Coaching Success: Time Lags
For brand new coaches who find that there might be long periods of quiet between one client and another, one of the best things you can do is identify your time lags. I did this early in my career (it was unintentional, I confess, but it turned out to be a "happy accident" and I now recommend it to coaches).
By "time lag" I mean: you need to determine the time lag between when a potential client first contacts you for more information and when they call you to schedule an appointment; and you need to determine the time lag between when you have your first appointment with a client and when their payment appears in your bank account.
Now, we all have different situations but for me it was two weeks from first contact to first appointment and another two weeks from first appointment to payment. (In my circumstance, I offered an initial consultation for free – the first appointment – and then required up-front payment for a set of future appointments).
What’s the value of knowing these time lags? There are a couple benefits:
First, I can schedule my time. I may not know the exact number of people who will be scheduling an appointment, but I can estimate it based on the number of people contacting me for more information. Chances are, if that "first contact" number doubles, then the first appointment number may double, too… and it fairly consistently happened two weeks down the road which would allow me to work my schedule appropriately.
Second, I know when I’m getting paid! Coaches may love what they do but they still need to be paid. And if someone contacted me for more information, I knew that if they became a client, I’d see the money in about a month.
Third, I can "ramp up" and "ramp down" my marketing based on what I know my schedule will be like two weeks from now.
Of course it’s not a perfect system. Sometimes a few more or a few less people will contact me for more information which will have a trickle-down effect two weeks later for appointments. And sometimes those people take slightly longer or slightly shorter to schedule. And sometimes they take slightly longer or slightly shorter to pay. But we’re talking averages and generalities here and that’s all you need.
Now, I’ve been using the two weeks from first contact to first appointment and two weeks from first appointment to first payment as my time lag numbers. You might have a different business model (i.e. you need to measure the time lag in a slightly different way) and/or a different time period (i.e. it may not be two weeks for you).
When you know these numbers, your coaching practice will thrive!
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