How To Grow Your Coaching Practice [5 figures and beyond]

Have you wondered how to grow your coaching practice?

Have you spent a large time wondering how to fill your business with great clients? Are you restless about growing your coaching business to 5 figures and beyond as soon as possible?

If yes, then I would like to share with you that similar was my condition a few years ago. I was chasing after every strategy that any expert proclaimed- speaking, social media, joint ventures, podcasting, etc. Still, I was unable to get full results for my efforts.

To survive the burnout, I created robust strategies and followed some marvelous secrets for building a thriving coaching practice that made me pass the 5-figure mark. Today, I am eager to uncover my coaching practice to you.

If you have given enough endeavors and are still unable to attract more clients and build a prospering coaching practice then stay tuned. By the end of this blog, you will have a crystal-clear idea of how to abide by a coaching practice that helps you in crossing the 5 figure mark within months.

In Brief : How To Grow Your Coaching Practice
  • Define Your Winning Audiences [First Step For An Effective Coaching Practice] – Identifying and reaching target audiences is vital for coaching success; cost involves time and effort invested in building visibility.
  • Invest In Training And Skills For Building A Thriving Coaching Practice – Continuous learning in coaching modalities and staying informed about industry trends; cost involves training expenses and time commitment.
  • Set A SMART Goal – Establishing clear and specific goals following the SMART criteria; cost involves strategic planning efforts.
  • Partner Up – Collaborating with non-competitive influencers to enhance visibility and reach a broader audience; cost involves relationship-building efforts.
  • Develop Strategic Alliances – Leveraging expertise through collaborations within specific realms or industries; cost involves networking efforts.
  • Streamline All Your Efforts To Bring The TRANSFORMATION – Emphasize tangible outcomes over words to build a positive reputation.
  • Don’t Be Stingy With Free Content – Showcase expertise through valuable free content to attract potential clients.
  • Create A Million-Dollar Business Plan – Develop a comprehensive plan addressing revenue goals, client acquisition, and finances.
  • E-Newsletters – Stay connected with potential clients through newsletters while growing your email list.
  • Your Email List Is Your Client List – Prioritize building and maintaining an email list for direct and effective audience engagement.
  • Follow Up – Stay in touch with past clients for referrals and new opportunities without being intrusive.
  • Referrals – Actively seek referrals in a professional and conversational manner to boost income.
  • Create A Buzz Around Your Business – Increase visibility through diverse strategies like social media, educational content, and conferences.
  • Double Your Rates – Strategically increase rates to reflect your worth and attract committed clients, highlighting the importance of aligning rates with industry standards for sustainable growth.
  • Create A Unique USP To Appeal Your Target Audience – Develop a unique selling proposition tailored to your target audience, emphasizing specificity and relevance to differentiate your coaching practice in the market.
  • Learn To Command On Premium Pricing – Set premium pricing aligned with the value you provide, attracting committed clients and reflecting your self-worth for sustained growth.
  • Learn The Art Of Closing Engagements – Master the art of closing engagements by engaging authentically, addressing objections, and conveying how your coaching practice can transform clients’ challenges into successes.
  • Build Social Proof For Your Services – Establish credibility through social proof, utilizing client testimonials and experiences to validate your coaching practice and instill confidence in potential clients.
  • Become An Influencer – Cultivate a strong personal brand and online presence to position yourself as an influencer, leveraging public-speaking platforms, networking events, and online media to attract clients.
  • Take Time To Reflect – Periodically reflect on your coaching practice, assess progress, learn from mistakes, and stay committed to personal and professional growth for long-term success.

1. Define your winning audiences [first step for an effective coaching practice]

Your target audience is the first step that will help you to skyrocket your growth. Career management coach and personal branding strategist, Susan Peppercorn says that while starting a coaching practice two things are essential:

(i) knowing your target audience

(ii) knowing how to reach them

The first step is to identify your target audience. Are you a life coach who aims to bring a life transition in individuals? Are moms joining back the work-life an area of your interest?

Are you providing financial coaching? If yes then is it for women, college students or working professionals?

Second, search for your target audiences via both offline and online mediums. As a coach, your priority should be to become visible. Your coaching business won’t come to you, you have to build it.

2. Invest in training and skills for building a thriving coaching practice

Learn coaching modalities and methods that may improve your traditional coaching skills. The more tools and impressive techniques you have, the more clients you can serve.

With the help of solid coaching skills and complementary tools, your coaching practice is sure to grow phenomenally. Also, the scope of your influence will increase.

