How to Get Your First Client
Waiting for your first client can feel really hard. You're constantly checking your inbox, analyzing every word on social media, and maybe around 400 times a day, you're thinking of throwing in the towel and starting over. But before you do that, I want you to watch this video because I'm going to give you four tips on what you can do to get your first client.
Have a sales page.
You have to have a sales page. If you watched my video, how to find clients, I actually give you some detailed steps that you can use to optimize your sales page. We want to have a sales page because we need a place for potential clients to really feel connected to us.
We need more than a paragraph too. We need more than just a call to action to book a call on your calendar. We need more. We need you to understand that you identify with the potential client’s pain points. We need you to portray that you have what they are wishing they had right now. And we also need to make sure that they understand that you have the tools to help them get there.
That's the job of the sales page. There are a billion other reasons why you need to have a sales page on your website, and I'm not going to dig into them too much in detail. You just need to have one and if you need help with it, you can go and download my sales page checklist.
My sales page checklist will help you come through the existing sales page that you have. And I also do have a sales page bundle that could help you take it to the next level.
And if we don't have a page on our website that connects well with future clients, it's going to be really hard for someone to want to hand over $2,000 or want to get on a call with you. So we need to go the extra mile and then some. all right.
Have coaching packages.
New clients are always surprised when I recommend that they have three different coaching packages on their sales page. They have probably gotten used to having just one and they're experiencing a client drought, or they've never booked a client, Or maybe they have two and they're not really giving any information along with the packages.
When we decide to go from one to three or two to three packages, it does something psychologically to the potential client. They're no longer going from “which package should I choose?” They're going to make a decision as to which package they should choose. A crazy fact is my lowest package is the least selling package that I have.
So, if you're afraid to increase your prices or add more opportunities for someone to invest in you don't be afraid. More clients will come to you. I promise. I started my coaching business charging about $2,000 for clients, and now I'm up to $10,000. So don't be afraid to do that. It's absolutely possible. Think about this. If you're having a hard time increasing your prices or adding more packages.
How many hours have you put into building your business? How many hours have you put into educating yourself for your business? How many hours have you put into working on your business?
The backend stuff that nobody sees and nobody even notices; because you've put in so much time, thought, hours, and money into your business. Don't just factor in the amount of time you've been a coach to price your package. There's so much more that goes into that, your education, your journey, and the systems you use. We have to price accordingly.
I also want you to make sure that your math makes sense. I know this might seem like a very obvious thing to say, but the problem is, is sometimes people just don't do that. They're pricing their packages, where they don't make sense mathematically to someone who is doing the math. So if you have three packages and your middle package is $5,000 for six calls and your high package is $20,000 for 12 calls and your low package is a thousand dollars for four. The math doesn't quite make sense.
So let's draw this out. I want you to write three columns on a piece of paper, low, medium, and high, and I want you to choose a number that feels exciting for you, a number that could probably be a middle-priced package. So let's say that's $2297. Then I'm going to go divide $2297 by six and that's about $382.83 per call. I always just figure an hour per call. I'm not figuring in, in-between support, or anything like that. This just makes it easier. So if we have $382.83 cents per hour, I want to probably charge a little bit more for a lower package because lower packages take more time.
We want people to really utilize the time with us. If the medium and high make more sense, dollar-wise, it's cheaper per call, so people choose those. So if you're going to charge $382 for the middle, then I would charge $400 per call for the low. So if you're charging $400 per hour for a four-call package, then you’d have a total of $1,600 for your low package.
Then, you could charge $300 per call for your 12 call package and go up to about $3,600. Do you see where I'm going with this? I'm just doing the math. It makes sense because everyone's going to price that out. If they're seeing that you are asking for $10,000, they're going to do the math and say, “Okay, for $10,000, I get 12 calls. How much would it be if I did the six-call package? Well, I'm getting more bang for my buck because I'm getting more calls with her. It's less money per call. I'm going to choose the high package.”
My high package, my $10,000 package, is the most sold package. So food for thought for you if you're afraid to charge your worth in your business. 🤗
Every time I raise my prices, I get amazing new clients coming in.
Create your application.
You can use whatever application service you like here. You can use Google Forms, TypeForm, or Jotform. I personally love TypeForm. I probably use that the most. I have the free plan. There's no need to do the paid plan, unless you want to go over 10 questions per application or if you want to add some bells and whistles to your process, but I don't think it's necessary for this particular item.
As for the questions you ask on your application, think of the information you would like to know before you get on a call with somebody. I like to ask people their names, their Instagram handles, their email address, why they're applying for a discovery call with me, what they're struggling with, what their goals are, and I want to know which package they're interested in as well.
When I added the question, “Which package are you interested in?” to my application a few years ago, it was a game-changer. I love knowing that information before I come on a call because it tells me how serious they really are and if this person is really interested in building their business. I know not everyone is able to invest in their business and I completely respect that. So that's why I think it's important to ask those questions. It depends on the service that you offer of course, but I have seen much higher conversions because of it.
I think a lot of times we don't ask because we're afraid. We're afraid of what people are going to say. So let the form do all the scary work for you.
Have an onboarding process.
If you don't have an onboarding process for when that client comes in (and they could come in today!) What are you going to do? The foundation of what I teach is be prepared for them now. I always use this analogy, “You are expecting people to come to your house warming party and you haven't even built your house yet. You're waiting on the win before you're even prepared for them to come in.
When we hold off on getting the systems, the support, the workflows, and everything else ready we're basically saying that we're not ready. If you book a client in the next hour, are you prepared to onboard them? Are you prepared to send them a contract?
Are you prepared to send them the payment form?
Are you prepared to give them their welcome packet?
Are you prepared to give them a link to your calendar?
Is your calendar up to date?
Do you have a calendar?
All of those things you need to have done now. And then once you have everything set up / your home built it's decorated, it's feeling nice and warm and cozy, and you have all the snacks ready or you're dressed and ready to open the door. That's when things start to happen.
Trust me, no matter how many times you've done it, you're going to need to refer to your onboarding process. You're going to need that workflow. If you need more help with this, I have a program, Stand Out Coaching Academy, where we dive into the steps to take when onboarding your clients, setting up for clients, serving your clients, and scaling your business with simplicity.
I don't have eight hours a day to work on my business. I work a full-time job and I homeschool my three kids. I’ve built my business during nap times and I have groomed it to be able to run off of just a couple of hours a day. My kids don't take naps anymore. But I'm so thankful that I built it that way.
I also don't have a gigantic team helping me either. So if you want to learn from somebody who gets you, I have all kinds of free resources to help you get going.