3 Essential Tips To Never Lose A Client Or Prospect Again

The Elite Business Coach Newsletter is for professional business coaches, and those considering becoming one to get the tools, strategies and best practices of the most Elite Business Coaches on the planet. 

It can be a nightmare to wade through the clutter of confusing strategies shared online. You've probably read blog posts, watched YouTube videos, listened to podcasts about personal growth, coaching & business but perhaps you aren’t making the income & impact you really want. 

Well you are in the right place, as each week this newsletter is going to cut through the confusion & give you absolute clarity about the 3 key pillars you need to be an elite business coach and the 9 Step Business Coach Roadmap to make it a simple, easier path to success.

The 3 Key Pillars: 

1. Grow Credibility             
2. Get Clients                
3. Great Coaching

The Elite Business Coach newsletter gives you a deeper understanding & insight into the life & lifestyle of a business coach & what it takes to be world class. 

Lifestyle - What It’s Like Being a Business Coach & different ways to structure your business.

Options - Paths To Become A Business Coach - the good, the bad & the ugly (& there are some paths you will want to avoid!).

Best Practices - Proven strategies from our 9 Step Business Coach Roadmap used by our elite academy business coaches.

—-------

This week, the topic is CUSTOMER/CLIENT (& PROSPECT) SERVICE

—-------

I was going to write about the ONLY 5 key metrics you need to focus on to be an Elite Business Coach…

However, that will have to wait until next week because you are about to get a Zander Rant! 

These have become infamous in our members community but it needs to be said and it might just stop you losing out on a couple of hundred thousand pounds this year!

Let’s dive into the story…

THE STORY (RANT)

I’m stood in the hotel lobby wondering if the entire world had gone truly mad or it was just me…

Likely both!

Pam (my co-founder & mum) & I had popped into a hotel on the way to the Belfry Hotel (this is important to the story later)

We were in that hotel because we are putting on our first live in person 3 day intensive for our members in May & we need a conference room. 

Now bear in mind that wherever we choose we will be paying for the room…

then extra coffees & teas…

Lunches…

A dinner for our members…

& speaking of our members they will likely stay at the hotel…

That’s 20-30 rooms for 2-3 nights each so all-in-all our business could be worth anywhere in the £5,000-10,000 to whichever hotel we choose.

Now Pam had run events there before so luckily she already knew the rooms and the setup were great.

So why did we have to be there in person?

Because no one answered the phone!!

She rang 6-7 different hotels and non of them answered!!

The ones where she could leave messages either didn’t reply at all or were days in replying!!

Stick with me here this will all be relevant to your coaching business...

When she finally called the hotel we were now stood in days later, they’d transferred her through to the central office & they quoted prices but said they would have to call the venue to check availability and confirm. 🤦

Newsflash, they didn’t confirm so we show up at the hotel and asked at reception…

Which by the way we were able to walk right past as it was deserted and went all through the hotel and into the conference rooms without seeing a soul. 

Then when we finally came back to reception the lady on the desk said she didn’t know anything about the rooms because that was all dealt with by the central office!!

The world has gone mad. 

She also shared they’d had to be shut for months because the staff couldn’t handle internal & external guests. 

Internal guests are people who stay there, external are people who come in for a drink or meal. 

I didn’t realize that serving a few teas and a scone to the old dears who pop in every now and again was so overwhelming you have to shut down the entire hotel!!

Look, I know covid was difficult for everyone & the tragedy of that cannot be underestimated…

However, it started 2 years ago. 

At some point you have to adapt and get back in the game!!

Now let’s just flip that a minute to

See how it could be done. 

So a few hours after this I walk into the Belfry hotel (one of the best in the country) ready for this weekend retreat of relaxation and business planning with a small mastermind of Expert Empire Members. 

I walked up to reception and they were busy but I was immediately greeted by saying “I’ll be with you in a minute, Sir” and then you know what…

She was with me in a minute…

Shocker! 

And I didn’t mind in the slightest!

Then there was the usual quick paperwork, get your card, then directions where to go, checked I knew about breakfast, asked if I was using the leisure centre, gave me the details. 

I actually got…SERVICE!

THE LESSON

Now this may just seem like the rant of a frustrated person (& you’d be right)...

And I know reading this you may be nodding your head in agreement but that’s not the point. 

It’s VITAL you get this.

It’s VITAL for every business.

But It’s Even More VITAL for Business Coaches. 

Why?

There are 2 main reasons:

1. People don’t want coaching. 

Another shocker I know (more about this and how you actually market what you do in a future newsletter).

But it’s a fact. 

People don’t want coaching (Spoiler: they want the results & coaching is one method!).

They may not have even thought about it. You will usually be doing outbound marketing to get your clients, especially in the beginning. 

