Question:
I graduated from XXXX Coach Academy over a year ago and I’ve been marketing like crazy without success. What’s the secret? How can I get coaching clients?
Response from RCI:
Our heart goes out to you. We know what it’s like to have passion for being of service and frustrated when “If you build it they will come” doesn’t work!
At Relationship Coaching Institute we’ve been helping our graduates build and market their new coaching business for over 15 years and we’ve learned a lot about what does and doesn’t work.
Here are some of our best tips and resources for getting clients
- Ten Ways to Quickly Get Relationship Coaching Clients: This is one of the programs in our Relationship Coach Starter Kit and a great place to start!
- Group Coaching For some reason groups are far easier to enroll clients for than individual coaching. We developed a group coaching model that we call “The Coaching Team” that is easy to market and compelling for prospective clients: https://www.relationshipcoachinginstitute.com/thecoachingteam/
- Classes and Workshops: Coaching can be a hard sell as a first step, but classes and workshops within your area of expertise/specialty are far easier to market, and then invite the graduates to join your coaching group for support in implementing what they’ve learned: https://www.relationshipcoachinginstitute.com/your-marketing-funnel-service-delivery-system (we provide our members everything needed to market and conduct successful classes and workshops)
- Market Research: We call this “The Platinum Rule” of practice building and crucial for designing your marketing and services for your niche, and usually results in getting clients and referrals as well!See the bottom of the page at: https://www.relationshipcoachinginstitute.com/the-1-secret/
- Niche Community: This is one of our favorites, both in person and virtual: https://www.relationshipcoachinginstitute.com/owning-your-niche-by-building-a-niche-community/
- Enrollment Skills: It’s common for new coaches to focus on marketing, but we learned the hard way that “You can market til the cows come home and not get any clients!”Marketing is only half the equation, enrollment is the other half. Enrolling clients effectively and getting prospects to say “Yes” to hiring you requires a strategy and practice. We provide our members with a 5-step enrollment system that even includes scripted questions and responses (contact us if you’d like a copy).
Of course, all the above assumes you’ve identified a niche, and if you haven’t, that might be the crux of the problem.
If you need ideas for choosing and marketing to a niche, see “How to Choose a Niche” at: https://www.relationshipcoachinginstitute.com/how-to-choose-a-niche as well as our 20-Minute Business Plan in our Relationship Coach Starter Kit
Thanks for sharing your struggle with us. We hope this helps!
