Episode Details

One of biggest problems with any sort of prospecting is the dead silence right after clients love what you've said or done.

You'd think they'd call immediately, but there's not a peep out of them. Is there some flaw in the system? And how can you overcome this obvious glitch?

Click here to read online: Coaching Series 3/3: Why Clients Nod But Don't Call

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How do you Find Prospects?

Red Bull has the highest market share of any energy drink in the world, with 6.302 billion cans sold in a year. However, it almost never got started.

Before the launch, part owner, Dietrich Mateschitz hired a market research firm to test Red Bull's acceptance. The result was a complete let down "People didn't believe the taste, the logo, the brand name. "I'd never before experienced such a disaster." But Mateschitz believed the product would do well if he placed it in the right market.

Which is precisely what he did

His insight was to target not just students, but trendy students in universities. Instead of selling the brand to them, he'd pay them to throw a party and supplied them with free cases of Red Bull. What Mateschitz was doing, was two masterful acts all at once. He was seeking out the kind of clients he'd want, and instantly demonstrating the application.

For someone starting out in coaching it might seem like an uphill task to get clients

No one knows you, no one knows your brand, and no one even cares. Sounds pretty much like Red Bull doesn't it? But just like Red Bull, you've got to know how to work your way around such a dismal scenario. The first stage would be for you to decide on a specific audience. Before you get close focus on a single person, namely a profile, it's important first to find an audience.

Take Mike Jara's audience for instance

Mike deals with the issue of stress management. And that's a pretty broad audience. On any given day, you're likely to run into people who are wound up. Even so, it's not quite the audience you (or Mike) is looking for. Instead, Mike has chosen to talks to teachers.

They have a pretty stressful day, not just in the classroom, but with the prep work and the assignments after the last kid has gone home. The stress gets in the way of sleep, causing the teachers to be even more sleep deprivation. When they get back to work, after a restless sleep, they're edgier than ever before.

However, without the audience in mind, the message goes quickly off track

When Mike started the exercise of getting a message across, his line went like this: Start your mornings with abundant energy. Ditch the coffee and grab yourself a hot cup of habits. Not only was the line a bit confusing, but it instantly brought up objections.

Most people drink coffee, because they like the taste, but also because it's a break, and often a social gathering of sorts. They don't see coffee as the enemy.

If Mike were to look for prospects with a line like that, he'd be likely to get little or no response, which would be a shame, because there's nothing wrong with Mike's offering. When looking for prospects, it's not enough to have a great product or service.

Instead, you have to get started with the target audience, then move to the target profile, and that's when you avoid the noise factor and get a clearer signal.

When I started out as a coach/consultant I thought I had a great line

I'd say something like this: "Reactivating dormant business clients". I was so chuffed with my line that I got a designer to design my stationery, which included a thousand business cards.

Months later, I found barely little or no interest in what I had to offer. However, I also got lucky because I was introduced to a networking group. This group met on every Friday, which meant I could test out which lines worked best. Even so, I got nowhere in a hurry.