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
Want to encourage people on your email list to buy one (or more) of your products or programs sooner than later? Have a sale! I’m sharing 7 super-simple ways that you can provide great value to your audience while bringing in a great profit for you at the same time!
7 Ways to Have a Sale Today
1. Half-Off Sale
Offer your product or program for 50% off its usual price. That may seem like a big discount – and it is – which means that many more people are likely to buy it.
Or go one step further and offer all your products or programs at 50% off (except any one-on-one work with you, of course!).
I’ve been thinking about buying a few products over the past year from one site, and when they had a 50% off sale recently, I jumped at the chance to buy not just one, but three products for half-price. Give your list the chance to do the same.
2. Close-Out Sale
Do you have a product or a program that you are no longer going to offer, perhaps to make room for some new offerings? Or are you coming out with a new version of one of your offerings? Have a close-out sale by offering a deep discount.
As an added bonus, you could then offer those people who bought your offering at the close-out price that same amount in a discount if they buy the new version.
Here’s a bit of inspiration for you: One of my close-out sales brought me over $10k in less than a week.
3. Re-Gift Sale
Remember the Seinfeld episode about re-gifting? Do something similar for the stock of any of your products that have been returned. “Re-gift” the ones in good condition to a new buyer for a discount.
4. VIP Sale
Offer a coupon or promo code ONLY to your email list, or to your clients, or to those people who have bought from you before, that’s good towards the purchase of any one or all of your offerings. You can set this up in your shopping cart system very easily, so there’s no other extra work on your part.
5. Free Shipping Sale
Offer free shipping on any of your physical products for a limited time, or offer free shipping on all orders over a certain amount.
Personally, if I’m looking to purchase something online, I always search for (and almost always find) a ‘free shipping’ code before I buy.
6. Bonus Sale
Add a valuable bonus or two to your offering for a limited time. It can be something you’ve created or something from one of your colleagues that your niche would benefit from.
Leverage this kind of sale by doing a “bonus sale swap” with a colleague, where they would offer a bonus from you and vice versa. Your own sale will bring you cash, and your bonus offering for your colleague’s sale will bring you more subscribers to your list, which will ultimately bring you more cash.
7. Just Because Sale
This is a favorite of mine – having a sale just because – it’s your birthday, you want to show your gratitude to your list, it’s the 1, 5, or 10 year anniversary of when you went into business for yourself, or for any other reason you can think of.
Having a sale WILL bring in more immediate cash, but there are some cautions to take when doing so too. Only have a sale occasionally, and when you do, have a compelling reason for it. Otherwise, if it seems you’re always having a sale, you’re planting a seed in your potential buyer’s mind that your offerings may not be worth their regular price.
So, which kind of sale are you going to have to put some extra cash in your pocket today? Share with me in the comments.
Feel free to share this post with your friends and colleagues via the buttons below too – thanks!
PS: There are definitely some nuances to making a sale be really successful for you, and that’s something we talk about in the Lively Biz Business Club (my most affordable coaching option). To find out more, be sure to get on the wait list here today, ok?
Hi there!
I had a email conversation with a potential high-level client several years ago that went something like this…
“Alicia, I have a successful life coaching practice – full client roster, mostly via referrals, steady 6 figures in income, and I want to bring my business online. I’m interested in your Platinum program – can we talk?”
I told her she should consider going through my 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™ instead.
My response surprised her. So much so she graciously asked why it seemed she wasn’t qualified for my Platinum program…(because <insert name>, <insert name> and <insert name> had already told her she was for their programs.
I explained it wasn’t that she wasn’t qualified at all. It was that she was already successful offline and she didn’t NEED a $24k Platinum program to bring that success online.
She only needed to implement the 21 Steps (for $297-) to get the foundation of a successful online business in place, and THEN we could talk about Platinum.
Or I could personally lead her through the 21 Steps program for $24k and call it Platinum… 😉 Her choice… You can guess which she choose, thanking me for pointing her to just what she needed next (and saving her thousands of dollars too).
I’m so tired of hearing stories from you about spending thousands of dollars BEFORE you want or even need to, just to get those critical underpinnings in place.
So I want you to have the same choice I gave to her – and for even less of an investment than that…
I’m offering you the 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™ for just $97-.
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
This is the final time I will be offering this program, even though it’s been my bestselling offer since 2006 – it’s simply time to make space for something new to emerge.
This $97- deal ends on Saturday, June 6, so don’t wait, ok?
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
Cheers,
~ A
PS: The program comes with access to the private 21 Steps Facebook Group as well as 8 Video Trainings of the entire course… it’s a screaming deal. 😉
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
One of the ways my business had been successful over the years has been by repeating what’s worked. And then there comes a time when my market and I are ready for something fresh, something new to re-ignite the fires or to advance together into a new level of growth. This also helps keep your list interested, and it helps you stay cutting edge in your market.
