How Do I Get Coaching Clients?

I belong to a Facebook group that's full of coaches of all kinds. Many (most?) of them are not our kind of coaches, but some are.

The members of this group write many different kinds of posts, some of which ask questions about coaching techniques and others about client acquisition amongst other things.

One post caught my eye this week because it was clearly from our kind of coach. It said, "I've finished my coach training hours, and I'm working towards 100 coaching hours. How do I get coaching clients?" What felt like the whole world jumped into the thread, offering advice.

The advice ranged from unhelpful to vague.

Unhelpful Client Acquisition Advice

• Talk to as many people as possible about your coaching business - some will want to become clients.
• Coach everyone. Eventually, some will want to become your client.
• Create a YouTube channel and post videos offering good advice.
• Be authentic and genuine in your interactions.
• Connect with as many coaches as you can and watch what they do.
• Join a LinkedIn 'pod' (don't do this - it a) is against LinkedIn's Ts & Cs and b) doesn't work).
• Use Facebook ads to drive traffic to a sound offer (do not spend money on ads until you have a client acquisition funnel that works. Ads amplify what already works, they don't work magic!)
• Just go to Facebook groups and offer your coaching for free.

Vague Client Acquisition Advice

• Choose a financially viable niche, leadership coaching is a good one (could have been valuable, but they conflate a niche with a job title).
• Build rapport with potential clients by talking about successes your current clients have had.
• Make sure you're visible to potential clients.
• Help your potential clients understand that you can help them walk into their true identity.
• Offer a service clients feel is both resonant and relevant, they will hire you for your value.
• Don't 'find' clients, create them.
• Build credibility on Instagram and YouTube highlighting problems and suggesting solutions.

Of course, there are some sound answers, although interestingly, they don't seem to get the interest or engagement that some of the less helpful ones do.

Practical, Helpful Client Acquisition Advice

I suppose that having given this article the title "How Do I Get Coaching Clients" I ought to give you some practical and useful advice ??

1. All effective marketing is focused. Choose a target audience (or a niche they're the same thing) for your marketing.
2. Make sure the niche you choose is financially viable. You cannot build a coaching business by coaching people who cannot afford to pay you.
3. Choose a target audience that has a problem that coaching can resolve.
4. Double down on this problem and the repercussions it has in the lives of the people grappling with it.
5. Curate an audience of people who look like your target audience.
6. Empathise with the problem they have. Reassure them that the problem is solvable.
7. Be visible to them consistently on and offline.
8. Stick at it - if it was possible to build a 6-figure business in 90 days, we'd all have one!
9. Surround yourself with supportive, knowledgeable people.

And finally a hard truth - if you don't have paying clients, you have a hobby, not a business.