Here’s a simple truth: there are only two paths to becoming a business coach. Over the past 15 years working with business coaches, I’ve seen this over and over again.
Those two paths? The LUMP-SUM path and the INSTALLMENT path.
Allow me to explain just what I mean by that…
On your journey to becoming a business coach, you will have to pay the price of prospecting and building relationships with business owners in your target area or niche. Regardless of how you generate leads–online, direct response marketing, networking events, or good old fashioned cold calls–following up and continuing to build relationships takes effort, energy, and time on the phone.
The question is: how will you pay the price?
Will you discipline yourself to spend as much time as required, creating a pipeline and following up with leads to develop two qualified sales opportunities per day? This is what I call the Installment Path.
Or, will you take the Lump Sum Path? This is the plan where you procrastinate doing the work of building relationships in favor of less important, but perhaps less intimidating, busywork tasks. Finally, your desperation FORCES you to either build relationships and make sales–or go broke.
There’s no way to be successful as a business coach without a relentless commitment to one-on-one relationship building and prospecting.
Why Prospecting Is a Necessary Part of Becoming a Business Coach
The fact is, becoming a business coach isn’t like buying a McDonald’s franchise. It’s a lot more fun and adds a lot more value to the world, but people don’t take your call or come running to your seminars with credit card in hand ready to buy business coaching just because you’ve suddenly started a coaching business.
We’ve got a long way to go before business coaching becomes as familiar as the golden arches! It takes time to build up local brand recognition in your market to the point where referrals just flow in from raving-fan-clients and strategic alliance partners, and you can sit back, fat and happy. But if you put the time in now, you’ll get there. And faster than you think possible.
Two Excellent Resources to Help You Master Your Prospecting Skills
Because prospecting is such an important part of becoming a business coach who earns in the six figures, we’re always on the lookout for resources that will help you become more successful. Here are two that can help:
Even in our day and age, the telephone is still one of your most powerful prospecting tools. But there have been exciting technological developments over the last few years that allow you to avoid the tedium of dialing 25-30 times only to have 1-2 conversations. Now there’s a way to side-step answering machines and gatekeepers in order to have live conversations with real business owners. One of our Coaches’ Coach clients, Jonathan Goldhill, introduced us to this system because it’s been a game-changer for him. He averages 11 conversations a day with 38% positive outcomes, working 1.5-2 hours per day. Check it out!
If you need help developing your prospecting skills so you can be as effective and efficient as possible, request a free Cash and Clients Strategy Session with me or one of my Certified Coaches’ Coaches and let us know that this is a growth area for you. We’ll provide coaching to you in that session to help you grow your prospecting skills, whether or not you work with us further.
Remember, prospecting and building relationships are powerful skills to master on the path to becoming a business coach. The question for you is: will you take the Installment Path or the Lump-Sum Path? When you make a consistent practice of building relationships day in and day out, you set yourself above the competition and place yourself on the path to success.
Whenever I’m providing business coach training, I get this question a lot: what’s the single most important thing you’ve ever done to grow your coaching business?
I don’t even have to think about my response. The answer is easy.
Putting my business online in the form of our Coaches’ Coach membership site.
Why Having a Membership Site Is So Important for Business Coaches
These days, almost everything has gone digital. People want to access information on their computers, tablets, smartphones. They expect instant, on-demand answers to their most pressing questions—any time of day or night.
So if you’re not there the instant they need you, they’ll go with whoever is.
At the Coaches’ Coach, we’ve found that having a membership site allows clients and prospects to access valuable content 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It builds loyalty, creates massive value, and even supplies our business with a steady stream of hot, ready-to-buy prospects.
Not only that, it’s revolutionized the way I coach.
After all: clients DON’T get results from information. They get results from applying information correctly. When I moved all my coaching online with the Coaches’ Coach membership site, I was able to direct clients to a video training for each specific strategy. Then, instead of using the coaching session to teach the strategy, I helped them apply the strategy to ensure they were getting results.
Once I did this, my clients’ results increased by more than 50%…and best of all, my attrition rate dropped by 70%.I went from an average client relationship that lasted 11 months to 18 months or more.
