How to Get Clients as a New Coach
I’m sure when you went into business you were so excited at the potential to both make an impact AND make money. I’ve been there.
I remember sitting at my desk creating my offers and setting my business goals with my calculator out doing the math, too. But, it didn’t take too long to realize that it’s a lot harder than I initially thought to get clients.
You do what everyone tells you. You make a logo and business cards. Pay to have a website built. And then once you’ve invested your hard-earned savings and spilled your heart into your offers, clients come fleeing to your inbox to work with you, right?
WRONG.
This happens more often than I even like to admit and it actually breaks my heart for entrepreneurs who pour all their time, money, and energy into the wrong places when they are starting out their businesses. Places that never even bring in results. And they’re left there confused and upset. Back at square one.
You don’t want this to happen to you, so where do you actually start?
It may surprise you, but I can almost guarantee that your issue isn’t your logo or your website-it’s the lack of foundations you set in your business.
You can’t build a house without a solid foundation. You can’t build a business without a solid foundation either.
Why Foundations Matter
Imagine this- you’re at a coffee shop and someone comes up and strikes up a conversation with you. Trying to get to know you, they ask, “What do you do?”
You’ve been spending weeks working on your new coaching business. You can’t wait to answer. You say, “I’m a postpartum coach and I help moms with their lives after they give birth.”
They just look at you with a fake smile and say, “Oh! That’s great!” They change the conversation or they ask a million questions to try to get you to clarify.
Do you know why? They are confused. You told them nothing of value.
I’d venture to say that 95% of the time, no one is going to know what a postpartum coach is. They need you to ACTUALLY tell them what you do, why it's unique, and why it’s transformative.
The truth is, coaching is really hard to sell. The marketing is saturated and it’s hard sometimes to get people to immediately see the value.
But, imagine changing your answer to their question.
“What do you do?”
“I provide new moms with quality, comprehensive, and compassionate 1:1 support focused on their well-being after birth, creating routines and teaching them time management tactics that help them achieve their own personal goals while balancing life with a newborn baby.”
Now THAT is clear. That tells someone WHAT you do, WHO you help, and what RESULTS you provide.
When you clearly articulate your foundations, your audience can better understand whether your services might apply to them or someone they an refer you to.
Your 3 Foundations
Niching down- HARD.
When you’re first starting out, it’s so tempting to have a really broad audience with a really generic offer. When you market to everyone, you’re actually selling to no one. Your message gets watered down. You need to niche down to make sure you’re message is heard loud and clear by the people who are most likely to buy from you. If you know who your audience is EXACTLY, it will be much easier (and cheaper) to reach them. When you niche down. you can speak DIRECTLY to your audience in a way that resonates with them so they view you as an authority in your industry. When you niche down you can cater your content around specifics that matter to your audience and you’re more likely to be able to package your offer in a way that makes sense for the people you want to buy from you.
You don’t need to make this step complicated. You just need to be specific when it comes to what problem your coaching and/or program can solve- and it has to be a problem that your clients are well aware of having. Keep it simple & clear.
Make Sure your messaging is CRYSTAL clear.
Remember above when we talked about the embarrassing coffee shop example when you totally blew your time to shine?. When you aren’t clear about your messaging, your confuse people and confused people don’t buy. You need crystal clear messaging. You need to be able to communicate accurately and concisely what it is that you do, who you do it for, and how you do it.
People who decide to work with coaches or small businesses ultimately make that decision because
They have a problem in a specific area (finance, romance, diet, etc.).
Their coach has a specific method to address these problems.
Their coach will help them achieve a specific result or transformation.
Here’s a little trick I like to use: Reverse Engineering
They have a specific problem → Clearly state your niche and who you help
Their coach has a specific method → Clearly state HOW you help
Their coach will help them achieve a specific result → CLEARLY state your resultsSimple & Clear.
If you are confusing your audience, how the heck is someone supposed to know why you can help them solve their biggest problems?
At this point, you should be here: NAILING down that niche and making sure you’re clearly speaking to your target audience.Create a simple marketing strategy that you can stay consistent with.
I’m about to blow your mind. At this point, you STILL don’t need that logo, website, or business cards. Chill. There’s a faster and cheaper way to start getting clients.
When you’re first starting out you don’t need the funnels, tons of social media, and sales pages galore. Those things ARE important, but when you’re first starting out, it can take a long time to gain traction using those techniques. Keep it simple and start by leveraging your personal networks first.. Maybe one of your friends HAS been looking for a service like yours, but they just haven’t made the leap yet. Maybe you could tell your friends what you do and they could refer someone to you!
This is also a good time to leverage groups and communities where your audience hangs out in person or online.
Find meaningful ways to engage with that community and offer value to the members. Don’t forget to engage with the members and talk about your offer when you can.
These two things will save you both time and money, AND you’ll also be able to grow your network and start list-building for future marketing efforts.
Visibility. Impact. Attraction. Profit.
Our Magnetic Marketing Mentorship includes a TON of different resources for niching down, determining your target audience, clarifying your messaging and positioning, and finding clients. It’s all about finding the right system that works for you.
Want to learn more about the program? Read more here or schedule a discovery call here.
I know building a business can be VERY overwhelming, but I promise it doesn’t have to be so hard or involve countless hours online every single day.
We help entrepreneurs do it all the time.
You can too!