Is Social Selling a Waste of Time for Business Coaches?

Is Social Selling a Waste of Time for Business Coaches?

Lately I’ve been hearing more and more about “social selling”–a sales technique that involves social networking, emailing, and researching…while fastidiously avoiding the phone. And it made me wonder: is social selling a waste of time for business coaches?

While I never recommend that coaches should cold call, I firmly believe that the telephone is and will remain one of the most powerful sales tools for business coaches. Then the other day, I stumbled upon this post by Tony J. Hughes about social selling. According to Hughes:

So many businesses and sales people have confused ‘social selling’ with ‘social marketing’. Social platforms certainly play an essential role for research and creating a strong personal brand that sets an agenda and evidences insight and credibility. But selling is all about engaging the buyer in a meaningful two-way conversation and the human voice is like nothing else for achieving just that.

I couldn’t agree more! While you can (and should!) use all kinds of strategies for lead generation and lead warming, you’ll never sell business coaching without a voice-to-voice conversation–usually a handful of them. Social/digital marketing is a supplement, not a replacement, for the phone.

Hughes continues:

The call you make should have been preceded by social marketing activities in the days or weeks prior where you ‘get yourself into the orbit’ of your prospects without any hard-sell. Then first thing in the morning, before the others snoozers arrive at the office, you’re hammering away with your COMBO outreach strategy:

  • Phone their cell/mobile and if you don’t get a live voice on the other end …
  • Leave a voicemail. Confident, to the point and without mentioning your products or solutions… just the value for them in having a conversation.
  • Then immediately send a LinkedIn InMail or connection request (with context, not ‘cold’)
  • Then send them an email.
Two to three minutes per contact maximum on your pre-prepared list. Ideally, you’re working from your CRM or ‘dialing software’ but a sheet of paper will do the trick. Never blame technology for your failure to drive the necessary level of intelligent activity required to achieve the success you need.
Bingo! You don’t need to make “cold calls” but if you don’t have a steady pipeline, it’s up to you to build one–and the method described above will work wonders. Hughes adds one more bit of advice that I think is crucial for business coaches:
I cannot tell you how many salespeople I meet who just won’t accept responsibility for the creation of their own pipeline. Treat leads from your website, channel, marketing or inside sales team as a bonus. You’ve gotta own your own success, fight for it, work for it, change inside to be worthy of it. Be your own SDR and time-block 2 hours EVERY day for proactive outbound prospecting where you focus on the phone. Use social media and LinkedIn to support your sales strategy but don’t use it to hide like a coward from the phone.
These strategies will help you become a business coaching sales machine. Check out the full post here. And for sales scripts, marketing techniques, and inbound lead generation strategies that have been custom designed for business coaches, get a FREE 30 day trial of our comprehensive business coaching system!
Become a Business Coach…Affordably

Become a Business Coach…Affordably

Wondering how to become a business coach affordably? Maybe you’re looking at high-ticket items like expensive training or even considering purchasing a business coaching franchise. But before you plunk down a pretty penny on your dream to become a business coach–here’s some advice for doing it much more affordably.

Ben Settle sent out an email last month that precisely expressed, more articulately than I have…

…my own sentiments about what’s wrong with selling outrageously expensive coaching and training programs online to newbies:

“I’m not a big fan of high ticket coaching and masterminds that are targeted to people who are newbies, desperate, or don’t have the money, experience, or the knowledge to put the info into
context.

“Even with my own products, I tell people not to buy if they have to go into debt over it. They should get their financial houses in order first.”

I applaud Ben’s ethical and sensible stance here. He explains that his objection mirrors his own experience as an info products buyer when he was a newbie:

“I simply didn’t have the money to afford all the high-priced stuff. I started with low-priced books like Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Sales Letter, for example, which was like $8.

“Then, when I was able to afford it (using money earned from applying what I learned in the first book), started spending money on the more expensive stuff.”

On the other hand, my friend HK points out that some people have spent their last dime to attend training on a money-making venture they really wanted to pursue, learned it, applied the
learning — and became spectacularly successful at it.

I know this is true, as several of my readers and students have achieved precisely this kind of success.

The problem is, they are outliers. As for the rest, most of the people who spend $5,000 for a training never recover a fraction of the investment, if any. (Let alone $100K+ for a business coaching franchise!)

If you are interested in a topic and a guru, here’s the order in which you should acquire his or her knowledge:

>> First, read and get all the free stuff only — their e-newsletter, free ebooks, free special reports, online articles, blog, free webinars.

