There’s so many great coaches who fail to market themselves.
Chances are, you already have what it takes to be an expert in your field…
But if you don’t have all the ingredients of a successful coaching business, then things can quickly fall apart.
So here’s how you fix that.
In this episode, I’ll walk you through 7 steps that will teach you:
- How to define your audience with AI tools like ChatGPT
- Why it’s better to be polarising than to be like every other cookie-cutter coach
- How to build a sales funnel that converts prospects into paying customers
- How to get a tribe that supports you (and helps you get more and more clients)
This is a crash course for those of you who want a quick fix for your marketing.
Check out these 7 steps and pick one you can immediately use NOW to create a high ticket coaching business!
7 Steps to Build a High Ticket Coaching Business
OR listen on:
Key Points
- 00:00 Introduction to Building a Coaching Business
- 00:29 Step 1: Identifying Your Ideal Audience
- 03:12 Step 2: Defining Your Brand
- 05:26 Step 3: Crafting a Clear Vision
- 06:59 Step 4: Creating a Strong Opening Offer
- 07:56 Step 5: Designing an Effective Funnel
- 09:53 Step 6: Amplifying with Ads
- 10:50 Step 7: Building a Loyal Tribe
- 12:51 Conclusion and Next Steps
Step 1: Identifying Your Ideal Audience
[00:00:00] Terence: Welcome to a new episode of Founders Go Naked. Today, we’ll be talking about something really special for you coaches and experts out there, because what we’re going to do today is we’re going to give you seven steps to build a solid coaching business. So this is really about how to build and market your business in seven steps.
[00:00:21] If you’re a coach or expert, this is for you. Without further ado, let’s hop in into the first step. First step is you really need to decide before you design any logos and all that kind of jazzy stuff, or come up with a name for your business is to decide who is your ideal audience that you are Wanting to serve because this will decide the rest of your marketing strategy and your business growth strategy All right, the clarity on who your audience is is critical If you’re not clear about who your audience is number one, maybe you already started a business Maybe you’re currently serving one or two clients or maybe you’re serving a lot of clients now Look at those clients And see what are the common traits of those clients.
[00:01:11] So for example, I would strongly suggest if you’re running ads or anything, or you have a database of customers to survey them, ask them questions, what are their number one challenges that you’re trying to help them solve? What are the common traits? They have what is the backstory? What are the age group?
[00:01:31] And do they live in a particular area? And do they have certain psychographics that are common to all of them? For example, do they live a certain lifestyle and do they participate in certain events? So all this will give you clues as to who your ideal target audiences. Now, recently we basically analyzed our customers surveys, right?
[00:01:55] And The cool thing now with ChatGPT, you can actually pull down all those customer surveys and get ChatGPT to analyze it and give you a summary. So that is so cool because we had like this survey responses and you know, there were dozens of them and to analyze them one by one, it’s going to take us a long time.
[00:02:16] So we just put in ChatGPT, told ChatGPT to analyze it and boom. We have our ideal customer avatar. So that’s one thing you could totally do.
[00:02:24] Debbie: What if you miss out on buyers by being too narrow?
[00:02:27] Yeah, I understand Debbie. Good question, because a lot of people are worried they might narrow themselves too much.
[00:02:33] Right. And that is a valid concern because you don’t want to narrow yourself too much in that, you know, you’re probably serving like, I don’t know, 20 customers in the whole world. But in most cases, people are too broad. with the targeting and they think everyone that has a pulse has a credit card is their customer.
[00:02:51] So that is not where you want to be. I’d rather err on the being too narrow part. And then if you really discover you’re too narrow, you can start to broaden a little bit by adding certain traits and demographics. Okay. So that is my advice on this. Make sure number one is that you have A very clear idea who your target audience is.
Step 2: Defining Your Brand
[00:03:12] Terence: And now number two, the thing you need to do is decide what is your brand. Now, what I’m saying when I say what is your brand, it’s not about how your logo looks, what colors you use, what kind of look and feel your website is. Before you do all that, what’s really important is for you to decide what you stand for and what you stand against because this helps you to make it very clear to your audience who you are for and who you are against.
[00:03:40] I know this is polarizing and it’s meant to be polarizing because if you’re not polarizing, basically you’re, you’re not a brand. You won’t have a brand. You just be like not a service provider out there. So what you need to do is you’d need to decide. What do you stand for? What do you stand against? And this will help you to differentiate yourself from the market out there.
