This is the first episode in a new series that I’m doing called Smart Mindsets and Systems. There’s a ton of juicy stuff that’s going to be in this series.
Now, in this session we’re going to dig into something that I know is critical and also difficult for a lot of people — how to actually enroll clients.
How can you enroll coaching clients in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re selling?
How can you enroll authentically while standing in your power with ease and grace?
When I shifted to this method of enrolling, it improved my enrollment success rate. I’ve taught this to every coach that I worked with. It takes a little bit of practice, but it’s not hard.
It’s much easier than giving a free sample coaching session!
We’re going to get down into it in just a minute. This session is sponsored by my own free offer to you.
I want you to have this cheat sheet that walks you through 10 Steps to Enroll More Clients Fast!
You’ll find this cheat sheet really helpful and it also includes some of the secrets I’ll share with you in this episode.
Have you ever choked when it came time to tell a potential client your fees?
This is where discovery sessions often go astray because you’re shifting a conversation that’s more connective with your potential client to suddenly trying to tell them what you charge and why it’s worth it.
Have you spent hours delivering your best sample sessions only to hear “Thanks, but I can’t afford you”?
Those two problems are big for new coaches. You’re not alone in that. I struggled mightily at this once upon a time.
If you want to dramatically improve your enrollment into coaching programs, there’s a different that inspires prospects to say YES and hire you.
3 Shifts to Enroll More Coaching Clients
There are three shifts you can make right now that will ease the money conversation and the whole enrollment process in your discovery sessions.
Shift from: Over delivering in introductory or sample session
Shift to: Having more effective enrollment conversations
Shift from: Stumbling into your pitch at the end of the session
Shift to: Being transparent from the get go that you’re enrolling
Shift from: Timidly asking for the sale
Shift to: Confidently owning your worth
Something clicks internally when you believe in yourself. It seems hard to do, but it is something you can control.
A Powerful Mindset Shift
I’m sure you’ve heard how important it is in life — in business with your clients, with your friends and family — to stand in your power.
This is something I’ve been challenged with in my life. So I’ve made a study of it. That’s my Teacher Archetype coming in there.
Everyone fears rejection when asking for significant fees. You start wondering, “Who am I to think that I can help this client and why would they pay me well for coaching?”
That thought form can take over your mind.
The trick is to notice your feelings and thoughts, then take a moment to notice it and turnaround your thinking.
Those types of fears stem from two main things.You’re forgetting to own your innate gifts. It’s as if you haven’t taken ownership of all the talents and gifts you bring to the table.
If you’re a new coach who might be thinking: “Well, I’m new, so that means I’m not that good.” But that’s just not true.
Own everything you bring to the table!
Flip Your Mindset
Blow off that mindset about being a new coach.
Instead of looking for the proof of your worth in other people, know that you are inherently valuable. You wouldn’t be listening to me if a part of you didn’t already know that.
Decide right now to own your gifts!
And please know I am not talking about arrogance here. I’m not talking about strutting around thinking you’re better than everyone. It’s about being at peace with who you are and living the power of your essence, your integrity and your humanity.
It’s super magnetic.
The Power Pose
A quick tip to be able to access your personal power at any time. It’s a little physical exercise and here’s what you do:
Stand up
Feel your feet
Sense your spine
Find your center
Breathe
Try it now. Just stand up, spread your feet apart a bit and access your personal power in connection with everything else.
Let’s say you’re about to get onto a call with a prospect, why not just take a moment and do the power pose? Then have your enrollment call.
Feeling powerful in your skin goes a long way to helping you become a master at enrolling your clients.
Seeding Co-Creativity and Choice in Your Potential Coaching Clients
So now let’s talk about how to empower your potential clients and detach from outcome.
Now that you’re in connection with your personal power, simply enjoy the human being that you’re talking to. I feel so honored that I get to meet amazing human beings in my discovery sessions.
When you put your focus on enjoying them, it’s as if the spotlight comes off of you.
The other thing that seeds co-creativity and empowers your prospects is to set fees that pay you well and then stand firm in them.
I find that a lot of my new coaching clients are charging subsistence fees that are never going to help them make a good living as a fulltime coach.
What about you? Are you charging subsistence fees?
My guess is that you are thinking that that’s all you’re worth. Or, because you haven’t done something — certified, coached a lot — you feel that you have to keep low fees.
The truth is you haven’t started enrolling clients at higher fees yet because you haven’t asked for them.
