The space between where they are today and where they want to be is “the gap.”

WHY THE GAP MATTERS

The Gap is the unknown.  It is the process of change, of going from here, to there.

As a coach, The Gap is where you work.  Your coaching process or system fills the gap.  It’s the bridge that spans across the chasm and offers your clients safe passage.

The Gap matters because it’s the thing that your client doesn’t know.  If they did, they would already have the reality they desire… and they wouldn’t need you!

But because they don’t know it, they DO need you.

USING THE GAP TO CLOSE MORE CLIENTS

When you’re doing a free introductory coaching session, your primary job is to help your prospective client become very clear on three things:

1. Their current reality (where they are today = the pain or frustration they experience)
2. Their future desired reality (what they yearn for = the “glorious future” they envision)
3. The gap (what it is that is preventing them from achieving that vision)

Once your prospective client can clearly see the gap and fully understands why they’ve not been able to navigate it by themselves, you  have the opportunity to position your coaching process as the solution.

When you do this, show them in clear, vivid pictures, how working with you will eliminate or minimize the challenges and difficulties, allowing them to navigate The Gap and move closer towards their “glorious future.”

Done well, your free sessions will become a powerful way to win new coaching clients.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? FEEDBACK?
LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW! 

For most people I talk to, the answers they give are the ones they “should” give… things like:

• My customers are my #1 priority
• Making a great product/service is my #1 priority
• Marketing is my #1 priority (ok, that one is pretty rare)

But then I ask them what the first thing they do every day is and the answer is completely different.

• Check my email
• Check Facebook/Twitter
• Reconcile any new sales
• Process orders
• Check voicemail

In some cases, these are actually aligned.  Checking voicemail could be related to customer service being your #1 priority.

But most of the time, the actions people take are completely different from what they say is their priority.

ACTIONS WIN, EVERY TIME

The reality is this.  Your actions prove your current priorities, period.

There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.  If you check email first thing in the morning (and then get automatically dumped into “firefighting mode”) then checking email & firefighting is your #1 priority… not marketing your business, customer service, or anything else.

I’m not “up on my high horse” telling you this.  I have been just as guilty as anyone else for having a gap between my actions and my intentions.

But in the last few months, I’ve made it a point to spend the first 2 – 3 hours of each morning working on my business.  Not working on client’s businesses, not checking email or voicemail.

I write blog posts, send emails to my subscribers, brainstorm & create new products or work on sales copy for my sites.

Then, after I’ve spent time moving my own business forward each morning, I will work on my client projects and move their businesses forward.

I’ll check email & voicemail and see if anything urgent needs to be handled before I jump into projects.

THIS IS CRITICAL TO MY SUCCESS

It’s so easy to spend an entire day working for my clients.  So easy that if I don’t make working on my own business my #1 priority in the morning, it’s very easy to get to the end of the day and not spend even a moment working on it.

And if I don’t spend time working on my business, how can I expect to move it forward?

Paul Keetch
Marketing Consultant & Copywriter 

“Meaningful Marketing,
For People With a Purpose”

WHAT IS YOUR #1 PRIORITY IN THE MORNING
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW! 

If you don’t, your marketing messages will always be vague and inconsistent.  No one will be able to relate to what you’re saying, because they don’t feel like you’re talking to THEM.

When I work with with coaches, the second thing we talk about is who they serve.  (See if you can guess what the first is in the comments.)

DEFINE YOUR CUSTOMER/CLIENT IN 3 STEPS

First, you need to describe them in terms of their characteristics (a.k.a. demographics).  These include things like their age, where they live, their marital or family status, their income, etc.

Characteristics are the things YOU can say about them.

Second, you’ll describe them in terms of their thoughts & opinions (a.k.a. psychographics). These include their biases, personal decisions, preconceived ideas, etc, including their religious/spiritual beliefs, their political bent, whether they believe in global warming or veganism.

Thoughts & opinions are the things THEY say about themselves.

