Thinking of becoming a life coach, or maybe you already are and wondering how to get clients as a life coach? You’re not alone!
Becoming a life coach is a potentially rewarding and profitable career path, and if you’re a life coach you might feel both excited and intimidated when growing your business.
Helping others transform their lives is thrilling! But finding the people to help – aka marketing and growing your life coaching business – might feel overwhelming or confusing.
Keep reading for 8 ways to get clients as a life coach.
How You Get Qualified
While there are certifications and formal qualifications you can get, I don’t necessarily recommend you start out that way. The best way to establish yourself isn’t always getting a certificate – it’s about getting results for your clients.
Often with life coaching, your avatar (the person you serve) is a former version of yourself. Personal events in life that rattle you can make you reevaluate long standing ideas about yourself, family and relationships. It’s a rewarding journey that starts with being uncomfortable and finding your own solutions.
In my own journey for example, I had experience with going to therapy, hiring coaches for my blog, and hiring coaches for my coaching business. I also developed my own processes for optimizing these areas of my life, and it’s something I’m passionate about sharing.
How To Qualify As A Life Coach
So what qualifies you as a life coach? Life.
Ha! But seriously, anything that you have experience getting to the other end of, transforming or conquering is something that you can teach someone else. The experiences I had gave me a vast depth of life coaching knowledge because I navigated my own circumstances so successfully.
There are all different levels of life coaches. Ranging from someone with a little more knowledge who sells simple $7 courses and offers coaching calls as a $25 up sell to the person who is officially certified with a Masters in their field.
A Word About Mindset
Whatever end of the spectrum you are on, don’t ever doubt your value. The only thing that qualifies you as a life coach is your personal experience and its ability to help someone else along in their journey that is just a little behind where you once were.
There are 2 main types of life coaches. Guides who are a little more ahead than you are on a similar path, and more traditionally educated coaches who have more specialized knowledge. Typically the more specialized the knowledge, the more high end the coaching will be and the bigger transformation it will provide to your client.
How To Get Clients As A Life Coach
Getting clients as a life coach will have some similarities to getting clients as any type of coach.
1: Nail Down Your Niche
And the first step to knowing how to get clients as a life coach is going to be to have a very clearly defined niche.
I know, I know. I probably sound like a broken record because I talk about this a lot. But even now as time has gone on this has become more and more clear as I watch more and more clients struggle with making money.
If you want to get more clients and grow your business, you are going to have to narrow down your niche. It seems counterproductive to cut out potential clients, but trust me- they are not qualified clients.
By niching down you are clearly identifying who you can best help. This means you can find your ideal client faster, But it also means that they will be able to find you faster.
2: Tell People What You Do
Now that you have a clearly defined niche, you know exactly how you can help people. Now you have to let people know what you do!
If you asked your friends what you do for a living, would they be able to tell you? As an entrepreneur selling your services, if your friends don’t know what you do they can’t recommend you. Word of mouth is powerful.
My first launch for my new brand was based on a simple post with no email campaign and a super duper small email list. And it was successful for one major reason: people already knew what I did. Not only that, but they trusted me as a resource of information in that field.
So when I was ready to sell myself, people already knew what I had to offer and jumped on the chance to hire me.
3: Start Building Your List
I know you want to get clients as a life coach as fast as possible, but most of your clients down the line are not going to be people who found you and hired you right away.They are going to be people that you nurtured over a period of time through social media and email campaigns.
Algorithms on social media change though. It can be endlessly frustrating trying to stay on top of the rules and what each platform chooses to show when because of… what did I do wrong again?
This is why email lists are so critical.Your email list is your forever. You own it. You could even sell it if you wanted to. But it is one of the most valuable resources you have as someone trying to sell and get clients as a life coach.
Create A Free Offer
To get someone’s email address, you have to offer them something first. Most poeple will not give it away from free anymore.
So the first thing I have my clients do is to create a free offer that you can use to encourage people to give up their email addresses.
Get An Email Tool
I use Mailerlite because it is simple and user friendly, and free for a list under 1000 which is usually just fine when you are new. (And remember, it does NOT take a big list to have BIG sales.)
Once you have your email tool you can create an opt in form to add to your website that will allow people to opt in for your free offer once they enter their email address. Then you can campaign to them whenever you are launching.
Make sure to set up a welcome email series so new subscribers get used to seeing your name in their inbox. It will help them remember you more.
Make A Popup
Opt in forms are great, but my personal experience is that a popup with an opt in form always well out performs a simple form on the bottom or top of the page. Create a popup. Even if some consumers are annoyed by them, they work effectively in the beginning when you are building your list.
4: Get Social
If you want to get clients as a life coach, you need to get personable and show up. Pick a social media platform or two and be consistent. This is a place for you to show up, show your personality, let people get to know you, build trust and establish visibility and authority.
Let’s be clear. I am not telling you to sell yourself online. Please don’t think I’m telling you to post on your Facebook page and beg people to buy something from you, ending up with your weird aunt as an unqualified coaching client who really doesn’t need you.
Show up on social media as you, be yourself and be open about what you do. Join Facebook groups that are relevant to your niche, or groups where you know your ideal clients are and show up for them there. Answer questions and provide value.
Social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Linked, is a place for you to start neutral, non salesy conversations with potential clients. You can vet them before a sales call just by getting to know them in a neutral space.
5: Offer Value First
Your mission as a life coach is to change lives. You have special knowledge that other people need to be able to experience the transformation they have been waiting for. As coaches, we are not motivated by money but by the belief that we can help other people in a way we once needed it ourselves.
6: Don’t Take, But Give
Always lead with what you can bring to the table, and not what you can take. This is a good rule of thumb to have in life in general, not just life coaching. Lead with value, answer questions and establish free offers to help bring people in and build your life.
Offering value first builds trust. It also establishes credibility. You can talk about how much you help people all day, but if they can get a snippet of knowledge from you that makes a difference for them, that’s the best sales letter you can write.
7: Offer A Quick Win
One of the best testimonials I have is not even from a one on one coaching client. It was one coaching call. One hour of solid, specific feedback. She took the advice I gave her. All of it. And it changed her life. Fast.
This is really an exceptional case. But I talk a lot about quick wins in my coaching business. It’s hard to keep busting your butt when you can’t see the results. The long game is worth it when you are building your brand and SEO. But it can be demotivating.
Quick wins give people motivation to keep going. It will not only make them more successful because they will be more likely to be motivated to be a “finisher.” But every quick win is a vote of confidence to continue with your guidance as a life coach.
Offer quick win tips on sales calls, in comments on social media and in day to day conversation when people ask for your input.
8: Learn How To Say No
Being a life coach can be draining. It takes a lot of energy to be supportive to someone who is going through a transformation in their lives and needs a lot of support. Being a life coach takes creative energy to meet people’s needs.
So you can’t take on every client. And if you take on the wrong client, then someone who needs you or who you may have truly been able to help might not get a chance to work with you.
It’s okay to say no.You are doing what is best for yourself, but also for the client who you turn down. They will be helped better by a coach that they mesh better with.
Accelerate Your Client List
Learning how to say no is challenging, and something that a newbie should seek guidance on.
As a serial course buyer and someone who has a coach at all times for something in my life, I am a huge advocate for the power of having someone else tell you what to do. When things are overwhelming or seem like too much, having someone else break down your goals into manageable tasks for you can bring you to success from failure.
In my Monetization Accelerator for coaches, I specialize in quick wins and teaching you the tools to monetize your business fast and efficiently.
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