by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Marketing, Business Coaching Systems
When I evaluate business coaching systems for marketing, believe it or not, I always think about an unlikely metaphor — the Cat!
When it comes to the coaching business, you can learn a lot from a cat.
How to sell, for starters.
You see, cats and dogs are very different. We have one of each in our house. If I want the dog to come to me, it’s pretty simple; I call her over! Nine times out of 10, she jumps up and trots right on over, happy to see me!
The cat, on the other hand, is a different story. If I try to call the cat to come to me, she will ignore me.
Just try it! The harder you try to get your cat to come to you, the more you will be ignored.
Totally opposite of the dog.
What’s the point? Sales prospects aren’t dogs; they’re cats. If you want a sound business coaching marketing system that motivates prospects to buy from you, you need to learn and understand “cat theory.”
Cat Theory in Business Coaching Systems for Marketing
Cat Theory for a quality business coaching marketing system is simple. It states that it’s up to you to get the cat to come to you. You’re the one taking the action. However, you must trick the cat into believing that the desired behavior–to come to you–is the cat’s idea, not yours.
In other words, you’re really getting the cat to come because you want her to. But she believes it’s her own decision and she’s doing it of her own accord.
Sales prospects are exactly the same way. That’s why business coaching marketing systems that incorporate direct sales approaches by YOU, the business coach, trigger an instant, subconscious sales resistance in your prospects.
Think about it. How do you react to salespeople at kiosks who bark at you to you to come over and look at whatever useless trinket they’re selling when walking through a shopping mall or other marketplace? If you are like most people, your first reaction is to shut down and either ignore them or respond with a polite “no thank you” and continue on your way.
By contrast, an intelligently constructed store window containing goods you would like to have does the polar opposite. It entices you to draw nearer, to take a closer look and encourages you to enter the store to buy.
You may have thought it was your own idea to venture into the store, but in reality, the store’s staff made you come in. They set things up to draw you in while letting you believe it was your own idea to do so.
And that’s how cat theory works in the real world of selling. You must create business coaching marketing systems that include the ideal circumstances to get prospects to come to you, ready to buy, while letting them believe they did it all on their own.
Implementing the Cat Theory in Business Coaching Systems for Marketing in the Real World
Cat Theory applies across the spectrum of sales situations, from prospecting, all the way to the culmination of the sale by enticing prospects to buy instead of “closing” them.
As a business coach marketing approach, Cat Theory is most effective when prospecting, or more precisely, during the lead generation stage of sales.
When you create the ideal circumstances to motivate a qualified prospects to come to you, much like that store window, they do just that. Then, the balance of power is in your favor, since the prospect approached you rather than the other way around.
That’s why you should never, EVER implement a business coaching system for marketing that includes cold calling yourself. You should use a cold-calling group to represent you. Then, after your prospect hears about you from a third-party organization, they will want to talk with you because of how cool and amazing your telemarketing group made you sound.
Consider, for example, the ConnectAndSell Lightning service. ConnectAndSell is a business coach marketing auto-dialer on steroids, executing 150+ calls per hour and delivering to business coaches a LIVE CONVERSATION with a business owner on their list every 2-5 minutes! You can check it out HERE.
Far more powerful than cold calling yourself, this business coach marketing system draws people right to you (like cats). This allows you to use your time more productively and efficiently. Imagine having multiple daily conversations with highly motivated prospects that result in high conversion rates — all on autopilot? Learn more about this fast and efficient way to land clients fast HERE.
This objective: acquiring dozens of cat-like lead generation strategies is exactly what I coach in my Never Cold Call Again business coaching system for marketing. I teach you how to use Cat Theory to entice prospects – highly qualified prospects who are ready to buy right now – to seek your services as if they did it all on their own. This system can literally EXPLODE your sales numbers – fast! I’ll ship the full course to you today, on me, and you have a full 30 days to “try it before you buy it.” See firsthand how incredibly effective this business coaching system really is. Get your copy today: Start Your Free Trial Now by signing up HERE.
To your success!
Frank Rumbauskas
P.S. Imagine engaging in 6 to 10 motivated business-owner conversations per hour WITHOUT having to make a single dial yourself…Learn how you can do it! Click HERE and start growing your customer list fast.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Marketing
Of all the business coach marketing techniques that I dread the most, a COLD CALLING BLITZ tops the list.
Few things strike terror in the hearts of business coaches more than these words: COLD CALLING BLITZ! If there was one thing I’ve always HATED throughout my career in sales, it was the stupid and idiotic cold calling blitz. Now, as a business coach, I still hate them.