Finally, you’ll describe the fears, frustrations & unfulfilled desires they have as they relate to the service or product you’re selling.

These are the things that keep your clients up at night and to really understand this, you need to try and “walk a mile in their shoes.”

Ideally, you have personal experience with the problems your clients currently experience and are one or more steps beyond them in solving it.

If you’re a finance coach, you know how it feels to lay awake at night, worried about the bills and how you’re going to get yourself out from under a mountain of credit card debt, without making the kids have to give up soccer this summer. 

If you’re a relationship coach, you know how it feels to lay awake at night, your partner already asleep beside you (probably snoring loudly) while you turn over the last fight or argument in your head, stewing over the fact that he or she always uses *that* tone, even when they know their wrong.

If you’re a business coach helping other coaches & consultants, you know how it feels to lay awake at night, wondering how you’re going to get enough clients to pay the bills this month, wishing that you could get enough regular business that you didn’t have to worry so much and could actually enjoy what you do instead of wondering if you should just give up and go get a job.

SPEAK TO THIS PERSON, ALWAYS

Whenever you sit down to write a blog post, a marketing email, a new article or record a podcast… whenever you set about creating ANY kind of marketing content, picture this person.

Visualize them struggling and wanting so bad to be out of pain.  Feel their frustration and anguish as they turn their problems over and over, not sure what to do about them.

Empathize with them and then connect to that part of yourself that knows how to help them.

Write, speak & create from THAT place.  When you do, they’ll really start to pay attention.

COMMENTS, THOUGHTS OR IDEAS?
LEAVE THEM BELOW!

P.S. Grab a signed copy of my Amazon #1 bestseller, Make My Marketing Work: How to Win Customers & Make More Money and receive $2890.00 in free bonuses, all for $20 including shipping in North America!

MY FAV 7 FORMS OF COACHING REVENUE

1. Group Coaching – pick one primary outcome you can deliver and coach a group
2. Video Coaching – record yourself coaching through the steps of a particular process, add worksheets & exercises, then put it online
3. Workshops – charge a premium to have people come and work with you live and in-person
4. Membership program – push training with occasional Q&A for a low monthly price
5. Books/ebooks – package your information into book format and sell physical or digital copies
6. Micro Training – take one element of one of your programs and sell it as a small, affordable and stand-alone digital product
7. Inner Circle/Platinum Program – charge a premium monthly price to a small group who get more intimate access to you on a long-term basis

NEXT ACTIONS

Take a look at the list and pick ONE item that you’re not currently doing that you think would be fun and easy.  Make a plan, learn what you need to learn and then make it  happen.

HAVE EXPERIENCE OR QUESTIONS ABOUT
ANY OF THESE REVENUE MODELS?

SHARE / ASK BELOW! 

Ryan’s been running his online business for more than 10 years, which means he knows what it takes to succeed long term.  (If you’re looking for a “quick rich” system,  Ryan’s not your guy and neither am I.)

One of the things I’ve seen Ryan do is live “micro coaching” on his Facebook Fan Page where he announces that he’ll be live for the next 10 minutes and will answer any question about online marketing you have.

The only catch?  You have to “like” his post before leaving a comment.

WHY SOCIAL COACHING WORKS

Social coaching works for three distinct but important reasons:

First, you engage your community.  I’ve talked about the importance of engagement previously in this post.

Second, you offer real value, with built-in scarcity & limitation.  You can’t go deep in this forum, but you can give one or two “next step” ideas that the person can take away.

Third, you increase your visibility outside of your community in a non-threatening manner.  This is probably the most important aspect.  When people “like” your post, it appears on their wall for their friends & connections to see.

There’s a decent chance that some of those people will click through to see what’s going on and they, in turn might become a fan of your page.

WILL YOU TRY SOCIAL COACHING?
WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO OFFER SOCIAL COACHING?

LEAVE A COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW! 

