2. FEATURE: Why Am I Not Getting Clients From My Intro Sessions?

You keep offering free sessions to help bring in more clients. You think the sessions are going great, but at the end of the calls they say, “Thanks, but I’m not interested right now.” So why aren’t you converting these sessions into clients?

Who Are You Asking?

Who are you asking to sessions? Only people you know? Only people through your web site? It might be time to expand your reach. Offer sessions to people who you’ve just met or friends of friends. Keep looking for opportunities to extend the invitation.

The more invitations, the more times you can get a yes.

Are the people you are asking looking for big change or are they happy with their lives as they are? If they don’t want change, they may not be ready for coaching.

How Are You Asking?

When you ask for an exploratory session do you say, “Look, can you do me a favor and set up a free session with me so I can practice my coaching on you?” Or are you asking in a way that allows them to expect the invitation to coaching?

You can say, “Let’s have a call to see what we could work on that you could turn into your highest priority.” Or, “I’d love to find out what you are working on right now to see if I could help with that. Shall we set up a session?”

How Inspired Are They?

While you were doing your trial session did the potential client seem excited by possibilities? Maybe thinking, “I never thought I could have that, but now I know I can!” Or was it a more ho-hum experience? What can you do to generate that excitement?

Ask For Feedback

An important way of finding out what can be improved in your intro sessions is to ask the potential client. Ask for feedback at the end of the call or a couple days later. Ask questions such as:

• What did you think coaching might have provided you with?
• What did you get out of the call?
• Were you inspired by our session?
• What stopped you from signing up as a client?

* * *

Action:

1) Invite at least one person to an intro session whom you wouldn’t normally ask.

2) Ask for feedback from at least one client after an introductory session.

2) Share what you learned at the BLOG.

Enjoy,

P.S. Got a comment on this article? Please add it to the BLOG

2. FEATURE: How Far Did You Come in 2009?

Before you go on to conquer the world in 2010, don’t you think it’s important to celebrate how far you have come this year?

Look back.

What have you accomplished?

What are you proud of?

And so importantly – what are you grateful for? (Because gratitude not only feels good – it generates growth.)

I’ll start. Below I’ll share what I’m proud to have accomplished this year, and what I’m grateful for.

But don’t read it passively. Oh no.

At the bottom I’m going to ask you to write YOUR Celebratory for 2009.

As you read mine, ideas will spark for what you can celebrate this year. Then I’ll ask you to go straight to the blog and post for the world to see. By sharing your accomplishments you’ll inspired others to make magic happen this year, as well as be inspired by what others have posted.

* * *

DAVID’S CELEBRATORY FOR 2009

Health & Lifestyle

•  Moved to San Francisco and created a lovely home/nest for myself in the redwoods
•  Learned to really meditate and recharge; investigating a health issue
•  Created a cool 16 min speech for students at my old high school (or any school): Part 1 and Part 2
•  Helped create and acted in a rockin’ 3 min film done entirely in 10 hours
•  Discovered bughouse chess
•  Did The Work, The Work, and The Work

Relationships

•  Recovered from an intense breakup
•  Made some wonderful new, close friends (e.g. Andrew, Decker, Bryan), and am well supported by my old friends
•  Explored two wonderful romances (and some awesome dating)
•  Built valuable business relationships
•  Am incredibly supported in the business by Beth and Sarah

Finance & Business & Career

•  Received an Australian government grant
•  Accumulated 4000 friends on facebook
•  Launched the Coaches Inner Circle with (with Ezra’s help)
•  Have the book ‘Get Paid For Who You Are’ close to completion (after investing $35,000 and countless hours)
•  Jack Canfield kindly agreed to write the foreword
•  Turned down four publishers in favor of self publishing
•  Lined up 6 million email addresses to hear about the book launch
•  Put a HUGE effort into a global publicity campaign that may never happen (had fun and learned a lot)
•  Met Richard Branson

* * *

Action – now it’s time for YOU

Don’t just read my Celebratory, make this valuable for you.

Post your Celebratory where we can all acknowledge you, here.

Whether you spend 1 minute or 1 day on it doesn’t matter.

Just post it.

Remember, where there is gratitude and appreciation, there is growth. It’s critical to chew and swallow what you’ve received this year, before asking for more.

If you find yourself judging your achievements – good! This is an opportunity to look deeper at what you can be grateful for. AND – to light the fire in your belly to really make 2010 count.

Go ahead – post your Celebratory now.