Attend a Business Coach Training on Building a Membership Site Fast and Affordably
Getting the Coaches’ Coach online was a huge investment that took three years and tens of thousands of dollars to get off the ground. And it was worth every penny.
But what if YOU could do something similar—in less than 30 days and almost no out of pocket expense?
Enter my friend and colleague, Adrian Ulsh. Adrian’s been around the business coaching industry for 15 years—and he’s taught 1000’s of coaches how to leverage the power of the internet for exponential lead generation, conversion, retention, and passive revenue.
I had the chance to chat with Adrian the other day. He shared some exciting new developments in the way he’s helping coaches use technology to build six-figure practices—with strategies that can be deployed FAST and affordably.
I was thrilled by what I heard. I asked Adrian if he’d be willing to do a webinar for our members and followers, and he graciously agreed. So we’ve scheduled it for Tuesday, March 22nd at 10:00 AM Pacific Time.
Many years ago, I developed a business coaching tool that changed everything for me.
When I first started, I had a very difficult time closing business coaching contracts. In fact, my first 35 presentations ended in an abysmal 0% conversion rate. (Those were some dark, discouraging days!)
Over time, I gradually improved to where I could regularly close 20%-25% of potential business coaching clients I had a chance to present to.
But I knew there had to be a way to do better. As I sat down with dozens of business owners, I noticed a common theme emerging: they liked the idea of hiring a business coach. They could see that they needed it. They even believed that by hiring me, they’d be more successful.
But they were scared to risk the money.
I realized that I needed a way to mitigate that risk for them–help them overcome their resistance to making an investment that they knew, deep down, would pay handsome dividends.
So I developed the Profit Equation. Before too long, my conversion rate skyrocketed from 20%-25% to 80%+. In fact, there were some months I literally had a 100% conversion rate. That’s an improvement of 400%! What would a 400% increase in your conversion rate do for YOUR business coaching practice?
Here’s what the Profit Equation is–and why it’s so effective for increasing business coaching sales–and how you can use it, too.
The Profit Equation: A Business Coaching Tool that Converts Prospects to Sales
The Profit Equation is a worksheet that allows you to clearly demonstrate the power of coaching and how you’ll deliver a positive Return on Investment.
I’ve refined this business coaching tool over hundreds and hundreds of Complimentary Coaching Sessions. It’s a simple, visual way to walk through the financial benefits of coaching and assure prospective clients that their investment in you is well worth it.
How to Use the Profit Equation
Pull the Profit Equation out toward the end of your Complimentary Coaching Session, after you’ve already spoken in depth about your clients’ trouble spots and what you’ll do to get them on track. Walk them through the entire worksheet in three simple steps:
1. Have your prospect give you their current numbers as best they can. As they relay this information to you, write it down for them in the “past” column.
A quick note: you’ll be amazed at how many of them don’t know even the fundamental metrics in their own business. Be sure to let them know their best guess is okay–while gently reminding them how important it is for them to understand this information if they hope to make significant improvements in their business. (This is a terrific way to demonstrate how much they need you!)
2. Move to the “future” column. Use the Silver Bullets to identify the tactics you’ll employ to help them make improvements in each category. (Not sure what the Silver Bullets are? Find a free cheat sheet halfway down our resources page.) You’ll need to collaboratively discuss which Silver Bullets will create the biggest impact.
Use conservative figures as you fill in the “future” column. And tell your prospect the numbers are conservative. The coolest aspect of the Profit Equation Worksheet is that even a small change in each of the 5 areas will make a massive difference in their bottom line. So tell them explicitly: “Look, even if we only make tiny improvements, you can expect an incredible ROI!”
3. Begin coaching them on what you’ll do with them and how you’ll do it. Don’t hold back. As you show your passion for their business and your knowledge of how to help them grow, they’ll begin to understand the impact you can have on their business.
Many prospective business coaching clients know they need your help and want to take the plunge–but they’re afraid to move forward. Walking them through the Profit Equation will give them the confidence they need to put their fears aside and make an investment in their own growth. And, of course, your sales will skyrocket in the process!
By the way, your 30-day free trial of the Coaches’ Coach system will give you access to the Profit Equation and all the other tools I developed to help you attract, close, coach, and retain high-paying clients. Plus, FREE one-on-one coaching for 30 days. Check it out!
