Most of us who have ever been paid to coach got that first client without really knowing how. A conversation went well, the person happened to be working towards something that mattered to them, and by the end of it they asked what it would cost. We named a figure – usually lower than the one we had in mind – because it felt awkward to say that number out loud. That client is proof we can coach and that somebody will pay for it, which is valuable proof. What it isn’t is a method, and treating it as one can cost us dearly.
What Happened
Three things had to be true at the same moment for that client to appear. They had a goal real enough that they were prepared to spend money on it, they were at the point of being ready to act rather than still thinking about it, and they were talking to us rather than to anyone else. It’s entirely possible that not one of those three things was arranged by us. We turned up to a conversation, and the conditions happened to be right.
Then there’s the fee. Charging mates’ rates might get us a paying client, but it doesn’t get us any nearer to earning a living, because a full diary at that price still doesn’t pay the bills. It’s also very hard to put the price up later for someone who signed up at the original figure.
The Conclusion We Draw
What follows is entirely reasonable, given we are working from a sample of one. We decide that the way to get clients is to talk to people, and that what we need is more conversations.
The trouble is that the conversation was not the thing that produced the client, the synchronicity was. More conversations with people who have no pressing goal, at a moment when they aren’t ready, produces more conversations and nothing else, which is why so many of us spend a year having coffee and end it no nearer our goal of having a viable coaching practice.
The Very Famous Book
A lot of us have read the book that makes this case, the one about ‘creating clients’ through really good conversations rather than waiting to be found.
What it assumes, though, is that we already have a supply of people worth having those conversations with. Anyone who arrives at coaching after twenty years in a corporate career has that supply and can start straight away. The rest of us spend months discovering that good conversations simply aren’t enough.
Conversations Aren’t the Problem
I want to be careful here, because plenty of coaches do build a practice this way and I am not arguing that talking to people is a waste of time. After all, conversations are how coaching gets sold.
The problem is unlimited conversations with undefined people. Our profession has a unique problem that no other provider of professional services has, which is that nobody knows what we do, but they think they know, and they’re wrong. This means that nobody is looking for a coach, so nothing about us being available to talk means anything to somebody who doesn’t understand that coaching could help them navigate what they’re dealing with.
Making the Accident Repeatable
Everything that made that first client possible can be arranged deliberately. It starts with deciding who we help and which problem we help them with. I call that the WHO and the WHAT. Both are essential when you’re choosing who you’re going to focus your marketing on, because when you know WHO they are, you know where they are. When you know WHAT they’re struggling with, you know what you need to say to help them understand that you are the solution to their problem.
Once that’s decided, we stop hoping the three conditions line up by chance and start putting ourselves where they line up regularly. That’s not luck, and it isn’t a personality type either. It’s simply putting a framework around client acquisition.
An Opportunity
If you’d like to understand more about what effective client acquisition involves, may I offer you a way to learn a bit more for free? Why not join my next free challenge, Nail Your Niche?
We run it several times a year, and there’s even an option to upgrade to a VIP version, which gives you 3 x 60-minute group mentoring sessions with me for just £99 (inc VAT) – that provides us with time for a lot of robust conversations about how marketing for coaches works.
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