Cold calling blitzes are predicated on this logic: “We don’t have enough sales coming in! Since cold calling isn’t working for our reps, let’s do MORE AND MORE of it!” If you have a background in sales, you remember the drill. Get every sales rep in the office either on the phone, or out door-to-door, and spend the entire day making cold calls. Umm….. DUMBest approach to sales and marketing ever. The main problem with a cold calling blitz is that it forces sales reps to set the greatest number of appointments within a short period of time. What happens? Sales people madly dial the phone or rush from door-to-door, quickly setting appointments without doing ANY qualifying at all. (Top sales pros actually qualify prospects OUT, not just merely qualify them.) The end result is a bunch of wasted time and worthless appointments with people who are never going to buy. So you’ve not only wasted a bunch of time on the cold calling blitz but now you get to waste time on fruitless appointments, endless voicemails and emails for these non-buyers! Cold calling is one business coaching marketing tool you just don’t need.
Why Cold Calling is a Horrible Business Coach Marketing Technique
Do cold calling blitzes result in lots of appointments? Sometimes. Do these appointments turn into sales? No. It’s pretty obvious that with enough cold calls, you can definitely set several appointments. However, appointments made from your own cold calls convert to sales at an astonishingly low rate. I can remember spending 80% of my time cold calling. Those cold calls generated only 5% of my total sales. Why is this so? Quite simply, because busy, successful people will almost never accept cold calls. In fact, a famous University of North Carolina study on the topic concluded that only 20% of decision makers will even accept a cold call. Who does this leave? The time-wasters, the people with no authority to sign, and with nothing better to do. Or worse yet, those who experience a sick power trip from taunting salespeople. Sales author Tony Parinello calls them “Seymours” because they always want to “see more,” but they never buy!
Better Business Coaching Systems
Now that I am much more experienced–and much more successful, I’ve developed business coaching techniques and business coaching tools that form far better business coaching systems. These proven strategies ensure more business for you and a much more efficient use of your time. Hey sales managers, listen up: If you want to increase sales, improve your team’s attitude, and increase the bottom line, drop the cold calling blitzes! And if you’re a salesperson, here’s my advice to you: STOP cold calling and START doing something that works instead! If you don’t know what works, that’s OK. I do and I am more than happy to tell you. It’s all in my Never Cold Call Again system, and it works. In fact, you even get to try it out for a full month, on me, before deciding if you want to keep it – and almost everyone does – or if you want to send it back, never pay a dime, and never hear from me again.
It’s that simple, so get your copy right now HERE. Remember, while you’re wasting your time cold calling (or worse, doing blitzes), there are an endless number of hot, qualified prospects out there – who are ready to BUY from you, right now – you just need to know how to get to them. The answers are all in my course, so don’t hesitate – do it right now by signing up HERE.
To your success! Frank Rumbauskas
P.S. To learn even more about successful business coaching systems that will support your success, sign up today for a 30-Day FREE Trial HERE to explore business coaching tools and business coaching techniques that will transform your practice. Learn more HERE.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Training
Hey, rock star coaches! In several of my recent business coach training posts, I’ve told you that LeadPages continues to impress me with its ease of use for people getting set up to become a business coach. We love how easy it is to use LeadPages to set up lead-gen squeeze pages and even for temporary use as your main web page if you’re in a hurry. LeadPages also does an amazing job of adding value to their members.
They’ve just released their fourth course by their Marketing Educator, Bob Jenkins. We’re adding this to our list of recommended business coaching courses you should gulp down because it shows you how to set up an entire email marketing plan for your business—whether you’re brand new to email marketing, or you’ve been list-building for a while (but with lackluster results).
This 9-part course, for which most business coach training gurus would charge hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, is available to you at no cost HERE.
I can tell you from my experience doing business coach training for more than 10 years that email is still one of the best ways to reach your potential customers. Everyone still checks their inboxes. 😉
In this 9-video course, Bob covers everything you need to know about growing and nurturing your email list to grow a business coaching or consulting practice, or any business for that matter.
And the best part?
Again, LeadPages is letting me give away this entire 9-video course FREE here.
Here are a couple things you’ll learn from this business coach training course on email marketing:
- Why you may be losing subscribers due to poor list follow-up, and how you can fix the issue this week…
- When you should use what kind of emails, including autoresponders and broadcast emails…
- How to use email to move subscribers through your sales funnel, so they become paying customers…
As a bonus, you’ll love the interviews with two LeadPages email sales experts, who tell you what’s working best in their fields (marketing automation and one-on-one sales), and how you can apply these techniques to your business today.
Again, LeadPages is giving away this phenomenal 9-part course at no cost whatsoever. So, as a business coach coach, I’m highly recommending that you jump on this.