I’ve always been under the impression that selling is like hitting in baseball ~ you’re probably going to get “out” more times than you get a “hit” but if you can manage just 3 hits out of 10 at-bats, you’ll be a top performer.

NOBODY BATS 1.000

Nobody gets a hit every time they go up to bat.  It just doesn’t happen.

Ask the non-aficionado who the greatest hitter of all time was, and you’d probably hear answers like “Lou Gehrig” (#15 all-time avg), “Babe Ruth” (#10 all-time avg) or Ted Williams (#7 all-time avg).

In fact, the greatest hitter for average, the guy who got more hits per at-bat than anyone else, was Ty Cobb, with a .366 average.

That means Ty Cobb got OUT 6.33 times out of every 10 at bats… or more than half the time!

And yet he is the best of the best when it comes to hitting average.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO YOU?

As a coach, your business relies on your ability to land new clients.  Sell, in other words.

But most coaches are afraid of selling, in part because they have an unrealistic view of what successful selling really means.  They focus on the 70% of people they DIDN’T sell to and look at them as failures.

But just imagine if 3 out of every 10 people you spoke with during a free intro coaching session (which should be a scripted sales conversation) decided to say yes and purchase coaching or one of your self-study courses?

How would your business look if you could speak to those 10 people each and every week?

That’s 3 new clients (on average) every week.  By the end of the year, you’d have 150 new clients (assuming you took 2 weeks off).

If Ty Cobb had quit baseball because he got out 70% – 80% of the time, he’d never be the greatest of all time.

YOUR ACTION STEPS

Start keeping track of how many people you talk to and how many of those people purchase from you.  Get a baseline sales percentage and then make a commitment to learn how to sell better, so you can increase those numbers.

Just like baseball players go to batting practice to get better, so to will you have to practice selling if you hope to improve.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? AGREE OR DISAGREE?
LAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW!

 P.S. If you want more qualified prospects to sell to, get my step-by-step marketing blueprint for coaches.

1. Pain
2. Desire

Both can be effective tools in your marketing efforts and both can help you get new clients.

How you use them (and to what extent) will depend largely on your personality.

MOTIVATING WITH PAIN

Pain is the fear or frustration (or in some cases, actual physical pain) that your clients are in.  It’s what keeps them up at night, awake and unable to sleep at 2am.

For parents, this might be worrying about their teenage daughter’s new boyfriend, or whether their son is running with the wrong kind of crowd.

For people who have financial struggles, it’s worrying about how they’re going to pay the bills this month, whether they’re going to get laid off, or turning over and over in their mind how they can make more money to just to get by.

For folks who are overweight, it might be that they are in a sexless marriage caused by their own anxiety and self-judgement or worried that they’ll never to get to meet their grandchildren.

Pain is a great mover of people… but only when it is so acute as to be unbearable.

Pain is an external form of motivation and it can be used to get people started.  It’s definitely required as part of your marketing & selling efforts, since your prospective client needs to understand that you know what they’re going through.

They want to be able to relate to you and believe that you know how to help them.

MOTIVATING WITH DESIRE

Desire is what your client wants their life to be like.  It is an idealized version of the future based on the things that they cherish most.

Desire is also hope.

Hope that there is more to life than what they have now.  And a belief that it’s possible.

That parent may desire to have a harmonious family life and to see their children grow up to be successful in life, and to raise a good family of their own.

People with financial struggle dream of having more than enough money in the bank, of being able to care for themselves and their family without worry and to be able to enjoy the finer things in life.

Folks who are overweight dream of looking in the mirror and seeing a sexy reflection looking back at them, of having the confidence to wear a bathing suit to the beach in summer and the self-esteem of knowing that they look great.

Desire does not often cause people to move out of pain unless they are so internally motivated by it… but if that were the case, they’d probably already have done something about it.

Desire CAN keep your client motivated to keep going if the going gets a little tough.

Pain = where your client is right now.

Desire = where your client wants to be.

