Coaches, Do You Need More Clients?

Do you still have room in your practice? That’s because coaching is a secret, moreso than you may be aware of if you’re immersed in the field.

**YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING BUSINESS WILL INCREASE WHEN MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT COACHING.**

I spoke on 3 cruises leaving from Galveston last year (around 1,500 passengers on each cruise), and only two people in my audiences had heard of coaching. Want clients from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma? Start educating the public. It precedes buying.

WHEN YOU PROMOTE COACHING EVERYONE WINS Many an advertising campaign has begun with educating the public. The more the public knows what coaching is, what coaches do, and who goes to coaches and for what, the greater the chances of any single coach getting clients.

ANALOGY If you drive a nail through your finger, what do you do? You go to a doctor. How do you know this? Someone told you (or took you). It may have been a long time ago, but there was a time when you first learned ‘when I have this problem, this person can help me’.

CONNECT THE DOTS Madame C. J. Walker invented a shampoo and scalp treatment for Black women at the turn of the century when many Americans didn’t have indoor plumbing and only washed their hair once a month. After developing her products, she had to convince Black women to wash their hair regularly. Then they would use her products and get the results they desired. (Madam Walker died a millionaire in 1919.)

RESULTS? The person you talk to may not come to you for coaching, but someone I talk to may come to you. As long as the person gets coaching. The more people who’ve been helped by coaching, the more they’ll talk about it.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU:

1. Put your business card in every bill, note and letter you mail, as a matter of course.

Make sure your card tells enough. Work with a marketing coach if need be.

2. Drop one of your business cards in the bank canister when you return it, leave one on the concierge’s desk, in the restaurant’s fish bowl.

Lay a few discretely on the counter in the ladies’ room at the country club. Leave some around in the airport.

3. Carry tacks with you to tack your business card on bulletin boards.

4. Strike up a conversation with one stranger a week and find a way to explain what coaching is.

Grocery line, waiting for a prescription, waiting for school to let out, at a sports event, at a museum, in the airport. Get creative. “Hmm, that Monet reminds me of coaching.”

5. When a coaching client expresses satisfaction with your service, ask them to refer their friends, colleagues and relatives to you.

6. Alert the press in your area that you are available to be interviewed on coaching, and in your areas of expertise. The editor of “my” business journal had never heard of coaching.

7. Make it a point to tell one friend or colleague each week who’s talking about a problem about the field of coaching.

HIM: “I know I could get a better job if I could just get focused.” YOU: Well that’s just what coaches do. Have you tried a coach?

8. Ask a friend, colleague, or relative to mention you, and coaching, when they hear others talking about problems, challenges, etc.

9. Ask each of your friends, colleagues and relatives to take 15 of your business cards and disperse them.

10. Next time someone complains to you about someone, suggest they refer that person to you for coaching!

11. Talk to the professionals in your life about coaching. They see lots of people in a day.

When you visit the dentist or pediatrician, let them know there are coaches who market professionals, help them grow their practices, make more money, get more clients, and get better organized.

At the same time, suggest referring. Victims of breast cancer do better statistically and survive longer when they’re in a support group. Coaching is support.

Do the psychiatrists and psychologists in your town know that coaches help with compliance? Do they know coaches have opportunity to refer clients for mental health services? Are there services they’d like to refer for, such as their ADD clients?

12. Whenever you talk with someone who deals with a lot of people (college professor, manager, business owner) they’ll talk about their problems with these people. Suggest coaching!

12. Write about coaching. Your byline will be on there. You’ll get your publicity too.

13. When you hear someone talking about a practical skill they’d like to master, suggest coaching.

There is now a cooking coach, a responsible recovery coach, a coach for expats in Bermuda, a fathering coach, a retirement coach, a coach for women with bipolar disorder, an introverts coach, a breast cancer recovery coach, a tantric coach, and a smoking cessation coach.

14. When you hear someone expressing a need or a challenge, tell them about coaching.

If you aren’t sure there is a coach for that (yet), say, “I bet there’s a coach for that!” Take their card or email address and offer to look it up for them and let them know. Many people do not know how to use search engines and/or may forget to do it. When you get back to your office, look it up on the Internet. For instance, I just entered “bipolar+coach” on a lark, and yes, there is one!

15. Next time you hear someone complaining about a situation, tell them a coaching success story, either one of your own (confidentially) or one of your colleague’s, or one you’ve read about.

16. If you’re in a store or business that has problems a coach could address, tell them about coaching.

This includes every time you complain. Say “the salesperson was rude AND WOULD BENEFIT FROM COACHING.”

SUGGEST COACHING. HELP PLANT THE SEED.

Susan Dunn is a professional coach who specializes in emotional intelligence for individuals and businesses, with applications to all areas of your life.
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