There is a big difference between Selling/Marketing & Service. The mainstream information out there is to use special marketing and sales tactics to build your coaching business. This is where coaches are being told to choose a niche, build websites, have upsells, funnels, email marketing, etc. This stuff just does not work. Below shows the difference:
Selling & Marketing
The language here is usually to “get clients or attract clients”. This is where coaches are being told to do all kinds of marketing and sales stuff. What happens is the coach ends up doing everything except the coach. Most times they just spend their days creating content.
Coaches are told to position themselves as an expert and post about it or create posts about “how great your life is” and then attract clients. Instead of attracting clients it does just the opposite, it comes across as needy and creepy. Besides this, it’s also not authentic…
Coaches are also being trained to use tactics to convince clients, you don’t want to do this… you end up with a client that’s just not committed to the coaching. The other mainstream information is that a coach should never offer a client a gifted session, well that does not work in coaching, all it does is keep you from coaching…
Attracting clients is a passive way of building your business. Posting all day on social media and expecting clients to come to you. If you look at it from the outside it looks like these coaches are the best in the world but almost every time, they have very few or no paying clients… how could they because they are doing everything except coach!
Another popular idea is to give your client some info and the more they pay the more you give (upsells), this does not work because your client never experiences the coaching in full so they can decide if they want to work with you. It also does not give the coach the opportunity to see if they want to work with the client. Coaching agreements are partnership agreements, it’s very different from anything else!!
Service
The language here is “creating clients”. This comes from a place of service, it’s about your potential client, not you. The moment you make the coaching about you then you have stepped out of service.
99% of people don’t know what coaching is or what coaching can do for them. Serving a potential client with a gifted session allows them to experience the coaching and essentially you are creating a client. Doing this allows you to start coaching and serving people. If you want to be a “Coach”, start “Coaching”!
Creating clients is done by being in conversation with people and building relationships with people. Coaching is a relationship business; no coaching agreement happens outside of a conversation.
Creating Clients through service is not a tactic. It’s a way for you to get coaching, serve people, and get paid to do it which allows you to continue serving people. Done authentically it’s powerful.
When you are creating clients through conversations you start seeing potential clients everywhere, there is a sense of abundance. There is no choosing a niche because “why would you limit who you can help?”
Lastly, it’s far more fun being in conversation with people that post and create content all day…
The process to create clients is simply:
- Connect with people.
- Invite them to a gifted coaching session.
- Coach and serve them powerfully.
- Create what it would look like if you had to work together.
Keep connecting