Why Life Coaches Should Stop Taking Free Consultations… Part 3
How do you get clients to pay you for your initial calls?
What you need to do is this…
The solution is to stop offering Free Consultations and start getting clients to pay you for your initial calls.
You need to have a “first-call-paid” strategy. This means getting paid on your very first one-on-one contact with your client.
Get paid on the first call
This is a simple concept. Free calls are a waste of time for you and your client. But first paid calls are not.
Premium Clients
Clients who have money to spend want their problems solved—or at least addressed—as quickly as possible. They don’t have time to read your blog, watch your videos, or download another free lead magnet.
These are powerful people with time-consuming businesses to run. They want to talk to someone now—not tomorrow!
They will generously pay someone (you) who respects their time and can solve their problem as quickly as possible.
Embrace the Momentum
Starting any personal coaching business or maintaining one takes a lot of effort. When your clients bypass the Free Consultation and pay you for the first call, you will create unstoppable momentum in your business. You only need one or two paid calls a day to kick start a thriving life coaching business.
Moving Them Up the Value Ladder
It’s a lot easier to move a prospect from a $250 call to a $2,500 / month coaching package than to move someone who is looking for free information. Don’t you think?
Premium value
Remember, high-value clients—in which money is no object—have a high regard for their time. They don’t have time to jump through hoops and listen to 45-minute webinars just to get on a “strategy call” that doesn’t really do anything except sell them on a premium package.
Without a proper flow of good-paying clients, you are stuck in your coaching business. Having a first-call-paid strategy is the fastest way to get unstuck.
Imagine getting two or three calls a day where your client pays you $125, $150, $250, or more without a complicated sales funnel?
What would that mean for your business? What would that mean for your advertising and marketing efforts? Using a first-call-paid strategy is the fastest way to grow your Life Coaching business.
Use the Two-Step System for Instant Premium Client Calls
I’ve been using a simple two-step system for getting paid calls on the very first contact. I call this system First Call Paid to Premium Client System. And I will show you how it works.
This is a simple two-step process:
Step 1: Set up a deliberate sales message.
Step 2: Create an intentional traffic system.
It’s that simple. No complicated sales funnel or dealing with tire kickers who just want more free information.
When it comes to getting your prospects to call, you just need to answer your prospect’s objections. These objections may include—but not limited to—the following:
- Who are you?
- How can you solve my problem?
- How fast can I be on the other side?
- Why do I need this?
- Why do I need this right now?
- I don’t have any money / It’s seems expensive
- I’m not ready to make a decision now
- I’ll come back tomorrow (i.e. bookmark this page).
- I need to talk this over with my spouse/friend/family member
If you haven’t answered any or most of these objections when trying to get clients, you will fail every time. Too many life coaches think that people will just throw money at them.
Not so!
You must sell them on your services. If you don’t answer their objections in your sales pitch, you will lose them forever.
Once you’ve firmly answered every one of your prospect’s objections, then you can use a reliable traffic system to drive traffic to your website and get paid calls.
With the right words and a laser-focused audience, your coaching call is irresistible.
That’s it!
I know it sounds too simple. Okay, the first step has a few details that really make it shine. However, the second step is crazy easy, and you probably already have this in place. You just need a little adjustment to make it work.
The Big Secret to Attracting Your Best Clients and Getting Them to Pay for a First Time Call
If you can solve a specific and immediate problem, you will have your best clients filling up your calendar in just days.
Part of this system involves taking one component of your coaching practice and delivering it as a stand-alone coaching session. Below is an example.
Suppose you are an Executive Coach, and you help people get ahead in their careers.
The coaching session you would provide using the First Call Paid to Premium Client System is:
“I help middle managers in the tech sector get a $20,000 raise in six months or less.”
Do you see how specific that is?
If you were a middle manager working at Microsoft and you felt you were being undervalued, who would you contact to help with your career?
Would it be an executive coach who just says she helps people get ahead in their careers or an executive coach who says she can help you get a $20,000 raise in six months or less?
Having specificity in your initial offering attracts your best clients like a magnet and gets them to pay for a first-time call. This is the big secret that extremely successful budding entrepreneurs have known for years.
This solution you are providing on this paid call is just one small part of your whole coaching business.
The Importance of Systems
The most important thing to know is that the fastest way to build up your business is to implement a system.
Amazon skyrocketed to success because they had a specific system in how they sold their products. The First Call Paid to Premium Client System is designed to fit in with what you are currently doing.
Any good system is only as good as what you are currently doing. You shouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel. With this system, you won’t have to change anything about your business.
Why should you listen to me?
I was exactly where you are now. I was struggling to get clients and get my freelance business off the ground. It was tough. I had created all the sales funnels that the experts were telling me to do.
The problem is that I was getting too many calls that went nowhere. I was spending more and more time working on my business than working in my business.
I wanted to do what I do best—and that is to help people deliver their message to the world. As a marketing copywriter, that was my talent.
The Struggle
I struggled to get clients, and I followed all the rules of the marketing “gurus”:
- I gave free value upfront (blogs, videos, free offers, etc.)
- I entertained dozens of complimentary calls
- I had lead magnets coming out of my ears
It didn’t work. It wasn’t until I took stock in myself and began charging real money for my time that I could create a sustainable business for myself.
When I started charging for my initial client calls, people in my industry said I was crazy!
Which brings me to this inspirational quote from billionaire Larry Ellison…
“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts.”
Larry Ellison, CTO Oracle Corporation
Let me introduce myself. My name is Ash Waechter (rhymes with Hector), and I’ve been helping coaches and consultants get more traffic to their websites for ten years now.
Since starting my own business, I’ve written and published two books about online marketing for small businesses. And I share my online marketing tricks with my 16,000 followers on Facebook.
I’m just like you
I was where you are now…
Many years ago, I finally took the plunge and paid someone (I didn’t even know) $250 to answer one of the most burning questions I had about my business.
It was the best $250 I had ever spent!
Soon after, I had absolute clarity about my business. It was far better than dozens of courses I had taken or the hundreds of free videos I watched… or even the thousands of answers I received from various online forums and Facebook groups.
I needed clarity!
And I got it. And it only cost me $250. It may sound like a lot for a coaching call, but that $250 has turned into thousands upon thousands of dollars today. I am so grateful for the work that coaches do.
Click continue to read the next part of this article!