Have you ever asked your new clients …
How did you find me?
What specifically attracted you to working with me?
When I ask those questions, I get a clear confirmation that I’m doing the right things to attract clients who are ideal for me. My customer journey is working!
Early in my business I did not ask those questions and I didn’t have any kind of a customer journey. I wasn’t thinking strategically. I did anything I could to enroll any type of client at any price. And that’s where I was developmentally in my business. I’ve learned a lot since then.
Future clients become your current clients, so it’s important to think through what you can do today and every day to keep a pipeline of future clients flowing to you.
Develop a customer journey that nurtures people in your audience and gets the most ideal for you among all of them 100% ready to hire you.
Create a Profitable, Sustainable and Enjoyable Coaching Business Now
I’ve been reflecting on the difference between how I operate in my business now and how I did in my first years.
Then, I was throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick.
- I’d try any tactic to attract any client.
- I enrolled any client I could get.
- I’d invest in any training program that tugged at my scarcity thinking.
Now, before I take any action, I carefully consider what is right for me and what is right for my ideal clients.
Who do I most want to work with? This is my Avatar description continuously getting refined.
What is the scope of work I want to offer? What do I not want to do anymore?
What’s the best schedule for me?
What do I want to earn?
And I understand my audience so well that I can keep in mind what’s best for them as I answer these questions.
Could I have operated like that from the get go? Maybe not. But I think YOU can. You are further ahead than I was when I started. And you have mentors like me to help you get where you want to go.
There is a key mindset shift needed — to value your time highly in every little and big way. And there’s a shift in approach —to put strategy behind every action you take that fits your audience and offers.
I want you to have a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business from the get go. You can do it! And that’s where developing your customer journey comes in.
What is a Customer Journey?
It is a strategically thought-out system with 4 steps for your target audience:
- Raise Awareness
- Provide Value
- Inspire Engagement
- Enroll Them with Ease
This is what I help my VIP clients create. One step primes the next, which gets your ideal clients primed to hire you. Rather than repeatedly pushing them to buy in ads or posts, you connect the dots between you and them. It’s this lovely little journey.
I just have to say, it’s so wonderful when you don’t have to be salesy in a Discovery Call — when your potential client comes to that call already certain they want to hire you. They understand that you understand them and they see you can help them get where they want to go.
You customer journey would have these key pieces in it:
- a content strategy, such as a weekly podcast episode or videos — something with value in it
- a social media channel or other methods to get the word out about your content and build a network with your audience
- a client-winning website (see episode 42 to learn more about this)
- and a long-term Signature Program (see episode 59 to learn how to create your Signature Program)
That wonderful combination of things really helps you to create the structure for your customer journey. And the rest of your journey is really about the message you create for your clients. All of your messaging is congruent covering the essential points that are important to your clients.
Think Like Your Ideal Coaching Clients
The secret to creating an effective customer journey (and doing anything in your business) is teaching yourself to think like your ideal clients.
What is the ultimate outcome they are seeking?
For example, as a new coach your ultimate goal is to earn well doing transformational work with your clients.
What is the BIG outcome that your audience wants?
What BIG problems are in the way of that ultimate outcome that motivate your audience to actively seek solutions? They have to be actively seeking of they won’t find you. Listen to episode 65 for more about this.
The BIG problem that motivates new coaches to begin seeking solutions I can help them with is to help them niche in a smart way.I can help coaches with so much more than that, but their niche is often the front door they go through to find me.
What are the BIG problems you help your clients overcome?
What helps your audience trust you?
It’s always going to be relevance and credibility. It’s why I encourage coaches to target an audience like them (like they are now or have been) and develop their niche around challenges they’ve come through on the way to their big goal.
Do you know what will help your audience trust you and follow you?
Now take this information about yourself and your audience and start to weave it together to create your customer journey. This may take some time. It may not be something you can do in a day or a week. It’s something you need to sit with and develop.
Schedule some time away from working in your business — with clients and doing social posts. Get a 30-thousand-foot view then start to zoom in. Connect the dots between you and your clients first contact with you to nurture them all the way through after that.
Here are 5 more questions to help you develop your customer journey.
- What is the best first contact my ideal clients could have with me?
- What the best medium for delivering content each week to my audience?
- Where can I build up my network of people in my audience and point them to my content?
- What words and processes need to be on my website to engage them more deeply?
What can I do to prime my ideal clients to hire me without being salesy?