Today’s guest post comes to you from one of my favorite clients: Barb Wade, The Coaches Coach.  I have been working with Barb on her upcoming Virtual Event.

Barb has invited 22 highly-sought-after guest experts to reveal ALL of their client attraction and sales secrets in a 100% FREE VIRTUAL MASTERY COURSE – the first of its kind!

The “Get-To-Yes Formula” Mastery Course is a two-week virtual event from January 18th, 2012 through Feb 1st, 2012.  You won’t want to miss this!  The lineup of speakers that Barb has for this event and the information they will be sharing will be a valuable resource not only to coaches but any service professional wanting to attract clients and increase sales.

Instead of just telling you about the event, I thought I’d let you get to know Barb a bit better through a guest post. Happy reading! And I hope you’ll join us during The “Get-To-Yes Formula” Mastery Course.

Barb Wade: 5 Easy Ways To Start Enrolling New Clients NOW

As most coaches know, the bridge between a potential new client’s interest and their actually signing on to coach with you is always some kind of a powerful exploratory conversation.  There’s nothing that comes close to the intimacy that is created when you speak voice-to-voice with a potential client, exploring the tremendous cost of the problems they’re facing, and demonstrating that your guidance and expertise will solve their challenges and help them truly create the life or career that they dream of.

I call these sessions “Strategy Sessions” or “Discovery Sessions,” and again, they’re a first hand opportunity for your potential client to feel heard and understood, and to begin to have some hope that you can truly guide them to change their situation.  This is why, after such an empowering conversation, coaches are often successful at enrolling their potential client into one of their paid coaching programs.

So naturally, generating these initial, exploratory conversations is crucial.  Here are 5 ways to easily and naturally invite potential clients from your ideal target market into such a conversation.

  1. Personal Invitation – It’s likely that you know people personally within your community or circle of social relationships whom you know are suffering and whom you could help.  There’s nothing wrong with reaching out and making a personal offer of a strategy session to such a contact, especially if it is heartfelt.
  2. Networking – Too often coaches attend networking events and simply exchange cards with people.  If there is someone you meet whom you know needs what you offer, there’s no reason not to offer that person a strategy session on the spot, or at least to follow up with such an offer later that day.
  3. Public Speaking – It’s ideal to look for public speaking opportunities, as they get you in front of multiple potential prospects at once.  When you’ve got such an opportunity, it’s wise to offer a limited number of one-on-one strategy sessions from the front of the room as a “follow up,” and again, explain to the audience how they might apply.
  4. Tele-seminar – This is where you design and promote a free tele-seminar on a topic of genuine interest to your target market.  Then, during the call you offer a limited number of one-on-one strategy sessions and explain how your listeners can apply.  Assuming that they’re impressed with the content of your free call, you should see a good percentage requesting private time with you.
  5. Email – If you have been amassing a mailing list of supporters and prospects from your ideal target market, you can do a targeted “email campaign” and offer a limited number of one-on-one strategy sessions to this list.  Assuming that most of these people have been following you for a while, those who like most what you have offered thus far will jump at the chance for private time with you.

The bottom line is that conversations turn into clients.  Don’t be afraid to use your imagination to come up with intriguing and even unexpected ways to invite potential clients to talk with you further.  They can’t say “yes” if you don’t offer!

Barb Wade, M.A. specializes in teaching Coaches to create thriving, 6-figure practices in under 20 hours a week!  For a FREE “How To Get Clients” BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH KIT just for Coaches, visit http://www.BarbWade.com