Therefore, any slight inconvenience, nuisance, annoyance & they are gone!

Just think about your own experience.

Have you ever had something you wanted to buy or needed and the service was so bad you just gave it up as a bad job?

If that’s the case imagine how fast they think “Well sod it!” if it’s for something they weren’t even thinking about until you just messaged them. 

But that’s not all…

2. Each Client is Worth Tens of Thousands!!!

If you mess up, you aren’t losing a hotel room or even a conference room + 20-30 hotel rooms. 

Every client of yours depending on how long you keep them could be in the range of £50,000 - £200,000 over the next several years…( you better know how to keep them!)

Pam has kept clients +8 years and they started off paying £995 & by the end with her coaching the leadership team were paying £7,000 / month.

So imagine if she’d had poor customer or prospect service and she never even got them as a client or lost them after the first 3 months!!

Wha a waste!

So here are three super SIMPLE best practices for you to implement to improve your prospect & client service 

Pro Tip #1 - Make It EASY For People To Do Business With You

It’s quite shocking how hard it has been for us to pay a hotel this money. The other day we wanted to go out for afternoon tea but “You have to book two days in advance”.

Don’t make this same mistake in your business. 

1. Map out your sales process.
2. Reduce friction.
3. Make it slick, quick and easy for people to buy from you. 

People have enough roadblocks in their mind you have to overcome (something we will cover), you don’t want to be adding further obstacles.

Pro Tip #2 - Follow-up With Prospects (In a Timely fashion)

It amazes me how often coaches say they have no leads, then when you take a look at what they are doing they have a bunch of prospects they have not followed up with or in some cases even replied to!

There is often lots of money left on the table in people’s coaching businesses. 

Don’t be one of these coaches!

Coaches feel they will be bothering people by following up but it’s about shifting your mentality…

to serving not selling. 

If you know you can help them, then it is your duty to do what you can to show the value you can deliver because otherwise you are letting the suffering in their lives continue. 

Come up with new, creative valuable things you can share to follow up if you need to ease your conscious about reaching out.

Pro Tip #3 - Say What You Are Going To Do, Then Do It!

This might sound over simplistic but it’s actually the key to 90% of service.  

You always want to make sure your prospect and client knows the next step. 

When you sign a new client before you end the call tell them what is going to happen next EXACTL...

Email from you, what they need to do, when they have the next call etc.

And then…

Wait for it…

Actually do what you said you would!

If you say you’ll call them back on Tuesday... do it!

If you say you’ll send the email... do it. 

Research shows clients decide how long they will stay with you in their first 3 interactions.

So be clear, and be consistent!

I’ll cover on-boarding a client properly in detail in a future newsletter.

----------

Conclusion

Focus on those 3 tips for now and you’ll drastically increase your probability of signing your next client instead of scaring them away. 

You know what truly successful people do in any endeavor whether it be business, sport, academic, art…

They do the basics, and they do them well. 

Only once they have those mastered do they add the amazing skills and extraordinary feats.

If a prospects says give me a call, ask for their number and call them. Don't get fancy sending calendar invites (unless it is super simple & better for them!)

If people reply to your messages follow up!

This alone will help you grow your coaching business faster. 

No matter what is going on in your world, you can't just make excuse and blame things.

If you have something that is a challenge and an issue figure out what you can do about it.

Get back into serving and I guarantee when it comes time to sell, that will be the easy part.

—

Zander's Pro Tip

As my entire newsletter today was a rant from me I'll keep this part short and sweet. Do not let your key habits like working out, getting to bed on time, meditating slip when you get busy in your business. Those are the things you need to double down on (not skip) when the going gets tough. You aren't doing any favours by "getting back to those when things calm down". You need them as pillars of control to help things calm down.

—

An action step you can take today…

Go back through your prospects & reply to all the people you haven't. Then go and follow up with all the ones you haven't, then make a plan for the next 3-5 follow ups you can do with them where you are serving them.

About Zander

I’m Zander Woodford-Smith. The CEO of Business Coach Academy.

Our mission is to create a team of 1000 elite business coaches that transform the lives of businesses around the world. We already have over 100 coaches who use our roadmap & frameworks to rapidly start their coaching business.

I went from struggling to sign my first clients to growing a personal growth brand for business owners & coaches to over 20,000 members & $100K per month in two years, all while traveling the world.

I graduated from the #1 International Business Programme in the USA. Won 2 Global Impact Awards (B1G1), spoken at TEDx and contributed the final chapter to the #1 International Best Seller: Better Business, Better Life, Better World.

If you have any questions about starting or growing your own coaching business…

Connect with me here on Linked In & I’ll be happy to answer your questions. 

Find out more about becoming an Elite Business Coach on our Discovery page.

Thank you for reading! 😊