The techniques I’m going to share with you today are the exact same techniques I share with my superstar clients who want to add an extra 5 figures per month to their coaching or consulting business fast.
The 11 steps that follow combine to create a system that my students use to create that 5 figure month, each and every single month (I’ve simplified the system for ease of reading – you can hear about it in a lot more detail here)
As you’d expect – I also consistently use it myself in my own coaching business!
1. The first step is to create something of value that will be of benefit to your target market – something that will cause them to become a lead.
It should be on a truly desirable topic and make people think “WOW – I really want that!” More on this below.
The aim is to create a variety of “lead magnets” that collect email addresses – these will quickly demonstrate your expertise to the marketplace.
You’re reading an example of a lead magnet right now, here is a list of things that you can create:
- Checklists
- Special reports such as this one
- Ebooks
- Templates
- Videos
- Webinars / Automated Webinars
You’ll want each lead magnet to represent you well and demonstrate your expertise but don’t seek perfection (this is about taking ACTION and getting it out there).
Your lead magnet should ideally speak to either PAIN or PLEASURE – what is that your clients typically want from you? What emotions are they trying to get away from?
Other ways to find out what people want to know about your topic include asking yourself – what questions do people typically ask you when they find out what you do for a living? Maybe when you’re sat in a networking meeting or at a dinner party – what do people say about your area of expertise? What beliefs do you find yourself correcting constantly?
Take at least 30 minutes to brainstorm this list and then create a list of these pain points, pleasure points, questions and beliefs. Each of these points could become a topic you teach people about in your lead magnet.
2. Now it’s time to get your lead magnet created. I suggest spending a maximum of 2 to 4 hours creating your lead magnet with the exception of automated webinars which may well take double that.
Ensure you add what is known as a “Call To Action” at the end of the lead magnet. This will be to book in an appointment with you (more on that shortly!)
Once it’s written, consider hiring someone to proof read and format it correctly. You don’t want to damage your brand by giving away something of poor quality. You’ll want to upload it either to your website or a document hosting platform so leads can access it.
For beginners – start with an easier option such as a checklist or template and build up your lead magnet library slowly.
3. Next step – plan out what you’re going to offer to your new leads once you’ve generated them.
Get clear on your premium offering, and plan out the ideal client you’d like to be working with. What do clients want to achieve when working with you?
Where can you help them achieve a life changing end result? Get clear on this and have it to hand ready for when you start to generate appointments.
(My webinar teaches people how to take what they know and turn it into an online program that will sell for $6k and above – click here if you’d like to see it. )
4. A very important next step that will ensure you get prospects to respect your time is to become appointment only.
Remove all methods of just calling up to “pick your brains” from your website. Don’t give out your mobile number, and consider hiring a call answering service to field your calls and direct them to book an appointment.
This will ensure that all leads are correctly positioned and understand that your time is valuable.
5. The next step is we need a method of accepting appointments so that every single lead understands that your time is valuable – and also set the expectation that they will be making a decision at the end of the appointment.
We recommend our clients use a scheduling tool where people can book themselves straight in and pick a date and time. That way, the leads you receive will be more committed and valuable than if you just use a basic application form where they don’t have to select a date or time.
The platform I typically recommend to my clients is Acuity Scheduling. It’s easy to use from both mobile and desktop, plus you can track leads from Facebook Ads.
I advise you to add questions to an application form in order to qualify people – this will ensure you get the best qualified applicants. The more questions you add into the form – the better qualified the lead will be.
I also add in a note saying if people skip questions their appointment will be cancelled. You don’t have to go that far at first – but you soon will!
Who wants to talk to prospects who can’t even be bothered to fill in a form? If they don’t fill it in properly they clearly aren’t very qualified or motivated to work with you – trust me, I’ve helped my clients generate thousands of them!
6. You’ll need a way that people can request your lead magnet – for this you’re going to need what is known as an “Opt-In Page”.
Please, please, do make sure you use a professional tool such as Leadpages to get people to “opt-in” for your Lead Magnet to give a professional look to your opt-in page. Otherwise people will arrive at your page and decide against downloading it!
