In March, and please don’t shoot me down for this - coaches are not immune to stupidity either - I worked out I’d spent 40 hours delivering free consultations and 37 hours travelling to said consultations.
Like I said, I’m not immune to stupidity!
Anyhow.
With this information, I gave up on coaching "part time" and being bloody exhausted, and moved to working smarter not harder.
Thing #1 Happened
I reduced my 90-minute “consultation” down to a 30-minute Diagnostic Call which is carried out remotely and via Zoom.
Hey presto, I can do 3 times as many consultations, and I no longer have to travel anywhere unless I choose to.
“Why didn’t you do this before?!” I hear you cry. Well a) I’m stupid and b) I used to do short calls, drifted into longer consults, and now I’ve gone back to shorter calls again. Reviewing and updating your processes is essential as a coach.
Then Thing #2 Happened
During shorter diagnostic calls, I get to the root of the problem quicker. I did this by no longer "coaching" prospective clients on the consultation or I keep it to the barest minimum (that happens during coaching duh!) and...I started pitching higher-ticket coaching programs.
Given that I was clearer on my prospects’ problems it made it easier to recommend a coaching programme with conviction.
As opposed to half solving prospects’ problems during a longer consultation.
We were focussed on what was stopping my prospective client from moving forward (normally investing in themselves, time and energy commitments etc). In removing those blockages they could now see the value in coaching and what it can do for them and their business.
As a result Thing #3 Happened
My conversion rate went up from 1 in 5 to 1 in 3. Boom!!
I was then able to focus on increasing my coaching fees now that my conversion rate had increased. Then the cycle of process improvements starts again to look for the next efficiency saving and improve the experience for my clients further.
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