When I say that clients cost you money, I’m referring to how much time, effort, and money you had to put in to get them into that seat. Take a look at your marketing and your networking and your sales activities and figure out your overall costs and divide that by the number of customers you have. That is what it is costing you to put a client in the seat across from you. (Okay, it’s just a rough estimate and some MBA somewhere in the world will point out that there are other considerations as well, but let’s just stick with this number as a rough guideline).

Let’s use some really approximate numbers to give you an example of what we’re talking about. [LOUD AND CLEAR DISCLAIMER: Of course I know the following numbers don't represent real prices or rates, they're just an example to show you how I've calculated the cost per client].

Let’s say that you advertise in the phonebook for $1000/year and you advertise in a newspaper for $6000/year and you spend 48 hours of billable time (at $100/hour) in networking events every year. So: $1000 + $6000 + $4800 = $11800. Now, if you have 10 clients because of that effort, it cost you ($11800 divided by 10) $1180 per client to attract them to your business and turn them into clients.

So, if a coach wants to get 2 more clients, they could expect to pay an additional $2360 ($1180 x 2). But you don’t run a charity, you run a business, so profitability is a consideration. To that end, you need to think about ways of getting more clients into the chair across from you without spending that amount.

Here are some ideas:

• Revisit your marketing expenses. Is that phonebook ad really working for you? Do you think it would impact your business by getting a smaller ad?
• Ask your clients how they heard of you. What they tell you will give you a hint as to what marketing works for you and what doesn’t. (Note: they may have heard about you in several different ways and only mention one, so don’t act rashly. Ask everyone.)
• Spend more on targeted marketing. Yes, spending more seems to run counter to the above tip but the right message to the right market in the right media will cost more but deliver more customers.
• Ask for referrals. Referrals are an amazing way to generate more business because they cost nothing but a moment of your time to ask. Really really successful and profitable coaches who never need to advertise get their business this way. The more you ask for referrals, the less it will cost you per client.
   

Contemporary VA

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There are plenty of techniques out there that coaches can use to reach out to potential clients and work with them to see if there is a fit for your services. We talk about many of those techniques right here in this blog.

One coaching expert has recently produced a powerful and compelling resource that can help to transform your coaching business and make your marketing far more effective. Her name is Hannah McNamara and her book Niche Marketing for Coaches will guide you through the process of discovering who your niche market is and why you want to work with them. At £14.99, it can earn you tens of thousands time it’s value.

No, I’m not kidding, it’s that good.  If there was a school of coaching, this book would be the required textbook. If someone wanted to start up a coaching business from scratch, having never worked as a coach before, this is the only marketing book they’d need.

Bold claims, but you should see this book!

Hanna McNamara will help you choose your niche and then she’ll show you how to position your business so that the niche can’t help but respond. She’ll walk you through numerous marketing techniques that have been time-tested and proven practice-builders.

Hannah is well-qualified to be talking about this stuff. As a coach to coaches she applies her years of experience to answer the question "How can I get more clients?", which is a question that every coach asks all the time.

Hannah’s extremely useful book is a valuable addition to your coaching library. (I know because I’ve added it to my own library). Not only that, but for a limited time you also get thousands of dollars worth of highly practical, business-building bonuses. Twenty-one of them to be exact.

Now, I admit that I’m a little biased. After all, two of the bonuses are bonuses that Contemporary VA (the creators of this very blog) are offering to those who buy the book. You’ll find that there are TONS of other bonuses that are worth having, too – bonuses that people pay hundreds of dollars for. And what’s crazy about Hannah’s offer is that coaches get thousands of dollars of free bonuses for the price of the book.

So visit the site and check out the book. You’ll have a chance to review some sample content, look at the table of contents, and inspect each of the twenty-one bonuses to decide for yourself.

Contemporary VA

@contemporaryva on Twitter.  Follow us to stay updated with our many resources that include business, accounting and bookkeeping, social media, and much more!

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