A255 - Finding Clients Lesson #11: Group Coaching for Leads

03/01/19 • 7 min

I'm continuing here today with the eleventh and final lesson in the "Finding clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Group coaching for leads. WHAT?!? 🤔

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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You've heard about group coaching before in the context for your business.

I met Lauren Pawell, founder of BixaMedia, a marketing strategy firm, a couple of years ago.

In fact, she was the very first guest on Live In The Feast Season 1 Episode 3.

She inspired this idea of bringing your leads together in one space so that you can then vet the good fit en masse.

Let me explain how this works.

You get a lead as you normally would, but instead of getting on a one-on-one call with them, you get them to an educational webinar.

Get them to sign up and as a group, you run through some educational material for them, provide ridiculous value in a way that allows all the leads to walk away with something beneficial to them.

They also know and understand the type of work that you do, who you help, and if you may be a good fit for them.

Then towards the end of that webinar, you present them with an application for them to be able to work with you.

Lauren shared some of her KPIs that she aims for with registration, attendance, and applications.

The part of this I like the most is that you are spending one hour of time with say 5-10, maybe 20 people and weed out those that aren't a good fit. Rather than one hour with each individual to weed them out.

As a result, you are only spending time on those that raise their hand to want to work with you. But those that don't still walk away with value from you, something that's helpful to them in that moment to move them forward.

Lauren said that of those who fill out the application, she'll close 80% of them.

That's such an amazing use of time.

In fact, she sent me an email just last week that as of January 2nd, she's booked solid for 2019.

The only work that they are taking on is Strategy Sessions.

Since I heard about this idea, I've looked for ways in which I can leverage this in my own business. Because as I said, it's such effective use of time and provides the same amount of value as you would if you continued the sales process as you do today.

A good place to start with this is with past clients. You already know who they are and that you'll want to work with them again.

Remember in lesson 7 we talked about those up level skills? Take the skills that you've learned since working with them and package up something to sell.

Send an email with some registration link and get them all on a call. Practice your delivery and then pitch with that application.

It's as simple as that.

I'm continuing here today with the eleventh and final lesson in the "Finding clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Group coaching for leads. WHAT?!? 🤔

-------------------
👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
-------------------

You've heard about group coaching before in the context for your business.

I met Lauren Pawell, founder of BixaMedia, a marketing strategy firm, a couple of years ago.

In fact, she was the very first guest on Live In The Feast Season 1 Episode 3.

She inspired this idea of bringing your leads together in one space so that you can then vet the good fit en masse.

Let me explain how this works.

You get a lead as you normally would, but instead of getting on a one-on-one call with them, you get them to an educational webinar.

Get them to sign up and as a group, you run through some educational material for them, provide ridiculous value in a way that allows all the leads to walk away with something beneficial to them.

They also know and understand the type of work that you do, who you help, and if you may be a good fit for them.

Then towards the end of that webinar, you present them with an application for them to be able to work with you.

Lauren shared some of her KPIs that she aims for with registration, attendance, and applications.

Lauren said that of those who fill out the application, she'll close 80% of them.

That's such an amazing use of time.

In fact, she sent me an email just last week that as of January 2nd, she's booked solid for 2019.

The only work that they are taking on is Strategy Sessions.

A good place to start with this is with past clients. You already know who they are and that you'll want to work with them again.

Remember in lesson 7 we talked about those up level skills? Take the skills that you've learned since working with them and package up something to sell.

Send an email with some registration link and get them all on a call. Practice your delivery and then pitch with that application.

It's as simple as that.

Previous Episode

A254 - Finding Clients Lesson #10: Who do you hang with?

I'm continuing here today with the tenth lesson in the "Finding clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Who are you surrounding yourself with? Who do you hang with?

And I'm not talking about your family and friends either. That you are on your own (although support matters so choose wisely).

What I mean is the group of business colleagues and friends you can trust. That you can bounce ideas off around with. That you can be frank and give them the real you.

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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There are different communities and groups you can join obviously.

I'm going to share something very important with you in a minute here on why all this matters.

Masterminds

High level masterminds can be both paid and free. Maybe, like myself, you have been a part of one or both kinds already.

What I've found from them is that you really have to connect with them like no other group. At first, find a common aspect that you can appreciate in the others. Find a common element within the group that makes the group stronger than the individuals combined. This could be something like a goal each of you have. It could be that each of you work online or have a store. It could be location too.

That element will spark the idea to join but also be able to carry you through. Because once that initial euphoria and emotion and excitement dies down after a few meetings, you'll need that something to carry you through.

Paid Memberships & Closed Groups

These are very similar. From my experience though the closed groups are usually those that are ran by someone in business who you've become close with and then start up.

Whereas paid memberships and communities, like Feast for example, are built on the specificity of the transformation of those who join.

These are often built on the back of courses, but the community is often where bonds are formed and relationships are built because you want to accomplish similar things in your business.

In those relationships too is gold. I have friends that have grown out of those communities that I paid to be in.

I've received lots of work from inside those communities directly or indirectly through referrals.

When you joined a mastermind or closed community, you know that the people in there are willing to invest into their growth. Whether that's time and/or money.

They are also amazing avenues for warm leads too because they are running a business, understand what you do, and then can refer you work when the opportunity arises.

Here's the biggest, most important reason why who you hang with is important though. Accountability.

You don't want to disappoint someone who you respect.

When you tell that someone you will do something, you'll want to rise up no matter what and do it.

If you don't respect someone, then you won't care whether you disappoint someone or not.

Who you hang with is vital to your business growth, finding clients, because it's your reputation and reputation matters in business now more than ever.

Next Episode

A256 - Where do you find freelance clients?

Where you find your clients out in the world is a big question.

I held an open door session inside the Sustainable Freelancer FB Group last Friday where I put the webcam on and anyone could pop in to talk about anything they want.

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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Resulting from that was a conversation around location of potential clients. Not necessarily any strategy about getting them, but more of where to look for places, online, offline, etc, where they may be.

Amy Hoy calls these watering holes in the context of her Sales Safari exercise in they course 30x500.

A watering hole is where all the animals in an ecosystem come together because they need water to survive.

The idea fits perfectly because you want to find places where you clients come together to talk about business with other people in a similar market.

These are events, meetups, conferences, online forums, trade shows, and the list goes on.

You are a developer or designer and live online, so it's safe to assume that you know your way around the web.

Because of that, you may want to find your clients on the web. You try Facebook Groups, Twitter, Instagram, and even online forum sites. While you may find them here, maybe it's not THE watering holes best suited for your clients.

When I was working for an agency that focused on the medical industry, the sales team would regularly attend trade shows and conferences and buy booth space at these events.

Sure they ran Google Ads and such, but a great portion of sales and revenue for the business came from these events. There were months of the year where the sales team would attend 10-15 events in one month, all over the country.

The thing is that doctors and the medical industry doesn't spend the entire day on the computer and the web. They still don't.

What they do is attend conferences and events to learn about new technology and studies, to meet up with colleagues and build relationships, and play golf (let's be honest).

The sales team knew this, the business knew this, which is why they were so invested in putting effort into going to these watering holes and finding their clients.

Understanding the behavior of your client will help you figure out where to find them.

Pay close attention to your existing clients. Just because you found them in one spot, doesn't mean that's where they all are.

Follow them, talk with them. Ask them about their weekend and what they did. If they tell you that they can't make a meeting because they are going to a conference, ask them what conference.

Where you find your clients isn't about you. It's about them.

Be curious, ask questions, pay attention. Get into the head of your clients and they'll lead you to more.