Here are 5 easy ways for getting and staying hot in your market:
1. Be recognized…
Start showing up – in-person and/or virtually – at events that are offered for your target market. Throw your own events. Be seen on discussion lists and popular blogs where your target market hangs out. Join the conversation, offer your valuable insights and comments, ask good questions and give good answers. Joint venture with your colleagues and double your efforts with half the work. Join associations made up of your peers and volunteer to be on a committee or head up a project. There are loads of ways to build your recognition in your market. Pick a couple and start doing them NOW.
2. Be open to offering others’ products…
If you’ve hit a creative low point, there’s always the option of offering someone else’s product to your list. It’s still new and fresh material to them and a new offer for you to make. Make a list of five of your colleagues who each have a product offering that complements what it is that you do and start building a relationship with them now (if you don’t have one already), so when you want to offer their product, they’ve gotten to know you and your business a bit so they may be more willing to say yes to that kind of strategic alliance.
3. Be more ‘serviceable’…
Take a fresh look at your service offerings. Write down what they look like currently on one sheet of paper, including all the features and benefits. One a separate sheet of paper, write down how you’d like your services to look, including all the features and benefits. You might be surprised to find a real difference. Based on what you discover, consider repackaging your current offerings in a way that better suits you and your clients.
4. Be trendy…
Enter the conversation already going on in your client’s mind to spark new ideas. What are they reading, seeing on TV, involved in right now in their world? What current event or newsy item or popular TV show can you tie into your sales copy for your offerings that will keep it fresh and make stand out in an already crowded marketplace?
5. Be occasion-oriented
Tie a promotion into a holiday or special occasion. There’s hardly a week that goes by these days that doesn’t have some sort of celebration attached to it. Or you could make up your own. For example, January (New Year’s) and September (Back-to-School) are great months for launching new products, programs, or services that allow the client to do, be and have better.
If you want to keep your clients and customers, keep them interested. Consider offering something new, either in the way of a new product, program or services tailored to their wants or by tweaking your current offerings to keep them fresh and make them stand out in an already crowded marketplace.
I’d love to know which one of these 5 resonates with you the most. Please leave your comments below.
People ask me all the time how I’ve managed to create a 6-figure+ business while only working about 15 hours a week. First, I had to build a solid foundation and set up systems that would support the business as it grew, systems that were either automated or delegated or easily repeatable.
Once I had the foundation and the beginning systems in place, I was constantly looking for ways to leverage my time and talent, and I still do. I could write a book on the many ways we do this in my business (and maybe I will someday) but in this 4-part series, I’m going to share with you some of the most effective ones that you can apply to your business today.
1. Pick a price…
Pricing is one of the places that almost everyone gets stuck. Don’t stay stuck especially if it’s something new that you’re offering and you’re filling in the holes in your business model. Just pick a price and get your offer out there.
Getting stuff out there will move you forward, create more income, and leverage your time.
You can say, “This is early bird pricing. This is beta pricing. This is an introductory rate. Be one of our beta testers.” Know that you’re not wedded to that price forever and ever.
That is the beautiful thing about what we do. We can change our pricing all the time. It’s simple. You can just type a new number.
2. Always be hiring…
As your business grows you always want to hire. Pay attention to who shows up, who comes across your desk, who is in your inbox and who you meet at conferences and events who may be a good addition to your team.
You might think, “I’d love to have her do my social media. I’d love to have her be part of my administrative team. I’d really love to have this person do my website.”
Be aware of the people that you’re feeling that resonance with. Maybe there is a small project you can hook them with to get them onto your team early.
That way when you’re ready to hire someone, you have a ready file of possibilities to go to.
3. Make mine WordPress…
If you haven’t made the switch from a traditional HTML to WordPress, now’s the time.
The benefits of using WordPress are seemingly endless. Search engines love them, you don’t need to know HTML to create a site or make changes to an existing site, and there are tons of free and low-cost templates to choose from that will give you business a professional polish.
Because it’s so easy to use WordPress, this is going to save you (or your designer) tons of time, which is going to save you tons of money.
4. Take a stand and make it matter
To increase your exposure and your reach into your market, decide what it is that you are willing to take a stand for and make that matter to your market. If you’re ready to stop seeming like everyone else in your market who does what you do, then figure out what it is that you believe at core level and are willing to make a stand for and in for your market.
Then use that stand as the basis for your manifesto, weave it into your marketing copy, speak about it with passion, and watch as more of your ideal audience gathers to you.
5. Publish your content on Kindle
If you have an ebook or a print book, consider publish those on Amazon as Kindle versions. It’s a great way to get your content in front of all that traffic that already exists on Amazon that can lead to more leads and more sales for you. Just be sure to put an invitation in your book that leads people back to your website.
I’d love to know which one of these leveraging tips resonates the most with you – share with me below!
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