10 Ways You Are Unknowingly Sabotaging Your Coaching Business (and what to do about it)

(Long read, but will make you money going forward)

1) Your prices are too low, and you’re justifying the price as being on par with “market rates”.

You look at other consultants and charge just above or just below what they are charging, as a way to fit in.

When your prospects see this, they can easily bucket you into the same category as all the other consultants.

Raise your prices.

Become a category of one.

2) You don’t share “how” your process is different and unique.

And when a prospect doesn’t see that, then you continue to fall into mistake number one.

We live in a time where coaches and consultants are promising a dream future, but aren’t talking about their process publicly.

If you don’t have a unique way of doing things, you cannot stand out.

Share your frameworks, IP, models, and the way you do things in public.

3) You take the first sales objection you get on a call as a sign of defeat and failure.

If you hear:

“Let me think about it”

“Let me talk to my partner”

“Circle back with me after Christmas”

“It’s too expensive”

Or any version of these statements…

AND you take that objection as a sign of defeat and give up on the call, it’s on you.

Objections are positive.

Objections mean there is still information that is unknown to you, or unclear to the prospect.

See objections as a sign to explore deeper on the call.

Next time you get an objection, lean in!

4) If you’re on that sales call, and the prospect says “I’m in, let’s do it”, you’re not taking payment and setting them up ON the call.

Every month I hear a consultant tell me they got a new client ON the call…

…but after the call they got ghosted.

The prospect said “I’m in”.

The consultant says “great, I’ll email you the info and we’ll get started”!

And within that there’s a GAP of time where the prospect goes back to their life, and may forget about you.

Next time, onboard them ON the call.

Book your kick off call.

Get them into your portal.

And take payment on the spot.

5) Don’t do any work before you’ve collected payment.

I’ve made this mistake, too.

Out of excitement, you may find yourself doing the work because you got a new client.

A few weeks later you think, “crap, I don’t think I’ve gotten paid yet”.

Let’s just avoid this one going forward.

Collect payment, then begin.

6) You’re spreading your marketing efforts on too many social media platforms.

If you have a podcast, a fb group, a LinkedIn newsletter, a tik tok account, email marketing, Instagram, and you’re still on Clubhouse…

You are spreading your energy too thin!

No wonder why you’re burned out at the end of the week.

If you’re making less than 30k/mo, I firmly believe as a coaching / consulting biz, you don’t need to be on every platform.

Pick one or two social channels that YOU like to be on, and where your prospects like to hang out.

7) You are trying way to hard on a sales call to get your prospect to like you…and you’re secretly solving their problems by coaching them on the spot.

Instead of having the prospect get clear on the pain, clear on the future, and clear on their commitment, you are playing their best friend on the call.

After all, if there was no pain, then there doesn’t need to be a call in the first place. Your prospect is not paying you to be their best friend, they are paying you to solve something that they’ve been struggling with for years, if not decades.

Find THAT problem, make them AWARE on the call…

…but don’t solve it on their call.

Because they will feel like you just solved everything, they will hang up the phone, and next week they’ll still be suffering.

8} You are letting “likes”, comments, and other forms of engagement that aren’t real stop you from publishing and posting more.

“I deleted my post because it only got 3 likes and no comments”.

“I was afraid someone would take it the wrong way”.

“I didn't know how to word it properly”.

The reality is that most social media posts get forgotten about a couple days after they’ve been posted.

So why not post? What’s really on your mind all the time and let that build your credibility and niche in the marketplace.

If you are just posting things to make people happy and memes that get likes, post like that do not generate new business.

Post what you really care about.

Your prospects will see it.

My BEST prospects that spend THE MOST money DO NOT engage with my posts.

Read that again.

Busy people don’t always have time to like and comment on every post…but they are always watching.

9) You’re hanging out with other coaches, in the same space, making the same or less revenue than you.

You should have 3 types of people in your professional circle:

One group that makes less than you, that you can help build up (like others did for you).

One group on par with you, so you can brainstorm challenges together.

One group making more than you, so you can think bigger and create a brighter vision and get out of your own way.

You have to surround yourself with people that make you think bigger, differently, and challenge you to step up.

Being called to play a bigger game is always scary.

But in that fear and unknown is where the next growth of your business is.

Audit your professional circle.

Do you want to be like your friends 5 years from now?

If so, don’t change anything.

If not, make a change.

10) You care too much about what your online friends think of you.

You’re connected to someone on Facebook.

Maybe you’ve met a few times at a conference.

You’re on good terms.

Does that automatically make them your friend?

Or do you give that person more weight than what they might deserve?

The reality is a handful of relationships can completely change your life.

And not everyone you meet actually has your best interest at heart.

So instead of trying to please those people, you might as well do what you want to do.

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If you’re seeing this post, you’ve been blessed to wake up today.

I thank a higher power every morning when my feet touch the floor.

I know what I have. And what I get to do.

My wish for you is the same.