Welcome to our SIXTH post in the series on Business Coaching Franchise myths. You can read the first five HEREHEREHEREHERE, and HERE.
I certainly hope you’ve found the information and assignments we’ve provided valuable as you perform due diligence on the business coaching franchises you’re considering. We’ve enjoyed being a part of your journey!
Today, we’ll tackle the sixth and final business coaching franchise myth from franchise law attorney Robert Purvin…and it’s a doozie.
Business Coaching Franchise Myth #6
Franchises Creates a Critical Mass of Market Penetration.
Often, business coaching franchise franchisors will claim that by purchasing a business coaching franchise, you’re “joining a movement,” that contributes to massive market penetration. And as that market grows, your franchise will benefit from a broad customer base and economies of scale in advertising.
Unfortunately, in most cases a business coaching franchise simply doesn’t possess the necessary units to make such a claim reality. In fact, recent shifts in the marketplace have actually resulted in a widespread downturn in the performance of business coaching franchisees. The consequences of these shifts mean that market penetration for most business coaching franchise brands is actually SHRINKING, instead of growing!
This situation is unfortunate because the overall demand for business coaching continues to rise. But for the reasons discussed in our Business Coaching Franchise Buyers Guide, franchising has proven itself to be a poor and unreliable model for entering the business coaching industry.
Before you invest, we recommend the following critical steps in your due diligence process…
Business Coaching Franchise Due Diligence
As one of the final actions in your due diligence process, take a serious look at an alternative approach to jumping into the business coaching industry — one that does NOT require 6+ figures in upfront investment, or tie you down to massive monthly payments.
I want to invite you to enroll in a FREE 30 Day Trial of the Coaches’ Coach members only site. It’s our complete business coaching system, including customizable marketing campaigns, sales scripts, client training materials, business optimization modules, and more. Now, you can get a FREE 30-day trial. If at the end of your trial, you’re not completely convinced that become a member can take you from where you are now to where you want to be, you’re free to cancel without paying a dime. One of our clients recently closed $1,500 in recurring monthly revenue after just 3 days with our system…think what that could mean for YOUR business!
One more thing… Here’s an incredible email I received recently from a business coaching franchisee:
“When I joined Coaches’ Coach I had just spent over a year being beaten up by my business coaching franchisor who was supposed to be helping me be successful. I hired a Coaches’ Coach at one of the lowest points in my professional life. But my coach was patient and persistent — and I went from ready-to-give-up to running a six-figure coaching practice in just 6 months. Now, I’m far exceeding that annual figure. If you are a coach who wants to grow, join Coaches’ Coach!”
I look forward to seeing you on the inside!
To your success,
Eric Dombach
P.S. As an alternative to buying a business coaching franchise, consider enrolling in a FREE 30 Day Trial of the Coaches’ Coach members only site! It’s our complete business coaching system, including customizable marketing campaigns, sales scripts, client training materials, business optimization modules, and more. Now, you can get a FREE 30-day trial. One of our clients recently closed $1,500 in recurring monthly revenue after just 3 days with our system…think what that could mean for YOUR business!
Good morning, team! Here’s Video 5 of our business coach training series on Social Media Marketing by Certified Coaches’ Coach Simon Meadows. Simon banks more than $20,000 USD per month and generates 78% of his leads from social media. In this seven-part business coach training series, Simon shows you exactly how he has developed his LinkedIn and Facebook accounts into his primary lead-generation strategy costing him just $350 per month and 3 hours per week.
In Video 5, Simon shows you how to choose your most effective platform, identify your top 3 ideal groups and join them, and connect meaningfully with at least 20 people per day. You can’t afford to skip this training!
Remember, you can watch the entire 7-part course right now if you’re already a member of Coaches’ Coach — just log into our members only site from our home page. If you’re not a member yet, just enroll in a FREE 30 Day Trial of the Coaches’ Coach members only site. You’ll get access to our complete business coaching system, including customizable marketing campaigns, sales scripts, client training materials, business optimization modules, and more. Get your FREE 30-day trial here.
One of our members recently closed $1,500 in recurring monthly revenue after just 3 days with our system…think what that could mean for YOUR business!
