How to Get Coaching Clients Fast and Easy (9 Simple Tips)

You hear a lot about creating a long-term strategy to establish a coaching business because it takes time, growth, and an ongoing commitment to make any business work.

But when you’re just starting out, you need a quick revenue stream in the short term to get your business off the ground.

Getting coaching clients quickly will help you fund your business, allowing you to pay yourself and pay for the long-term tools, like platforms, tools, and ads.

So, the trick is, how do you find clients quickly?

The tips here can catapult your business in the short term and help you find your first paying client in a couple of hours or weeks.

Before we start, let’s ensure you have everything you need to take action.

Do These Before You Get Your First Client

Before signing a client, ensure you have everything in place. These actions will help you get the best results when you start talking to potential clients.

• Benefits. You should be able to describe your coaching niche and who you serve. This includes your client’s pain points and the results your clients will gain as a result of your coaching.
• Details. Be sure you can explain your coaching model, whether one-on-one or group, and the number and duration of your sessions.  
• Schedule. Have your coaching schedule worked out so you know how many clients you can sustain and when your openings are. And, if you use a scheduler, have that ready also.
• Payment. Have your links ready. Most payment processors, like Stripe or Square, are free to set up and charge a fee after that. Check with your bank, also. Some banks send invoices and charge low-cost fees to accept payment.
• Tools. When you’re first getting started, you don’t need many tools. Start with the minimum: a way to accept payment, coordinate schedules, and connect with your client (like Zoom or Google Meet).

These are just the basics of what you need to get started. You can read about these in more depth by learning how to create a coaching program.

Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to dive into some actionable tips! Are you ready to get your first paying coaching clients?

Let’s get started!

1. Start With Your Existing Network

The most obvious place to start is by talking about what you offer to those who already know you! Make sure that everyone you know is aware of what you do:

• Send out an announcement email to all your friends and family.
• Ask them if they know anyone who may need a coach.
• Collect email addresses and send out valuable email messages regularly.
• Change all your social media profiles to reflect your online coaching business.  
• Post regular content that positions you as an expert in your coaching niche.

If you regularly use Gmail or Outlook, it’s easy to transfer your contacts to your email service provider. You’ll need to export these into a CSV file and use Excel or Google Sheets to clean it up. Then you can import it into your email service.

Here’s a simple tutorial that shows you how to export contacts from Google:

Tutorial video showing how to export contacts from Google

While your coaching business is new, and you may feel reluctant to talk about it, those who know you best aren’t surprised. Your friends and family probably saw a coach in you before you did.

These people may remember you as someone who saw and heard them in difficult times and coached them with compassion and non-judgment. Even if they don’t need your services, they can be your cheerleaders and recommend you to others.

2. Write Guest Posts

Writing guest posts on other blogs offers several significant benefits:

• It builds credibility in your industry.
• It gives you experience in talking about your niche and expertise.
• It drives traffic back to your website.

Be sure to find blogs with an excellent reputation among your potential clients and an active following. When you make your request, pitch a topic that fits the blog, including relevant experience and expertise.

Larger blogs provide writers’ guidelines. You make a better impression (and their life easier) when you follow them. Adventure Cyclist Online is an example of a blog that offers clear guidelines for guest contributors.

3. Appear on Podcasts

Podcast interviews are nearly always a win-win. You provide expertise around a topic, and the podcast host provides an audience. It’s essential to find a great fit.

Here’s what a good podcast interview includes:

• A host that shares many of the same values
• A show that attracts the same audience
• A show with an active and growing audience
• A host that regularly promotes the podcast

Podcast hosts appreciate it when you promote your guest appearance because it also helps them gain listeners. You can share it on social media and email your list.

To find the right podcast, try a service like Matchmaker or join a Facebook group like Find a Guest, Be a Guest.

4. Answer Quora Questions

Make a positive impression on others by answering questions on Quora. This free online platform gets more than 300 million unique visitors each month. That’s a massive opportunity for visibility.

Because so many people will view your answers for a long time, answer your questions skillfully.

Here are some tips:

• Set up your profile so people know who you are and what you do.
• Use keywords to find the specific questions you’re most equipped to answer.
• Answer the questions with the highest views.
• Provide a more complete, more compassionate, or more nuanced answer than the top-ranked answer.
• Check your grammar and spelling. Using a tool like Grammarly can help ensure a simple typo doesn’t undermine your credibility.

Quora is an entirely free way to get exposure. Depending on the question you target, it can get massive traffic. Antoine Dupont offers valuable advice for setting up a Quora account on his YouTube video.

Check out Antoine Dupont’s 12-minute video to get quick and easy visibility on Quora

5. Get Referrals

Not everyone is a perfect fit for your coaching services. However, almost everyone you talk to knows someone who is.

Here are some practical ways to ensure that people refer clients to you:

• Ask for referrals. In every conversation in which you talk about your business, ask for referrals. Try saying something like, “Maybe you don’t need coaching right now. Do you know anyone who [insert your ideal client avatar]?”
• Give referrals. The more you send clients to solid, reputable coaches and service providers, the more likely you’ll be remembered by others. And it keeps the idea of referrals fresh.
• Reward referrals. Generating referrals can be as easy as offering rewards to anyone who sends you one. This could include a portion of the income, bonus coaching sessions, a small gift, or even gift cards.
• Track referrals. Be sure to ask new clients how they heard of you. This can help you thank everyone who sent you a client.
• Be referral friendly. The more memorable you and your business are, the more likely people will remember you when they meet someone who needs your services.
• Be referral worthy. When you provide outstanding results to your clients and gratitude to your referral sources, you gain a reputation as someone worth sending clients to.