>> Second, most gurus have one or more conventional paperbound books, usually selling for around $15 new, a few bucks used on Amazon, or available free at your local library. These books have
much the same content as their $200 multimedia home study course or even their $1,000 coaching.

>> Third, when and only when you have exhausted the free and low-cost supply of the guru’s content, then move up to one of his more costly paid products — but just one to start. And always
make sure there is an unconditional money-back guarantee with a 30 to 90-day return window.

Do not fool yourself, like many students at Ivy League universities do, into thinking that a higher price automatically means better content, better learning, and better results.

It’s like Matt Damon’s character explains in Good Will Hunting to an obnoxious Harvard grad student: “You’re spending $50,000 for an education you could have gotten for a dollar-fifty in late fees at the public library.”

By the way, one of those FREE resources you should check out is the Coaches’ Coach fantastic ebook for starting business coaches, How to Become a Business Coach. Enjoy!

This post is brought to us courtesy of Bob Bly, one of the best copywriters in the business. Here he shares that one of the best ways to close business coach clients is to pay attention to the timing. Check out his Direct Response Letter for more gems like these.

Deliver Huge Value in the First Coaching Session

Deliver Huge Value in the First Coaching Session

Recently, I’ve had several conversations with new and established coaches who want to know how to deliver huge value in the first coaching session–or handful of sessions–with a new client. In fact, they told me that they fear the first sessions, because they’re not always sure what to cover or how to plan, and they know that making a strong first impression is key to retaining clients long-term.

One coach even told me, “Whenever I start a first session with a new client, I feel nervous–I get sweaty palms and lack confidence in my voice. Even worse, I’m sure my new clients feel the same as they have no idea of what to expect!”

Sound familiar?

Fortunately, it’s not hard to deliver huge value in the first coaching session. You just need a little planning and preparation–and to keep these three tips in mind.

  1. Build Awareness.  Many businesses have little awareness of where they are right now–and next to no awareness of where they’re heading. For the most part, they’re flying by the seat of their pants. To help them become more aware, take the first session to fill out Verne Harnish’ One-Page Strategic Plan (you can download for free here).  This builds tremendous value into the first session, and it becomes a tool you can use on a regular basis to keep them focused and on track.
  2. Refer Back to the Problems You Addressed in Your Complimentary Session. It seems obvious, but many coaches miss this. They sit down in a complimentary session and identify pain points. They then agree that these are important to work on during the first few sessions. But, when the coaching starts they just plough ahead with their plan or framework, ignoring those tasks agreed as important. Use the notes from your complimentary session and work on those vital actions with the new client, as a priority. This will demonstrate your consistency and deliver what you promised.
  3. Identify One Action or Goal that Will Deliver the Biggest Bang for Your Client’s Buck. It’s best if this can also be a task that requires the least amount of effort from you. This goal must be an easy win–true low-hanging fruit–AND highly impactful. Many coaches define an easy win but forget that it has to add significant value. I usually do this by identifying the biggest result items first, then filter that list by how easy they are to achieve. When I find the sweet spot of ease of implementation and high level of impact, I choose that to focus on first. Set Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to monitor results.

Here are a few more tricks of the trade to make your first few sessions a slam dunk:

  • Tell your new clients what they should expect in their first coaching session at the point they sign up with you, or very shortly after.
  • Define your vital three actions for the first few sessions and have the tools prepared to deliver these.
  • Set 3-5 clear KPI’s and monitor them each session.
  • Set accountability levels and stick to them. Ask for feedback to ensure these are still acceptable after sessions 1 and 2.
  • Set that big, easy goal and do everything in your power to deliver results from it with your client.

With these strategies under your belt, you’ll go from feeling nervous to feeling confident during your first coaching sessions with a new client–and set yourself up for a long-term, highly profitable coaching relationship.

For more great strategies like these, check out our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star!

Time Management Tip for Business Coaches: “M” Day

Time Management Tip for Business Coaches: “M” Day

Here’s an excellent time management tip for business coaches–or anyone who’s self-employed from master copywriter Bob Bly.

For decades, I have been a semi-workaholic who works 11 to 12 hour days and rarely takes a vacation.

But I do have a technique I want to share with you for giving yourself a break once a month.

It makes you feel as if you are playing hooky for the day, though in fact, you are getting a lot done.

I call it “M-Day” or “Miscellaneous Day.”

