coaching? If you are not confident then it’s easy for your client to start questioning the coaching and shift their focus off what they want etc.

It feels better and is more enjoyable!

Whilst your client may or may not have a suspicion about how you are feeling there are two of you involved in this coaching conversation. There is nothing to say that, as a coach, you can’t enjoy your work – in fact I personally encourage you to enjoy your work. 🙂

It’s easier to focus on your client if you’re not afraid someone is about to discover that you’re a fake etc

Coaching is much easier when you are listening and focusing upon your client and not any negative thoughts in your own head. I wrote last week about 3 ways to keep your focus on your client and not on your inner critic or negative thoughts etc.

If you trust your skills and coaching instincts you will ask the questions/give the feedback that you think will make the difference.

Often if a coach is not confident they can question yourself about what they will think about you, if that’s the right question etc and hold back from asking a question or giving certain feedback.

You will allow yourself to take the coaching in a different direction if the first one isn’t going anywhere

Coaching conversations are like any other conversations, they can take a turn in a different direction at any time depending upon the response the other person gives. Sometimes I see coaches/trainee coaches think negatively of themselves because they either haven’t got a plan about how a session is going to go or any plan they had alters as the session progresses.

You don’t hold yourself back from taking action just because you don’t feel confident

To run a coaching session you need a client. I’ve often seen coaches who share that they don’t feel confident reluctant to take action to actually get a client – either paid or unpaid. What action would you take if you were more confident about your coaching?

If you are “selling” the idea of working with you, a potential client is more likely to say yes if you appear confident in your own service and skills.

I’ve already mentioned that to run a coaching session you need a client. There are many strategies that you can use for marketing and sales and this isn’t a post about the numerous approaches that could work for you.

Even if you are not asking for an exchange of money you are asking a potential client to invest their time and effort. If you don’t appear confident and appear to be questioning if it will work etc how likely are they to say yes?

At the start of this post I said that coaches do not need to be confident to run a coaching session. What do you think? Feel free to share your comments below.