You need to understand the large business landscape of your coaching industry. You should keep yourself abreast with all the recent coaching trends and market leaders.

For instance, if you are an executive coach then spend time in researching what the Harward Business review and other journals are writing about. Build yourself as a powerful resource that is too good to be neglected.

3. Set a SMART goal

Soccer goal net

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You have to be very clear and precise with your goals and the deadlines to achieve them. A robust coaching practice is one that has a SMART goal as its foundation.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reliable and Time-bound. Your goal should encompass all these features.

Let me make this more clear.

Example 1: I will make a 6-figure coaching business by the end of the year.

Example 2: I will make $5000 by the end of this month. I will accomplish this by acquiring 5 new clients through online marketing and referrals.

Notice the difference in the above two examples. The latter one is more focused and if followed will streamline your efforts. You can grab some valuable insights from this interview of Marshall Goldsmith to help you in gauging your goals.

So the takeaway is that your goal should be SMART (like you ;)).

4. Partner Up

No, I didn’t mean that you need to find a partner for your coaching business. What I want to convey here is to grow your influence and enhance your visibility you should partner with other influencers.

The key here is to find individuals or businesses who have active followers at present and whose products and services slightly overlap with your services in a non-competitive manner.

For instance, if you are a career coach you can partner with a resume writer who blogs regularly. Your services can be promoted on their blogs and their blogs can get your audience. A win-win situation for both without spending much money.

5. Develop strategic alliances

Group of people near wall

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Have expertise in a specific realm? Why not leverage the same by collaboration with others in the same realm?

For instance, Kevin had a fabulous career as a golf club manager. When he moved into coaching he associated himself with the North American Golf association. This exposed his coaching practice to 3000 golf managers throughout North America. He writes for there monthly newsletters and speaks at their conferences.

Think about your ideal client, look out for associations/organizations/ groups that serve them. Thereafter find a way to position yourself in a win-win situation.

You can learn some quick tips on how to choose your strategic alliances.

6. Streamline all your efforts to bring the TRANSFORMATION

If you are either trying to shift the thought process of your clients or provide some relief to them with your encouraging words, let me tell you that this is going to have a very short-term effect.

If your coaching sessions are unable to bring the much-needed transformation in your clients they would never come back. On top of that, it will also deteriorate your image in the market. It is a hard truth but outcome matters more than words of mouth.

Your target should be to render a different perspective to your client so that he/she can altogether undergo a mental, physical and emotional transformation.

Only when your clients feel this, they will pay you and also become a part of your sales team. This will enable your coaching practice to get more and more recognized and valued.

7. Don’t be stingy with free content

If you want to position yourself as an expert then create insanely valuable free content for your audience. This can be anything from the blog post, video to social media post, etc.

Don’t be afraid to give your best content for free. By demonstrating your value to the customers in small chunks you will help your prospects to see what value you can bring to them with a paying relationship.

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience, diagnose their major problems and fears. This will help you to tailor your content sharply around your target audience. This way you would be able to generate leads easily and quickly.

8. Create a million-dollar business plan

Without a robust business plan, your coaching practice is not going to thrive for long. Your marketing endeavors and business strategies are going to have a large-scale impact in deciding your ROI.

Thus, create a plan which builds a strong foundation for your future efforts and growth. Before building the same make sure that you have answered some relevant questions.

For instance,

  • How much revenue are you planning to generate by the end of the year?
  • How are you planning to attract more clients?
  • What marketing strategies will you incorporate [if you are going for paid marketing then what budget will you allocate to the same?]
  • What are your infrastructural cost and other expenses? How are you planning to meet that? etc.

9. E-Newsletters

Your prospects might not need your services right at this moment still there is a probability that they may require the same in the near future. It is highly likely that either they or someone they know can use your services.

What’s important here is that your service should be easily accessible at that required moment. Your contact information should be readily available. That’s where E-newsletters come into play.

When sending, always keep these elements that make up a successful newsletter.

  • Provide value, irrespective of the fact that the reader does business with you
  • Exhibit your personality
  • Make offers which open options to work with you further
  • Be consistent and focused
  • Keep content brief- “minimum lines, maximum impact”
  • Always keep growing your list.

10. Your email list is your client list

Though social media may appear the king at this moment, the tried and true method of an email list is an unrivaled way to have direct interaction with and ownership of your audience.

Building a list should be a key focus both for building connection and selling your services.

You can build your email list through social media, via paid advertising, and by posting and sharing content with a link for people to opt into your list.

