You might be getting tired of me pointing out mistakes coaches make. The only reason I do is because it is how everyone learns best. You make a mistake then you learn a better way.
So, today’s highlighted mistake is … putting too much distance between yourself and your future coaching clients by having everything automated on your website and beyond. I see this all the time and it makes me a bit sad.
There is a belief out there that you want your website and business to require little of you. Pour most of your energy into your clients and little into getting them. Market in an automated way, enroll in an automated way — for goodness sake don’t do anything manually until they pay for your services.
While it’s good to look at ways to reduce labor, pick your spots strategically because some things should not be circumvented.
Let me explain.
Who Wants a Free Call with a Coach?
I was reviewing a client’s website the other day and the web designer had stuck a button on her website saying CLICK HERE FOR A FREE DISCOVERY CALL. That wasn’t in our plan.
Seems like a good idea, right? Wrong.
You have to ask yourself … does anyone know they want a Discovery Call? Unless they are a coach themselves your web visitor isn’t going to know what a Discovery Call is. And what would motivate someone to have one? The short answer to that is trust which takes time to build.
The same goes for a free sample coaching session. By the way, I advise coaches that once they’re past coach training its time to graduate away from giving free sample coaching sessions.
Timing Matters on Websites and In Web Visitor’s Minds
Now, this button I just mentioned is the sort of thing I might have done years ago before I knew a secret … people do NOT jump at a chance to get a free call when the invitation is unceremoniously timed.
The offer of a free call at the wrong time can feel like asking someone to meet your parents when you’ve just had your first date.
If you offer a free Discovery Call in exactly the right moment and in exactly the right way, they WILL want it.
I’ve talked before about the Customer Journey before and how important it is that it’s strategized for the best possible outcome – that they hire you! Listen to my episode called To Attract More Coaching Clients Plan Your Prospect’s Journey to You. You can find that at prosperouscoach.com/69.
So sure, if you’re selling a great new concept in shoes and you put an ad up on Instagram someone might get excited by that, click the button and want fewer clicks to purchase it.
But if you’re selling something far more subtle and complicated like coaching services that approach will likely result in no clients and no income for you.
You must work to build trust in the minds of your future coaching clients. They need to feel good about you before they get on a call. And that will take some of your personal time.
Automation circumvents steps. Coaches should not skip the relationship building steps! Right? Because the coaching relationship is co-creative and fit is critical.
Include some high touch (or personalized) moments in your customer journey at just the right time.
Years ago a client who had just hired me for my VIP program said she appreciated my personal response to her application. That was the email where I invited her to a Discovery Call. She said she felt no connection to 3 other business coaches because everything was automated. And other people said the same thing.
That was eye opening to me. I began looking for strategic places where I could interject a higher touch in my enrollment process. I didn’t go overboard but what I did made the difference for the exact type of people I most like to work with.
Sure, a personalized email takes a bit of time. But I’ve been on the other side of that cold automation and I know it made doubt grow in me with every impersonal moment. That kept me from enrolling in other people’s programs.
There’s a time and place for automation.
Many web designers and a lot of coaches who decide to design their own websites haven’t studied what works and what doesn’t. They do things for the design aspect not for the outcome.
Keep yourself from doing things just because you think it looks good on somebody else’s website. Do things because they work. And remember, the way something flows can make or break the conversion process — the earned trust that inspires enrollment.