70,000 people receive my newsletters. If only 10% of you post your Celebratory on the blog right now, we’ll have 7,000 pieces of wonderful acknowledgment, celebration and gratitude.

Will yours be one of them?

Your Friends

I invite you send people to this blog post as an invitation to your friends to participate in this gratitude movement. And ask them to post as well.

(Hint: be sure and tell them to add their name to the post, so you can find it on the blog!)

Love and gratitude,

P.S. If you have any comments on this newsletter, we’d love you to share them here

2. FEATURE: Building Confidence Quickly

Confidence is very attractive in a service professional. We want our clients to feel secure that we know what we are doing.

But, what if you aren’t that confident? What if you are asking yourself, “Can I really do this?” or “Are people going to treat me seriously?” or “What if someone asks what qualifies me?”

Show Yourself as an Expert

What are you trying to do for people? Show people you have the knowledge to help solve their particular problem.

• Write articles and submit them to article directories, newsletters & blogs that have the same type of audience.
• Have a blog and/or newsletter where you share some of your knowledge.
• Trade interviews with other experts. If someone is interviewing you, you must be an expert in something, right? Plus it gives you material for products, articles and newsletters.
• Write book reviews at Amazon.com or at your blog about books in your field.
• Similarly you can review products in your field.
• Get a speaking gig.

Write Your Bio

When you remember what brought you to this point, you realize you do have lots to offer. Your background and experience can be a great confidence booster.

What are your related experiences? What training do you have? What are other careers you have had?

Read your bio before making a call to a potential client or following up with leads.

Get Out There

I’ve found that you gain confidence fast by getting out there in the field and doing your work as much as possible. It feels easier and you get better the more you do something.

* * *

Action:

1) Take action on one way to build your confidence.

2) Share your achievement at the BLOG.

Enjoy,

P.S. Got a comment on this article? Please add it to the BLOG

2. FEATURE: What Impact Do You Want to Make?

Guest Article by Beth Dargis, www.MySimplerLife.com and my right hand person.

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I learned much at the Spiritual Marketing Telesummit, hosted by Suzanne Falter-Barns NY Times Best Selling Author of the book “How Much Joy Can You Stand.” In one of her calls she helped us think bigger.

Finding ‘Your People’ to serve

Suzanne says that the most important idea in thinking bigger is to find the right people for the gift you are giving to others. Your People will move you to a higher level in your work, by participating in your work.

You want to find people that are an appropriate group for your work. You don’t want to be serving people so far behind you in growth that you get stunted. And you don’t want to try to serve people who are already far ahead of you or you will feel inauthentic.

Finding the people that help you grow

Suzanne says it’s not just finding your people to serve, it’s finding the support people that will help you think bigger. I know David has enlarged his vision since hanging around people like Jack Canfield and others on the Transformational Leadership Council.

How big do you want to play?

Thinking bigger can be scary. You may be scared to speak to others. Or maybe thinking bigger to you means looking for a local TV spot which makes you nervous. Or connecting with people who you think are better than you – how would you even start?

But if you phrase it, “How big of an impact do I want to have?” that takes the focus off how you feel and onto how you can make others feel.

Don’t worry about failing

If you have been playing small, Suzanne says that’s fine. Failure is, “a lack of action at a particular time where growth is shown” or it could be, “a choice that leads to another course of action.” Successful people take more actions and have more failures than people that play it safe and feel less successful.

You may have stayed small in your past, but you can make a different choice next time.

Get support

This becoming bigger is hard work. Support is vital. Think about what you need to become bigger.

Gather a community around you that can support you, give you information, help you meet people and you can do the same for them. It’s harder to back out of a phone call with a potential agent if you have a group expecting you to tell them the results of the call.

And give yourself support. Ask someone to watch the kids or go for a walk or have a daily, centering time.

Remember your motivation

And a final point Suzanne had was that becoming bigger is not about looking better – having a bigger house, a better car, or knowing cool people. It’s going deeper into the natural flow of the universe. Growing as you naturally are growing and taking your business with you.

Focus on “love, understanding and growth – not fear.”

***

Action:

1) List ways you have stayed small at the blog.

2) Think about the impact you want to have.

3) What support do you need to become bigger? You can ask for it at the blog and maybe you can connect with someone who can help.

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You can still get the recordings from the Spritual Marketing Telesummit here.

2. FEATURE: Gain More Clients with a Coaching FAQ

If you are drawing in clients with your website, you may be leaving potential clients unsure of exactly what you do. And a confused person is more likely to leave your site than email or call for an answer.

