How To Build Your Coaching Business And Find New Customers

Paul Foh is a top sales coach in Africa.

Coaching is a powerful tool for change and progress, and yet many coaches are terrible at selling their services to the market. Why? Many coaches believe that because they are certified or experienced, clients will come knocking on their doors. What they forget is that they’re not the only one offering that solution.

Knowing how to coach a person and team excellently is different from knowing how to make money from the skill of coaching. Most coaching programs teach the capability of coaching and not the earning ability of coaching. This is the reason why, after obtaining certifications, many coaches forget to practice or when faced with the first person that says “I’m not interested,” they quit because nobody mentally prepared them for the challenge of building a business. They have no plan to attract their first 100 customers.

To fix this problem, I believe coaches need to acquire the following skills:

1. Selling

According to Coursera’s Global Skills Report for 2022, sales and marketing are critical skills for success. If you want to earn big in this industry, you must increase your sales and marketing knowledge.

2. Copywriting

Work to get better at writing words that convert to sales. Going forward, every time you read something and it inspires you to pull out your card and pay, pause to think about the words that compelled you to want to buy—that is the power of copywriting.

3. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a high-income skill. It’s about teaching your target audience things before asking them to buy your stuff.

In my experience, if you take action toward learning these skills, your revenue, impact and reputation will increase, but it’s also important to go in search of coaching clients.

Here are five ways to find coaching clients:

1. Leverage social media.

I get 90% of my sales coaching clients from social media because I am a content-pumping machine. Let me put this in perspective for you: I send out two newsletters a week, one podcast a week and daily videos on three social media platforms. Those verticals attract a lot of leads for me.

2. Shake hands.

In my experience, the more hands you shake, the more money you make. Go to a coffee shop, event or party and be genuinely interested in other people and you can activate good things.

3. Join communities.

I encourage you to join any community of people—including online communities—that allows you to grow, collaborate and network.

4. Speak publically.

The good thing about speaking gigs is that if you do an excellent job, one can lead to another. You can start with free speaking engagements, but just make sure that your target audience is in the audience.

5. Practice good PR.

Pitch your local newspaper about the work you’re doing and how it impacts people, businesses and the community. Tell your story or it will exist untold.

6. Leverage other people’s platforms.

Invited to be a guest on a podcast or to contribute to a company’s blog? Take advantage of opportunities to share your insights on others’ platforms.

There are a number of other ways to build your income as a coach, including one-on-one coaching, authoring books or working for a company on a retainer, but this list should serve as a good starting point to help you grow your business and attract new, paying customers.

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?