Tag: sales

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Episode 94: How to Sell More Coaching Programs

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In today’s episode, I want to explain how to add massive value to your coaching programs so that you can sell more programs at a higher price, and secure raving fans.

You might be wondering what’s this all about? It sounds too good to be true?

I’m going to explain it all in this episode and it’s so ridiculously simple that you will wonder why you didn’t think of it before.

Today I want to talk about why data is important to YOUR clients, and how you can use it to benefit your business, and what sort of data to collect.

Why Clients Buy

Let’s start with a concept of why clients buy from you in the first place.

This is marketing 101 and there are some key elements that drive a purchase, especially something worth over $600 like a coaching program. People will:

  1. Spend big money to solve a big problem.
  2. Buy from you if they like you as a person and see that you are trustworthy, that you have a similar journey or that you have an area of specialty.
  3. Buy from you if you can prove your service can get results. 
  4. Buy from you if your offer is tangible and makes sense to them.

Let’s look at that first point. In marketing language, a viable niche is a group of people that are spending big money for paid support. 

The second point – buying from YOU – requires you to put yourself out there professionally, with your best foot forward, and being relatable, listening and building relationships.

I find that for most of my business coaching clients, especially those just starting out, the challenging parts are proving the results, and offering something tangible that makes sense to them.

Now I’m going to explain an easy way to do this, right away, even if you have limited runs on the board.

Your Secret Weapon: Monitoring Data

As a scientist by training, I’m a strong believer in high quality data to position yourself as professional, evidence-based and offering repeatable results. 

Part of the reason I was able to help build a multi-million dollar business was that we had 10 years worth of data that none of our competitors had.

We used this data to shift legislation, to position as experts, to develop specialty skills and expertise, and to be the go-to company for two specific types of service.

Further to that, the weight of data that we had was compelling evidence that our management services were effective and could get results.

What would it be like to achieve those things in your business?

In my last episode, I talked about how you can use the data from client strengths surveys to understand your ideal client and rocket fuel your marketing. 

Let’s talk about why data is important to YOUR clients, and how it benefits your business.

Our brains love proof (evidence)

Part of the reason that it’s hard to make change is that we don’t believe what we’re capable of, or that we can change, until we have proof.

That’s because the human brain is wired to want proof that any new behavior is safe, and a good idea.

Quite simply, good quality data provides that proof.

Data provides tangible evidence.

A coaching program without any monitoring data is lacking a critical piece of the puzzle because that data gives your clients the evidence they need that what they are doing is worth it, and getting results.

Now, think about all the opportunities you have to introduce data into a coaching program.

The two aims of a coaching program are to raise self-awareness, and to help people move through the stages of change.

Data gives your clients the evidence they need that what they are doing is worth it, and getting results.

If you ask your clients to capture data at the beginning of a program and the end, they can see quite tangibly how far they’ve come, what’s changed, and by how much.

If they monitor data throughout their program as they are experimenting with change, they will more quickly learn what is working, and more specifically, what is working best.

This will help them to tweak their goals and set better quality goals, so they get even better outcomes by the end of a program. 

In my last episode, I talked about how you can use the data from client strengths surveys to understand your ideal client and rocket fuel your marketing. 

Let’s talk about why data is important to YOUR clients, and how it benefits your business.

Our brains love proof (evidence)

Part of the reason that it’s hard to make change is that we don’t believe what we’re capable of, or that we can change, until we have proof.

That’s because the human brain is wired to want proof that any new behavior is safe, and a good idea.

Quite simply, good quality data provides that proof.

Data provides tangible evidence

A coaching program without any monitoring data is lacking a critical piece of the puzzle because that data gives your clients the evidence they need that what they are doing is worth it, and getting results.

Now, think about all the opportunities you have to introduce data into a coaching program.

The two aims of a coaching program are to raise self-awareness, and to help people move through the stages of change.

If you ask your clients to capture data at the beginning of a program and the end, they can see quite tangibly how far they’ve come, what’s changed, and by how much.

If they monitor data throughout their program as they are experimenting with change, they will more quickly learn what is working, and more specifically, what is working best.

This will help them to tweak their goals and set better quality goals, so they get even better outcomes by the end of a program. 

Summary

Today I talked about a simple way to increase coaching value and sales, reputation and clients.

Clients buy to solve a problem and because they trust you – but beyond that, they need proof and tangible results that are meaningful to them, in order to truly value and be an advocate for what you do.

The simplest way to do this is with high quality data that your clients will collect before, during and after their program.

Since it’s such a juicy topic, I am going to deep dive into specifics in my next episode, next week. Stay tuned!

Ready to sell more coaching programs?

There are tools that can make it easy when your know how! If you’re  ready to break old habits and make your life easier I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

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Episode 65: Discover and Communicate Your Value

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This episode is dedicated to the people out there who do amazing work but struggle to sell it because they have trouble describing the value of their work.