Why You Need an FAQ

People that hop on your web site are searching for answers to their problems. But saying you are a life coach or a business coach is too vague to make a connection. Bear in mind that a lot of people don’t know what coaching is. They haven’t had coaching before. They don’t understand the process.

A Frequently Asked Questions page gives them answers without making them work too hard to get them.

What To Include in Your FAQ

• How many sessions you hold each month
• If sessions are done by phone, web conferencing or face to face
• What happens if a client terminates their coaching before the end of the month
• Characteristics of who you like to work with
• The length of sessions
• Outline of a guarantee of service is one is available
• Description of how coaching works
• When and how clients pay for their sessions
• How long you normally work with a client
• Description of your specialities
• Any other questions and answers you receive often

Formatting Your FAQ

The format that has worked best for me is the question and answer format.

So it would look something like this:

What is your coaching structure?

We will have a 45 minute phone coaching session three times a month.

Would you like to see a coaching FAQ?

You can check out Flaven Clayton’s FAQ here:

http://www.life-coaching-resource.com/life-coaching-questions.htm

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Action:

1) List the questions you are most likely to receive from potential clients

2) Create your own Coaching FAQ

3) Share your Coaching FAQ at the blog
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2. FEATURE: Advanced: Double Your Number of Clients

If you’re just starting out with coaching, you may want to skip this article. It’s an advanced strategy for coaches who really want to drive up their numbers.

If you’ve been coaching for a while, you might know this routine: a prospect fills out a form, you follow up, and then you never hear from the prospect again. That doesn’t have to happen, because I’ve stumbled upon a brilliant way to make sure prospects don’t fall through the cracks!

Follow Up System

Here’s what to do: When you set up your coaching application form, automatically collect the person’s email address in your shopping cart and subscribe them to a special 52-week auto-responder “prospect” newsletter.

With this strategy, you never lose a prospect because you’ve captured his email address in your “follow up” system. One week after he’s submitted his form (but did not respond to your invitation), he’ll receive a short note from you that says, “Hi Brad, I’m just following up to see what’s going on. Sometimes we can get busy in our lives and our goals can be pushed to the side. If you’d still like to have a session, I’m happy to offer a slot, just get back to me in the next three days.”

In addition, you tell him, “Next week, I’ll send you some motivational tips and keep in touch if that’s okay with you. I know sometimes the time may not be right and things get overwhelming, but the time may be right in the future, and meanwhile I can support you in your goals via email. If not, just click on the link below and you’ll be taken off this list.”

Then, every week thereafter Brad receives a brief note from you that is pre-scheduled using an auto-responder. You might ask:

• How do you feel about your goals this week?
• What’s your energy level about your goals?
• What’s getting in the way of your goals right now?
• What’s the biggest thing that would stop us working together? I’d love to know. Email me and let me know.
• What are you putting up with this week?
• What’s one thing you’d love to get rid of in your life?
• What’s one thing you’d love to change? Ping me back, I’m listening.
• What’s one thing you’d love more of?You might also include:
• Motivational tips: “Brad, I just wanted to send you this motivational quote, which can be so useful in moving forward.”
• A question: “Have you made progress on your goals? If not, I’d invite you to email me now to get moving. I can do a lot with you, but you’re the one who has to say yes to coaching.”
• A testimonial: “Hi Brad, I really want to share with you this story of Bill. Bill was busy. He didn’t get around to coaching for six months, but when he did, here’s what happened!” And then include the testimonial.
• Reminders of the top ten benefits of coaching with you or a reminder that: “You’re never locked in. Why don’t we do a trial session and see how it feels? If you sign up for coaching, you can stop at the end of any month, but once they start, most clients tend to finish the three months and have great results.”
• Special offers for coaching. “This week, there’s a 25 percent discount if you do a session and sign up within one week.”
• Ads for third-party products where you receive commission.

This is like a mini-newsletter that you’re targeting to a very specific audience with a very specific purpose. And, best of all, you can sit down and write out all 52 weeks’ worth of communications in a few hours and then have a brilliant, automated follow-up program that converts prospects into clients for you over the next year! 

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Action: Post on the blog:

1) Look at your current follow up system for prospective clients.

2) Create a form for your prospective clients to fill out (I use this autoresponder/forms system). Then you can decide how you would like to follow up with them.

3) Share your follow up system at the blog.
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