Even if it may seem rocket science for some, getting new clients (or even the first client) shouldn’t be that hard for a coach. If it was rocket science, we should’ve gone to school for many more years to come, got our degrees and then worked really, really hard for a job at NASA. 

Getting new coaching clients is not as complicated as rocket science. But coaching has a principle that closely follows a similar one in rocket science. Coaching helps you get from point A to point B, with the help of different means. 

While rockets may help us reach Space, today’s article will help you to get new coaching clients. Let’s say you’re a new coach, and just finished your Certified Coach Practitioner certification at CCF. You don’t have any coaching clients as of right now. That’s your point A. Let’s see how you can reach point B by using our 10 tips for getting clients as a coach.

If you already have tens of clients and are overwhelmed by them, maybe you can shy away towards one of our more suitable blogs for you, like this or this.

Success isn’t overnight

We all know this phrase – success isn’t overnight. I remember a funny and witty post on Instagram that said: “Maddening Overnight Success” – in the background, there was a calendar of the day that person first started working towards their goal. It took them 10 years to reach that “Overnight Success”.

How many of you, reading this, have watched “Schindler’s List”? Well, Steven Spielberg, the director of one of the best movies ever produced, had a really tough time reaching success. He got rejected from film school three times before finally getting in. Imagine that he’d said, after the second or third try: “Well, I guess it’s not for me.” – Schindler’s List would not exist. 

Another example of “Overnight Success”  is J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter. Her first book editor paid her only 2500 pounds and told her to become a school teacher, as she won’t be able to make any money through writing. Here she is now, being a billionaire out of writing!

When you realize success isn’t overnight, your coaching career will start accelerating. Slowly, at first, but before you know it, you’ll reach the cruising speed you always wanted!

Stay persistent

The next tip is in close relationship with the first one. Persistence is the key to a great career. After you understand that success isn’t overnight, you now have to put in the work. That means showing up, every day, trying to reach new clients, getting better at marketing, and working towards a better future.

One social media post a month doesn’t mean you’ll have coaching clients flocking around you. You’ll have to stay persistent, in order to reach the desired clients in due time. Remember, persistence is key!

Post on social media. Film yourself and post it on TikTok or Instagram Reels. Gather testimonials in order to reach a certain rapport (we’ll be talking about it in just a bit) with your clients. By doing these things, you’ll be able to change the game.

Get your first paid client ASAP

When your mindset is set correctly and persistence and consistency are always in the back of your mind, you’ll have to make the first big leap – getting your first paid client. I know some of you reading this still consider money taboo and don’t yet consider you deserve to get paid for coaching.

If you are in this situation, you should try to coach someone for free. Pick someone from your family or a close friend. Let them know how coaching can help them and show them how important coaching can really be.

After you coach 1-2 people for free, ask them for an honest, open testimonial. They will be more than happy to offer it and those testimonials will represent a stepping stone for your coaching career. 

The next objective is getting your first paid client. Maybe it’s one of the people you already coached for free – they saw that you’re delivering on your promises and really think you deserve your money. And, just like that…you have your first paid coaching client.

Use the Client Acquisition Funnel

If you’ve gone through one of our certification courses, you already know how much emphasis we put on our Client Acquisition Funnel. The Client Acquisition Funnel is a tool designed for coaches that really want to gather clients suitable for their skills. 

First up on the Client Acquisition Funnel, we have the Awareness Step. Here, you have to let potential clients know you exist. You are there, ready to help them change their life. How? Well, you decide that – how can you help your clients? In the Awareness phase, content is most important – let people know how important coaching is and what you can do for them. The media channels perfect for this phase are Social Media, Paid Media (Ads), SEO blogs, having your own website, and PR Stunts (if you have the money).

After that, comes the engagement part of the Funnel. Here, people already know who you are and why coaching is great, but they’re not entirely sure coaching is suitable for them. In this phase, information is crucial. You have to push the right channels with the ideal content for a client that is not entirely sure if you’re the right fit. 

When you’re done with the engagement, you’ll have to tackle advocacy. This is the slice of the funnel where people already collaborated with you, loved your coaching and became a fan. Now, you want them to tell other people about you. These fans will help you find much more clients than some simple social media posts would.

Be specific about who you are and who should work with you

A really important aspect of coaching is knowing who you are. What do you really bring new to the table? Don’t go around, telling your future clients: “Well, I’m the best coach.” – that doesn’t work. You’re not the best – actually, there is not a single coach that can brag about that.

Instead of that wording, make sure you know where you excel. What are your strong points and what is your unique selling proposition? For example, you could coach men who are looking to take the second half of their lives into their own hands and develop the best path for the remainder of their lives. 

After you’ve decided who you are as a coach, you should also realize who should work with you. What type of people are you going to coach for the rest of your life? Are you a niche coach or a general coach? Ask yourself these questions in order to get the right clients. 

Rapport, connection, trust – build them! 

We already mentioned rapport in today’s blog, but the relationship you have to build with your clients is far beyond what we barely mentioned.

Rapport and connection mean that the clients feel welcomed, safe, and listened to when you coach them. They strongly believe you won’t hurt them and will help with whatever is necessary. 

Rapport and connection are the first steps of your relationship, but what you want to achieve is trust. Trust goes far beyond that and is usually the pinnacle of a relationship between coach and client. 

Achieving trust can be done through great coaching, respecting deadlines, always showing up on time, honest communication and testimonials from other people. In order to build trust, you can show your client how coaching has changed others’ lives. 

Build rapport, connection and trust and every coaching session will be an eye-opening one.

Establish prices in a clear manner

Even if the topic of money may be taboo or uncomfortable for some of you right now, you’ll see that after getting your first clients, talking about them will feel like part of the job. That being said, you’ll have to establish prices in a clear manner, so that your clients can really understand what you are charging and what you are offering for free.

If one of your clients is in distress and calls you requiring your help late at night, will you say to them: “Well, I can help you, but this will be charged!”. How do you think the client will relate to that?

At first, you shouldn’t charge for everything. Offer your clients some freebies – one hour of coaching every 2 months for free, make them a gift (a book, a house plant – you know what they like). Build rapport, connection and trust through a great relationship, where not every minute of your interaction with them is charged.

These are our seven tips for getting new clients. We hope you’ll start practising them and we can’t wait to hear how these seven tips work for you.