This is the second part of this blog series. In the first part, we talked about what personal coaching is and why people want it. We also discussed how to manage time and how segmentation is done.

In this text, we will try to give you ideas on how you can decide your own segments as well as offer you productivity suggestions. Let’s get started.

Your client segments

So, how do you choose your own segment? Well, there are a number of factors you need to take into account. One of the most important aspects is your know-how. Clients usually seek out a coach that can give them guidance towards their goal. To be able to give guidance, the coach needs to know what he or she is talking about. And most importantly, the coach should possess more know-how than the client.

If the client feels that he or she knows more than the coach, it will be difficult to trust the guidance that is given by the coach.

A second factor is your motivation. Are you interested in knowing more about this client segment, are you eager to learn more if needed? Are you ready to expand your knowledge base if your client segments demands it?

Your motivation can be divided into two different motivational factors, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic refers to external rewards (or punishments) such as money, fame and praise. Intrinsic refers to internal rewards, such behaviours that arises within yourself that simply feels naturally satisfying to do.

I guess you have already figured out which one of these you should focus on. Even if money and fame is great, you should try to work with a segment that feels nice to work with and is something you enjoy doing. If you do that, there’s a fairly good chance money and fame will follow.

Besides know-how and motivation, things that you can control yourself, there are two other aspects that comes into play, that are more difficult to control. These are supply and demand.

When thinking about your segment, do you think that there are big demands for a service like yours? And what are they willing to pay? If you would start your coaching in this segment, how many competitors would you have? Would there be a market share for you in this segment?

You should try to answer these questions. If the situation is challenging, you either need to change segment, price or location somehow. Or then just offer a kick-ass service that no-one can resist and compete with.

Get productive

When you have chosen your client segment, it is time to start planning the service. What you want to do is to create a client path that every client in your segment can go through. By doing this, you guarantee that every client gets a great service. The client path should be based on the segment’s wants and needs. The path tries to find factors in the service that can be described and repeated for everyone.

To create the client path, you can think about it like this, that you should be able to teach another person to offer your service.

Start with describing the service. Who is it for, what do they get, what does the service contain, for how long is it active, what is the target and so on.

Now think about every step you take when you deliver your service to a client. Maybe you write a contract, maybe you gather basic info about the client, have a start-up meeting etc. A good idea is to divide your work into what you do before the client starts the service, what you do in the start-up phase, what you do during the service and what you do when the service ends.

Ask yourself, what work is always done in the same way and what work changes from time to time?

The work that is always done the same way, is there a way to make this easier and faster? Can it be automated somehow? For example, if you write a contract with your client, can you pre-create a template where you just fill in the specific details?

Or if you have a start-up meeting with your client, can you before having the meeting send a questionnaire with questions you always ask to the client, and then during the meeting discuss the client’s answers instead of spending double the time doing both?

Think about these kinds of things. Try to see the service as a process that can be created beforehand. It’s not very easy, but I’m sure you’ll find activities that you can improve somehow.

I will end this text with one final statement. Even if you can pre-create a lot of things, please remember the individual you are really serving. You can not state that you are giving personal coaching if you just give the exact same training program to everyone. Try to create a good mix that helps both you and your clients. A mix where everyone feels like winners.

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We’ve noticed that this question have come up more and more lately. This issue is almost never an easy task to solve, and for a coaching company that has personal coaching as one of the core values solving this is crucial if the company is aiming to scale their business.

In this series of blog texts, we will try to give suggestions and methods on how you can handle more customers while still providing the same personal coaching that your customers desire.

What does personal coaching mean?

Personal coaching can be seen as a relationship between a client and a coach. The relationship is designed and defined in a mutual agreement based on the client’s expressed interests, goals, and objectives. Together with the client, the coach draws up a plan on how the client can reach the goals wanted. As time goes the plan is modified to best suit the client’s current needs.

Why do people want personal coaching?

Clients want something that is specifically made to fit their own life situation and needs. Quite often they have tried a free of charge training plan, and now wants to take the next step. People that aren’t that familiar to the world of training might also seek out personal coaching, because they want to learn how to train correctly.

If the client has used a free of charge training plan and liked it, the possibility that they return to that same page looking for personalised coaching is not only possible, but very likely.

 The clients may come to you for your personalised training plan, but they probably stays for the feedback and continuous interaction you give them, the trustworthy relationship you build together.

– “So I not only need to create a personal training plan for the client, I need to provide them continuous interaction? And build a relationship? That sounds like a lot of work!”

– Yes, it can easily be very time-consuming.

– “And now you say that I’m supposed to offer this to large amounts of people?”

– Yes, let me explain how.

Time management

Managing your time is crucial. If you want to offer your services to large amounts of people, you need to check where your time goes. You should start with writing down every part, every action, of the job you do in your coaching company. After that, calculate how much time that goes to each and every part of the work.

If you want to take on more clients, you of course need to have the time for it. If it takes a lot of time to plan the training program for your clients, you have two options. Either try to cut down on the time it takes to create the program, or free your time from other job activities so you have more time to plan the programs.

Identify where your time goes, and then try to figure out how to get more productive in these activities. Quite often it’s easy to see where the problem areas are. What ever the solution to this is, you need to understand how it affects your business and what happens (or don’t happen) if you don’t take action.

