Here’s the deal.

If you’re a business coach, attracting new clients is a vital business activity. And whether you’re just getting started as a business coach, have an established coaching business or have ambitions to do more, going after new business is something you need to focus your attention on. Every day. For at least three hours.

Sadly, I see the opposite of this all the time: there are so many business coaches out there simply not putting effort into generating new leads and obtaining enough clients. They’re just looking after their existing clients. The trick is to do both, keep both plates spinning; otherwise, here’s the news: you’ll find yourself as a business coach who is going out of business.

The good news is that with social media and digital marketing as well as tried and tested analog approaches such as the good old phone call; business coaches can attract new custom using plenty of really innovative tools and approaches.  So, as someone who knows what it takes to build a multi-million-pound business from scratch, here are my top tips for generating more leads for your coaching business.

Generating more leads

First up: you need to be investing time and money in starting conversations every single day with the people who will be your future clients. And you need to be doing this all while you’re delivering valuable coaching to your existing clients. It’s a big but vital investment in your business success.

So follow your leads and find them wherever they are: on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or in person at networking events. Then start that conversation: it’s your chance to get your message or messages out there.

You need to think of a conversation in its broadest sense. It’s not just something that happens when two people are in a room together talking face-to-face or speaking on the phone. You have a conversation every time you create and post a video online or publish a podcast. We’ve started a conversation right now by you interacting with this article.

Every conversation is an opportunity to establish your authority and knowledge with people who want to learn. A conversation means you can make a connection, inspire and stimulate people, and then also listen, absorb, and respond to what other people are saying. So remember to listen as well as speak.

And then amplify your conversation. Every single week I reckon I speak to at least 250 people on the phone, at events, and in person. That might sound a lot, but for effective lead generation, start having fantastic many-to-one conversations and then use channels that amplify your voice.

Video, in particular, is an excellent way of speaking as ‘one-to-many.’ Making multiple videos on the various platforms available is an effective way of amplifying this further and speaking to a huge audience that grows over time. And don’t forget Facebook and Instagram live broadcasts and podcasts. Your voice starts the conversation, so start talking to your audience wherever and whenever you can.

Show them what you’ll do for them

When you’re talking, of course, it’s easy to sell yourself, big up your qualifications, boast about previous wins and about all the fabulous things you’ve done. But what is so much more powerful when it comes to converting new clients is to show leads how you will transform their business.

I meet plenty of potential clients who say: “It’s amazing what you did for them, but what are you gonna do for me?” And it’s a fair question. Past results are not a promise of future profits.

So, make every lead feel special. Listen hard, discern their distinctive needs and business priorities, and then craft a plan especially for them. Give a little. Tease them by giving them the first two steps of a twelve point plan. But don’t – as I see so many coaches do – give away valuable content, advice, and strategy for free.

It is crucial to establish your authority and power. Clients will be happy if you deliver results. They will come back and spend again if your results are better than expected. They will tell their friends if they think you are a business partner who delivers above and beyond. They will generate leads for you without you having to ask if they love your work.

Join Forces and Spread the Love

It’s critical to make sure you make the most of your networks and share your audience with other business coaches. And they should share with you too. We all have different niches and skills, and it’s always amazing to find partners you can work with. It isn’t a one-way street: I always advise fellow business coaches to seek joint ventures that deliver a monetizable relationship for both parties.

Such relationships should never be exclusive: build a network that includes a variety of complementary and enhancing personalities that you can join forces with when required. It’s a great prospect to be able to present a superhero team with a portfolio of incredible skills that you alone couldn’t offer.

And it’s also great to give back to your community. You might find a promising lead that you cannot satisfy. So spread the love and recommend a friend.  I also believe that all coaches should receive coaching themselves if they want to grow their business.  To find the perfect coach, look for somebody who is getting the results you’re not getting. For example, if you’re a coaching business that’s making a hundred thousand a year in revenue, you want to be coached by someone who’s making a million a year, or half a million a year. If you’re making a million pounds a year, your ideal coach is someone making 10 million a year.  Set your sights higher. Too many people get stuck in little circles out of which they can’t break.

Value Your Talents and Charge Your Worth

Enjoying the respect and attention of lots of future leads is gratifying. Who doesn’t love the ‘Likes’?! But likes don’t pay the bills. Business coaches who are brimming with brilliance and giving great insight to clients are the sort of people I see dozens of times a week. But sadly many of these people aren’t making much money.

They might be a respected participant in a conversation around business coaching, but that isn’t a business model any more than an ice cream van that arrives at the park and gives away ice cream for free.

These are the business coaches who don’t value their talents and who aren’t charging accordingly. It was a lesson I learned early on. When I first started as a business coach, I was getting plenty of interest in my coaching business. The leads were flooding in, but it was too much for me to handle. And my mentor at the time asked me how much I was charging. I told him, and he shook his head: “you’re charging too little. That’s why people are biting off your hand. You’re offering something extremely valuable, and you’re presenting it in the right way. But you haven’t found your market price.” And you won’t find your price until you find people who say no to you.

So have those conversations, keep those plates spinning, keep your ambition and your drive high and your hard work going. But please, please value your worth. If you do, your clients will pay. Trust me; if you help someone generate 1million in business, they won’t notice your 10k fee.