Two Serious Website Mistakes Business Coaches Make

Two Serious Website Mistakes Business Coaches Make

In my experience, there are two serious website mistakes business coaches make. What are they and how can you be sure you’re not making them? Read on…

Tick, tick, tick…

Here’s what happens when someone visits your website…

0-0.05 seconds: “Is this place safe?”

Google recently did a whole bunch of user tests that showed that visitors form their first (and often long lasting) impressions of a website in the first 50 milliseconds they see it.

And if people are leaving your site fast, it’s probably because of…

Mistake #1: Amateurish looking web design.

Of course, there’s the “Susan Boyle” factor. Sometimes someone or something completely surprises us after the first impression and we change our mind.

But most often we don’t. Usually our first impression biases how we interpret all further information.

So many websites of solo professionals (especially coaches for some reason) look like their nephew built them back in 1997.

Sometimes clients will look beyond an amateur looking website. Sometimes they’ll already know you or you’ll come with a strong reputation that lets them see beyond their first impression. But usually they won’t. Usually they’ll be secretly thinking “how can they be any good, they can’t even get a half decent website”.

0.05 – 2 seconds: “Am I in the right place?”

Next, the conscious brain kicks in. Whatever reason they came to your site for, they want to see if they can meet that goal.

If they googled “sales training” to look for trainers near them they better see in that first 2 seconds that you do sales training, you do it for people just like them, and that you’re nearby.

If they came from a link on a blog that recommended the useful articles on nutrition on your site, they better be able to see that’s what they’ll be able to find.

Mistake #2: No headline, or a “clever clever” one

For someone to know what your website’s going to give them, to know that they’re in the right place and they’ll get something useful, you have to tell them.

And in this case, a picture isn’t worth a thousand words.

You need a headline (or strapline – call it what you will). A sentence or two that explains what they’ll get from the site.

Clearly.

Then they’ll know whether they should stick around or click back and move on.

Now isn’t the time for puns or plays on words. And it’s not the time for you to try to compress what you do into three words with dots in between.

Not · Gonna · Work.

It just doesn’t give enough information to a busy visitor to let them know if they’re going to get something of value here. Do you work with people like them? Do you solve the problems they have?

It’s not time yet to try to “persuade” them either. They don’t care about how great you are or how different you are to your competitors until they know you work with people like them on the sort of issues they care about.

Not easy to do. You’ve got to think about it – hard.

You’ve got to decide whether you want to focus on people who’re coming to your site looking to buy and are checking you out from that perspective. Or like me, whether they’re coming earlier in their decision process and are looking for useful information.

Whichever way you go, clarity of communication is key.

The exact same thing is true when you’re appearing in the media. Or speaking to people face to face.

You need to get across your message succinctly. And it needs to hit the right hot buttons for your listeners. Answer the questions they have right now, not what you want them to know. That comes later.

Ian Brodie helps consultants, coaches, and other professionals to attract and win more clients. He’s the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Email Persuasion and has been named as one of the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders in Marketing and Sales and one of the “resources of the decade” for professional services marketing. You can get more of his in-depth tips on starting and growing your business at www.ianbrodie.com.

How to Keep Business Coaching Clients Longer

How to Keep Business Coaching Clients Longer

Whether you’re in the process of becoming a business coach, or you’ve been in the business for a long time, one of the most important questions you can ask is how to keep business coaching clients longer.

When it comes right down to it, business coaching clients will never leave you–AS LONG AS you’re helping them make more money and improve their lifestyle. Here are four ways to make to happen:

Always be working on just one major initiative at a time.

A lot of coaches, especially new coaches, try to impress their clients by throwing all sorts of stuff at the client at once. What this ends up doing is creating a massive jumble of priorities and efforts that actually slow growth and frustrate the client. Better to take one major effort at a time–preferably cash flow improving.

Manage expectations using proper positioning.

Don’t fall into the trap of over servicing your client and doing things for them. You are a business coach. You are not a consultant. You are not a selling your time for money, you are not jumping at their every need. You are giving them education and awareness around what they need to do, and you are holding them accountable to do it. When you position yourself well, they will be happy to pay you for years to be the trusted advisor who doesn’t do it for them, but teaches them to do it themselves.

Always focus on bottom-line growth first. 

