Mindset shifts and techniques to help coaches invite in new clients without being pushy.
Sometimes, I’m surprised that I ever enrolled a coaching client in my first few years as a coach!
I was out there in front of my audience both online and offline. I had a weekly newsletter with a growing list of subscribers. I did public speaking. I hustled.
But for years I never directly invited anyone to hire me.
That seemed too pushy.
I stubbornly believed it’s enough to show up everyday and share my thought leadership. But too few hired me on that alone.
The thing is I knew I was wimping out. I knew I was sabotaging my business. But fear shut me down.
What about you? Are you afraid to ask prospects to hire you? Does it feel too salesy? I get that.
And it will hold you back from what you most want.
You see, people want to be invited. They wait to be invited! Let’s talk about a tasteful way to sell.
Is Your Mindset Holding You Back from Earning as a Coach?
Hey Coaches!
Let’s start with mindset before digging into how to authentically invite people to be your client. Mindset is always the best first place to look for what’s in the way of what you want. That will be true for your clients as well.
I was in the last weeks of my VIP mentoring program with a coach — a super intelligent, gifted person who had mastered everything we collaborated to create for her business.
And now she was prepared to invite her first clients into her Signature Program.
She had met likely candidates — people in her audience who had shared challenges and goals that fit her niche. A perfect opportunity!
I encouraged her to have her first Discovery Call and enroll her first high-ticket client into her business.
Reporting back to me after the conversation, I could immediately tell she was disappointed. She said:
“I didn’t manage to ask if they’d be interested in enrolling.
It felt too salesy and I wasn’t comfortable.”
Of course, I understood. I’d backed away from that tricky moment a dozen times early in my business.
And well, that was the crux of the problem … I BELIEVED it was tricky just to invite a client in.
I anticipated my discomfort and so, of course, I was uncomfortable when the moment came. The thing is, the disappointment I felt in myself after wimping out was far worse than the anticipated discomfort.
And, I think that was true for my client too.
Coaching around it, my client shared exactly what held her back:
- She was afraid of and anticipated a “No”.
- She was afraid of feedback she might get that she didn’t want to hear.
- She was afraid she would make the person feel uncomfortable by asking her to enroll.
All normal fears.
And all limiting beliefs — the kind that, if allowed to control you, will sabotage what you most want — to enroll paying clients, to coach and support others, and to earn well so you can stay in business.
In Episode 293 — listen in — my guest, Cooper Neimand, a coach for college coaches, said:
“Everything I want is on the other side of fear.”
Let that in for a moment. That has the power to take you beyond every anticipated discomfort in your coaching business because I promise you … when you cross that threshold your mind has set up for you as THE BIG SCARY THING, the threshold will disappear.
Flip this over! That scary moment you anticipate is not a real threshold to cross. It is actually a legitimizing moment waiting to happen.
You have the opportunity to make yourself proud by doing THE BIG SCARY THING anyway and expanding your comfort zone.
Selling Should Not Be Salesy or Pushy
Inviting a person to hire you is not salesy. It’s not a performance.
Salesy is pushy. It’s not taking ‘no’ for an answer, which is disrespectful.
Respect the people you are enrolling. Begin each Discovery Call, each invitation, knowing that ‘no’ is not a reflection on you. It’s simply a choice the person has made for themselves. That takes the pressure off of you to perform.
I’m certain you’ve made choices to invest in something and choices not to invest in something. You took agency to do what is right for you. That’s what your prospects will do too.
You want them to be at choice. You want them to take agency. If they say ‘yes’ just to please you, they won’t be a good client for you. They won’t be able to do the work and transform.
Be wary of anyone selling you a technique for getting 100s of sales calls per week where you close the sale every time. That’s a red flag that pushing and intimidating is the approach. I see stuff like this all the time in my LinkedIn messages.
Back when I was desperate to enroll clients, I got onto one of those calls selling sales training demonstrating the pushy technique by trying to get me to buy. I quickly said ‘no thank you’ and the dude shamed me for not buying his program. He said: “You’ll never be successful.” I hung up on him and shook it off. Gross behavior!
You never have to do anything remotely like that!
Believe in the Value You Offer in Your Coaching Program
Replace the belief that you’ll bother someone by inviting them to hire you with the belief that people who resonate will.
Release desperation or the need to enroll a client. (I know you do need to enroll clients but the neediness comes across as negative energy.) Believe that the answer you receive is the right answer.
Believing in what you do and inviting people in your audience to enroll could never be salesy. It’s like inviting people to a party.
Bring a positive and detached energy to the Discovery Call. They will sense your confidence and know there’s no strings attached. You genuinely want to know their answer and won’t assign any meaning to it.
You’ll feel good when you invite people to your party. Your business IS your party! ; )
Be Transparent that Your Discovery Call is About Potential Partnership
It was eye opening for me to realize that selling is not smoke and mirrors.
You can let people know that your Discovery Calls are to asset fit for your program.
My podcast, which is the primary way I provide free value to attract ideal clients, has all 5 stars except for one where the person said something like: “Helpful information for coaches. But beware, she’s trying to sell you something.”
That didn’t bother me. Somewhere along the way that coach will realize that she will need to sell something too if she wants to have paying clients. Putting out weekly valuable content is meant to attract ideal clients.
I don’t invite people to hire me in every episode. But if I didn’t now and then, few would hire me.
When I do ask, ideal clients enroll and the rest do not. That’s okay with me. I don’t need thousands of clients and neither do you. Let’s attract the most ideal clients.
Inviting prospects to hire you is a natural selection process. No push. No convincing. No disrespect. Just giving them a choice while believing your services have value. So good!
Learn How to Enroll Ideal Coaching Clients without Being Salesy
I have a step-by-step method of enrolling that I happily give it away for free. Check out Episode 242 called Enroll More Coaching Clients with Powerful Questions and Without Anxiety. Be sure to grab the free download on the webpage where you can also listen in.
