During that time, I’ve had a LOT of conversations about the struggles coaches face in their businesses.
One thing I’ve noticed: most coaches love to coach ( If they aren’t burned out yet, that is)...
But the vast majority of coaches HATE Sales.
Time and time again I’ve heard coaches like you describe a squirmy, kind of “ick” factor when thinking about the process of selling and acquiring new clients.
And I totally get it.. It’s certainly not the REASON you got into this industry, so it’s probably not something you feel particularly well equipped to do well.
But here’s a harsh truth: it doesn’t matter how much expertise you have if you can’t package it up in a compelling way and sell it to your ideal customer.
You could be the best coach in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you're afraid to sell.
Full stop.
So today, I want to level set a bit and dive into my top 3 pieces of advice when it comes to making a sale.
The goal here is to help calm you down and encourage you to get moving, make some sales, and set up your business for success.
TL;DR: You got this! Once you overcome the psychological hurdles, selling isn’t all that hard. You just gotta get out of your comfort zone a bit, experiment, and realize your job is to simply help your ideal client get what they want.
Let’s get to it.
1. Exposure is Everything: Understand That It Takes 5-7 Exposures to Warm Up a Lead.
It takes a surprising amount of reminding to get someone to actually make a purchase.
There’s tons of research around this in the marketing world, and the consensus seems to be that it takes 5-7+ exposures for a potential client to do ANYTHING - even if it's FREE or as simple as signing up for a newsletter.
So here’s a question you should ask yourself: How can you put your offer in front of someone 7 times?
The trick here is getting these exposures without being so annoying that they tune you out entirely. Because that can backfire real fast as well.
I recommend varying your channels and giving yourself time to market your offers. Let me be clear, I’m NOT advocating 7 emails back to back, it might be an email once a week, a social media post or two, and a push notification over a ~3 week campaign.
So if you have a promotion or sale and you are trying to build awareness in your niche, you're gonna need to plan ahead and give yourself time to balance those 5-7+ exposures to increase the likelihood of a successful campaign.
Because far too often I hear coaches say “I built this great thing, put it out there, and nobody cared”.
And far too often it wasn’t that nobody cared , it’s that nobody saw it.
Trust me. Consistency is rewarded in the long run. Next time you put an offer out there, commit to delivering 7 relevant exposures and see how it goes… I want to hear about it!
2. Give Away More Than You’re Comfortable With
People love free stuff. It’s just how we’re wired.
So many coaches I’ve talked to worry about “giving away IP” and they want to add a paywall to safeguard their most valuable “secrets”.
But the truth is, the coaches with the biggest businesses are the ones that give out tons of value for free.
Why? Because once a potential client is paying attention to you and is in your ecosystem, they’re MUCH more likely to trust you with their business.
No one thinks “Well this coach already taught me so much, I don’t even need to pay for their coaching”.... Rather, they think “Wow this coach has already helped me so much, I’d love to work with them more closely”.
My advice here: give away your strategies and high-level ideas for free, then offer the necessary coaching, action items and tactics after they purchase.
That is, tease the tactics in your free offerings, and teach the tactics in your paid offering.
Here it’s also important to lead with what your ideal customers WANT, not what YOU THINK THEY NEED.
Take us at The ConnectedCoach Academy, for example.
As we're creating this content, and as we're promoting it, we're trying to lean into what you want.
We’ve been asking for your feedback quite a bit recently now that we have a library of content for you to enjoy.
At this point, the topics we’re covering are the ones coaches are asking us to cover.
Follow our lead. No matter what sport you’re in or what your training philosophy is, start by trying to understand what people are looking for.
Wait until they are in your orbit before giving them what you think they really need.
3. Keep Yourself Top of Mind and Get Their Email Address ASAP
To gain the trust of potential clients, you first need to show that you know what you’re doing.
To do this, you need to keep yourself top of mind for the moment when they are ready to buy.
Let me be clear: this does NOT mean you need to become a social media master.
There’s a universal, grim reality when it comes to social media: you're always fighting against an algorithm you can’t control.
Social media can be valuable, and you’ll absolutely want a presence. But it doesn’t need to take much of your time and/or attention.
In my experience, creating a consistent blog or YouTube channel is SO more valuable in the long run than posting on social feeds.
Use social media to connect with new people and get them to act. Your goal should be to take them off of social media as quickly as possible.
How do you do that? Get their email address.
How do you get their email address? Give them something they value in exchange (see part 1 of this post).
Once you're in their inbox, 9 out of 10 times that’s where you’re gonna make the sale… it’s just a matter of time.
Much more to come on this.. For now, you can check out more details in our recent post: “Social Media for My Coaching Business: Where Do I Begin?”
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I’ll close out with a nugget that we repeat often at The ConnectedCoach Academy: The more offers you make, the more sales you’ll make.
Experiment, listen to the data, and iterate until you find your irresistible offer. All along the way, do everything we say here to really hone in on the marketing and watch the sales come rolling in.
Focus on consistent exposures, deliver valuable content, and get their email address as soon as you can. It seems so simple, but that’s really the foundation to making sales effortlessly!
With a little bit of patience and some hard work you’ll grow your clientele and business in no time.
You can do it!
P.S. Like this content? Hate this content? Think we’re missing a topic in our growing content library? Submit any and all feedback at this link. We read every submission – don’t be shy!
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