$50 to $100 US per hour (convert to your currency) may seem like a lot if you’re working for a company with benefits. But as a entrepreneurial coach, you have marketing and website expenses plus health insurance and higher taxes to pay all out of your own pocket.
All of these considerations should go into how you set your fees. And I don’t even want you to think in terms of dollars per hour for your fees. (I’ll cover fees in more depth in another episode.)
Right now, if you know you’re charging too little, double, triple or even quadruple your fees. Just do it and then stand firm. The more that you charge higher fees, the easier it’ll get for you to attract excellent clients.
Trust that your IDEAL clients will afford your fees.
An interesting thing happens when you show up this way — enjoying the human being you intend to enroll, having set fees that pay you well and trusting that your ideal clients will afford you … clients feel that power and they step into their own power.
And so, for the highest good of all, your prospects feel at choice and choose from their highest self.
If you make concessions to enroll a client, you unwittingly disempower yourself and your prospect.
Take that in.
If your prospect does hire you because you discounted a fee for them, then your professional relationship begins out of balance. It is not co-creative.
Anytime that I have done that in the past, the client ends up becoming a burden.
Have you ever felt that a client has become a burden? It’s not a good feeling, right?
They’re not showing up enough because you’re carrying them and then you will resent the relationship and how hard you have worked for so little.
So you see that your fees are not just a pragmatic choice. And it’s not a choice about how experienced a coach you are or your money issues. This is really about integrity. It’s about the health and wellbeing of your relationship with your clients.
Attachment Stunts Your Growth
Attachment stops the flow of prosperity.
Let’s say you become attached to enrolling a potential client. Your expectation builds. And then if you don’t reach that outcome, then disappointment breeds and becomes toxic.
Detachment is seeing what is as perfection and that is freeing.
Do set intentions to achieve the things that you want. While you’re enrolling a potential client, if you feel they are a good fit, think to yourself: “For the highest of all, I’d really like to work with this client.”
Then, let it go.
Literally, open your hands and let go of attachment. Let the energy dissipate. Acknowledge what went well and aim for continuous improvement in your enrollment skills.
Whether potential client says ‘yes’ or ‘no’ neither diminishes nor elevates you.
Just bless their decision and bless yourself and move on. That signals the Universe that you’re serious about your success and it pays off in the short run.
Hold Back the Goods During Discovery Sessions
Do not coach or problem solve during enrollment conversations. That muddles what the discovery session is meant to be.
Why? Primarily, because they have not paid you yet.
If you were taught to do sample coaching sessions by your coach training school, know that the reason schools have you do that as a student is to get you out there having coaching experiences.
Now that you are not a student anymore and you are the CEO of your own coaching business, enroll clients in a professional way.
Sample coaching sessions are not set up well for enrolling clients at fees that pay you well. Here’s why:
- They don’t uncover what prospects want in the long term that would inspire deeper investment for real value.
- They tend to focus in on one bite size issue and they leave prospects feeling complete without the desire for more. Prospects are not hooking on because they don’t perceive a longer arc in what you can help them achieve.
- Lastly, giving free sample sessions keeps you in the newbie frame of mind and offering session by session or monthly services for low fees.
So what do you do in a Discovery Session to enroll a client? That’s where my free cheat sheet comes in …
These steps will keep you out of the coaching role with prospects. They set you up for success because you are transparent from the get go about what’s going to happen in the session.
There’s no shock when you get towards the end of the session and tell your prospect about your program and your fees. They’re ready for it. They know it’s going to happen.
This step by step enrollment process works for any coach.
How to Earn More and Work Less
This enrollment process and the mindsets that go with it work beautifully with higher ticket programs.
But you’ll need to set your business up with a strong foundation for it to work for you:
- Target one unique viable audience that fits your specialty or build your niche around that audience and what they want so much, they’ll pay you well to get your help to achieve it. (This is your coaching niche!)
- Make your brand, messaging, marketing, website and offers congruent with your niche.
- Stop selling coaching. (Listen to Episode called Why is Coaching a Hard Sell?)
Your business could look like mine if you take these 3 steps. And that’s what I teach my clients.
- I only need to work with 20 – 30 clients per year to earn really well.
- I market very little to attract all of my clients.
- I earn a lot because I deliver high value in a longer term package
- My overhead is very low.
- I only work with clients 3 days each week.
- Most months I have a whole week off
If you’d like VIP handholding to become a coach in high demand with a business model like this, let’s work together. Try me out with a Strategy Session and we’ll go from there.
The Next Episode is called How to Stop Saying Yes to Bright Shiny Objects.
