How To Get The Number Of Clients
You Want

Sometimes I hear business and marketing experts talking about how earning money from your own business is “just a numbers game”.

This makes me cringe a little because there’s more to it than setting a goal for the number of new clients you want.

Plus, they’re usually talking about numbers that are pretty hard to achieve when you’re just starting out – like having thousands of Instagram followers, or getting millions of views on your website every month, or setting up a sales funnel for your 10,000 email subscribers.

Those numbers might be realistic for some big businesses (that have probably been around for years), but they’re not the numbers I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about getting the number of clients you want.

I think that’s a ‘numbers game’ we can all get excited about!

To get the number of clients you want you don’t have to set up sales funnels or have a big Instagram following or even have a fancy website.

Getting the number of clients you want comes down to booking free consults. Here’s why:

People rarely sign up to work with you straight from your website or a social media post.

Seeing you do a Facebook live might attract someone to want to learn more, but they still need to hear the details of your offer, the benefits of working with you, and what they can expect, before they sign up for a 6-month program.

Plus there’s the “know, like and trust factor”. Beyond the specifics of your offer, they want to know that they will enjoy working with you and that they can trust you.

An initial consultation is the step that gets a new potential client to know, like and trust you. Once you’ve got clients in the initial consult, you can connect with them further and help them decide if your offer is a great fit for them.

The more initial consults you do, the more clients you’ll have.

And – the more initial consults you do, the more you’ll hone your skills, which means you’ll be turning more ‘maybe’s’ into ‘yes’s’!

Here’s where the numbers game comes in:

If you want 4 clients a month, you want to aim to bring in 6-8 free consults per month.

If you want 10 clients a month, aim for 15-20 free consults per month.

Think booking that many free consults is impossible?

Earlier this year I hosted a free challenge for my community to book 3 consults over 5 days and the success rate was astounding! Two people even booked 8! I’ll be hosting the challenge again next month, so stay tuned for more details.

How can you reach these numbers?

After you’ve defined your goal number of clients, there are 3 essential steps to reaching your goal.

#1 Create a compelling offer for your initial consult

In order to motivate people to sign up for your free consultation, it helps to give it an exciting name! Your consult name should help people to figure out what you do and how you help.

It’s common to call a free consult a Strategy Session, Breakthrough Session, or Discovery Session. See – it already sounds more exciting!

You can make it more specific by using words that describe the results people are looking for such as weight loss or fertility.

#2 Use focused marketing strategies

Once you’ve got a great name nailed down for your initial consult, it’s time to start promoting it.

This is the step that a lot of people get stuck on because they overcomplicate it or try to do too many things at once. I recommend picking 1 or 2 proven marketing strategies and sticking to them – because they work!

Post on social media – let your network know about your great offer. Post on your own accounts and your business pages if you have them. (Psst – in the upcoming free challenge I’ll share EXACTLY how to do this. I even have templates to help you write these!)

Networking – if you’re attending networking events with your target audience or potential referral partners, be sure to mention that you do free initial consultations. You can also use ‘organic networking’ to casually share info about your business with people you meet in day to day activities, like dropping your kids off at school or going to a yoga class.

Speaking – giving talks is one of the best ways to get new clients quickly. Every time you give a talk, be sure to make an offer to everyone in attendance to sign up for a free initial consultation so they can start implementing what they learned at your talk.

#3 Learn to close the deal

Sales is a topic that makes most health coaches feel uncomfortable. We never want to feel pushy or salesy. We got into this field to help people, not become salespeople!

But if you can reframe the way you’re looking at ‘sales’, you’ll actually be able to help more people. Here’s what I mean:

In your case as a health coach, your ‘sales’ calls are initial consultations. The right way to lead the initial consult is to focus on the client and being of service to them. You’re learning more about them and sharing how you can help. You’re focused on providing value.

When you’re on these calls, you know how much you can help your potential clients if they choose to work with you. In that sense, if you don’t make an invitation for them to work with you, you’re doing them a disservice.

Closing the deal in an initial consult isn’t about making a pushy sale, it’s about presenting the best solution to your potential client’s problem so they can make the choice to get your help.

What it really means for health coaches is connecting with the people who need your help, and giving them the confidence to say ‘yes’ to doing something for themselves.

Learning how to lead an initial consult in a way that guides the client to the sale will allow you to help more people. The more consults you book, the more practice you’ll have, and the better you’ll get at this skill.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
If you’ve been successful with using initial consultations to book clients, what tips would you share with other coaches? If you’ve struggled with this strategy, where are you getting hung up?