The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
It’s one thing to have filled your practice by getting on the phone and offering lots of free or discounted sessions or consultations. But we don’t want you to be calling people for the rest of your life! We just recommend this to ramp everything up quickly — to build your confidence, expertise, public profile, and testimonials.
What you need now are Marketing Engines, which send you a steady stream of clients. In the next three chapters we’ll cover the most fun and productive strategies:
- How To Get Clients Via The Internet
- How To Get Clients Via Alliances
- How To Get Clients Via Public Speaking
Caution: Don’t use all of these strategies. Doing a little of each will usually be a waste of time. You want to pick one or two, and go deep. Use them consistently for six months or preferably twelve — and you should see some great results. Once you are getting results from one or two engines, only then should you consider adding a third.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Anna Dargitz in 10 Super Coaches.
Approximately how long did it take you to generate US$30,000 pa in coaching revenue?
4.5 years…If I knew then what I know now, it would have taken half the time.
Over this period, on average how many days per week were dedicated to coaching?
Each year brought increasing responsibilities and opportunities. I worked on creating client programs when I wasn’t coaching and was available four days a week, three weeks a month.
But it wasn’t until I began teleclass teaching and working with SOC about 18 months ago, that I obtained high visibility and my practice really accelerated. Last month I cleared $5,000.00 US dollars and I worked 5-6 days a week. Passive revenue from client programs hasn’t kicked in yet and that’s what is needed to make more and work less.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Marcia Reynolds in 10 Super Coaches.
Would you advice coaches to pursue certification?
Absolutely!! Certification is what distinguishes you from anyone who just calls themselves a coach with no training or experience. We have to uphold certification to keep our profession strong. It is important to join the International Coach Federation and become certified to help keep the integrity of our profession strong in the eyes of our customers.
The International Coach Federation is the only non-profit professional association that is recognized world-wide as credible and sound. It is not aligned with one school, so it is also seen by regulating organizations as a credibile representative of all coaches, regardless of their schooling and background.
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
I said earlier in this book that you should not let fee stand in the way of a client when you are starting a practice. However, I did not say you should give coaching away for free.
If I approached you and said: “I really want you to be my client. Please be my client, I won’t charge you anything, and you need to spend 30 minutes per week with me”, how attractive would that sound to you? There is no sense of value in this for you; it’s all for me.
However, if I said: “My regular coaching fee is $300 per month, but my coach has told me to take five people on at a big discount for my own training and development. How would you feel if I charge you only 50% of my fee for the first two months?”
Another thing: the act of paying money is a great way to demonstrate commitment or that the client is willing to take the coaching seriously. If you offer the coaching for free — aside from it not sounding attractive — you may have problems with the client sticking to the coaching sessions, doing his or her fieldwork etc. Basically, it’s an issue of respect.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Andrea Molloy in 10 Super Coaches.
What were the biggest doubts you had in your early months?
My biggest fear was not getting enough clients to make a living – I focused on my business plan and kept positive! Sure, it was a process, I didn’t launch my practice and then immediately get inundated with clients on day one, it was a process of carefully building up public awareness and trust.
What was most disheartening for you while building your practice?
Often I met people who were cynical and disinterested in coaching, dismissing it as a new-age warm fuzzies fad. I had to consciously hold my head high and be confident abou the power of coaching and remind myself that these people were not my ideal clients, while not judging them in return.
What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?
The success stories! It’s an incredibly rewarding career (especially when you partner with a client on their road to success), and it also allows you a flexible, autonomous work environment. This has enabled me to write my first book, whereas if I had been in a regular full time ‘day job’ I doubt I would have progressed so quickly in my own creative goals.
The following is an excerpt of David’s interview in Top Coaching Techniques.
Ingrid: So that is the case for some people – it does require a great deal of study or skill development before they can move into their actual career – so it’s not as simple as just switching from one to the other. What do you say to those people?
David: That’s a good point. What I would say is, see if you can stick your big toe in the water. So, if for example, with medicine, it takes a long time to become a qualified doctor, instead of going and studying to be a doctor for many years to see if you like it, see if you can get a job as an assistant somewhere in a hospital or around a doctor’s surgery. That way you can start getting involved with it. Get videos out, start kind of immersing yourself in that area to see if it feels good for you. Then maybe there’s an interim step.
