What If I Get TOO MANY Clients?

Two separate conversations about having the risk of attracting too many clients have prompted me to write this article. One of the coaches I spoke to is a Coaching Revolution mentee, the other is not.

I'm Scared!

In one case, Julia, a fabulous coach and mentee, has created an opportunity to speak to potentially 200+ clients from the employee base within one company. The company (which employs a large number of the sort of people that Julia works with) is going to pay her to both deliver a number of half-day workshops on her particular area of expertise and then have 1:1 appointments with any of the 200+ who might want to work with her. She's been offered a 5-day period in which to deliver 5 x 3-hour workshops and have 1:1 appointments with those potential clients. Beyond that initial appointment, the employees will pay for their own appointments going forward. There’s great potential for business growth in this opportunity; scarily great!

In the other case, Ben, a new coach (but not a mentee), has been exploring opportunities for his coaching business in his local area. He has found three options for where to start marketing his coaching to his perfect client. All three have quite a lot of potential for him.

What If I Get Too Many Customers?

In both of these cases, the things that are worrying these coaches are:

• What if I get too much work?
• People will think I’m unreliable if I can’t get back to them/see them on the same day, because hundreds of people will respond to my marketing efforts!
• What if I start to market my coaching business and I’m inundated with potential customers?
• I’ll look unprofessional and shoddy if I can’t deliver fabulous service in an instant.
• I feel anxious and out of my comfort zone, so my mind monkeys are going bananas!

In Ben's case, he is so worried about the potential for a tsunami of clients that he hasn’t done anything at all about promoting his coaching business. Julia is a bit more sorted in that she has taken advice and support from her Coaching Revolution mentor.

I wish I could tell Ben that marketing in three places would mean that he will have so much work he won’t know what to do. I wish I could. However, the reality is that work comes slowly to start with. A client or two from each of these sources would be a marvellous result. What I can tell him with absolute certainty is that if he doesn’t start to talk to people about what he does (and for whom) for fear of being inundated with clients, he won’t get any work at all.

Julia is more sanguine, but still quaking in her shoes about the huge potential she might have tapped. She’s right to get some support from someone who has ‘been there and done it’ within her field.

The 'Fear Of Success' Mind Monkey

This particular mind monkey is a nuisance because like all other mind monkeys, it lies. It makes you fearful of taking action due to the fear of success; specifically, not being able to manage that success. The truth is, it is highly unlikely that you’ll find yourself in a situation where you have so many clients that you can’t move, particularly not from your initial marketing efforts. If it was as simple as three well-positioned talks, or having one great opportunity, then all coaches would have huge businesses, wouldn’t they? The reality is that strategically placing business development efforts can work, and a great corporate opportunity is a real boon, but neither will, in all probability, overwhelm you with instant clients.

The moral to these tales is this: don’t over think it. Worrying about your business not bringing in enough money because of too few clients is one thing, worrying that you might possibly have too many clients because of one action you take, simply isn’t worth your time.

Do the thing you’re afraid of and you’ll realise that you won’t get more clients than you can cope with. There are urban myths about ‘that coach who placed a single 50p ad somewhere, and worked herself into an early grave because of the astonishing number of customers she gained'.

I promise you, she didn’t.

You won’t.

If you'd like some help with understanding where these kinds of opportunities can be found for you, then why don't we chat? This is a link to my diary - an initial chat costs nothing and could be the original source of your whole coaching business!