The need of the hour is to get started after commanding some email marketing tips for coaches. Soon you will notice a jump in the revenue of your business that comes from people who will subscribe to receive your content weekly.

The only thing you need to give due attention to is that your audience doesn’t unsubscribe from your email list. Below are some of the potential reasons for the same.

woman in teal t-shirt sitting beside woman in suit jacket
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11. Follow Up

One of the most effective client generation strategies is ‘client follow up’. Clients that have worked with you in the past are more likely to take benefit from your coaching practice again.

Anytime you have a new program or special offer, these are the people that you should contact first. Build your contact list now and keep it ready to be easily used when time demands.

Contact your prospects frequently but at the same time take care not to annoy them. You can employ various methods for this- Email, text, or social media. More than the method of contact the fact that you remain in touch and nurture your relationships with them is more crucial.

12. Referrals

This single client generation strategy can double your income. You might be wondering how to get referrals consistently?

The problem that most of the coaches are unable to include this vital element in their coaching practice is because they don’t want to sound pushy. The solution is to command a tone and way that allows you to ask for referrals professionally, conversationally and without even sounding too pushy.

Below are some of the ways.

  • Is there anyone else you know who I can help with my services?
  • Have you run into anyone recently who could benefit from my help?
  • Who have you met lately who could use my assistance?
  • I always appreciate referrals!

The technique is to complement the right words with regular contact, tracking and nurturing your list. Have a look at these four ways to ensure repeat coaching clients and referrals.

13. Create a buzz around your business

To attract clients, you need to first reach out to them. So, how will you do that?

There are many ways through which you can make people realize your worth and prove them the benefits of your coaching practice.

  • You can create intriguing social media posts that reflect your aim, audience, and value that the clients will achieve through your coaching.
  • A free offer on your website to increase your email list.
  • Free and valuable educational content that grabs the reader to avail for the premium ones.
  • Start your own video channel and share short videos with your email subscribers.
  • Speak up in conferences, showcase your personality and demonstrate your expertise.

If you wish to build a SMART marketing strategy here are some examples to consider.

14. Double your rates

Yes, this would sound a bit greedy but doubling your rates have to be a part of your coaching practice. As soon as someone asks for your rates, your impulse reaction is to share your old rates or something which doesn’t sound too scary. Right?

You must resist the urge to sell yourself short and say confidently that your rate has been doubled then what it used to be. For a benchmark, you can have a look at the rates of other coaches in the same industry in your city.

Suppose, you are an executive coach and the average rate in your city is $300/hr. Now if you are charging $150/hr then you will never attain the value for your efforts. With every new client, you bring, double your rates to reach the average mark.

This would help in putting less pressure for bringing in more clients and help you in building a thriving coaching practice.

15. Create a unique USP to appeal your target audience

Achievement confident free freedom

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“Transform your dreams into reality”, “achieve more”, “Realize your potential”. These phrases have become very outdated, still, many coaches like to brand themselves this way.

Your USP should be very specific and tailored to your target audience. If you have done your homework well then there should be no problem in identifying the best USP for yourself.

You can think of your USP as filling in these blanks: “I help “audience” in “location/industry/area/specialty” do/solve/overcome/achieve “challenge or aspiration.”

For instance,

“I help over-35 entrepreneurs, executives, and salespeople in the USA to create systems to exceed your goals while holding you accountable to the projects that will most directly help you profitably achieve your vision.”

Some specific words can be customized according to the sub-segments of your audience.

Your goal should specify your target audience and it should emphasize the particular challenge that you are trying to solve. By taking more and more interviews you will be able to frame a USP in the clients’ own words. This way your audience will be able to connect with you soon.

16. Learn to command on premium pricing

Charging more is a very good approach and there are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, you will get better clients. When I say “better clients” it means clients those who are committed to undergo a transformation.

Secondly, you get paid what you are worth. I am being a bit blunt here but if you don’t believe you’re worth $3,000 to transform someone’s health, then you’re not.

Your rate should be a reflection of your self-worth. It should be aligned with the value that you believe you are bringing to the table. Not what someone else tells you.

The thumb rule is commanding on premium pricing. Though you can price your packages differently to suit various set of clients, always remember that you can sky-rocket your growth only when you achieve high-end paying clients.

People pay for certainty.

If you say, “Listen, if you invest $5,000, I guarantee you will transform,” and back it up with results, you’ll see a massive difference in the conversions and the way people turn up for your services.