[00:04:01] The other thing that’s super important is to reveal your backstory. By revealing your backstory, and this is super important because when it comes to branding, no one else can replicate your backstory. Yeah, they can replicate. Elements of it, but their backstory is not, never going to be exactly the same as yours because you are unique in your own way as a coach, as an expert.
[00:04:25] And if that backstory helps you to build that brand, that is powerful because people that identify with what you’ve gone through, your pains, your challenges, and how you overcome those challenges. That is super powerful. That is what will attract your ideal customers.
[00:04:42] Debbie: But what if they have a sad backstory like mine, where I had to work part time to afford my Gucci bags?
[00:04:47] Terence: Yeah, well, look, Debbie, you know, not everybody has a sad story like you, but it’s a good point. If you have a sad story, please review it, warts and all. There is nothing to hide. I think it is so important for us in this day and age to be totally authentic and not be afraid to review ourselves and maybe possible sad backstories to everybody because The more you’re willing to reveal about your backstory, the more people can identify with you and feel that you’re authentic because right now there’s so much like, you know, inauthentic people out there.
[00:05:22] If you’re willing to be authentic, I think that is a very, very powerful thing.
Step 4: Creating a Strong Opening Offer
Step four is to create a opening offer that is strong. Make them transact with you for the very first time, because When people transact with you, when they buy that first thing, when they take out the wallet for the first time, the nature of the relationship changes.
[00:07:16] Terence: Now that they have transacted, they have become a buyer, not just a prospect. And sometimes it is harder to get people to invest the time with you compared to investing money. Which is why, if someone is willing to invest a day, Or half a day or two days into your webinar, for example, that is considered a first transaction because the fact that they were willing to invest that amount of time means they were pretty serious with you.
[00:07:42] Okay. So that is another way. To consider them as the first transaction.
[00:07:47] Debbie: Yeah, that reminds me. I bought a Gucci t shirt. Then I bought a pair of shoes. Then a handbag. Then a Gucci.
[00:07:53] Terence: Okay, Debbie, you just got to stop there. We get the whole picture. Thank you.
Step 3: Crafting a Clear Vision
And the third thing to build your coaching business. I know this is not related to marketing, but this is so important is to have a strong and clear vision. Of your business now recently I talked to a prospective coach and his vision was huge It was clear.
[00:05:44] Terence: It was powerful. They wanted to use their methodology to help 1. 2 million businesses To grow and to succeed in a very holistic way so that it’s not like just money. Right. So I thought that was such a powerful vision myself. And I said, look, I genuinely really bought into that vision because I said, Hey, we can totally support you because I really felt that connection there.
[00:06:10] Because for us, our goal is also to help coaches to succeed so that they can impact more people positively. So that is our vision. The other thing I want to say is that. Those cultures in our experience that just do it, chase after money, just doing business for the sake of money, they eventually fade away.
[00:06:30] They don’t last because in this day and age, people can smell you if you are inauthentic and you will lose customers that way. And people can sense it now because. I don’t know. People’s intuition is becoming better. I have no idea why, but that is the case. Or people are just becoming smarter. Who knows?
[00:06:46] Debbie: If I were a coach, I’d only do it for money.
[00:06:48] Terence: Yes, Debbie. I’m sure if you’re a coach, you would only do it for money, but that is the wrong motivation. As I said, don’t do what Debbie just said. Have a vision and stick to it and live by it.
Step 4: Creating a Strong Opening Offer
Step four is to create a opening offer that is strong. Make them transact with you for the very first time, because When people transact with you, when they buy that first thing, when they take out the wallet for the first time, the nature of the relationship changes.
[00:07:16] Terence: Now that they have transacted, they have become a buyer, not just a prospect. And sometimes it is harder to get people to invest the time with you compared to investing money. Which is why, if someone is willing to invest a day, Or half a day or two days into your webinar, for example, that is considered a first transaction because the fact that they were willing to invest that amount of time means they were pretty serious with you.
[00:07:42] Okay. So that is another way. To consider them as the first transaction.
[00:07:47] Debbie: Yeah, that reminds me. I bought a Gucci t shirt. Then I bought a pair of shoes. Then a handbag. Then a Gucci.
[00:07:53] Terence: Okay, Debbie, you just got to stop there. We get the whole picture. Thank you. And the next thing that you need to do now is to design a funnel that works for your business and your offer.
Step 5: Designing an Effective Funnel
[00:08:03] Terence: The key now is to design a funnel that really brings in the right type of people for your offer. So, say for example, you could. design a funnel that’s a webinar funnel, right? That brings people to your webinar and that is fine. Or you could basically design a VSL funnel where you are getting people to watch a video and then through that video, convince them or persuade them to come and sign up for a strategy session with you, right?