You can quickly and easily create a page in less than 30 minutes. You’ll need to tie the page to your email system and then create a first email that will send them the link to the document you created.
Ensure you add a Call To Action at the end of the email you send out (that asks people to book in for an appointment).
7. Use a freelancer or website such as Fiverr to get a professional ebook cover done rather than attempt to create it yourself, unless you are GREAT at creating graphics.
8. Take action and start promoting your lead magnet wherever you can such as any existing email list you already have, LinkedIn, your Facebook page, add it to your email signature, send it out via Twitter – get it out there to as many people in your network as possible.
Make sure you include a link at the end of your blogs as well. You will be able to bring in a few appointments quickly here if you take massive action on a daily basis.
This will then pay for your next steps – launching a paid advertising strategy. We’ll be coming to that shortly, but let’s deal with the new leads first…
9. Great! You’ve got some calls booked with qualified leads, who have gone ahead and booked in an appointment and answered your questions.
During the appointment itself – find out why they’ve not hit their goals to date, what is getting in their way, and where they need specific help.
Demonstrate that you can help them by actually helping them, and then if it sounds right for you both – invite them to join you as a client.
There is no need for a hard sell and absolutely no need to brow beat prospects into joining you if this process is managed correctly and from the best of intentions. Leads that come via this process already know you can help them as they’ve been exposed to your expertise via your lead magnets, and have also been positioned correctly to respect your time.
10. The next step will ensure a continuous stream of leads from this point onwards – by creating a paid advertising “funnel” to generate a large volume of leads.
(I have used pretty much every paid advertising channel out there, and the best one is Facebook Ads. It’s the cheapest, quickest, and most scalable channel.)
It simply isn’t possible to add 5 figures per month consistently WITHOUT using paid advertising to maintain a good number of leads coming in.
Some of my lead magnets have generated up to 3833 signups in a single month – as you can see from the image below.
Remember, you don’t HAVE to start off with a huge budget so please don’t let this put you off (this number of leads generated just over £120k in my business during the 30 day period shown here – note that my clients can and do hit 5 figures with a fraction of this number of leads).
I recommend that my clients simply start small with a budget of $20 to $50 per day and gradually increase as your appointments come through and are converted into clients.
Growing the funnel is where I spend most time with my clients when scaling up their businesses and it’s the place I suggest coaches and consultants will want to put their biggest focus after creating their premium offering.
Choosing the correct interest groups and wording for your Facebook Ads will allow you to bring in dozens of signups each week, and ensure that the lead magnets are converting correctly.
11. Your final step is a strong focus on a follow up email strategy. This step must not be overlooked as it’s where at least 50% of the additional appointments will come from once you start building a large list.
Send out regular broadcast or “one-off” emails to generate sales leads – for example when you’re launching a new program or taking applications for the next time you run a program.
Simply create an email asking how people enjoyed your lead magnet, then ask them if they need help. I’m amazed how many people use their email list just for newsletters – your email list exists to bring you in LEADS so please use it!
Building in a series of regular broadcasts once per month is ideal – but alongside that make sure you take the best performing ones and schedule them in to an auto responder system to your lead magnets to go out automatically.
That way, you’ll also get a stream of applications coming in each day and you will have a reliable lead funnel generating you applications consistently.
So there we have it. Here are the 11 steps again quickly:
- Create something of value for your target market.
- Plan out what you are going to offer to the leads that you generate.
- Respect your time and get others to do the same.
- Create a method for accepting appointments.
- Use a professional tool such as leadpages to get people to opt-in.
- Use a website or freelancer to create attractive graphics.
- Include a link to your appointment booking tool.
- Start promoting your lead magnet.
- Demonstrate you can help by actually helping them on the call with the prospect.
- Create a paid advertising funnel to ensure a consistent stream of leads.
- Focus on the email follow up strategy.
Now it’s your turn.
Imagine you’ve got this up and running in your business, bringing in an extra 5 figures each and every single month to your business. How would your life be different? How would you feel differently about your business?
Would you like my personal help to implement these tactics in YOUR business?
If you’re a coach or consultant who wants to add a minimum of 5 figures per month to their income, then simply book in a time to talk here