One Technique To Boost Sales All Health Coaches Should Use

During your health coach training, you learned a ton about health and nutrition.

While you now have a breadth of knowledge about food and wellness, I’m guessing that your training didn’t include how to offer your health coaching services to potential clients.

While anyone can make an offer for their programs and services, the most successful coaches know that there’s an art and science to successful selling.

Before we go on…I realize that thinking about “selling” might make you uncomfortable.

I understand.

When you started your health coaching business, you likely had dreams of helping people to achieve their health and wellness goals, not of becoming a superstar saleswoman.

But part of having a successful health coaching business is learning how to “sell” in a way that makes people eager to work with you.

After all, if no one is signing up to work with you, you aren’t reaching your ultimate goal of improving the health and wellness of others…or creating a revenue stream that allows you to make a living doing the work you love.

So, as you read this post, I ask you to put aside those icky feelings you have about the word “selling”.

Instead, think of selling as making an offer to work with you in an effective and strategic way.

There are many tactics that go into successful selling and one of my favorite techniques to boost sales is offering something called “upsells” and “downsells”.

Upsells and downsells serve different purposes in your business, but they both give your clients options to work with you at the level they feel comfortable with. And they both give you the opportunity to generate more income from the leads you’re working so hard to get.

Today I’m going to go over what upsells and downsells are, when to use them, and how to help more people and generate more income for your business using this technique to boost sales.

What are upsells?

An upsell is when you offer a client additional services or support, beyond what they’ve already signed up for.

Upsells give you the opportunity to offer more options, more support, and more value to your clients – not to mention better results!

And they give you the opportunity to earn more revenue from your existing clients as opposed to constantly searching for new clients.

To highlight how this works, I’m going to use one of the most common upsell examples: making an offer for one-on-one coaching after a client has completed a cleanse program.

In this example, your client has gone through your short cleanse program. They’ve experienced great results, they’re feeling better than they have in a while and you’ve begun to build a great relationship with them.

But your client knows that they can easily get off track and undo the progress they’ve made if they don’t have the right ongoing support.

This is the perfect time to let them know about your one-on-one coaching services.

When you use this tactic you’ll have existing clients continue their work with you, bringing you more revenue without having to find new clients.

It’s a win-win for you and your client that needs more support.

Other examples of upsells could be:

• A VIP day
• Additional support during a cleanse, such as one-on-one calls
• An exercise program in addition to the diet they just purchased
• An in-person event
• Supplements, essential oils, or health products

What are downsells?

Now you may be thinking, “upsells sound great, Amy! But what if I’m not at the point where people are ready for more support? What if I’m still struggling to get clients to say ‘yes’ to working with me.”

This is where downsells come into play.

A downsell is used when a potential client has declined an offer to work with you.

Downsells are all about offering another way for the potential client to work with you. When you don’t get the client enrolled in the program you were originally offering, you give them a lower-touch, lower-priced way to work with you.

In your health coaching business, a downsell could be:

• A group program instead of one-on-one coaching
• An ebook or other resource instead of a group program

Let’s say you’re talking to a lead about signing up for one-on-one coaching. You’ve had a discovery call, they seem interested, but they tell you there is no way they can afford the investment right now.

You could leave it right there and accept that this lead won’t become your client.

Or you could tell her about your group cleanse. Explain that she’ll get a lot of your advice and guidance, as well as recipes and a meal plan. Tell her it’s a great way she can start getting results right away for only $97.

Making the downsell offer in this case gives you a much better chance of getting a client to start working with you in some capacity.

Downsells are great for two reasons.

1. They allow you to earn a bit of income from the potential client you worked so hard to get.

2. A downsell gives a potential client the option to ‘dip their toe in’ to working with you and see what you’re all about. They’ll experience great results from your lower priced offer and they’re now more likely to want to invest in one of your higher-priced programs in the future.

Here’s why: The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20 percent (stat source). It’s easier to sell to an existing customer – someone who has already expressed trust and an interest in you and your offerings.

So if you can get a client to commit to work with you, even if it’s on a downsell, they’re more likely to become a loyal, repeat client in the future. Once they’ve purchased one program, your job is to continue to give them options to work with you.

 
Using upsells and downsells in your health coaching business is a great way to get the most out of all the time you’re spending finding potential clients.

It’s also a tactic that will allow you to increase your bottom line without constantly spinning your wheels looking for new clients.

Best of all, you’re giving your clients and potential clients the support they need, wherever they are in their journey to health and wellness.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
How do you see using the upsell/downsell technique in your health coaching business?