Don’t let your client be the one to tell you what needs to happen in their business if it doesn’t relate to cash flow and profitability improvement. One of the classic mistakes of rookie coaches make is when the client says, “I’m so busy and just way to busy help me get more off my plate”–so then the business coach starts to help the client and change strategies about hiring, building in systems, etc. You’ll get in trouble that way. You need to earn your right to be there, and you do that by first improving their profits and cash flow. Otherwise, it’s going to be a short flight, believe me.

Remind them of their vision and dreams.

Remind your clients on a regular basis that your goal is to move them from where they are now into a place where they have a passive income producing asset.

I was on a call with a coach the other day who was worried he might lose an important client. I said to him, “Let me just ask you, when was the last time you reminded this client of how important this vision actually is to them? That they have a business that runs without them, a business that runs passively and becomes a business that they can sell so they can ride off into the sunset?”

He replied, “You know, it’s been a darn long time since we did that.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s the problem.”

One of the techniques that I use is to update the strategic plan with my clients every quarter. This means that on at least a quarterly basis, they’re reconnecting to their purpose, their vision, their values–the big picture plan of where they’re trying to go, not just this year but five, 15, 20 years from now. I know that if I bring them back to that every quarter, they’re going to be reminded of what they are trying to do and how important it is to have a coach to hold them accountable to get the things done.

When you do these four things well, you’ll keep business coaching clients longer–for years and years, in fact.

For more great tips on becoming a business coach, including a step-by-step plan for getting your business coaching practice off the ground, download our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach.

Business Coach Marketing Tips: The “Double Pipeline” Method

Business Coach Marketing Tips: The “Double Pipeline” Method

I frequently get a chance to work with one of the best copywriters in the business, Bob Bly. He recently sent this article to his Direct Response Letter subscribers about how to escape the “feast or famine” cycle so many professional service providers find themselves stuck in. I knew immediately that this was one of the best business coach marketing tips I’d ever read from a master marketer–and something I had to share with our subscribers as well. Enjoy. -Eric

Subscriber DC writes:

“I’ve been a full-time [professional service provider] for 21 years. It’s been great — but maintaining a constant flow of clients and projects has been harder work than I ever imagined.

“I know this is ‘feast or famine’, but it requires massive effort to overcome. Many business books (certainly not yours) gloss over this fact.

“Some books on freelancing show pictures of freelancers with laptops on the beach. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth!

“There’s freelancing myth and hype — and freelancing reality.

“I love what I’m doing; at 51 I’m a ‘veteran’ and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

“But it requires constant marketing and effort — more now than ever — which you rightly emphasize in your books.”

DC speculates the vast majority of professional service providers (including business coaches!) are not as busy as they would like — even though 95% won’t admit it.

So, how do you escape the “feast or famine” cycle — and stay busy and profitable all year long?

Introducing the Double Pipeline Method

The answer is my “double pipeline” method. It works as follows:

First, figure out how much marketing you have to do to generate enough work to meet your income goal. As an example, assume Joe, a business coach, generates his leads primarily via direct mail.

To keep the math simple, let’s say that his income goal is $120,000 gross revenue a year. His average client pays $1,000 per month and sticks around for 12 months. If Joe has an existing pool of 12 clients, he needs to add one client per month to hit his sales target–as each month one client will drop, and he’ll need a new client to replace them.

Now, say his direct mail package generates a 10% response rate, and he closes one out of every 10 leads on average. If Joe sent out 100 mailers a month, this would yield 10 inquiries and one client, meeting his income goal.

So 100 mailers a month keeps Joe’s lead pipeline full.

Take that Number and Double It

But my “double pipeline” method says you should calculate how much marketing and self-promotion it would take to meet your sales goal.

Then do DOUBLE that amount of marketing. If Joe’s calculations shows he needs to send 100 sales letters a month to meet his income goal, he should send 200 letters a month.

That way, his pipeline will not merely have enough leads to generate the work he needs. It will have twice the volume of inquiries required to generate the 120K in revenues he wants.

Of course, thanks to referrals, repeat business, and other sources of leads — social media, blogging, and what have you — Joe realistically won’t need to send 200 or maybe even 100 mailers monthly.

But the point of the “double pipeline” method is this: doing more marketing and self-promotion than you need to gives you an abundance of leads — more than you need.

Having the doubly full lead pipeline is your protection against slow times and virtually assures that you are busy, productive, and profitable all year long.

Try doubling up in your marketing, and fill your lead pipeline to overflowing. It’s your insurance against an unwanted slowdown in leads and work.

You can do it by following my “ABM” formula for self-promotion, explained in this short free video:

Sincerely,
Bob Bly

Looking for more great business coach marketing tips like these? Download our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star!

