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Here we go,
In last weeks newsletter I explained the 6 steps to raising your coaching prices and give yourself a £5k pay rise as a minimum, based on your existing client base.
This week I’m focusing on how you can fundamentally change your business for good by attracting clients that will pay you 4 figures for your stuff, and you can deliver your best work doing that.
Setting yourself up in the way I’m going to show you will enable you to become a highly sought after coach and someone who can really make a big impact and income.
Most coaches fail in this because they have a limited belief that ‘people won’t pay’ for their services. But when you unpack their offerings it’s generally a commoditised package of sessions and they are selling time for money (read last weeks post for more on this).
Don’t be that coach, the system below is simple, proven, and all you need to do is follow it! But that means having the courage to get out there and build an audience and deliver the outcomes those people want!
If you continue doing what you’ve always done you will get what you’ve always got!
When I speak with coaches very often there is an unwillingness to embrace change from the very people (us!) that talk about change and help people to change.
In order to grow you must embrace change.
I get it, it’s uncomfortable. But how else will you get to where you want to go? It’s like moving from Fn amateur team to a semi-pro or professional environment. You have to raise your game to hang with those people.
Exactly the same here.
Here’s the good news. There is a clear model on how to do this with 6 very clear steps to take. If you commit to t you will see results. If you don’t you won’t! Just like training isn’t it!
So with that let’s jump into the system.
The 6 Steps
The steps are what I call the 6 P’s! They work as follows:
Your People
Your Profile
Your Programme
Your Promotion
Your Pricing
- Your Profit (Sales)
Step 1: Your People
If you try to please everyone you’ll please no-one. It really is critical to market to one person. There’s lots of choice within that. It could be a specific sport, it could be a specific age range, type of person. For example Emma O’Toole who’s working with me on the Athlete Clients programme is an ex-GB endurance athlete with a specialism in Triathlon. It would make sense for her to specialise in this but she’s gone a step further to Runners and Cyclists over 30. She’s done that because she enjoys working with those people and can deliver a bigger outcome for them.
The questions to ask yourself are these:
1. Who do I enjoy working with the most?
2. Who can afford my services?
3. Who can I deliver a great outcome for that is really meaningful to them?
When you’ve nailed this we move to step 2.
Step 2: Your Profile
You have to position yourself as an expert to sell programmes at meaningful prices. Do the hard work that others are not prepared to do and you’ll never be short of clients.
Here’s a list of how to do that. This is a post in itself but there’s enough to get you going here.
Write Content. Pick one platform that you’re people are likely be on and post regular updates, ideally daily.
Use Storytelling to engage. Tell your story, how you get to where you are now.
Curate then Create. Tag other people that are doing good work, give shoutouts to your clients and more. Be the person that brings the community together not just the person that pushes out information.
Collaborate: Approach magazines, influencers and other notable brands and form relationships with them. This is a great way to position yourself as the go-to person in your network.
Really commit to this step and within 3 months you’ll see a difference. 6-12 months you’ll change your life.
Step 3: Your Programme
So what are you going to be selling? This is the big question!
Well the answer lies with what problems can you solve for the people you serve?
Do your people want a personal best, do they want to lose weight, do they want more money, more time, more happiness?
If you’re not sure then ask them. Speak to your existing clients, ask people to comment on your posts. You have to get to the heart of the problem.
The formula to follow in your programmes is STR.
Specific – A specific outcome.
Timeframe – within a certain timeframe.
Results – leading to a clear result for that person.
For example my programme Athlete Clients is aimed at trainers and coaches to help you over 12 weeks to train athletic clients and earn more money than you are today. Simple. I could make this better by saying earn £5k per month, £10k per month. All of which is possible.
My friend Gav has a promise “I help men in their 40’s lose 20-30 pounds in 12 weeks, or I coach you for free”.
It’s really clear who the programme is for and what they get from that programme.
(By the way he charges £3k for that…just saying!)
So what is your programme going to deliver?
Step 4: Your Promotion
It’s no good having an amazing programme if you can’t market and sell the thing is it.
Well firstly from step 2 you’ll be building an audience already. This is really key. And you’ll be learning from that audience the components of your programme (step 3).
Here’s how to take that to the next level.
Build a community. Get people into a group or a space that you can really get under their skin and understand their problems. You have to give before you get. This could be a Facebook group, email list, online app, whatsapp group or anything like that.
Make it clear what you offer. Showcase your programmes in a non-sales way. It could be a link to your site or landing page.
Invite people to work with you. You don’t need to sell, you just need to ask people to put their hand up. Tell stories that show people how you work and the results you get. A bit like this newsletter.
Every now and again throw in things like “I’m looking for 3 people this month to work with me on XYZ”.
There’s a LOT more within this section, things like paid advertising, partnerships, events, but this is a higher level and you don’t need that until you have been through these steps for a few months.
Step 5: Your Pricing
Going back to step 3 (your programme), the bigger the problem you solve combined with the speed you can deliver that outcome equals the bigger the price you can charge for that.
For someone wanting to lose a lot of weight a plastic surgeon can achieve this for them in minutes. It carries a high price tag as a result.
As a business coach I could charge extortionate fees if I could guarantee money would appear in your bank account in a few days without any hard work involved from you.
As a strength coach I would be fully booked at crazy prices if I could guarantee you would win the contest by working with me.
So whilst we can’t deliver these outcomes what can you deliver for someone? How can you get them closer to their goals in a meaningful way?
When you start to put the STR (specific-timeframe-results) formula into action you can see the value you can bring to people. And to be clear the outcome should scare you a little bit too. It should demand from you your best work. Because by doing that you’re already moving into the 0.1% of people that have the courage to make that shift.
If you get this right you can really pick your price.
How many clients do you want to work with?
If you want 1 or 2 clients you could really charge a high price for that level of service.
My own recommendation is to position the programme at a few grand, and then you have an ability to speak with people and if you like them you can help them out.
Step 6: Selling the programme.
If you are promoting your stuff regularly through your audience and community you should be getting comments and people liking your content.
Your job is to start conversations. Send messages asking them how they are getting on, what their challenges are?
Engage with people in a personal way.
Speak to 50 people per day.
Then you’ll find that you get replies and people want your help. At some point it will become natural to ask them if they’d like to have a conversation to discuss your coaching programme.
Your next step is to set up calls with them to talk things through and see how you can help them. Put 30-60 minutes aside for these calls and really coach that person.
I have a system for my coaching clients called the SPEED coaching system which takes you through all of this. But essentially it’s high value coaching in one session and you can decide if this person is the right fit for you.
If you like them and want to work with them you can say “would it be okay if I talk through what I can do for you having listened to where you’re at, I think we are a good fit and I can help you get to your goal?”
You’ll be surprised how effective this is.
But let me say this. If you jump to step 6 without the rest of the building blocks it will not work. I see this all the time. People go hard sell without the foundations. Don’t be that coach!
What’s next?
I hope you found that helpful. Now you just need to apply it. If you want help with that reply to this email with the word COACHING and we can discuss.
And in the true spirit of this email if you’d like to join me in September for Athlete Clients I can probably take 1 or 2 more people.
Reply ATHLETE CLIENTS if you want to make more money working with athletic people.
Much love,
Brendan
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Here’s 4 ways I can help you move forwards:
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4. Reply to this email with the word COACHING if you want to talk to me about bespoke business coaching support.
I’ll be back soon,
Much love,
Brendan