You can watch all 9 videos without opting in, right HERE.
Oh, and if you decide to download the entire course, you’ll also get all 9 videos, 9 MP3s, 9 transcripts, and 12 PDFs including a mindmap and much more—again at no cost.
P.S. As a business coach coach, I’m committed to helping you be all you can be. That’s why I’d also suggest that you grab a copy of my FREE ebook: Secrets of a Business Coaching Rockstar. You can get it HERE. This way you can see how email marketing fits into the larger picture of what you’re trying to build.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Training
For more than 25 years, I’ve been involved in business coaching and consulting with entrepreneurs wanting to exit their businesses. I’ve also had the experience of selling my own businesses several times. Recently, I helped a client grow the value of their business from £750,000 to a staggering £10 million! Although many business owners dream of selling their business one day, very few, less than 2%, achieve this goal. Why? When selling a business, selling profitability is not enough. All too often, owners are so heavily involved in the tasks required to run their businesses that they fail to see the true opportunity for a profitable sale.
I coach business coaches to help their clients avoid the following 3 obstacles to achieving a successful business sale:
- Ego
- Emotional attachment
- A never-ending focus on profit instead of value
The following case study of business coach training with my client will provide some guidance on how to focus your client on value (not just profits) to ready their business for sale.
The Business Coaching Tools and Techniques That Made The Difference
When I was conducting my initial complimentary strategic growth session with my prospect (we’ll call him John), he asked me to comment on his exit strategy. It was obvious that his business was very profitable and had already been valued at a sales price of £750,000. John could see no reason why he couldn’t achieve a higher figure. His target sales price was £1.2 million. However, the fact that 95% of the business activity revolved directly around John presented a problem — the business had far less value without John.
To win the business coaching sale, I confidently provided John a guarantee that through my business coach training he would achieve in excess of a £1.2 million valuation. We set to work adding value to his business. Most importantly, we immediately got on with relieving him of the majority of his daily business activities. Over an 18-month period, we worked on the following Coaches’ Coach “Silver Bullets” (business optimization tactics) to ensure we achieved the highest possible sale price in the shortest amount of time. You can learn more about the Silver Bullets HERE. This is a summary of the Silver Bullets we used to add value to his company and ready it for sale:
Current Business Plan: We clarified the vision and the business plan to make them laser-focused and ready to communicate to everyone associated in any way with the business.
Operations & Training Manual: We conducted a full audit of the time, systems, and processes (there were none) and began to document them. A major focus of this effort was on the activities consuming John’s time. We delegated John’s tasks to others and empowered them to complete those tasks during a four-week holiday during which John had no contact with the team whatsoever. We got the business team to examine current processes and develop ‘How To Manuals’ for each.
Comprehensive Exit Strategy: We formulated an exit plan and agreed on the details concerning who within the business needed to know about it. We created and distributed a nondisclosure agreement to all those involved in and outside the business. We create an “exit team,” defined the criteria each team member should meet, interviewed and selected those who best matched the criteria. We prepared sales literature and a new minimum sales valuation targeted to a selection of potential vetted buyers.
The Value of Business Coach Training
Implementing the Coaches’ Coach “Silver Bullets” outlined above added significant value to the business in the following ways:
- The business no longer depended on any one individual. The business could sustain profitability and growth even in the absence of a key employee or the loss of a key customer.
- A culture of success and fun was established! Every team member, no matter the position, knew and understood the business vision, values, and purpose, and in turn became passionate about its success.
- The business was systematized. All the tasks could be easily done by a subsequent owner if a team member left.
- During an 18month period, net profits grew by a factor of 5X and cash increased by a factor of 3X. As a result, they were able to invest in new business assets that were required to sustain growth.
- Potential buyers could clearly see the value. The work we did generated incremental profit and growth that were sustainable and offered potential for continued improvement.
After less than 2 years, a new valuation came in from two sources, one from the exit team itself and another from an independent business valuation firm.
The business received a staggering £5 million valuation — a net increase of £4.25 million!
The Amazing Value of Business Coach Training
During the course of our business coach consulting engagement, John often struggled with emotions. As is often the case when coaching clients, entrepreneurial pride, fear, frustration, a real attachment and a ‘love’ of the business made it difficult for him to let go. However, as he began experiencing even greater success and progressing toward the realization of his dream the process became easier.
John could have sold his business to a real buyer with an actual offer on the table of £5.1 million. Rather than sell, however, he chose to retain the business and to enjoy it’s potential. He saw future success as his team had gathered fully behind him and his vision. He even chose to give (yes give!) some shares of his business to key team members and to sell some shares to others.
