If you are a coach or consultant who is accustomed to the feast or famine of client acquisition via referrals, word of mouth, networking and cold calling, the following five steps might be just what you need, to guarantee your calendar is full, with predictability every month.
(1) TARGET. The first step to filling your calendar with leads is to understand with utmost intimacy your ideal client, where they are, what they do, what pressures and challenges they face, what their dreams and desires are. When you know this about the client you're able to identify them in the crowd, filter them out and direct your efforts and conversations towards them. The more clients like this you have, the more you will know and understand them and the better you will be at picking similar targets in new groups. You will save a lot of time from a 'scatter-gun' approach, where you fire information at a broad group hoping to land one or two by chance. When you know your client like you know your best friend, targeting them and converting them to a client becomes much more efficient.
(2) MESSAGE. The second step to filling your calendar every month is to messages like arrows that cut through and pierce the ideal clients' heart, capturing their attention and their time. A message the flashes stimuli before your ideal clients speaking to their deepest pains and challenges and appealing to their deepest desires and dreams, will arrest their attention and leave them wanting more. For the message to cut through and penetrate the heart, your message can not just be information heavy but speak to their deep heart desires and agitated them to find out more.
(3) CHANNEL. The third step to filling your calendar each month with new clients is to focus your message on the one or two channels where your target is located. By focusing your energy in this way you are more likely to get returns for your efforts, than by spreading your energy across a range of channels. Many other channels are simply vanity channels, which of which do not reach your client anyway and are simply creating noise for others and a time drain for you. Take the one or two channels that reach 80% of your clients and focus your attention there.
(4) SYSTEM. The fourth step to filling your calendar with leads each month is to take the target who has been hit by the message on the right channel, and convert them into a paying client. We do this using the powerful message to invite them to free value in the form of a short training, a webinar, a downloadable PDF or e-book, or to gain access to some secrets or strategies that will immediately help them solve some of their pain and move towards their desire. In exchange of this free value, the target should give an email address or phone number which we can use to follow up with them. After they engage with the free value, we can invite them to get on a call and on this call we can diagnose their problem and offer our services as solution.
(5) REPLICATION. The fifth and final step to filling your calendar every month with leads is to efficiently repeat this process again and again with new leads. Clients who engaged with our free content who are not yet ready to buy from us can be added to groups or our mailing list along with current and past clients so we can continue to offer them value and future business service. You can use the message and free value over and over to target new potential clients on the same or new channels. You can invite clients to recommend or refer you to their friends and their stories and testimonials of results become powerful assets in your search for similar audiences with similar challenges and similar desires.
Once you have mastered these 5 Simple Steps you will be guaranteed to fill your calendar every month with new leads. I look forward to hearing that you no longer face a feast or famine in your coaching or consulting business with this simple formula.