It breaks my heart to see skilled, talented and passionate people with so much to give, but finding it hard to get people to engage with them or buy from them.

I want to dig into this and give you some tools to discover and communicate your value.

Why Is Knowing The Value Of Your Work So Important?

FIrst and foremost, I think it’s pretty obvious that if you believe in and truly feel the value of what you do, then you will have the confidence to do it well, promote it and talk to people about it.

Your words will flow with ease. 

You feel sure of yourself and confident to describe your services.

Secondly, understanding and believing in the value of what you do will help you to 100% nail your marketing.

When you understand the value of your work, it will be EASY to develop very, very clear and compelling the words, messages, connection statements, elevator pitches, advertisements.

So, why do we get stuck?

We Are All Professionals

When we become skilled professionals, we all get stuck in this world of our own jargon. 

What I mean is this, when you learn how to do something and the methodology behind it then those are the things that stick in your mind and those of the things that you communicate. 

I remember driving on a holiday with my parents and boyfriend once. I’d just finished a university assignment on banksia woodland.

Your audience isn’t as educated as you are on those subjects and they might be 2, 5 to 10 years behind you and experience. 

And as we drove toward our holiday spot, I looked out the window and said something like, “wow, look at that low, open banksia woodland with a shrub understorey.”

Of course, my parents and boyfriend all laughed out loud. They even cried with laughter. I was SO mortified. But you get the idea. 

I was talking in my language about the bush, and they had no idea what I was going on about.

University Versus Kindergarten Knowledge

So here’s the lesson for you. Your audience isn’t as educated as you are on those subjects and they might be 2, 5 to 10 years behind you and experience. 

They’re not a scientist. They’re not a practitioner. They’re not heavily geeking it up on your area of interest.

It’s like you’re at the University level of knowledge in a particular area and your potential clients are at the kindergarten level in terms of their understanding and knowledge of that subject area. 

That’s a big reason why you’re struggling to communicate your value.

What that means is that you have to take a step back to the old you. 

You have to go right back to where you were five or 10 years ago or at least to the absolute  beginning of your journey and explore what you are feeling and thinking then, to reflect on why you were studying that, and what you needed and wanted. 

This segues into the second reason you’re finding it hard to communicate.

You Need Emotion, Not Logic

When you are in your geeky learning brain, university knowledge mode, you are using logic and jargon to talk about what you do.

But 90% of anybody’s buying decision is based on the emotion they feel when they interact with you.

You need to get out of your logical thinking and onto your passionate, emotionally heightened and ranty soap box to get people interested, engaged and believing that you are the person to help them.

This is known as ‘sharing your why’ and it’s the most powerful driving force in marketing.

That’s because your why contains your values, motivators, beliefs, and possibly life experience – all wrapped up in an emotive story.

That’s what you need to tap into.

If you believe in and truly feel the value of what you do, then you will have the confidence to do it well, promote it and talk to people about it.

Tapping Into Your Why

My friends, the value of what you do is in the result that it gives the person who’s buying it. 

Right now, I invite you to cast your mind back to the person you used to be and what you were desperate for and how much value that brought to your life. 

Think about how you would describe that value, how you would define it. 

Go back to the reason why you studied this in the first place.

That’s where your ideal client is right now, and doing this will give you some clues as to the value THEY are looking for.

Now I want to talk you through a little two-part exercise to help you to get the words right for this. 

A Two-Part Exercise

I want you to imagine that you are your customer. 

I want you to imagine that you are the you of a few years ago. 

Part 1 – Reflections

Now imagine that you are about to buy your service as a customer what is the value that you want to get out of buying your own service. 

  • Why are you buying that service? 
  • What would it mean to you if you could get the result that you wanted? 
  • What is that result? 
  • What will that allow you to do in future? 

That’s the first part of the exercise. Now let’s go to the second part. 

Part 2 – Reflections

Imagine that you have just finished using the service that you’re selling. Pretend that you’re the customer and you’ve completed this program or whatever it is.

  • How are you feeling right now? 

Write that down. 

Imagine you are giving yourself a testimonial.

  • What were you doing before the program? 
  • What did you achieve in the program? 
  • How is your world transformed now, because of that?
  • How do you feel? 
  • What have you gotten rid of? 
  • Describe the sense of accomplishment that you have? 

You noticed that I’m asking a lot about feelings here. And that’s because 90% of any buying decision is based in strong emotions. Logic makes up only 10% of the buying decision.

People buy results that they want and they want to feel a certain way. 

So our goal in marketing is to listen to what our customers are saying and to reflect that back. 

Summary

Hopefully there’s two part exercise has given you some ideas on the value of what you do by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and by asking yourself how you felt before and after using the service, what you truly wanted and what you got from it. 

I hope this has been useful and if you are a coach who needs some help to dig into this and figure out how to clarify the value of what you do, so you can more effectively package, describe and sell the value of your services, join my new Facebook tribe – CoachingSuccessAccelerator. Doors are open, I’m so excited!