Having a clear plan of your time and understanding the reasons behind it will keep you motivated when you run into obstacles.

To succeed in your expansion you will need to know your clients and what their needs and goals are. Your productivity can increase significantly if your current services can be offered to similar people without the need of too much change.

It is a good idea to in advance create such material that fulfils the needs of a lot of people before you start your scale-up. The better you understand your customer the easier it will be to offer such a service that your future customers will appreciate.

Segmentation means dividing a broad customer group into sub-groups which shares the same characteristics. The more characteristics there are in the same group, the easier it will be to offer them a great service. It will also be easier to in advance create good material for all of them.

The segmentation can be done in several ways. Characteristics like age, gender, current condition, background in sports and goals are some that for sure will make your segmentation easier.

Try to write down how your current customers differs from each other and then place them into different groups. Few similar characteristics will create a big segment and a lot of similar characteristics will create a narrow segment.

To remain productive, you will need to weigh the size of the segment against the customers needs.

The dream would of course be that you can fulfil your customers needs a hundred percent, but that will almost certainly lead to a segment group of one person only. Your goal should be that approx. 80-90 percent of the customers needs are answered with the same service and material. The rest 10-20 percent are needs that you will need to assess with a personalised touch, to create a perfect service for both you and your customer.

If your segment is too big, it will get hard to fulfil the customers needs and keep them happy. This will most probably consume a big part of your time and drive your productivity to the ground.

With a successful customer segmentation you will surely save time, and be certain that you are able to provide good quality service for your growing customer base.

And remember, It is in fact OK to say no to a customer if he or she doesn’t fit in to your segments. Trust me, you both will be happy about this.

In the next part of this blog series, we will walk you through how to determine your own personal customer segments and how you can get more productive in your coaching. Everything to make your business scale-up easier and quicker.

Are you interested in knowing more about this topic?

Why don’t you send us a mail to sales(a)coach4pro.com

As a coach, clients don’t grow on trees. Keeping the ones you have is crucial for creating a profitable business.

This article is the second part of an article series about customer retention. In the first part, we gave you five reasons why you could be losing your customers and how to solve the situation.

Why retaining clients is a good idea

When running a business you need to think about the company’s revenue. Coaching businesses are no different. Retaining clients cost less than acquiring them, and selling to existing clients is easier than new ones.

Keep in mind that revenue doesn’t care where it comes from, earned or saved.

There is no need to spend a lot of money on promotion when your clients are progressing, enjoying success, and speaking your praises. They will do the marketing for you.

Coaching quality and retention of clients goes hand in hand.

Offering high quality coaching is easier when doing it to someone you already know. No need to spend time gathering information and finding out what they like and want, because you already have that knowledge.

Reactivating customers who already know you and your coaching is one of the easiest and quickest ways to increase your revenue, and might lead to some of your best and most loyal customers.

How to retain your clients

So now we know why it’s a good idea for coaches to retain their customers. But how do you actually do it?

At Coach4Pro, we’re all about building relationships with customers, but we also believe that

great customer service, engagement and education are more than just the right thing to do – they’re also good for business.

To help you increase your own retention rates, we’ve compiled a list of 10 ideas on how coaches can retain customers.

1. Do a good job.

This one’s a no brainer. If you honestly think that you’re doing a good job, then you probably are.

2. Give extra value.

When time and money allows it, try to give some extra love to your customers. What do you think your customers would appreciate? If you don’t know, ask them!

3. Contact your customers.

Keeping contact with customers is important. And easy. But don’t think of it like something you

do when you have spare time or when you suddenly remember it. You should schedule meetings and calls and make sure that they happen. Or even better, create a contacting automation process that helps you out.

4. Putting in effort when the off-season hits.

Almost all markets have off and on seasons. If you’re coaching an athlete, then the off-season is easy to recognise. If your clients aren’t athletes, then it might be a bit more difficult to recognise the off-season. In this case, think about when their on-season is. Maybe after New Year’s Eve or when summer is closing in or when the summer holiday has ended.

You need to be ready when the on-season starts, which means you need to put in some preparatory work during the off-season.

5. Reward your most profitable customers.

Make your loyal customers feel special. By doing the little extra for them, you ensure that they keep purchasing at the same level or even more. Rewards can be anything from discounts to special events or simply just a personal email saying thank you.

6. Be passionate and engaged.

Having a coach that loves his or her job and shows it can be a real motivational boost for a client A positive coach often create positive clients.

7. Say thank you, show appreciation.

By telling how much the client is worth to you and showing gratitude can create a stronger

relationship. And we all know that a strong relationship between the coach and the client is a must have.

8. Be active yourself, be a role model.

Lead by example. Being a coach doesn’t mean that you have to be a great athlete, but to follow what you preach yourself creates a feeling of trust for your clients.

9. Active on social media.

Being a coach today pretty much means that you need to be on social media. Social media is a great marketplace to showcase your customers, share how much fun you and your clients are having and to display your expertise.

10. Ask for constructive feedback.

Try to create such an environment that the customer feels that he or she dares to complain. The

best way to improve your services is by the feedback you get from the ones who are actually using them. Be responsive to their needs and proactive in bringing new ideas to the table.

So there you have it. What are you waiting for? Go retain your clients!

Or read How To Provide Personal Coaching Online For Large Amounts Of People

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