NEWS FLASH: If your coaching prices are on point, you shouldn’t convert more than 50% of your discovery calls. This may be surprising, but it’s true.
So, let’s assume your pricing is on point. That means one out of every two people you bring into a discovery call won’t become a client right away.
Now, if you have a turn key system to stay connected with all those leads who didn’t convert, there’s no problem here.
But let’s be real… tracking leads and following up aren’t that fun to do. So, most coaches get too loose around this and they pay a price because of it.
Think of all the people who miss out on the incredible benefits that come from being your client just because you don’t know how to follow up.
So, how can you consistently nurture the right leads without getting overwhelmed, falling off track, or annoying people?
Great question! I’ve got an answer for you in two parts: Organic Outreach and Automatic Value Adds.
Let’s dive in…
Organic Outreach
You don’t need some fancy tracking system to stay connected with your leads. Instead, you can use your calendar to set reminders to reconnect with a potential client.
I rely on my calendar to run my business, so by inserting those little check-in appointments, I know I’ll never lose sight of them. Each time I reconnect with a lead, I just pop another reminder appointment onto my calendar about 90 days later.
Okay… but what am I supposed to say every three months? I don’t want to be a stalker.
Another great question.
The secret is to reach out to ask a specific, easy-to-answer question. The purpose of this outreach is to continue to conversation. It’s not email coaching. It’s not email selling. It’s building trust by personally checking in. That trust will convert when the timing is right.
Your Organic Outreach is designed to build personal rapport, keep the conversation alive, offer effortless support and convert this lead into a client.
To do that, you’ll infuse a balance of curiosity, generosity, clarity and personality into your emails.
Here’s an example email outreach I sent to a lead who ended up becoming a client about nine months after our first discovery session…
Hey there, Mary. You were on my mind today. When we met, you had just moved and I know how frustrated you felt about how long (and expensive) adjusting to Los Angeles felt for you.
I think it always takes longer to settle in after a big move, so hopefully things will shift for your very soon.
You asked for some money book recommendations, and I’ve got a lot of them. I would recommend getting started with these:
• You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham
• You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
• Money: A Love Story by Kate Northrup
I hope you enjoy them. I am sure you’re right that there are money fears standing between you and truly committing to your business. Great insight. If you need support around this, it’s absolutely something we can work on inside of the Power Groups.
Until then, I’ll be sure to send my weekly blogs out to you and I hope you’re in my Coaches on a Mission Facebook Group so we can stay connected.
That way, you won’t feel so alone out there in your new city.
Take care,
Dallas
Do you see how I added value, made it personal, and didn’t shy away from talking about working together all at once?
Let me put on my mind reading goggles and answer two questions you might have…
Should I do this with EVERY lead?
Nope. You’ll know which clients you feel most connected to and which ones don’t necessarily feel like a fit for you. You may also find that this system is so simple that it’s easy to stay connected to a large list of people. So, trust your gut and when in doubt, reach out.
How long do I keep at this with someone?
Again… you’ll know. But let me share a few simple guidelines:
• If someone stops responding – they’re telling you something
• If someone gives you a solid ‘no’, they’re telling you something. The good news is that whether someone is on your organic outreach list or not, they’ll still hear from you through automatic value adds.
Whew! I think we’ve got Organic Personal Outreach covered. Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about the second way to court your leads by building trust and rapport.
Automatic Value Adds
This is not groundbreaking news to you, I’m sure.
But, it’s essential that you share consistent, authentic, actionable content with everyone on your mailing list. Truly, this one tool catapulted my business revenue and reputation like nothing else.
Here’s what I mean:
Consistent: You’ll see better results when you send content out on a rhythm. So, rather than emailing your list twice a week for 6 weeks sharing a highly produced video and then burning out and disappearing for a month, set the bar low so you can stay consistent.
If you’re new to content sharing, I’d begin with two emails per month to your list because consistency trumps frequency any day of the week.
Authentic: Don’t make the mistake I made early on, which was to be The Professor. I thought that the more professional I was, the more impressed people would be. The more impressed people would be, the more quickly they’d hire me.
That worked… a bit.
But when I started to pull back the curtain and infuse my personality into my content, I experienced a remarkable increase in requests to hire me. I also felt more connected to my tribe in general. Today, one of the most common pieces of feedback I get from people who inquire about working with me is that they feel I’m easy to talk to and they trust me.
That’s because they know me and they see me practicing public imperfection a lot. I let my tribe see the real me and I share stories about my successes and my failures.
Actionable: It’s important to insure that the content you share is actionable rather than overwhelming. What a relief! It means your content can be short and simple. Share one idea at a time, break that idea into simple steps, and invite engagement or action.
Again, if I had to name just one action in my business that’s made the biggest impact, it would be sharing consistent, authentic, actionable content with my list.
I haven’t always done it perfectly, but I’ve always made progress. And it’s the progress, not perfection that matters most.
Let’s have a quick reminder about how you can share consistent, valuable content:
• Weekly blogs or vlogs: Write a simple article or shoot a quick video. Upload it to your blog and email a preview of the post plus a link to see the whole thing to your list.
• Daily emails: I’m going to credit Seth Godin with originating this strategy. But the basic idea is to email a quick and easy tip, thought, or resource out to your list five days per week. These emails should be brief and simple. They should also ignite engagement.
Whether it’s monthly, weekly, or daily, wrap your emails up with a call to action such as these:
• Give this tip a try and shoot me an email to let me know how it goes.
• What do you think? Are you up for the challenge? Click reply and tell me when you’ll dive in so I can hold you accountable.
• Do you have a question about how this works? Shoot me an email and ask away. I’ll be sure to reply.
• Can I help you customize this process? Click here to book a free call with me.
• Facebook Group: leveraging the popularity of Facebook to create a home base for your tribe can create an extraordinary sense of connection and community. I launched my Facebook group back in October and I’ve seen how it has deepened the connection my members feel to me and to each other.
If you’re going to host a Facebook group, consider these tips:
• Host a weekly Facebook Live session
• Create daily theme posts designed to ignite engagement
• Post your own content daily
• Post shout outs and welcomes to members
• Drive members to your lead magnets to move them from your group to your mailing list. You never know when Facebook might disappear 🙂
Okay, let’s summarize…
If you want a full and thriving coaching practice, you’ve got to put a simple system in place to stay connected with those leads who come in that just need a bit more time before they’re ready to work together. When you do, you won’t have to work so hard to bring in fresh leads because you’ll have an entire community of people who trust you and who’ll invest when the timing is right. Be sure to share your thoughts over in the Coaches on a Mission Facebook Group.
