Protect Your Future Coaching Profits By Not Forgetting The Newbies And The 3 Things To Win Them Over
ServerWise proudly has many clients who are coaches ranging from popular nationally known health and mental well-being to hard-working upstarts looking (and undoubtedly will succeed) to crack into the high-end Instagram lifestyle marketing niche.
Over the past two years, 50% of the coaches using the ServerWise platform and services have predictably experienced a slight lull in signing new clients. Certainly, the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic played a large part in that downturn. But that does not explain 2019.
Several of these clients had already experienced a decline the prior year, so a few of us got to looking through their websites, funnels, lead gens, etc. We identified the issue and put together a complete package (resource lists, manual, workbook and infographic) which we gave all our clients in the coaching services industry (no charge of course).
Success Can Keep You Focused Only On The Successful
What we found was that most coaches are so busy catering to their valuable clientele that they neglect the need to focus on getting new clients and followers.
What happens if your coaching service loses 20% of your high-end clients in a few months? Will you still be able to pay your mortgage or cover the costs of your daughter’s college tuition?
Coaches and membership site owners must set aside time each week to focus on gaining new interest from up-and-comers. Sure, they pay less, and you won’t be able to sign them to your $1,200 a month high-end VIP client service, but you will make dependable income from them.
As they grow, you’ll make more from them without the high new client acquisition cost typically associated with the VIP level. Think of this way – you open yourself to lower paying newbies because many of them will grow into higher end clients in a few years. It’s a long-term process, but one where you’ll make some profit off each of them regularly without costing you much.
How do you cater to these newbies?
You’ll need to tap back into your beginnings to remind yourself what it was like when you first began. That’s what anyone first starting out wants to hear.
I’ve spoken to potential coaching clients and have noticed that over 80% share the same comments or issues:
- The ordering process must be easy and convenient because newbies feel overwhelmed quickly and have less experience navigating industry-specific terminology and processes. Keep it simple.
- Never forget about the newbies because those are your future high-end clients, and they often feel overwhelmed or under-represented. This leads them to turn away from most coaches.
- They know you as a successful coach, but they want to know the person you were before. They need to relate to you. Consider introducing them to who you were before you became successful. Let them know who you were when you were first starting out and struggling.
Convenience Is Everything or They Go Elsewhere
Whether you’re selling three products or thirty, the process is the same and the ease of use must be simple. You must make sure it’s easy for your customers to buy and complete an order. Amazon discovered this early on when the eCommerce giant introduced the single-page checkout process. With that streamlined process, Amazon saw completed sales skyrocket and enjoyed a hefty drop in cart abandonment.
Consumers have choices, so make it easy for them to choose you.
Most important things to remember when setting up your online store and checkout process:
- Make the “buy” and “checkout” buttons obvious.
- Make your contact information easy to find and use.
- Provide noticeably clear calls to action on your website.
- Ensure your website navigation is easy and intuitive, so visitors can quickly find what they need and become buyers.
- Provide an upsell via the next logical product through a well-planned and expertly executed funnel.
In short, you want them to buy from you, and they want to buy from you, so these are your sales to lose. Make it easy for them to buy, or they’ll bounce right off your site to a competitor who does.
Pay Attention and Show You Value the Newbies
Sure, every coach regardless of specific niche wants well-established affluent clients, but without the rookies you’ll hit a client wall. Everyone must start somewhere, and your currently successful clients are no different.
If you want to keep signing high paying clients for the next fifteen years, you need to focus on the up-and-comers right now. Some of these fresh newbies will become your VIP clients in time.
These newbies may not be ready for your full scope of personal coaching services just yet, but they may be in the future. And when they are, they’ll recognize your name and know you helped them grow.
Help the rookies while boosting your brand identity and profits on autopilot. Here are a few ideas that work:
- Low-cost self-study workbooks
- eBooks or guides
- Email courses
- Membership sites and forums for a small monthly fee
- Facebook groups where you answer questions when your schedule allows
Keep in mind that the lean startup today may be tomorrow’s big thing. Why not set aside a little time to focus on the newbies because they’ll remember it later with gratitude (and VIP coaching services).
Get Personal About Your Beginnings
Coaches seem to be everywhere these days. That’s a good thing as competition makes everyone work harder and smarter, but you need to set yourself apart. What can you do to capture the attention of the newbies out there? By giving them what they want and need – share your own beginnings. You can talk openly about how you started and what hard lessons you learned along the way. Why not discuss your first failures and how you overcame them.
Staying motivated can be difficult, and no one knows that better than those first starting out. You can encourage the fresh faces in your niche by opening up about your own processes. Share with them how you keep yourself pushing forward in difficult times.
You may be successful and busy right now, but you weren’t when you first started. Many coaches don’t like thinking back to those humbling days of personal growth and lessons hard learned. Most coaches mention the same few anecdotes repeatedly to show their clients they were once unsuccessful and so can relate to the startup mentality.
Think back to all the experiences you’d rather not share. Your worst and most embarrassing mistakes. Those are the rich content that your newbies need and want to hear. And while you’re sharing, they’re learning and developing trust and confidence in you. Building a brand never ends.
- Share real personal stories of the good, bad, and ugly in short videos on social media, so newbies can see the real you.
- Post a few motivational personal photos now and then on Facebook and Instagram.
- Post the occasional “embarrassing” personal photo to remind your followers that no one is perfect and that’s perfectly natural.
- Track down and share a few video clips or photos from yourself in the early days of your business.
- If you believe in something strongly, even if the topic is controversial, take a stand and stick to it. Be yourself. Your followers will realize you took a risk and most will feel closer to you because of it, even if they don’t agree with you on everything.
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