“Why Is It So Hard to Get Enough Coaching Clients— and What Can I to Fix It?”

I know a bunch of struggling coaches. They offer business coaching, life coaching, and other types of life-enhancement transformations. And most of them are in big trouble right now because they are having a tough time getting enough clients to make a living.

One life coach in particular comes to mind right now.  Since you are asking yourself this question, perhaps you’re having the same issues she’s having. I’ll call her Lottie.

She loves people, loves coaching, but is having a tough time getting enough clients. And that’s putting her in a constant state of stress.

You may know that when you’re stressed, it’s very difficult to do your best work and be the best possible version of YOU.

Lottie is definitely stressed. She’s not sleeping as well as she used to. Her guts are constantly in a twist. She gets so frustrated about finding clients that it brings her to tears. She doesn’t know what to do next and doesn’t realize that “getting more clients” actually involves 4 problems.

Lottie said, “I get a client now and then, but never enough to make a living as a coach. I just can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I wish there were a way to spend more time coaching and less time trying to figure out how to get more clients.”

Ask her what benefit she gives clients and she’ll say something about bringing out their greatness.

Greatness…oh how Lovely.

But it’s fluffy and insubstantial!

I call this a “marshmallow fluff” benefit. You can’t sink your teeth into it or really change your life based on something like that. There are thousands of coaches offering marshmallow fluff benefits wondering why their businesses are failing.

Think about it. Most people are struggling with big issues like the economy, their family, job security, their child’s temper tantrums, disorganization, or whatever specific concern has them considering coaching. Lottie’s potential clients –  and yours –  are in deep, agonizing PAIN!

Let me say that again…

Your clients are suffering deep, agonizing pain—and they need a solution…NOW!

“Bringing out your greatness” is not a tangible, measurable, direct solution to any problem and not a real world measurable transformation.

It COULD BE real, substantial and could change thousands or millions of lives IF –

Well –  I’ll get to the IF in a moment.

I can’t say whether or not Lottie is a good coach because I have not experienced it for myself. However let’s assume that she is one of the absolute best coaches on the planet and yet she’s struggling for clients. I can say that Lottie is a great person. You can hear the smile and the love in her voice.

What’s the Problem?

Actually, she has 4 big problems. Lottie s working hard to make it as a coach in a sea of coaches. It’s a busy marketplace with loads of distractions, mixed messages, advertisements and scammers as well as all the truly great coaches out there. Here are her 4 big problems, in reverse order of pain.

4. Insufficient Differentiation: She’s still not sure what makes her unique.

No matter what business you are in –  whether you offer business coaching, courses, products, services, or consulting, you absolutely MUST establish what sets you apart. It can’t just be an approach like “I do it with humor”. It must be something that differentiates you from all the rest. And it must be related to the solutions you provide for the really big painful problems your clients face that you alone can assuage.

3. No System: She has no discernible system. She coaches based on her intuition and experience. she does not take every person through the same basic curriculum.

This is something I see WAY too often with coaches. You need a solid curriculum, because otherwise you spend the coaching session teaching your material. Develop a curriculum and take everyone through it. That way, you can spend the coaching time actually coaching. AND so that people have a somewhat standardized program. This is easier for you to deliver as well as more predictable in terms of results.

2. Poor Communication of Measurable Outcome: She is unable to communicate the specific, measurable value a potential client receives from working with her.

Your potential client is making a big decision –  and taking a huge risk. They’re considering whether to give you “wallet share” (whether to open their wallet and share its contents) for something of value. If they can’t taste, touch, see and feel that they will experience a substantial change, then they have zero motivation to open their wallet.

1. Lack of Scalability: Lottie will always be trading time for money as long as she has no way to “duplicate” herself.

Scalability is a concept you will not hear from coaching training programs, but it is one you will hear in business all the time. If your business is not scalable, then you are limited by the number of working hours in a day.

In other words, say your coaching time is worth $100/hour and the most clients you can take on a weekly basis is 20 (assuming you can GET that many) , because you also have to take time for preparation, marketing, blogging and so forth (which is not paid but still calculated.) So for that $100 x 20 or a maximum of $2,000/week, you’re probably working full time.

The only ways to increase your income are to raise your fees or to become scalable. You can raise your prices, but you still can’t work any more hours than you can work, so you would be forced to work harder but not smarter in order to earn more for your coaching services.

Scalability means you have a means by which you can dramatically increase the number of people you serve to 100, 1,000 or even more without forgoing sleep or a real life.

If your business is scalable, then you have a system and solutions for most of those other problems you’re facing solved as well.

Back to the original question…

So “Why Is It So Hard to Get Enough Coaching Clients— and What Can I to Fix It?”

First,  ask yourself these questions:

1. What sets me apart?

2. What big problem does your coaching solve for your client?

3. What specific, measurable outcome does your client receive by working with you?

4. What can you do to make your business scalable?

And you can take a fast-track solution

This will give you the system and scalability. You STILL need to figure out what the measurable outcome is and how you’re different…but you’ll soon discover that creating a curriculum and being able to coach people online (in addition to your phone coaching) gives you flexibility, time freedom, a solid system, a standardized core program AND scalability.

Doesn’t that sound great?

You can have a a 2 week free trial of a fabulous system I use for both coaching and training/workshops called JigsawBox at www.ProfitableStorytelling.com/jigsaw.

Watch this demonstration…

(or watch it on YouTube)

Here are a few highlights about how JigsawBox is great for you AND your clients:

• Your client has a distraction-free area to work on their package. No cluttered inbox full of distractions, and no worrying about whether an email was received or having to sift through an inbox searching.

• You can create a core package which could be a “mid-price range product” (between do it alone and phone coaching). Then you have a solid curriculum or  core teachings.

• You can give insightful coaching/teaching questions at the end of each module for your client to complete.

• You’re able to add all sorts of multimedia to aid your clients –  pictures, audio, video, “chunks of code” for banners or players, text of course,

• You can create both self-coaching (no contact with you) and online coaching in which you provide guidance for the client.

• Update any module in just one place and every client who has it can get the update.

• Now you can create a forum for your clients right there in their private coaching arena.

• JigsawBox is very affordable! (great news!)

• JigsawBox is easy for both you and your client to use.

When you take the 2–week free trial of JigsawBox, you also get a sample program in there so you can play with it and see how everything works. This is your template or guide or “role model” as you create your own modules based around your specific coaching outcomes.

You can literally –  as I did –  make sales of your package while trying out the program for free!

Visit www.ProfitableStorytelling.com/jigsaw for your free 14 day trial (and beyond!).

See my review of JigsawBox for more details.

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