[00:08:30] Both of them are totally legit ways to go about it. For us, we require multiple touches before someone actually buys from us. So what we are doing is to get people to to get on our list, get to know us better. And after they get to know us, consume our videos, consume our podcasts like this one, then they decide to reach out and book a call with us.
[00:08:53] So that is a long term relationship because what we want to do is to get people indoctrinated with our philosophy and our content so that when they work with us, they work with us long term. That is our philosophy. The other thing to plan is your ascension in the funnel. Okay. For example, the first step that someone takes with you might just be to buy your book or a short course for 47, but the next step.
[00:09:18] You need to start planning through your funnel. What is the next step? Maybe it’s an order bump that gets them to 197 and then maybe there’s a free consultation because they bought that order bump, which then sends them further on to your thousand dollar offer. or your mastermind group or something else.
[00:09:36] So you need to plan all this in your funnel as to what your offers are and how your funnel is going to ascend them to the next step.
[00:09:44] Debbie: Talking about ascension, I also bought two Gucci diamond necklaces afterwards.
[00:09:48] Terence: Um, that’s fantastic. I’m grateful that you love Gucci, but let’s move on.
Step 6: Amplifying with Ads
Okay, step six there is to Amplify with ads, right?
[00:09:58] Terence: So you can go organic, totally fine doing organic stuff and organic outreach and all that stuff. That is fine when you’re first starting, but if you really want to grow fast, right, and not drive a little Toyota, but you want to get on to that race car, that Ferrari, and just zoom off, that is where you can.
[00:10:16] Speed up the process by using paid ads. So using paid ads is a fast track way to success. And it is what the big league players out there are using to grow their businesses. So if you look at all the coaches in your space that are the market leaders, check them out, most of them are using paid ads. And if you’re ready and only when you’re ready, then you should consider using paid ads because that will really help you to grow really fast.
[00:10:41] Debbie: And that’s why I went to the Gucci store, because I saw their ad on Instagram.
[00:10:45] Terence: Well, Debbie, that is a great, uh, example of how paydads work. So thank you for sharing.
Step 7: Building a Loyal Tribe
And the final steps, that’s where you want to build a tribe. So what’s a tribe? Tribe is a group of people, a community of people that believe in you, that support you.
[00:11:01] Terence: They buy stuff from you, and they have enjoyed the stuff, and they are so grateful for your offers and your products and services that they now are advocates for you. They are your raving fans. They are the ones that are going to defend you if someone says something. It’s negative stuff on you, on Facebook or on YouTube or any of the social media platforms.
[00:11:22] But how do you develop this? Not many people are able to develop this, but once you are able to develop this, raving fans who are just referring new clients to you all the time, this is when your business has really that traction to grow and grow fast. Because like you have this tribe of people supporting you and you know, it just dispels any concerns about whether you’re legit, whether you’re authentic, whether you’re real, whether your stuff works.
[00:11:51] So it is so important in this case, do what Brian Kurtz, one of my mentors says, which is to over deliver. So what you do there is, for example, if your product or service costs 10, 000. Make sure you deliver way more than 10, 000 worth of value to them. It could be 30, 000, it could be 50, 000, but even if they get 100, 000 in value, so be it.
[00:12:15] Because that is how you build a group of loyal fans and tribe members that will help your business, propel your business right to the top.
[00:12:23] Debbie: So it’s like football fans, they will do anything to defend their own team and pay thousands for season tickets.
[00:12:29] Terence: Yeah, that’d be, it’s exactly like football fans, right?
[00:12:32] Where they absolutely go crazy over their football club and they will defend the football club. And sometimes even fight with other club fans just to defend their football club. And that’s what we as business owners, as experts, and as coaches need to be able to cultivate with our services. So guys, I really hope you enjoyed this issue and please check out our other episodes because we’ve got so much good content for coaches, for speakers.
[00:13:00] And if you’re running webinars, if you’re running any type of ads and funnels, make sure you check out the other episodes in this podcast and I’ll see you next time.
This podcast is hosted by Terence Tam, author of Lead Surge: 8 Radically Effective Marketing Funnels for Coaches and Experts. He is also the Founder of Radical Marketing, a digital marketing agency that partners with high-ticket coaches to scale their businesses with Webinars – by using a proprietary blend of story ads and battled-tested sales funnels to achieve better returns on ad dollars.
