What If All Your Coaching Clients Were 'Platinum Clients'?
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It's popular to use coaching as an upsell product with an upscale name like, platinum, diamond, gold, or elite.
This is usually based on a business model that starts with a big 'reach' (tens of thousands of email subscribers and followers on social networks), then moves to thousands of leads (people who signed up for something for free), then hundreds of customers (people who bought something in the $20 - $500 range) and finally moves to the small end of the marketing funnel with a few small-group or one-on-one coaching clients who pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars per month for your attention and time, a.k.a Coaching. This is called a marketing funnel, because it starts with a huge number of contacts and funnels down to a small number of clients who each pays you handsomely.
There are huge problems with using a marketing funnel when you're first building your coaching business.
The first problem is that it takes an incredible amount of time, effort and often expense to build a marketing funnel and during all that time, you're making little or no money. (Try supporting yourself with sales of a $19.95 ebook when you only have a 500-person mailing list. Even if you're marketing is extremely effective and you sell to 4% of your list, that's $399.)
The second and more insidious problem with using a marketing funnel to build your coaching business is that you're not spending your time coaching. You must coach a lot more than you may think to become masterful enough to succeed at coaching people in high-end programs. And if coaching is your true calling, then you need to do a lot of coaching just to be happy and fulfilled. Sadder still, is that coaching pays really well, but you're not coaching and probably not making the money you deserve to make.
Don't believe anyone who tells you that you can't fill your coaching business with one-to-one coaching clients from the very beginning.
People who say you can't make a living with one-to-one coaching fall into two groups:
- Coaches who couldn't fill their own coaching businesses with one-to-one clients and therefore think you can't either. That's an assumption that can derail your coaching business. Don't fall for it.
- People who aren't really coaches, but are either internet marketers, authors or speakers who use coaching as an upsell product and want to teach you their 'method'. Don't fall for that either; not if you're serious about spending your time helping people by coaching them one-to-one or in small groups.
Still other marketers will tell you one-to-one coaching is the 'old way' and they have a newer, faster, better way to be a coach. Good luck with that.
The reason I'm so sure these people are wrong is that I teach and mentor coaches everyday who are proving it wrong. It's not unusual for coaches to come to me complaining that they have too many clients. Too many! And they don't have marketing funnels!
If all of your clients are one-to-one coaching clients, you won't need nearly as many to make a good living. Coaching fees average $300-500 per month. If each of your coaching clients pays you that much you could make a great living ($72,000 - $120,000 per year) with 20 clients, not 20,000. You could make a decent living with only 10 clients per month. Month after month. Year after year.
Once your basic expenses are covered by your first 10 clients, you can relax. That's when you become much more attractive to clients, opportunities and yes, money. Then you may (or may not) want to dabble with ebooks, teleseminars, workshops or whatever sparks your creativity. Then you can afford to develop your unique brilliance at your leisure.
Fill your coaching practice first, then if you want, build a marketing funnel to create additional streams of income.
If you're serious about making your living as a COACH, but aren't sure how to fill your coaching business, you may want to join me for an exclusive mentor group. I'm actually guaranteeing this group. To read about it or listen to a 3-minute audio, click the link below. We have some time-limited specials for those who act now.
Become a master coach and get the life and business you really want.