Finding life coaching business is not about hard sells.  It’s been said many times, “Nothing sells like success.”  How often do you use coaching success stories when you are trying to get new clients to enroll in coaching?  Coaching success stories are one of the easiest and most fun ways to increase your life coaching business.  If it’s not already part of your script, then now is a great time to start, even if you don’t feel that you have any success stories that are compelling enough yet.

Coaching Success Stories Don’t Have to be Stories of Your Personal Successes

There are three myths that stop people from using coaching success stories to enroll new clients into their life coaching business.  The first is that the stories must be about one of their clients.  If you don’t have any coaching success stories yet, ask some of your coaching friends for some examples.  Don’t lie and tell others that it was one of your clients.  But it’s perfectly legal to start a story by saying “I have a friend who was coaching someone in a similar situation.  This was what they worked on and this was the result….”  Of course the more stories you have in your repertoire, the more likely you’ll be able to come up with a compelling match.

Even if You Feel Your Story Telling Skills Need Work Using Coaching Success Stories Will Help Your Life Coaching Business

The second myth that keeps coaches from using coaching success stories when trying to enroll people into their life coaching business is that they don’t feel like they can tell a story well.  That’s actually better in some ways because it will force you to write it down, word for word.  You can even get help with the scripting before you try it out with your clients.  If you’re well rehearsed, no one need know you are reading if you coach by phone.  Then you can use it over and over again.

Using Coaching Success Stories to Sell is Effective Because it Helps Prospective Clients to Relax

The third myth that keeps coaches from using coaching success stories is that they don’t really believe that it will have an effect on their life coaching business.  If that’s the case then Google, “Using stories to sell” and you will get hundreds of hits to choose from.  If you’ve used stories in the past and they haven’t seemed to help, then you might need to change your strategy.  Make sure you find a story that is similar to your client’s, and connect the benefits that your client wants to the coaching.

Using coaching success stories to build your life coaching business is not only more fun, but also more effective because it is less direct.  If you can get clients caught up in your story, they will relax their natural resistance to being sold.  Just as stories can help transform people during a coaching session, they can also help a person make a powerful action step toward their goals by enrolling in coaching.

Colette Seymann

JTS Advisors Bi-Designated Strategy and Accountability Coach