by Eric Dombach | Business Coaching Tools
When setting up your coaching business, one of the most important decision you’ll make is what business coaching CRM and digital marketing tools you should use.
To succeed in business coaching, you need a solid website, great content, and an intimate knowledge of your target market. But having a great CRM, marketing automation, and e-commerce system is just as important. Get this one wrong and you will be faced with a whole lot of headaches.
The good news is that we have a recommendation for you: Infusionsoft. (And no, we’re not getting paid for this post.)
Here’s why we recommend it:
- Combination of CRM, e-commerce, and marketing automation. Infusionsoft is an all-in-one solution where you can manage your customer relationships and sales funnel, take orders online (including automatic recurring charges from clients, which reduces the need to chase checks), and robust marketing automation that puts your communications on auto-pilot.
- Unlimited list segmentation. As a business coach you target a lot of prospective clients, but they probably fall into several distinct categories or personas. List segmentation, based on click-through, length of time in the funnel, customer demographics/profile, purchasing behavior, and more, helps you tailor your content and offers to your prospects’ and clients’ specific interests.
- Strong Analytics. One of the huge advantages of digital marketing is the ability to gather robust analytics quickly and cost-effectively. You can know almost immediately whether a particular message or offer is resonating, based on the real-time interaction it generates. Infusionsoft helps you understand what’s working and what isn’t, so that you can make fast adjustments. It even has a lead-scoring feature that will flag you when someone has shown signals that they’re ready to buy, now.
One of the huge advantages of digital marketing is the ability to gather robust analytics quickly and cost-effectively. You can know almost immediately whether a particular message or offer is resonating, based on the real-time interaction it generates.
There are a lot of digital marketing systems out there—everything from free Google products to software that will cost your business tens of thousands of dollars—but there is only one we recommend: Infusionsoft. Infusionsoft includes all of the options listed above and is easy to use and navigate, making it an effective method for nurturing new customers and growing your business.
Want more practical business coaching growth tips like this? Get a FREE, 30-day trial of our comprehensive business coaching system!
by Eric Dombach | How to Become a Business Coach
Don Vanpool had an executive-level position at General Electric but knew he wanted something more. So he decided to leave a corporate career to start his own business and executive coaching firm, OptaProfit.
He knew he wanted to scale quickly, so he researched options and eventually decided on the Coaches’ Coach as the platform to help him become more profitable faster. I had a chance to interview Don about his experience becoming a business coach and choosing the Coaches’ Coach as his support team. Here’s what he had to say:
Eric Dombach: What made you originally consider partnering with Coaches’ Coach to help you become a business coach?
Don Vanpool: I wanted to accelerate my coaching business and become world-class as quickly as possible. I also needed a framework and system that complemented and supplemented my skillset as a former GE executive coming out of the corporate world. The Coaches’ Coach was a perfect fit for me.
ED: What obstacles did you encounter when you first decided to leave your corporate career at GE to become a business coach?
DV: Coming from the corporate world, I lacked knowledge of the marketplace for business coaching SMEs. I need to know what worked and what didn’t.
ED: What were you looking for in a business coaching system?
DV: I wanted a framework I could learn and implement quickly while leveraging my years of experience. I was worried about being aggressively sold into an overly-complicated and over-priced system that didn’t deliver. Thankfully, I didn’t experience any of that with the Coaches’ Coach.
ED: What advice would you have for others who are deciding if they should leave a corporate career to become a business coach?
DV: You don’t need an overpriced franchise system to be successful. Find a good system you can adapt to yourself, and then work to build your own brand and company.
You don't need an overpriced franchise system to be successful. Find a good system you can adapt to yourself, and then work to build your own brand and company.
ED: What kind of results have you had with the Coaches’ Coach system?
DV: I started getting clients quickly, beginning with a tiny little client doing about $60K a year — LOL! But within 90 days, I landed a client doing more than $1MM a year and it’s right in my sweet spot. I’ve added at least one client every month since. Recently, I became a director of the Business Network International chapter in my area. I already have several strategic partners in just the first few months of opening the business.
It’s really a no-risk proposition to explore the Coaches’ Coach. There’s a free trial, and you’re guaranteed to be coached by a Certified Coaches’ Coach who has been there, done that, and been successful.
ED: Thanks, Don! You’re doing great and we’re proud to be on your support team!
DV: You bet!
Are you ready to make the move from a corporate career to business coaching? For a step-by-step guide to making the transition, check out our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Training
Most business coaches offer complimentary coaching sessions as part of their sales process (a practice I highly recommend). It gives you the chance to have an in-depth conversation with a prospect so that you can understand their needs better, and–most importantly–demonstrate your value.
But there’s a lot to remember in a complimentary coaching session: building rapport, finding the points of business pain, describing the right Silver Bullets, handling objections, removing perceived risk by demonstrating the ROI of your coaching fees, and finally, closing the deal at the right investment level.
It can be more than a little disorienting, to say the least.
As a new business coach, I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by my first few complimentary coaching sessions. I stumbled over my words, struggled to make a personal connection with prospects, got stumped by objections, and even flubbed basic business questions.
Still, each time I met with prospects, I learned something. And finally, after 20 failed attempts, I landed my first client.
The 17 P’s of Complimentary Coaching Session Success
Over time, I developed a system that allowed me to close an extremely high percentage of my Complimentary Coaching Sessions–some months securing a full 100% conversion rate! Here’s how I did it–I call it my 17 P’s.
Like all skills, learning to deliver a solid complimentary coaching session takes time and practice. But as you master the 17 P’s, you’ll find that your conversion rates–and your bottom line–will skyrocket.
