If you need some new clients fast …

A past client of mine Jan, a Career Coach and also ADHD Coach has returned to her coaching business after dealing with family/health issues and is starting again cold. She’s wanted some quick suggestions to find coaching clients quickly. Here’s what I shared from 25 years of working with coaches …

My suggestions if you need some new clients fast. 

I’ve seen a lot of things work …

• Google Ads to professional website got inquiries
• Relationship coach blogging weekly for a year to fill practice
• Article marketing for a builder niche reaches 100k
• SEO with blogs and keyword research within a niche
• A manual, consistent follow-up approach in your networks
• Running a facebook group on your favorite topic

I have not tried this => running down the street naked with your website address tattooed on your back. 😛

But here’s my favorite way to add new paying clients right away …

The Fastest, Simplest Way to Find New Clients — A Follow-Up System

A fast, low-tech, simple way to start getting new clients is what I call a Simple Follow-Ups System. 

Even if you get leads via Ads, articles, or networking, you still need to follow up with potential clients — do the usual selling “song and dance” — to get them to commit and pay for coaching.

Often, when I create websites, I encourage coaches to start a Follow-Up System right away, to help get those first batch of clients in the short term. It’s nice when income starts growing while getting things off the ground.

Then, when their sites are done, the ads/marketing/outreach efforts begin so you can scale up your efforts and get more clients, steadily, and routinely.

A Simple Follow-Up System Defined

The great thing about a follow-up system is that you can start NOW — this minute, today, this week and start getting paying clients.

DEFINITION: SIMPLE FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM

A Simple Follow-Up System is simply reaching out to people around you (via chats, messages, emails, calls, meetings) who ALREADY know, like, and trust you. It’s conversations. And in them, you find folks with genuine needs that you can confidently coach them on. I use a Cold-Warm-Hot Approach that is natural, enjoyable, respectful and not pushy nor salesy. It builds trust which is vital for the coaching engagement.

I like doing it in two parts:

1. Brainstorm a list of names, groups, and networks.
2. Start reaching out to people for 10 minutes over morning coffee.

You can be specific about who you talk to first: past clients, past work colleagues, people in your niche (if you have), people who you know are struggling.

They key here is to get started, and not to overthink it. 😉

Three Quick Stories of Coaches Getting Clients via Follow-Ups

Here are a few coaches who I’ve worked with, and their quick story of getting some new clients via manual, simple outreach.

1. Helping Paul Get Corporate Clients (Aussie) — When helping him build his website, we talked about his ideal clients. I asked Paul to begin writing exercises to start getting copy for his website. In discussing his ideal clients, he took action to reach out to a few and follow-up with them — past colleagues and connections — and immediately landed new contracts before his site was done. Clients are just around the corner. 

2. Nabil’s 16 Weeks to Full Practice (New Yorker) — A past client of mine moved from NY to Florida, and was soon bound for Germany. He lost touch with his clients who lived in New York. He was hoping I was going to get his website and email list to bring him new clients. But, instead we worked on a simple follow-up system to ge in touch with all of his past, in-person clients. We used a Cold-Warm-Hot Approach to make it fun, easy, and natural. He was a little uncomfortable about bugging people, but in a few months he was full on clients again, and those clients had a talented coach to support them.

3. Guiding Arvind to new clients (UK) — A coach who I built a websites for was ready to step into his new professional identity. We got his newsletter going, some posts on LinkedIn, and started a simple follow-up system to invite people in his network (email list, and LinkedIn profile) into his coaching roster. There was much resistance and fear around how to promote himself due to being new, transitioning out of a past career, and general fears of selling (it’s a wonky feeling). I reminded him how lucky people would be to have his “calm in the storm” style to face turbulent challenges. We took baby steps, and clients showed up, and paid work started growing.

While I prefer lots of client leads coming from the website, until that time arrives, it’s a good to practice follow-ups so you get the hang of owning the process of signing up clients.

Here’s the hard part 😉

If it feels hard, vague, or you resist any idea of any personal outreach, following-up, working your networks, or contacting people in your orbit — those are just nerves (aka excitement of potential!)

Let me offer you these thoughts to help …

• Allow yourself to find a gentle, enjoyable, doable way to get started. Maybe make it a game, or an adventure, or a challenge. Maybe as simple, as a message, “Hey, just thinking of you, hope all is well in [life, at work]” or more nuanced with, “Hi [name], long time to speak, I hope all going well in your restaurant business. Just thinking of you.”
  
• There are an endless number of places to begin follow-ups — past clients, online groups, in-person networks, association meetings websites or publications, your (or a friend’s) email list, colleagues, your alumni chat forum, and more. It’s endless.
  
• Think Cold-Warm-Hot, and only aim to connect with a lot of people, and as the conversations warm up, then invite the hotter ones to a call to help them.
  
• When people who are struggling in life, work, health or relationships find you and get coached by you, it’ll be amazing – both for your income and their lives. So you might as well connect now to speed things up.
  
• People who need help are EVERYWHERE. Unless someone has given up totally on life, they are likely wanting something to be better, and could use help to progress faster. Not everyone, but plenty!
  
• Every day you’re not reaching out, connecting, and following-up with people, is another day THEY STAY STUCK, and your income doesn’t grow. Do it for THEM!
  
• A good goal as a coach is to not offer coaching unless a client has a big enough need, looks very coachable, and it would be an amazing adventure together. Aim to define that adventure.

Here’s a trick. If you resist taking action, go to the resistance.

If you feel the slightest bit of nerves, hesitation, or  blockage, I encourage you to calmly focus on the feeling. Yes, just sit still, relax, and be with it. It’s like fog that will just clear away on its own.

There’s a breakthru, a mindset shift, a new way of being that is hidden in the nerves. Wisdom through it appears when you provide attention and space for it.

For everyday folks, this is woo woo realm stuff ;D. But, for many coaches who have dabbled in various modalities, it’s a common way to deal with inner emotional blockages.

This is something I’ve learned over the years in various forms. It’s like walking blind folded. You find your way by feeling, small steps, using a different sense. Then, in time, after some repetition and practice, lights suddenly turn on, and all is peachy.

How have you gotten your first coaching client? Paid or free?

Most coaches get their first clients via people they know. Make a process or habit out of getting the word out. Make it a system and watch it help you get things off the ground.