Do you want to have your own life coaching business?  If you do, you probably want it to be successful, maybe even successful enough that you can give up your day job.  The problem for many coaches is that a successful coaching business requires more than a coach with great coaching skills.  You also have to be able to get clients to pay you for your coaching, or in other words, you have to be able to sell your coaching programs.

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What do you giveaway in your own life coaching business?

As coaches, the freebie we give away to encourage our potential clients to purchase our product is usually a complimentary coaching session.   That’s about as comfortable a sales presentation as we coaches can find.  It satisfies our need to serve people,  and if we are “lucky,” it will also lead to some income in our own life coaching business.  But wouldn’t you rather take some of the luck out of that equation and put some experience in?

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Have a system to use with prospects

Eric Lofholm, Master Sales Trainer at www.ericlofholm.com says “If you wing it, you get wing it results.”  That’s the voice of experience talking.  He also says “human beings respond in predictable ways.”  That’s the voice of science.   Here are some ideas on how you can apply this information to your complimentary sessions to increase the number of clients in your own life coaching business.

• Don’t wing it.   Have a plan–a system based on what you want the session to accomplish.  Know all the steps in your complimentary session and what order they come in.

• Know exactly what your offer is.  Don’t get caught in any uncertainty about what options and plans you are offering.  If you quote a price on the fly, it will almost certainly be too low, and you will be stuck with it.

• Use a script–plan your words and their sequence.  Know what you are going to say and in what order.  Describe the benefits from your client’s perspective, ask for the order in a consistent way, and figure out, in advance, how to respond to any objections your prospect might bring up.

Even with the greatest coaching talent in the world, if your own life coaching business doesn’t provide enough income for you to have the life you want, eventually you’ll give up on coaching and go back to your day job.  Unless that’s the outcome you want, avoid the “wing it” approach and deliver a crafted script.  Then ask for the order and watch your own life coaching business grow.

Dorine G. Kramer
JTS Advisors Certified Strategy and Accountability Coach