The difference = the gap in between and how they are going to go from A to B.

YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE!

As a coach, you help people navigate the murky waters between where they are and where they want to be.  You have to understand both their fears and their desires…

…and it’s your job, if you truly believe you can help them, to use that understanding to help motivate them in to action.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? OPINION?
LEAVE THEM BELOW! 

If this is you, I want to share a philosophy I first learned from T. Harv Eker and again later from Christine Comaford:

PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION

Both Harv and Christine are typical entrepreneurs in the sense that they have a LOT of ideas and energy to match.  There are always multiple projects on the go at any one time.

But both of them realize that getting a project, product or new marketing campaign to 80 or 90% perfection and then launching it is better than trying to get it absolutely perfect.

This is true for a few reasons:

1. 80% progress is much faster than 100% perfection.  Very good is fast, perfection is slow. In addition, the difference between very good and perfect is indiscernible to most people – they can’t tell the difference.  Only the true experts know what’s missing… and your product or service isn’t meant for them!
2. Results matter more than anything else.  Putting something out there takes courage and risk… and it’s the only way to get results.  You can’t sell something without offering it for sale.  And it’s possible that your market doesn’t want it.  So instead of spending all your time making it perfect, get it out there and then refine it as you go.
3. Perfect is rarely perfect. We all get lost in the fog of “knowing what we know” and it almost always happens that when you put something out that is finally perfect… someone comes along and points out an imperfection!  The feedback you get from putting it out there is called market research and it’s part of the process.  Take the feedback and make improvements.
4. Your competitors are making money.  While you strive for perfection, your competition is rolling out new products that are helping the people who could be your customers and clients.  They need help now, so give it to them.

REMEMBER WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO

Your market is at least one or two steps behind where you are in terms of the knowledge and expertise you possess.  Because of this, they don’t need perfection – they need a great product or service that will help them get to the next level of their evolution.

By withholding it because of your own vanity (and yes, perfection IS vanity), you are actually doing them a disservice.

So make 2012 the year of Progress, Not Perfection.

Launch that new group coaching program, e-product or live event.  Write that book, record a series of marketing videos or launch that new marketing campaign.

Get things as good as you can reasonably get them and then launch.  Get feedback and make edits, enhancements or improvements as you need to.

COMMENTS, THOUGHTS OR IDEAS?
LEAVE THEM BELOW!

 P.S. Do you need help getting your next project ready for launch?  You can still get my “3 for 2″ consulting offer and get 3 hours of my time for the price of 2.  Click here to book before Jan 31 and use your hours any time in 2012.

Without new customers coming in, you’re eventually going to run the well dry.

In the spirit of the 12 Days of Christmas… and the start of 2012 around the corner… I give you:

