A Fast Way to Find
Clients or Fill a Practice
By
Suzanne Falter-Barnes
So you’ve gotten the training
certification, made up your business cards, and
started your web site. You’ve discovered your niche, and
you have been marketing — aggressively even!
But still, no one’s exactly beating
a path to your door. Kind of makes you wonder
what you’re doing wrong.
Chances are you’re
doing everything right. The only thing that may be missing is
a broader chance for the public to really get a taste of which
you are. You need
to build relationships with these folks. Yet, how can you do that
without
actually coaching them first?
Enter the big solution: workshops.
Holding workshops
targeted to your niche is an excellent way to give your larger
audience a real taste of what you do. The full 3-hour, or full-day
format of a
workshop gives your audience a chance to sit back and observe you
at work. Not
only that, if you’ve shaped your workshop to fit your niche,
you’ll find yourself
with an excellent database of interested potential clients. You’ll
also be able
to test the drawing power of your niche quite graphically, and
learn the most
effective ways to reach these folks. One psychotherapist I know
In New York City
built a thriving practice simply by leading three workshops about
Jung and dream
analysis.
An added perk: when you lead workshops, you
get all kinds of terrific stories you
can use in future articles, books, and speaking gigs. Three best-selling
self-help authors I know actually lead workshops for this reason
alone.
That said, there are a few key things that
must be in place to turn your workshop
the client magnet that it can be.
- Give yourself and your workshop
a brand name. Some of the most successful I
know of are “The Ezine Queen”, “The Comfort Queen”, “Marketing
Shaper”, “The
Publicity Hound”, “Authentic Promotion”, and “The
Grok”. These are ownable,
distinctive names that let people know exactly who you are … (well,
maybe not The
Grok.) One thing’s for sure… these folks, especially
the Grok, are not easily
forgotten.
- Teach with your heart on the line. The
teacher who cares the most wins … so
come prepared, give it your all, and don’t say good-bye
until literally everyone
in the group has had some kind of breakthrough.
- Hand out plenty of handouts. Class
notes, additional resources, your own
articles, forms, great quotations, etc., are essential marketing
tools. Every one
of them should have all of your contact information on them,
including your brand
name, email, website, all phone numbers, and fax. Put them in
a snappy folder
with a sticker on the cover that bears, yes… your brand name … and
website. Then
staple your business card to the inside of the folder. And be
sure to include a
well done one-sheet or brochure about your coaching services.
- Give away a free coaching session
during the break. Simply pass around a hat
or jar to collect business cards as folks come in (they can
also substitute name
and email on paper.) Then draw your winner just before the
break, which gives you
the opportunity to give your coaching a discreet plug. This
technique is
especially helpful if you’re doing your workshop in a
venue where you have not
done registered the class, and you lack contact info for the
group. That nice jar
of business cards gives you fodder for your database.
- Don’t oversell your coaching. Just
mention it a few times lightly, and let the truly interested
approach you. Better yet, instead of selling it,
tell some
stories (protecting confidentiality, of course) from your practice
that
demonstrate what you do. That gives you the power of attraction,
as opposed to
the stink of the hard sell. If you do your job effectively,
they will come.
- Stress the importance of getting
support at some point in your presentation. Support
is one thing that most people really deny themselves, yet
that is so
critical to success. And what better support is there than
coaching? Seed it
lightly but firmly in your talk.
- Continue to do your workshop in
any appropriate market. Nothing builds a base
of clients like consistently getting out there. Your name gets
heard, and your
brand registers each time it does. You can travel locally or
globally with this.
But make a point of researching different markets to find your
perfect group. I
do this by seeing where other comparable workshop leaders are
doing their thing,
and I observe how they market themselves to these groups. Then
I set up
comparable tours.
© 2004 By
Suzanne Falter-Barnes
About the Author
For more information about how to create, book, fill and lead your
own workshops, go to www.howmuchjoy.com.
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