If you’re wavering and thinking, “I think I might be able to help you.” You need to go back to the drawing board, look at yourself in the mirror, and prepare well. Start working on yourself. Gather some quick tips on how to sell high-end coaching packages.

17. Learn the art of closing engagements

Man and woman near table

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If you have mastered the art of closing engagements then the likelihood of the success of your coaching practice is inevitable.

Closing engagements require the ability to engage the coachee authentically. This is only possible when you have honest and open conversations. If you go rash in the last then all your efforts of engaging the client throughout the session will prove to be futile. Don’t be in a hurry to close a deal at the price that you want.

Take the points of your coachee into consideration, resolve objections patiently, suggest possible solutions. Once you learn the art of closing engagements, development of your coaching business will become more natural and fun. Determine the main pressing points and fears. Convey how your coaching practice can help your client to transform his/her suffering into success.

18. Build social proof for your services

You need to build enough social proof so that it gives confidence to your skeptical audience that you can do what you say in your USP.

A list of experiences and some quirky client testimonials can be utilized to back your USP up.

You can build your social proof even if you don’t have clients at the moment. What I suggest is, identify some 10 people from your target audience. Offer them a free coaching session in exchange for posting the video publically. Now post the best moments on the landing page and make the full recording available for your audience in exchange of a mail.

Build an email funnel with the help of your email series. At the end of the series offer a 30 minutes free coaching session for anyone who would like to benefit from your coaching practice. Now you are giving an opportunity to your clients to experience your value personally.

The next step is to ask for a direct business in a non-pushy way.

Something like, “Now that you’ve experienced my coaching, are you interested in becoming a coaching client? I have a 2-month starter package that would solve your needs.”

Either the prospect will demand for some time or would hire you right there. If the former happens, then just ask the client how frequently you can follow up because you are not intended to trouble him/her. If the latter happens, be prepared with your packages and process.

Through this technique, you not only convert your prospects to paying clients but also successfully build more social proofs.

19. Become an influencer

Your personality should compel people to wait and listen to you. Your aura should attract them towards your guidance. You need to establish yourself as an influencer both online and offline.

Only when your audience can find that you can solve their grave problems, they would be interested to invest.

Leverage public-speaking platforms, networking events & groups and the power of online media. Leave an impact on your target audience that no other coach in your niche can.

20. Take time to reflect

Blue clock on a pastel background

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If you are working hard but still things are not going at the pace you want them to be then probably something is going wrong. At this moment you need to halt for some time and reflect on your coaching practice.

Figure out how far you have come, what mistakes did you make, lessons learned and experiences gained.

We live in the Information Age. The strategies, tactics, and tools you need to successfully launch a six-figure business are all at your fingertips.

The only limiting factor is YOU.

Becoming a successful coach requires becoming a bigger person. It requires self-analysis, commitment, and an insatiable curiosity for your coaching business.

Self-reflection will help you to discover what is the current stage and how can it be improved.

Rome was not built in a day! Believe in yourself and always be passionate and adamant to achieve what you have dreamt for.

As it is rightly said- “Universe always falls in love with a stubborn heart!”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can I grow my coaching?

The best way to grow your coaching business is by promoting your unique value propositions. By value propositions I mean what you are offering to your clients and what difference you are making in their lives as compared to others. It is extremely important that you figure out what value you are providing, and then highlighting this value in all your advertising and marketing material.

How can I improve my coaching business?

If you are a coach, you should focus on becoming a better coach. The better your coaching, the more clients will want to work with you. The better results your clients get, the more they will become a fan of you. You should ask yourself these following questions:
1. Am I a better coach than my top competitor?
2. Do my clients enjoy working with me?
3. Do my clients look forward to working with me again? If you answer yes to these questions, then you are doing a good job. If you don’t, then you need to work on improving yourself.

How do I market myself as a coach?

First, you need to find your niche. If you don’t know where to start, the best way is to look around to see what you are passionate about. If you love fashion, then focus on that topic. But, if you want to help people, then find people who need your help. Maybe it’s your friends, a family member, your spouse, or even just a stranger. Once you know what you are passionate about, then you can start spreading the word about your passion.

How do I advertise my coaching?

There are three main options for how to advertise your coaching. The first way is to go to “Google AdWords” and create an advertisement. The second way is to place an ad in a local newspaper, or local magazines. The third way is to place an ad in a local newspaper, or local magazines. You do not need to be a good writer to create an advert. There will be a lot of people who will offer to do this for you, for a fee.

 

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