12 MARKETING IDEAS FOR 2012

1. Start a Facebook Fan Page ~ I can’t tell you how many people I meet who don’t have a fan page set up yet.  If you’re one of them, go now and do it.  Get 25 friends to like your page and then reserve your branded Facebook URL.
2. Be Prolific ~ give of yourself freely in 2012 and your fans, followers and clients will reward you.  Blog more, Facebook more, Tweet more.
3. Add Videos To Your Website & Marketing ~ Videos make your website sticky.  They allow your visitors to get to know who you are.  You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to be yourself.
4. Try “Social Coaching” ~ Once you’ve built a bit of a following, try offering 10 minutes of free coaching on Facebook.  Make a post, invite people to “like” it (this virally spreads to their walls) and then ask a question on a certain topic.
5. Revise Your Free Opt-In Offer On Your Website ~ Is your current offer stale and boring?  Is it under-producing?  Are you getting a significant amount of your visitors opting in?  Do you have an opt-in on every page of your site?  Offer a gift that solves ONE immediate problem.
6. Tell Your Story ~ Instead of having an “about me” page that lists your credentials and your education, try telling the story of why you do what you do.  Be human.  Humans like other humans, not automatons.
7. Offer a REALLY Valuable Free Session ~ Offer a 30 – 60 minute introductory, strategy or discovery session and make sure the people who come get a TON of real value.  Remember that your job is to provide value AND sell, so learn how to ask for the sale on these calls.
8. Make This The Year You Do a JV Promotion ~ If you haven’t already, you need to start getting JVs (joint venture partners) to promote your products and services for a commission.  Start small, with people who have similar lists as you, develop your selling system, then move up to the bigger players.
9. Create and Sell an Information Product ~ Every coach and consultant can take what they do and “chunk it down” into a set of steps that people can learn and go through for themselves.  Not everyone can afford a coach, but still need quality information – so be the one to give it to them.
10. Become an Expert Speaker ~ Call the local meetups, conferences, book stores and other places that would be interested in having you come talk to their group.  Talk for free to build your skills.  Record every session, if you can.  Then offer your book, coaching, consulting or information product for sale.
11. Write a Book ~ Having a book as a calling card raises your credibility immensely.  You literally become “the person who wrote the book on _____.”  Get your first draft done in 30 days or less by outlining the contents (use a “for dummies” to get ideas of what to include), then record yourself talking about each section.  Then use elance.com to find someone to transcribe it.  Do some formatting and VOILA! you’ve got a first draft done in no time.
12. Attend More Seminars That Serve Your Audience ~ Find the seminars that the big experts in your niche are hosting and go.  Make a point to meet as many people as possible, but don’t try and sell them.  Try and get to know them.  Ask others what they need.  If it’s a fit, book a free session for after the event.  Or follow up with potential JV partners.  Share your expertise in order to be seen as an expert.

Whew! That’s a lot of marketing!

You don’t need to do all of these things.  You’re probably doing some already, so pick one or two and add them to your marketing mix.

MAKE MARKETING A PRIORITY

Remember, it’s your job to find and persuade the people who need your help that you can do just that – help them.

All things being equal, people tend to stay stuck right where they are so you need to help them take the first step.  That’s what marketing is all about.

Happy Marketing in 2012!

GOT MORE MARKETING IDEAS?
LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

P.S. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan for 2012 that gets your more clients, click here.

THE $1 DIFFERENCE

One of my mentors, Alex Mandossian, is fond of saying that the difference between an amateur and a professional is just $1.

As soon as you’ve earned a single dollar you move into the realm of professional – you’ve been paid for your work.  Once that happens, the key is to learn to replicate that process.

As you learn to replicate, you’ll also learn how to sell for larger amounts.

THIS CAN GET YOU CLIENTS

When you’re just starting out, getting clients is harder than it will ever be.  You don’t have testimonials and client stories to share… you may not have found your groove yet.

Of course you want to earn $100, $200 or even $500 per hour as a coach… but at the beginning you may need to settle for less.

And if you’re having trouble getting those first clients, you may decide to settle for MUCH less.

You could try offering a month of your coaching services for just $1.  Or $10.  Or $50.  Whatever works to get new clients to agree to work with you for one month.

The key is to be up front about your situation.

“I’m just getting started,” you’ll tell them, “and I know I don’t have the experience and client testimonials you’re probably looking for when evaluating my services at my normal rate of $________.  So, I’d like to offer you the chance to work with me for just $5 for one month.

“If, after the first month, you’d like to continue, my fee will go back to my standard rate of $________.  Does that sound like something that would work for you?”

When you do this, you’re taking the risk of the first month away from them and putting it squarely on your own shoulders.

This will keep you working hard and bringing everything to your coaching calls.  It also ensures that you make a transaction and go from amateur to professional.

Not to mention, you’ve now got their billing information, which makes the next money conversation much easier since you don’t have to worry about collecting this info.

GOT COMMENTS OR EXPERIENCE GETTING CLIENTS AS A NEW COACH?
LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW! 

P.S. If you’re having trouble attracting potential clients, click here for a step-by-step coach marketing plan to help get you started.