Like all skills, learning to deliver a solid complimentary coaching session takes time and practice. But as you master the 17 P's, you'll find that your conversion rates--and your bottom line--will skyrocket.
- PACK WELL: materials professionally prepared and used effectively (hot bio, sales binder, agreement, and other pieces of marketing collateral you can either share in person or via screen share if you’re meeting remotely).
- PREPARATION: mentally attire yourself with a favorite song, pre-meeting script, and/or favorite testimonials.
- PROPRIETY in everything: even if you’re connecting digitally, remember to dress professionally, conduct yourself professionally, and be on time.
- PREMISE: ask them for details about their business and affirm everything you can while learning the language and culture of the client; if you’re in person, ask for a tour and then move to the client’s office.
- PERSONALITY: build emotional rapport by learning about the business first, then their personal life, and adapting your behavioral style.
- PURPOSE: use a stock purpose statement to review your plan for the meeting.
- PACT REMOVAL: gain commitment to your plan for the meeting.
- PROFILE review: demonstrate your competence and value by reading through your sizzling hot bio.
- PRICE: preview your price range with confidence and brevity.
- POSITIONING: explain your value using stories, testimonials, and confident statements.
- PROBLEM & PAIN: explore and identify your prospect’s top three problems and explore the related emotional pain.
- PRESENT the Silver Bullets: use your sales binder to explain in detail ONLY the Silver Bullets relevant to their problems and pain.
- PROPOSE COACHING: gain commitment to coaching as the best solution.
- PROGRAM AGREEMENT: read the Coaching Program Agreement aloud to a level of detail suitable to the client’s DISC style.
- PRODUCT CHOICE: explain the various business coaching programs and ask the client to choose.
- PROFIT EQUATION: demonstrate the power of coaching to deliver a return on cash using the Profit Equation.
- PRONTO: give plenty of homework in preparation for your first session to eliminate buyer’s remorse.
Looking for more great business coaching tips and tricks like these? Check out our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star!
by Eric Dombach | Business Coaching Tools
Does direct mail for business coaches still work, or is it an old, outdated way of generating leads?
In a world where everyone’s inbox is inundated with an endless stream of solicitations, direct mail can be a wonderful lead-generation and lead-warming weapon in your arsenal if you do it right.
Here are five powerful ways you can use direct mail as a business coach…
1. “Bond” with prospects and contacts. Send letters, cards, and packages in the mail with messages that drive home the benefits of working with you. Ask them to call you for a FREE consultation…or tell them you’ll call them at a certain time–and then do so!
2. Drive traffic to your website. Use a postcard campaign to drive traffic to a free, industry-specific white paper, ebook, or video course on a squeeze page.
3. Invite prospects to a special event. Host a half-day workshop or a lunch ‘n’ learn and use direct mail to invite prospects to come.
4. Make special offers. Use the mail when you want to offer a client a special, one-time only promotion or make a limited-time offer.
5. Warm your database. Use a combination of online and offline media to make consistent, ongoing contact with your database. It will pay off in spades down the line. In fact, when I built my first firm over a four-year period, I worked the same database over and over. It got warmer and warmer, and eventually yielded hundreds of business coaching clients!
Direct mail is more expensive than digital marketing, but when used properly, it can be tremendously effective. Don’t neglect it as part of your regular marketing mix.
Direct mail is more expensive than digital marketing, but when used properly, it can be tremendously effective. Don't neglect it as part of your regular marketing mix.
Looking for more great business coaching lead-generation strategies? Get a FREE 30-day trial of our comprehensive business coaching system.
by Eric Dombach | How to Become a Business Coach
If I could give one piece of advice to beginning (and some experienced!) business coaches alike, it’d be this: STOP over-servicing coaching clients.
Now I can already hear the protests: “But I have to ‘over-deliver’ or else I’ll lose my coaching contracts! I can’t keep clients around unless I hold their hand through the whole process!”
Nonsense.
If you think this way, remember: you’re a coach, not a consultant. Consultants get paid for time and deliverables; coaches get paid for value provided. If you’re having these kinds of problems with your clients, it’s because they don’t believe in you as a genuine coach. You’ve positioned yourself as some sort of laborer, NOT a genuine expert.
It’s time to change that if you want to stop over-servicing coaching clients.
And it starts with your own self-belief.
Your Knowledge Is Value
You have to realize that your time, your experience, your expertise, are inherently valuable. That you really CAN make a difference in your clients’ businesses. And that as a result, you deserve their undivided attention.
Look, as business coaches, our inventory of time is all we’ve got. When managed properly, we can create a significant income selling it. When managed improperly, we give away our most valuable resource for free, setting ourselves up as employees without benefits, subject to the whims of the business owner.
As business coaches, our inventory of time is all we've got. When managed properly, we can create a significant income selling it. When managed improperly, we give away our most valuable resource for free, setting ourselves up as employees without benefits, subject to the whims of the business owner.
So stop driving to your clients’ offices or coffee shops for consultations. Don’t drop everything when they call with a question or a problem; let them know you’re busy, and schedule a follow-up.
Do the majority of coaching sessions over the phone. Face-to-face coaching quadruples the amount of time it takes to service your clients. Between travel time, small talk, and meeting and greeting other team members, what should be a 30-45 minute coaching call can turn into a 90-120 minute excursion!
Only then will you begin to command the kind of respect you deserve.
Of course, this is only one of seven strategies for maximizing your time and positioning yourself as a true expert that I cover in our free ebook called How To Become a Business Coach. Grab your FREE copy now.