Why Business Coaches Should Never Cold Call

Why Business Coaches Should Never Cold Call

Do you hate cold calling? You’re not the only one. In fact, I’m of the opinion that business coaches should never “cold call.” They should “warm call” instead — calling on those who have already expressed an interest.

The other day, I stumbled across this tidbit in Bob Bly’s Direct Response Letter (Bob is a friend and vendor and one of the best copywriters in the business):

In a recent issue of the e-zine Yesware Monthly, the lead article was “25 Cold Calling Tips You Need to Succeed.” I rewrote it to have just one tip, and here it is: “If you are prospecting to sell your own services, don’t make your own cold calls.”

If someone ELSE makes the call for you … well, then it can work. Even then, though, I am not a fan of cold calling. And here’s why: Prospects want to hire vendors they perceive as being busy and successful, not desperate and needy. The late Howard Shenson called this “the Busy Doctor Syndrome.”

If you are spending your time on the phone calling up strangers and asking for work, does that convey the impression that you are busy, successful, and in-demand — or desperate and needy?

I couldn’t agree more.

10 Things You Should Do Before Cold Calling

  1. Host a free workshop through your Chamber of Commerce
  2. Send an email offer
  3. Write a blog post (as part of a consistent, ongoing digital strategy)
  4. Ask a client for a referral
  5. Make warm calls to past clients and prospects
  6. Do “bold walking”–where you actually, physically, drop into a business
  7. Send a targeted direct mail piece
  8. Ask to be introduced to a prospect through a mutual connection
  9. Host a webinar
  10. Run a paid social media ad campaign

How to Use the Phone without Cold Calling

If you’re still struggling to build a pipeline of warm, qualified leads, the telephone CAN be an effective tool–but just like Bob says above, business coaches should never cold call themselves. Instead, use a service. We recommend Connect and Sell, a fantastic service that uses an auto-dialer and live, professional pre-screeners to ensure that you ONLY get connected with business owners who are genuinely interested in talking to you. Every call that gets transferred to you is a business owner who’s said YES–they’d like to talk to you and learn more! It’s a fantastic way to leverage your time.

Looking for more great lead generation strategies? We have a whole module on it in the Coaches’ Coach Business Coaching System–and YOU can get a FREE 30-day trial. Check it out!

Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Business Coaches?

Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Business Coaches?

Here’s an important question if you’re looking to become a business coach (or if you are one already): is social media waste of time for business coaches?

I recently had a conversation with an experienced business coach who was “well-connected” on social media (her words). She had over 2,000 twitter followers, 400 Facebook friends, and 1,200 connections on LinkedIn.  She spent hours and hours every single week networking, engaging, and connecting with prospects.  But as we talked, I discovered she got little return for her investment, and the majority of time didn’t generate any leads from social media whatsoever!

Is it just me, or does that sound like a complete waste of time?

It’s no secret that social media has been one of the biggest developments in marketing for business coaches over the past decade.  Make no mistake about it, if you want to dominate your market, then social media is just one of the tools you need to utilise and master.

But if what you’re doing now isn’t generating any leads…then STOP!

What You’re Doing to Make Social Media a Waste of Time for Business Coaches

The surprising thing is, although almost every business coach knows how important and effective social media can be to generate leads and build your practice, very few are actually seeing the kind of results they want from the time and effort they’re expending.

So how do you make it work?

The answer is a simple, but critical, shift in your mindset:

You must STOP thinking of social media as a place to network, and START thinking of it as a marketing tool first and foremost.

It’s a subtle distinction, but it makes a huge difference.

You see, most business coaches use social media exactly the same as a typical user: their profiles talk about their family, their hobbies, and their past experiences.

That’s fine if you want to use social media to connect with family and friends, but if you want to use it in your business to generate leads, you need to be doing it differently.

To generate leads from social media, you need to shift from talking about yourself to what you can help your clients achieve.

In other words, as with all effective marketing, you need to focus on the BENEFITS you offer to prospective clients.

Don’t get me wrong. Some of your prospects will be interested in what you do in your spare time, and what you’ve done in the past.  A human touch adds credibility and makes you more likeable. But that should be a comparatively small percentage of what you post.

So rather than talking about what you do in your spare time, talk about how what you do can help your future clients get the results they’re looking for. And rather than talking about your past experiences, talk about the past results you’ve achieved for clients or employers.

Looking for more great tips on becoming a business coach? Check out our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach, with a step-by-step guide to getting started in the industry!