Five Ways to Lose Clients and Money
There are at least 5 coaching skills (including business building skills) that coaching schools don’t teach. This is a huge disservice, because not knowing these skills can keep your clients stuck in inaction, and therefore, unable to succeed. A client who doesn’t take action is not a satisfied client, no matter how good the information you provided them with. That client will not return for more coaching from you, and won’t give you referrals. Here’s a fictitious case study: 
A coach, Ambrosia A. Albatross, has a unique system for helping people leave the jobs they hate and develop their own businesses. It’s a 6-step process, and she decides to teach it in a 6-class teleseminar series.
Word has spread about how wonderful her system is, so she gets 20 people to sign up for her teleseminar series. Along with this series, she offers an online forum and homework.
Week 1: People love what they are learning and are inspired.
Week 2: Fewer people attend, some haven’t done the homework.
Week 3. People feel overloaded with information and guilty that they haven’t taken a single step to put this useful system into effect.
Week 4: Same as Week 3
Week 5: Same as Week 4
Week 6: Same as Week 5
Ambrosia ends the teleseminar series by offering an upsell to her expensive individual coaching package or her very expensive VIP Mentorship Day. These are truly fantastic opportunities, and 4 of the 20 people sign up.
Sounds pretty good, right?
But there are a few things really wrong with this picture…
1. People are NOT taking action on what they learned.
Why? The usual: resistance, busyness, distractions that we all have and experience.
What do they need? To have their hands held.
What is the result of their not taking action? They are less likely to recommend your program or return to you for further services.
2. People are not being told what they need to do each day.
This is what I mean by hand-holding. People need lessons broken down into itty bitty pieces so that they can wrap their minds around the information and then actually start to DO IT. In other words, they need to be told HOW TO GET THINGS DONE.
3. There is little accountability.
People drop out of sight and are forgotten.
4. An AFFORDABLE upsell or cross sell is missing.
What about the 80% of people in Ambrosia’s class who didn’t sign up? We can’t all afford 5-digit programs!
Not only do the clients miss out, but the coach misses out on an important revenue stream that is scalable.
5. There is no continuity program — no ongoing community of like-minded people, who are all working on similar issues, or who have similar problems or goals, and who are utilizing the techniques that Ambrosia has taught them.
The solution to all of this? Ambrosia needs a system that (in addition to her fantastic content) focuses on how to get things done. Her system must provide daily accountability and help her clients take small daily actions. She needs a way to offer an affordable continuity program that flows seamlessly from her teleseminar series, so that her clients succeed, and so that she doesn’t leave an entire revenue stream on the table.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Have you been in teleseminars like this and not implemented what you learned? How have you dealt with these issues in your own coaching practice?
2 thoughts on “Five Ways to Lose Clients and Money”
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Wow, is this ever true! “People not being told what to do every day” may seem a bit controlling, but when you have so much to do it is SO much better to have clear direction!
You’re right, Denise. I don’t think it feels controlling, because the person has chosen to do the one thing each day, and really WANTS to do that one thing. But with accountability, it’s more like a friendly reminder. I think what you said about clear direction really describes what I look for when I feel overwhelmed with too much to do.