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When you’ve been doing everything you can to attract coaching clients, but you’re still not getting the results you want, this may be why.
Wondering why you’re not attracting coaching clients?
We all go through times when we need to find coaching clients. This is especially true when you’re just starting your coaching practice.
When you’re desperate for coaching clients and not getting the results you want, it can be super frustrating.
The first thing to remember is: Just because something isn’t working in your business does not mean that anything is wrong with YOU.
It simply means that something is not working in your business.
The first step to attracting clients is to understand the problem.
If you’re not attracting coaching clients (or the right clients), the key is getting clarity on what the problem is… so that you can find the solution.
So if you’re not attracting coaching clients despite your best efforts, and you’re wondering why, one of these things may be at play.
5 reasons you’re not attracting coaching clients
Here are 5 main scenarios as I see when coaches aren’t attracting the coaching clients they want to see.
1. You don’t know who you’re trying to attract.
It’s true that as a life coach or health coach, you can serve a wide variety of people. You might even think you can serve “everyone.”
But coaching is not for everyone, you are not everyone and “everyone” is not a target market.
While it may seem like casting a wider net and should lead to more fish, that’s not how it works.
It sounds counterintuitive, but the more you can hone in on the exact people you’d love to serve, the more easily you can attract them.
The first step in attracting your coching clients is to know your niche, and so if you don’t already know yours, you’ll want to get started. This post can help.
2. Your coaching offer isn’t compelling enough.
This is a common problem I see: Very intelligent, gifted coaches creating an amazing package …in a vacuum.
They spend hours upon hours creating packages based on what they want to deliver without taking time to get insights and feedback from their ideal clients.
Then they launch to crickets and wonder what went wrong?!
Here’s what went wrong: They didn’t validate their offering with their ideal clients.
While it’s your business and you get to decide what you offer, part of creating offers that sell is the “that sell” piece.
So how can you ensure you’re creating offers that your ideal clients want to buy?
Do some informal market research before you go full throttle into a new offering. This will help you validate your ideas, understand your ideal clients, and create offers that serve them. You can get started with market research here.
3. Your message is missing the mark.
Another common issue I see when coaches aren’t attracting clients is that their messaging (i.e., how you talk about your offerings) is off.
Either they aren’t clearly communicating the value and results that a client can get from working with them, or they’re doing it using too many “Is” and not enough “Yous.”
The most important thing to remember about messaging is that it’s about your target audience, not you.
For that reason, your message needs to be client-centric, meaning it needs to speak your client’s language, in words they use and understand. (This means no more coaching jargon!)
You also want to communicate the benefits and results a client can experience from working with you. (Always answer the question, “What’s in it for them?”)
Good messaging is so important to attracting your clients. To learn more about finding the right message that attracts your audience and feels like you, click here.
4. Your marketing isn’t optimized.
The next reason that you might not be attracting coaching clients — and this is especially true if you already know your niche, have a compelling offering, and have solid messaging — it’s that you’re not reaching the right people at the right time.
In this case, it’s a marketing issue.
Now, the way you find your first coaching clients is often through your own network and people you know.
But after you’ve exhausted those resources, you’re going to need to look beyond your network and community — and widen your outreach.
A strategic marketing plan can help you identify the exact ways you’ll use to put yourself out there and attract clients on a larger scale.
(And btw, I’m not talking about paid ads. A solid organic marketing strategy goes a long way!)
If you’re just getting started with marketing, you can check out this post.
5. Your sales process isn’t converting.
If you find that you’re attracting the right people on social media or on your consult calls, but they are not converting to clients, then it’s usually an issue with your sales process.
Once you start bringing people in through your marketing activities, it’s a matter of engaging with them, providing value, and when the time is right, inviting them to work with you.
Sales is simply inviting the right people to work with you at the right time.
So many coaches I see skip the step of inviting! You must make the ask and invite people to work with you… on a regular basis.
If you are making the ask, but they’re not buying, it’s a matter of understanding why. Get curious and ask questions about why they’re not signing up to work with you.
This can also help you better qualify prospective clients before they get on a consultation, so you can make sure the right people are getting on the call with you.
Want support in attracting coaching clients?
Remember, nothing is “wrong” with you if you find yourself in this scenario. Nearly all of us have from time to time.
But when you do, it’s a great opportunity to get curious about where the gaps are, so that you can better understand the problem, and then find solutions to remedy it.
Want more clarity in understanding why you’re not attracting more coaching clients?
Let’s chat! Book a free consultation with me here.