Since then, over the last 12 months, the business reached even greater heights. It now generates more than £1 million net profit per year and is projected to enjoy continued year over year growth. The value of the business now exceeds £10 million.
With a great team of managers and leaders in place, John can spend more quality time with his family. He is truly living his dream now that he has achieved the freedom of choice. And he is enabling each of his team members, from the apprentice/trainee to the senior managers, to do likewise.
As a business coach, I believe that every entrepreneur should have the freedom of choice in their lives and business. In fact, the Coaches’ Coach 5 Steps to Freedom business coaching system revolves around the premise that there is a predictable path from Creation to Freedom that every business owner can follow. To learn more about this system, click HERE.
I often think about this… Without the benefits and guidance of business coach training, John may have sold his business based on profit alone, without focusing on sustainable value. Had he done so, where do you think he would be now? What would he have missed out on and what choices would he have lost? Ask yourself how you can achieve freedom in your own business and enable your clients to do so too. There are few achievements greater than these.
Cheers,
Simon
P.S. As a business coach coach, I’m committed to helping you be all you can be in your business and personal life. I urge you to grab a copy of the FREE ebook: Secrets of a Business Coaching Rockstar. You can get it HERE.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Marketing
Every business coach marketing plan to generate new business coaching leads, clients, and strategic partnerships should include NETWORKING.
The only problem? Most people would rather stick bicycle spokes into their eyes than walk into a room full of complete strangers and start random conversations!
But if you can take your attention off your own misery long enough to observe the very predictable behavior of the people at the next networking event you attend, you’ll notice virtually everyone doing the exact same self-defeating behaviors.
The good news is that networking can be easy and not that painful, if you follow these rules. Here’s my system for getting at least one new business coaching client from each and every networking event you attend.
RULE #1: Set a goal based on your sales math. If you’re conversion rates are about average, you’ll need 10 leads to get one new client. Choose a networking event that’s likely to be populated with people who match your ideal client profile. Your goal is to come away from the event with at least 10 qualified business cards. Not 8 or 9, but 10. Once you have your 10 business cards, it’s just a matter of working your conversion rates and letting the sales math run its course.
RULE #2: Spend 3 minutes with each person. Jump into a small group of people who look bored with the conversation or, even better, look for an individual who is “stranded” and needs someone to “rescue” them. In the first 3 seconds, make a warm, positive impression. Introduce yourself by name and get the name of the person you’re talking to. In the next 30 seconds, find out what your prospect does, what kind of business they have, and how long they’ve been doing it. In the next 3 minutes, ask questions that get below the surface. Dig deep and look for emotion. What challenges to do they have, what problems are they trying to solve? When 3 minutes has elapsed, ask them for their business card. You’ll never be refused. Thank them for sharing with you and promise to call them this week. Then, politely excuse yourself and move on to the next person.
RULE #3: Focus intensely on each person you talk to. In each 3 minute segment, the person must feel that they are the center of your universe. The conversation must be all about “what’s in it for them” and not “what’s in it for you.” Go to networking events to give, not get. This sounds simple, but so few people truly understand it. As hard as it can be, wait to talk about yourself until you’re asked! In fact, try to deflect the first couple questions about you and keep learning about them until they insist on learning about you by repeatedly asking questions. The goal is to be “interested,” not “interesting!” The more “interested” you are in others, the more “interesting” you seem! When you do this for 3 minutes, you’ll see a magical thing begin to happen: the establishment of trust.
RULE #4: Exude positive energy. Energy emanating from an absolute passion for what you do as a coach will set you apart from everyone else in the room. A “can-do” attitude and the attractive ability to have a fun will light up the room. If this kind of behavior doesn’t come naturally to you, that’s okay. It didn’t for me either. But, you can and must learn how to turn it on and off at will. Arm yourself with quality questions and you’ll become the center of attention, as people gather around to observe the liveliness and excitement of the conversations you’re having!
RULE #5: Call them back as promised. Within the next two days, call or email all 10 qualified business cards you picked up and set up a time to chat by phone. Your goal for the first call is to discover at least three areas of business pain, shoot at least three Silver Bullets (download our FREE Silver Bullets cheat sheet!) and set up a face to face meeting called a “Complimentary Coaching Session so you can demonstrate your value as a business coach and get them enrolled in one of your programs.
Networking is the key to starting relationships that can lead to business coaching clients, raving fans, great referrals, and life-long friends. If you’ve never committed yourself to become a master networker, now is the time. Get started this week!
For more great marketing tips and tricks like these, download out my ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star. Or, if you get stuck or need support in the form of systems and expert help on mastering these skills quickly, then book into a Cash and Clients Strategy Session with one of our certified Coaches’ Coaches who will help you get things rocking in a hurry!
