The Ultimate Guide On How To Get Clients

At Evercoach, we have trained thousands of coaches with creating clients and building successful coaching practices.

We have personally tested many strategies ourselves, giving us a holistic perspective on what works in building long-term successful coaching businesses.

During our time, we have found there are very specific steps to understanding and implementing client acquisition strategies. Using these steps and strategies carefully, you are much more likely to increase the odds of your success. 

A lot of what's in this may seem obvious. 

Yet, most of us fail to follow this direction. Often leading to lack of success, frustration. Which then leads to a loss of hope. Without hope, it's unlikely that your business would thrive. 

In this 5-part report, you will find a clear strategy and action steps on how to get clients - effectively!

Beware of the greatest challenge you will face. 

Like coaching, most service-based businesses get daily, weekly or monthly feedback. The feedback is so fast that just a single session gone wrong can implant the feeling of worthlessness, and you may doubt your capability as a coach.

Which brings us to your greatest challenge: You.

While strategies and techniques are useful in creating a thriving business, the reasons why you struggle in your practice are:

A careful study of these challenges presents the real reason(s) why you struggle to get clients.

We will explore these three reasons more in depth later in the guide. But first, let's explore a client getting system.

Once you understand this system you will also be able to see why the above three reasons are even more vital for you to get better at.

Let's resolve the mystery of how to get clients.

Really, there are only three steps to getting clients. This is even more relevant when you are a new coach.

STEP 1:

GO TO PLACES YOUR CLIENTS GO TO

Knowing where your clients like to go, the events they attend, the workshops they attend gives you an opportunity to engage with your clients in a non-threatening environment.

Here are a few examples:

If you are a life coach, visit events which revolve around personal growth. Attendees tend to be focused on growth. They are already hungry for education, and are likely to be interested in what you may offer.

If you are a business coach, you want to attend masterminds for businesses where your potential clients might attend. They are in a mastermind, so they are open to listening to what others have to say.

STEP 2:

ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS

If you have already been to events your clients go to, you will have seen that many coaches come to these events as well.

This makes it harder for you to start an enrollment conversation. You may have even found your potential clients guard comes up when they hear that you are a coach.

It happens because your clients have already spoken to, and been pitched by other coaches at such events.

This is why it's important for you to know how to engage your clients in a conversation. More on this later.

STEP 3:

CREATE RESULTS AND ENROLL

The final step is to enroll. Before you can enroll a client, be mindful of the conversation you are having with them.

If you approach a client straight for enrollment, you are likely to fail. This is because they don't really know what you do, and why they should engage with you.

A better way to approach enrollment is to deliver a result in an area of challenge for your client.

This means you start the conversation talking about them, understanding them, potentially sharing an insight with them which makes their problems smaller - or even better -disappear.

Demonstration through Case Study:

Here is a case study for you to read that expands on the above steps. This is based on my personal journey of an event where I enrolled clients for over $225,000. This was not my event. It only had 8 attendees.

Here is how it unfolded. I was invited to a small mastermind with 8 businesses in an Eastern European country. I was already traveling that year to that part of the world and going there for 4 days to meet other entrepreneurs didn't seem like too much of a hassle.

I asked for permission from the host of the mastermind to present on an idea that I knew was a challenge for most entrepreneurs.

Systems for Scale.

This had been an area I had been working on for a while. I knew the key challenges that come up for small companies around this topic.

I asked the host about the companies that were in the room. I asked for their websites so I could study them. The host was kind enough to share what he knew.

After reading through these profiles, I knew I had completed the first step. I was in a room where my potential clients were present.

As I entered the room and sat with the other 8 entrepreneurs, I made it a point to share my past experience confidently. More so, I expressed my intent to serve throughout the event.

During the course of the next few days and even after the event was over, I continued to follow up and share how their companies could benefit from building systems for scaling. I shared stories of other companies and leadership teams I was coaching. 

When the potential clients looked ready enough, I made my proposal. Until the day of writing this guide that group has signed up with me for packages worth more than $225,000.

Challenges in 2021: Online Coaching 

With the advent of Online Coaching, accelerated by the Pandemic, more and more coaching resources have moved online.

However, even coaches adept in real-life interactions might face difficulties in the adoption of the online medium, especially on how to get clients online. It might come in the form of steep learning curves in using video conferencing and meeting software, to collating and converting your coaching platform and resources to an easily accessible form for the online audience.

One of the ways you can get acclimated to online coaching is to approach the online medium in the same way you approach coaching in the physical world. Just like how you go to places your Potential Clients go to, reach out to online platforms where your Clients frequent. Remember, they are restricted to the same conditions that you have been too, in these trying times.

Start small and engage in conversations not only with clients but also with other coaches on these platforms.

Finally, just like we mentioned earlier, you can move to the “Create Results and Enroll” phase. Engage clients with an online conversation where you talk about them and understand them. Then, potentially share an insight that makes their problems smaller — or even better, disappear.