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3 Easy & Effective Alternatives or Additions to Your Coaching Packages

One of the things I enjoy about coaching is that I get to be creative with how I work with my clients, including how to create easy coaching packages that work for both of us.

In the 15+ years that I’ve been around the coaching industry, I’ve seen a rapid change from traditional 1:1 coaching of three 45 minute sessions per month for a monthly fee to session bundles, coaching programs that last as long as a year, in-person retreats, and much more.

So there are some simple ways that you can add value to your current coaching packages, or offer these alternatives to phone-only coaching as stand-alone packages, that can be very enticing to your clients.

Consider adding any of the options below to increase the value of your packages, or offer them as a stand-alone package, giving your clients a way to work with you at a more accessible investment, as well as help you as the coach to leverage your time.

Here are three of my personal favorites:

1. e-Coaching

In addition to phone sessions, one of the ways that I’ve coached my private clients is through e-coaching, or coaching via email and/or instant messaging.

I hold a firm belief that email coaching is just as powerful, if not more so, than phone coaching – and here’s why:

When you send an email asking for help, the simple act of writing and sending it creates energy that initiates the process of an answer coming to you – and not just MY answer.

When you put a problem out into the world, not only do the synapses in your brain start firing (our brains can’t help but answer questions) to come up with a solution, but the Universe starts working in order to bring you a solution as well.

It’s why experienced coaches understand that the real coaching happens between the sessions.

And e-coaching is also just a whole lot easier – you don’t have to schedule a call, you don’t have to be tied to a phone, or even a computer (you can e-coach via smartphone). And your client doesn’t have to wait until their next session to get the support they need – they just send an email!

2. Audio Coaching

For those of you who would rather coach by talking instead of typing, here’s an idea for you.

I had a private client once who was a coach and she was happy to receive questions via email from her clients. But she preferred to answer those questions via audio. What I suggested she do was to simply call into her recording service or use the app on her phone, record her answer, and then send the client the MP3 link to listen to. She loved answering client questions this way, and they loved hearing her voice. Simple and brilliant!

3. Video Coaching

Video coaching has become popular over the last few years, but there are many coaches who still prefer phone-coaching. However, video coaching is an effective alternative and might be preferred by some of your potential clients. When I was private coaching, I did video coaching most often with my clients who lived outside of the United States via Skype. It was free for both of us and it was the next best thing to being in-person.

And you could also offer video coaching in the same way that I described above in #2. For example, I had another private client who preferred recording a quick video where she could share screenshots, links and more in response to her client’s questions and requests for help. I do this for my Lively Biz students using a free service called Loom. Sometimes it’s so much easier for me to answer a question by showing how to do something via a quick Loom video vs typing it all out.

Which one of these alternatives or additions to phone coaching could you add to your current packages or that you could create a stand-alone package to offer?

I’d love to know – share with me here

3 Easy Ways to Use Webinars in Your Online Business to Make More Sales

Do you know that there are at least 3 easy ways to use webinars in your online business to make more sales?

Way before webinars or masterclasses became a popular way to convert more prospects into buyers online, I was leading them as teleseminars.

Same concept, same framework, different delivery, that’s all. 😉

Over the last several years, the teleseminar morphed with technology into webinars (or masterclasses) delivered via video, either live or recorded, instead of over the telephone via a conference line.

But it’s still a simple sales device that is highly effective. It’s why they’re used so often.

And there are ways to deliver them to make more sales for you too!

Here are three of my top tips for use webinars in your business to make more sales:

Tell more than teach

One marketing school of thought tells us that when we’re doing any kind of sales presentation, we should only share the ‘what and the why, but not the how’.

And that works, for sure. But for most of us, it’s hard not to teach, or education, or share a solution, even on a free sales talk, like a webinar.

My school of thought has always been to ‘share the what and the why and a little bit of the how’ so that your audience knows that you know what you’re talking about.

Let me break it down for you a little further.

– Share with your audience WHAT the problem is that you’re addressing as the topic of your webinar
– Explain WHY it’s critical to solve that problem
– Give them one or two things they can do to move towards handling the problem

In order to get your entire solution, they need to invest in the paid program or product. But you can at least show them on your free talk that you know what you’re doing, and you’re going that little bit further in deepening the know, like and trust factor with them too.

Build up the front and build out the back

One of the biggest mistakes I see online entrepreneurs make is not consciously focusing on connecting with their audience before their webinar.

They put up a registration page, send a few emails and social media posts and hope that people sign up and show up.

But it doesn’t work that way (and this was something I had to work on myself – because it USED to work that way quite well!).

You need to connect and give value to your audience well before you invite them to your webinar. Share free content with them, ask for engagement, connect with them, and then invite them to join you.

But don’t stop there!

Once they’ve registered, be sure to continue to connect with them to build anticipation and excitement about your webinar all the way up to the date of your presentation.

The other mistake I often see is once the webinar is over, there’s very little follow-up. There may be one or two emails that go out with the replay and the invitation, but there should be at least 4-6 follow-ups to make more sales from your webinar.

And that leads me to the third tip…

No is often not now

Once a webinar is over and the cart is closed for the offer, we often just forget about the people who said no.

But I want you to remember that often a No is just a Not Now.

So don’t forget to re-invite the people who registered but who didn’t say yes right away into the offer in the future, if it makes sense. Or consider making a downsell offer to them instead.

Which one of these three easy ways will you start using to make more sales from your webinars?

I’d love to know – share with me here

Why trying it on before you make an investment in your online business is smart…

When we’re considering making an investment in our online business, sometimes we have to “try it on” first.

