Give And Then Give Again with Terri Levine

Build Trust And Loyalty And Your Coaching Business

Most coaches know that giving people some type of gift can open people up to experience what they have to offer. For example, they can give a sample session, they can demonstrate how they can find a business money, they can invite people to a valuable seminar or training or attend a focus group, etc. 

That is actually where most coaches stop giving value.  I believe when you give value and then double the value without ever asking for a sale. You will create a loyal and trusting tribe excited to do business with you. And, in my experience, you will increase your sales.

If you will be open and curious. In this article, I will help you overcome the problem you may have as a business coach who doesn’t have enough prospective client family members. Or who don’t have prospective client family members who quickly and easily convert themselves. 

When you let in this information and take action on this double way of giving. You will find you have more engaged prospective client family members who actually become paid client family members without any selling.  You will also find you have more free time and most likely a lot more income.

I see business coaches giving away sessions and events, webinars, training, classes, and a lot of their time with prospective client family members. And hoping people will become their client family members after one free experience. I ask you to think as if you are the person receiving a free service of any type from a business coach.  You are sitting there waiting for the “pitch”.  You are thinking, “sure I got this free thing because all they really want to do is sell me their service”. This being the case, your prospective client family member has their reflexes up and is ready to defend against hiring you.

Case Study

Let me share a case study of one of my own client family members, Joshua, who is a business coach. When he started with me he was doing free demonstrations to find business owners a certain amount of money. He did these demonstrations by an individual in-person meeting, group webinars, as well as in person focus meetings and individual go to meetings.  He was spending a lot of time finding people who would agree to have a free meeting with him and found many people to be resistant.

He was doing 2-3 of these meetings per week and only closing about $20,000 a month, which means he did an average of 10 hours of meetings per month to close two new client family members. That is a lot of time not being paid and a lot of work. You may think his income is great or not great and the income isn’t the key point. I wouldn’t care if he were closing $2,000 or $2000,000 worth of business.

The income isn’t what I am focused on with Joshua. What I care about is that he was doing so many hours of unpaid work. Where people were expected to be sold and making it difficult for him to share his business coaching gifts because they were waiting for the sale and positioning themselves to defend against the sale.

Creating value

I asked him to give people a free super valuable webinar that was ready-made instead of personally giving away his free time over and over and over again. I told him not to sell anything on the webinar. I told him to give away great information that would help transform the businesses of those who watched the webinar.

He was a bit shocked that he could not sell on the webinar. I told him adding double value would create loyal prospects who would trust him and I asked him to trust my advice since he invested in me as his mentor.  He did. At the end of the valuable webinar filled with his best information, I instructed him to give away a copy of his book.

When perspective client family members came to the webinar and got the book they didn’t need to jump through any hoops. And he didn’t pitch them any time during the webinar or when he gifted them his book. All he requested is that they actually read the book and do a before and after survey. The survey asked them to rate their marketing beliefs in 9 different areas before they read the book and then again to do the same thing after they read the book.

They turned in the survey by completing a form on his website. Once they did he told them he would send them one more free gift. That free gift was a pre-recorded webinar where he delivered even more value and at the conclusion, he did offer his business coaching services.

Notice, the webinar and the book did not offer any services to them. 

There was nothing to invest in and nothing to buy.  Many people did reach out to him after the webinar or after receiving the book and ask how they could work with him. Those are highly qualified and ready to invest prospects. Of course, he welcomed them!

Pay attention to the fact that the offer did not come in the first contact point, and not even in the second point of contact. Why? When you double your value giving perspective client family members more than they expect and you shatter the way they expect you to come at them selling and pitching at the point of the first contact. Prospects are open to receive and you have established trust with them. Joshua reported that he closed an extra four sales per month or $40,000 per month by not asking for the sale until he had doubled his value and proven himself. 

Action Steps

Now, it is your turn. How can you use this example in your coaching business? 

First, look at how you are really creating value now. Are you giving high value or are you hoping to close a sale with your free offer?  Stop being attached to any outcome of selling and fully give value without asking for the sale.

Next, give more value and figure out a way to have your prospective client family members measure their increase in knowledge or results with the value you have given to them so far. Once you have delivered value two times, invite them to become a client family member.

I view this as a gift shift. Only after you have delivered a few touch points of value are you entitled to ask for something in return. This is the opposite of what most coaches are doing and why Joshua has doubled his monthly revenue while working 50% fewer hours per month.

What will you do differently in your coaching business now?

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