How “M-Day” Works

Each month, I pick one day.

It has to be a day when I have no pressing deadlines, no phone meetings, no other appointments, and nothing to deliver to a client or publisher due that same week.

On regular days, I schedule my work during the day so I am working on one project or another during every hour, with a short rest between hour increments.

On Miscellaneous Day, there is no schedule. So I don’t HAVE to do anything at any particular time.

I crank up the music.

And I spend M-Day working on whatever project or task strikes my fancy.

Then I jump to something else … well, whenever the mood strikes me.

I often start M-Day with easy, light work — like a magazine article, working on one of my info marketing projects, or writing an article for my e-newsletter, as I am doing right now.

But often I will get inspired to tackle one or more tougher jobs on M-Day … such as a particularly challenging sales letter … and if that mood strikes me, I do it with great gusto.

And somehow, because of the immense freedom I have on M-Day, if anything I enjoy it even more than usual (and I really enjoy writing sales letters) … and do it even better and faster than
usual!

How to Handle Miscellaneous Tasks on “M-Day”

M-Day is also a good day for me to handle miscellaneous tasks that I often put aside because of my usual multiple writing deadlines, such as filling out paperwork or straightening out the occasional problem with a health insurance claim or similar stuff. Miscellany that is boring and distasteful, but still needs to be done.

(For instance, recently my health insurance didn’t pay a provider because they said my other health insurance carrier should handle it. And you guessed it, I do not HAVE another insurance plan. They are my sole carrier. But I had to spend time on the phone and filling out forms to prove it before they would pay the claim!)

For me, M-Day relaxes and revitalizes me, while giving me a full day in the office that is different and therefore even more fun than usual. And, it is always a very productive day — not really a hooky day at all!

I think it’s the change of pace in an otherwise fairly set routine that is part of the secret of M-Day — it’s a full-day “pattern interruption.”

The other aspect is, with all the projects I can work on during M-Day to choose from, I feel like a kid in a candy store, picking whatever I want as the mood strikes me. There is a big smile on my face and a lightness of spirit that is so invigorating!

So why don’t I do more Miscellaneous Days?

One M-Day a month is just about right for me. I tried doing two Miscellaneous Days a few months ago, and it didn’t feel right — I felt like a slacker. You may be different.

My suggestion is that you try giving yourself a Miscellaneous Day soon.

If it works for you as it does for me, give yourself one M-Day a month.

You will thank me for it.

Time to sign off now and get back to more M-Day fun!

Looking for more great business coach tips like these? Get a FREE 30-Day Trial of our comprehensive business coaching system.

How To Become A Business Coach? Get a Coaches’ Coach…

How To Become A Business Coach? Get a Coaches’ Coach…

How to become a business coach?

I might be biased, but I think the answer is simple: get a coaches’ coach.

According to a recent study, for every $1 a company invests in business coaching they’ll likely get $7.90 ROI. That’s likely why 21-40% of Fortune 500 companies use business coaching to groom their top management. Companies using business coaches all report positive increases in the “intangibles” of business, such as productivity, working relationships with clients, and organizational strength. [Source]

The chance to make this kind of an impact is why you’re learning how to become a business coach, right?

But have you ever considered that even though you’re a business coach, you’re also a small business owner who can benefit from the same things?

Here are some of the results you can expect from working with a coach:

  • More business coaching leads.
  • Higher conversion rate.
  • Better quality companies signing on as clients.
  • More satisfaction in your personal relationships.
  • More skillful time management and more free time.

One of the highest compliments we can receive is positive feedback from our clients. One client from the United States described the benefits of working with a coaches’ coach this way: “[My Coaches’ Coach] isn’t shy about making sure he and his clients live up to their agreements.  In doing so with me, [he]  was able to drive me out of a place of stagnation in my own personal journey, and thereby help me lift my business back to the path we had originally set.  Tough and kind, [My Coaches’ Coach] has an innate understanding and empathy for what small business owners go through.”

If you’re like most people who set out to become a business coach, you like being in the driver seat. You like being the one who directs growth processes and encourages others. But, just like your clients, you can benefit from an outside resource to help you get to the next level.

Quality coaching by a certified Coaches’ Coach can make the difference between just getting by and getting to the top. Getting someone with experience and vision on your team will benefit your business coaching practice just like your services benefit other people’s businesses.

Have you ever been coached? What was your experience like?

Download our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach, for a step-by-step guide to become a business coach with six-figure earning potential.