I was shopping with my daughter recently and she saw a piece of clothing that could be worn as either a skirt or a dress. She really liked it so I suggested she try it on.

Once she tried it on, though, she said she liked it, “…but not enough to get it.”

The same is true as we build our business. There are so many options and opportunities to grow our business that sometimes it overwhelms and immobilizes us from making a choice or moving forward.

So sometimes we just need to make a choice and ‘try it on’ – and only then can we truly decide if it’s right for us.

I’ve been lucky in the sense that, in 20 years of investing in different programs and coaches/mentors, I’ve only once felt that the program I invested in wasn’t right for me. And I think part of making the right investment in my online business all the other times came down to knowing what I really wanted and needed at that time.

Here is the first question I ask myself:

Is this program/product/service what I need to learn/know/do next to move my business forward?

And I don’t let myself off the hook with an easy “yes!”.

I look at my plan, what I’m focused on right now, and if it’s really truly the very next thing I need to move the needle.

I actually started doing this process of decision-making when we were buying our current home in 2014. We were trying to keep as much cash in the bank as possible for our deposit (and I try to run my business as cash-only as much as possible), so this was the yardstick I used to make investing decisions – and it has served me well ever since.

So what is just the next thing you need to know, learn or do to move your business forward?

Is there a program/product/service that you could try on to see if it’s right, and if it’s right, right now?

I’d love to know… tell me here

 

make an investment in your online business

The #1 thing that enables me to take a lot of time away from my online business while still making money

So many people have asked me how I work less but make more, so I wanted to share with you the #1 thing that enables me to take a lot of time away from my online business while still making money.

When I first started my online coaching business in 2006, I had already been working for myself for about 5 years. In that time, I learned a lot about how I wanted to run my business and also how I didn’t.

That was before we had kids, so I had a lot more time availability and flexibility. But I also knew that once children came into the picture, that was going to change everything, and mostly it was going to shift the time and energy I had for my business to caring for a baby.

My goal was to create something that could run mostly without me. To offer something that only required me to show up in the tiny pockets of time I had to focus on my business and my students.

The first thing I created was my 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System, which was a digital course. Then I put together my very first recurring revenue stream, a monthly membership called the Client Abundance Coaching Cafe.

The digital course only required me to create the content and market it. The membership only required me to create the content and deliver it on a specific date and time once a month. Anything else I needed to do to generate sales or new members joining or answering questions in our community groups were things I could do during naptime or nightime.

And that’s what I did for the first three years in growing my business.

It’s also when I had my first 6-figure year.

The #1 thing that enabled me then – and today – to take as much as 16 weeks away from my business every year is having offers that don’t require me to show up live.

Offering products or programs where the content can be created in batches well before I take time off, or where there isn’t a promise of my teaching or coaching live, is how I’ve been able to work less but make more.

I’ve always approached my offers this way – to keep my Family First – and to build a profitable business around my Life first. And it’s worked out quite well over all these years – to the tune of over $2 million in sales.

And approaching your business this way isn’t just for vacation time. I’ve been especially grateful having created a business model like this when I’ve needed to focus my time and energy on personal situations even more so than for holidays.

And it’s why I always encourage my students to have at least one recurring revenue stream that’s set up in this way so that they have cash flow even when they need or want to step away from their business for a bit.

The peace of mind that brings is priceless.

So, if you want to generate income while you take time away from your business – to truly work less but make more – consider how you could create an offer and deliver it without require YOU to show up live, something that can be put pretty much on auto-pilot, a product or a program that leans more towards a do-it-yourself model, vs a done-with-you or done-for-you model.

It doesn’t have to be complex to make it successful either – in fact, the simpler you can make it – the better for you and for your perfect people.

This is how my Family First online business started…

It was our daughter’s 1st birthday.Family First online business

And I remember sitting in the truck with James outside the aquarium where we brought her to celebrate for the day. We were taking a break and she’d just nodded off for her mid-day nap.

Once she was asleep, I pulled out my Blackberry to check my email because I’d just opened registration for my very first digital course that morning – 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System.

(tip: don’t launch on a special day ;-))

To my delight and chagrin, there were loads of messages – many were orders being processed (yay!) and some were questions about the course while others were about issues with trying to purchase. But the bottom line was – people were saying YES to my offer.

It was January 31, 2006.

It was my very first offer online.

My email list was tiny (77).

My offer was just $47.

But I made $1447 that day – and that’s when I knew I had just changed my life, and life for my family.

Because my goal in going into business for myself a few years earlier was to be home to raise any children we were blessed with, and to contribute financially to my family.

One of my top values has always been Family First – and that hasn’t changed in the 20 years I’ve been operating and growing my own business.

That daughter is now 16, she’s about the enter her junior year in high school, and we are already deep into the college process (and what an eye-opening process it is!).

If you have kids who’ve gone the college route, then you know that it financially changes the game. Even though we’ve chosen to send both our kids to private school their entire school careers (at a current tuition rate which rivals college tuition), it is still a whole other level of financial contribution when it comes to college.

But as overwhelming and stressful as figuring out this next piece of the puzzle can be, I know we’ll be ok. Because I’m an Alchemist. For 20 years, I’ve turned straw into gold.

And I’m no one special. We can all do that – yes, even you. 😉

All you need is one idea, one person to offer it to, and a way to reach them.

What do you think? Are you an Alchemist too? Do you believe you are, but something is keeping you stuck? Is it the idea, the person, or the way?

Tell me here 🙂