Ready to recognise and communicate your value?

Honouring your own journey is the key to communicating your value. If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

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Episode 63: 5 Steps To Increase Your Buyability

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I want to talk today about the concept of buyability and increasing your buyability.

Yes, I think buyability is a made up word! 

The concept is about what makes you and your services easy to purchase – so people become willing or even desperate to buy from you.

I want to explore this concept FULLY in this episode so you can do what’s necessary to sort out your services and the marketing of them, to make them compelling, mouth watering and irresistable.

I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars on sales and marketing training.

But it’s the thousands of sales conversations that have taught me the most. 

A person’s tone of voice and body language give more clues about whether someone will buy or not, than any training course can.

To become more buyable, you need to combine the theory of sales and marketing with emotional intelligence and a bit of BQ.

Trust Comes First

The foundation of buying a service is trust. 

If somebody doesn’t like or trust you, it’s highly unlikely that they will buy from you.

That’s why people say marketing is ‘the long game’. 

It takes time and consistently showing up to build trust and rapport and relationship, to lay the foundation for a future sale.

If you try leading with sales because you’re desperate to earn money, you’ll break trust.

Now, here are the 5 steps to increase your buyability. 

Step #1 – Be clear about who you are, who you are not, and what you stand for.

People buy your why. They buy from you because you are similar to them in values, experience, personality or demographic.  

So you must first figure out who you are and who you naturally attract, so you can enhance and focus your marketing to those people. 

Example: My mission is to help mothers to regain their career confidence and get back into the workforce so that they can create independent wealth and feel valued.

Action step: write out your vision. Then, dig deep and find out what drives you. What your bigger mission is in the world. The impact you want to have. 

This will help you discover the values and motivators about your much bigger mission.

Step #2 – Discover the ONE thing that keeps them awake at night, worrying.

People buy when they are emotional or irrational about a problem they can’t solve.  

When you find out what that problem is, you can show people how your service can help them solve it.

Example: I know what it’s like to look in the mirror and loathe what you see. That’s why I created this program – to help you start accepting and even loving yourself as you are.

Action step: have conversations with at least 10 people who are your ideal clients to discover what their biggest challenge is, and the words they use to describe it.  

People buy for emotive reasons, when they have a big problem they can’t solve or a big vision they need help to achieve, from people that they know, like and trust. 

Step #3 – Describe your services as benefits or results they will get, using their own ‘feeling’ words.

People buy results – and more importantly, they buy when the offer you make is clearly and specifically describing the result they think they want or need.  

Don’t assume you know what people want or that you know better. This is actually condescending at words, and ignorant at best. 

Example: In 8 weeks, you will reclaim your get up and go and feel motivated, energized and committed to your fitness. 

Action step: have conversations with at least 10 people who are your ideal clients to discover what their biggest challenge is, and the words they use to describe it.  

Step #4 – Describe who your service is for, and not for.

People buy when they are ready, willing and able to do the work they need to do to get the result they want. 

You don’t want uncommitted people or tyre-kickers. By listing the specific traits of your buyer, you are helping people identify themselves as someone you can help. The time wasters won’t bother to enquire.

Example: This program is for women who struggle with anxiety and it’s affecting their relationships, and they are finally ready to get some help to fix things.

This program is NOT for you if you are unwilling to get out of your comfort zone, or if you have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Action step: based on the conversations you’ve had, get really clear on who you naturally attract, are best suited to working with and who is ready to buy. You can use that to create some text to describe who you are and aren’t looking for. 

Step #5 – You will find your ideal client where YOU are.

Back to Step 1 – people buy from those who are similar. Your ideal client is 70 – 80% like you. 

So use marketing strategies and tactics that leverage your skills and strengths.

Example: you hate going on social media and prefer meeting people face to face. Your ideal client will probably also hate social media. 

So stop trying to force yourself to go there, build a website instead, and get out to networking meetings.

Action step: If you have completed steps 1 – 4, you should have a description of what you sell, to who, how they benefit, and who it’s for and not for. Armed with that information, you are ready to start marketing. 

Choose 3 marketing strategies that best suit your personality, learning style and communication skills. Then, for each, define the tactics you will use to reach out to clients. Then make a plan to start doing them through the year.

It is this last step that will generate you a consistent set of leads and sales. You will probably need to treat your first 3 – 9 months as a big experiment and give each tactic a red hot go for at least 6 months to see what works and what doesn’t.

It takes time and consistently showing up to build trust and rapport and relationship, to lay the foundation for a future sale.

Summary

People buy for emotive reasons, when they have a big problem they can’t solve or a big vision they need help to achieve, from people that they know, like and trust. 

Usually we buy from people who are like us. 

If you follow the five steps in this episode, you will increase your buyability, because you will more likely connect with and engage with potential clients in places where you both like to meet others.

Ready to work on your marketing strategy?

Send me an email to request more information on a tailored service I offer. If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More