As a coach, you want to help people change their lives and businesses. The last thing you want to be spending most your time on is finding new prospects and leads – and then trying to convert them into coaching clients.

Sure, you can use Facebook Ads, AdWords, SEO Manchester and the traditional forms of marketing, but if you don’t attract high-quality leads or convert those leads at a high percentage rate, that can become costly.

So how do you get high-quality leads – leads that are easy to convert and the prospect is ready to get started working with you. Simply put, employ the strategies I teach in my program: ‘High-Quality Referrals.’

97% of us don’t have a referral plan. Instead, we hope that someone talks about us to their networks and then magically all the ducks fall into line and referrals simply land on your lap.

But suppose we had a plan; we took control of our own situation, and we took small action steps that ensured we received referrals every day like clockwork? Do you realize that referrals are 500% more likely to do business with you than cold prospects? What would 30 qualified referrals per month do for your business?

 Here are 5 things you should do if you want to build your coaching business through getting referrals every day.

First you need to build your own referral teams. Most people turn up to referral groups or networking events hoping to meet someone that might can send them business. Rather than hoping you meet the right person, why not build a team around you that can give you qualified referrals consistently?

We break our referral teams down into 5 categories:

1. Profitability Partners you have a weekly 10 minute conversation with.
2. Super Groups you get together with once a month for 45 minutes.
3. Cross Promotion Partners who promote you into their network and you promote them into yours.
4. Content Distributors who share your social content with new networks so you can leverage new contacts.
5. Affiliates wanting to sell your products and services for you.

In total, we have a team of 66 people on our referral team. That is 66 people who are out there every day creating new opportunities for us, giving us more exposure and allowing us to leverage into new networks. You can do the exact same thing.

Imagine if each person found just 1 opportunity a month for you. That’s 66 new opportunities that you haven’t paid a cent for through marketing.

The second thing we can do is use our networks more effectively. So many of us have networks but we seldom if ever talk to them. I’m big on conversations that lead to opportunities, and if you’re not spending any time starting conversations with people, then it’s very hard to get them to create new opportunities for you. Every day we should be speaking to 5-10 people in our network.

Send them a social media message, a text or pick up and phone them just to say hello. The purpose of starting the conversation is to see how they’re doing and what they’re up to. As you re-engage and build the relationship, the more they will be willing to share you with their networks. If you try to start the conversation just to sell your services, you’re missing the point and leaving lots of money on the table.

Third, we need to grow our networks with the right sorts of people. If you only grow your networks with people you can sell to, then sure, you can make one sale at a time. That’s not real exciting to me!

I want to have the mindset of Sell, Partner and Door Opener. Every person you get into your network should fit into one of those 3 categories. It’s more exciting to have a partner that could share you into their network and get you ten sales rather than just one sale.

So, are you growing your networks with the right sorts of people? Are you growing your networks at all? Or are you always speaking to the same people all the time?

Next, are you being the expert or just another coach? Do you exude authority or are you just hiding in the corner? Social Media today allows you to be the expert and impart great information and value to an audience worldwide. The more you’re seen, the more your current network can ‘like’, ‘comment’ and ‘share’ you with their networks. This means more exposure, new doors being opened and tremendous leverage for you to speak to people that don’t even know you exist.

Doing live feeds on FB, publishing articles on LinkedIn, sharing value across Instagram, Twitter and Google + are all ways to get your brand out there quickly and be seen as the authority in your area of expertise. This will generate new enquires; lead to people opting in for your lead magnets and open up new conversations on how you can help them.

If you’re not seen or heard then you don’t exist!

Finally, you must be doing cross promotions with other people who have the same target audience that you do. It’s hard to find one lead after another day after day. Every day I want to leverage myself into new networks and be introduced to 20, 50, 100, 1,000 people at a time. That’s what cross promotions do.

How could you get onto someone’s podcast, webinar, write for their magazine or newspaper, speak at their live event or get your lead magnet shared? All you need to do is find people that have the same networks that you do and that you don’t compete with. When you think about it, there are hundreds of opportunities out there for you.

The key to all of this is YOU taking responsibility and small actions to generate referrals and opportunities daily. There are so many little things you can do, conversations you can have, networks you can leverage when you simply have a plan. So I encourage you to start building your teams and finding people that you can partner with; it’s a better way!