If you want to generate referrals, talk about your business to anyone willing to listen.

6. Be Active in Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are a great way to find and connect with the people who need your services. Members often ask questions that can be answered by someone with expertise (like you)!

• Get specific. Find a few active groups that are specific. For example, if you coach new mothers as they adjust to a newborn, look for a first-time moms group, not just working moms.
• Choose active groups. Facebook shows how many members there are and how many posts it makes. Choose groups where your ICA asks questions (not other coaches or experts). If it isn’t working for you, leave and find another.
• Be compliant. Comply with the rules of each Facebook group. You want to be remembered for your expertise and compassion, not for breaking the rules.
• Offer better answers. Give high-quality responses that contribute to your professional image and competence.
• Use restraint. Only answer questions that fall into your expertise. And answer them in a way that offers value while implying that coaching would provide more specific and helpful direction.

While this tip refers to Facebook groups, if you or your coaching clients spend time on LinkedIn, you could also try this with LinkedIn communities.

Stay active in a few favorite Facebook groups where questions allow you and your expertise to shine. Here’s an example of a question asked in a Facebook group. This is a perfect question for someone with expertise in social media marketing.

How would an expert potentially answer this?

7. Offer a Limited-Time Promotion

People are motivated to make decisions when there’s a sense of urgency. You’ve likely seen limited-time promotions, like those on Udemy, that display a countdown timer.

Here are a few examples:

• Limited availability. Let people know there’s a limited number of openings. If you can maintain only three clients, let people know you “only have three spots available.”
• Increasing price. One text-based group coaching program is $11 per month for the first 100 clients, $22 per month for the next hundred, then $33 per month, and so on. Consider raising your price with every other client.
• Early discount. Consider raising your prices every month or week. Let people know they can get a deal if they “act before Friday.”

When using a limited promotion, it’s essential to use it to close a sale with your ideal client.

• “When you purchase this coaching package today, you’ll save $300!”
• “I still have two spots open for new coaching clients. If you secure your spot today, you can choose between the 2 p.m. or the 6 p.m. session. Which is best for you?”
• “The price for this package is only good for the next person who signs up. After that, it will increase by another $300.”

Always be genuine in your pricing. Use this to nudge clients, not bludgeon them.

8. Offer a Free Coaching Session

When someone commits to something small, it makes it easier to commit to something larger.

That’s the strategy behind grocery store food samples. Once you eat and start talking with the person serving food, it’s easier to throw that item into your shopping cart.

You can offer a sample, too, by providing a free session.

If you choose to offer a free coaching session, here’s what you want to give and get out of it.

• Point them in the right direction. During the session, see if you can identify their long-term goals and help them take a baby step in that direction.
• Offer hope. Help the client create a vision for what they want and make it feel obtainable.
• Satisfy the emotional need. Consider the emotional needs driving them toward coaching (like being seen and heard, validated, and understood), and satisfy this need.
• Evaluate fit. Determine if the client is a good match for your expertise and your coaching program.
• End with a call to action. End with an action plan. Have them sign up for your coaching. Or, if they’re not a fit or say no, recommend a resource that could help them and the next steps.

Free coaching sessions benefit you too. They help you practice establishing trust quickly and evaluate your clients’ needs. They also allow you to weed out anyone who’s not a fit.

Don’t invite someone to join your program if they’re not a fit, but do treat them well. Because even if they aren’t a fit, they may refer someone to you later.

9. Alternative Packages

What happens when they say they can’t join your program?

What do you do then?

One of the best things you can do is have options ready ahead of time. These are options that are derivatives of your main package.

For example, let’s suppose your primary package is a three-month one-on-one coaching program, and they can’t do it because of the timing or cost.

What options make it easier to say “yes”?

• One-time intensive 2-hour session
• One month of coaching
• A 6-week essential program

These backdoor packages can make it easier for you to sign more coaching clients immediately.

After You Get Clients

As you take action to find new coaching clients quickly, you may feel like it’s a lot of hard work and hustle. Identify which of these practices drain your time and energy and eliminate them.

In time, your business activity should shift from a short-term search for paying clients to long-term systems and practices that automate client traffic.

Here are some changes you’ll want to make later.

• Shift to quality tools. Once you get past the “start-up” stage, it’s time to move to solid online tools and platforms that free up your time.
• Create an attractive website. A well-designed coaching website that follows best practices can do a lot toward selling your services and saving you time.  
• Optimize your digital presence. Search engine optimization strategies that raise your visibility for important keywords are a great way to ensure long-term success. And there are even a few tweaks you can make early in your business if you identify your most important keywords.
• Automate your leads. Create a lead magnet that attracts ideal clients and funnels them into your content and offers. This is a great way to grow your audience.
• Automate your referrals. In tip no. 6, we discuss tracking referrals manually—an easy way to start that doesn’t cost you anything. However, referral rewards can be automated with platforms that support affiliates, like Kajabi.  
• Get help. Hire the people you need, like a VA, lawyer, and finance expert, so that you can spend more time coaching clients online.

Conclusion

As these tips demonstrate, it doesn’t have to take a long time or include complicated steps to get coaching clients. Many successful coaches, because of their network and reputation, have used these tips to land clients on the first day.

To maximize your chances of success, we suggest picking 3-4 strategies that resonate with you and executing them thoroughly before moving on to others. This way, you can focus your time and energy on the methods that have the highest potential for attracting clients.

We hope you found these tips useful and that you’re now feeling more confident about your ability to attract coaching clients. Which strategies do you think will work best for you? Leave a comment and let us know. We would love to hear from you!

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