How To Consistently Generate Word Of Mouth For Your Coaching Business

If you're like most coaches, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about how to get more clients.

You may even have invested in programs and courses that teach you specific marketing tactics to help you attract those clients.

And some of those tactics work really well.

But there's one type of marketing that everyone seems to overlook: word of mouth.

Word of mouth is the cheapest, simplest, and most consistent way to grow your business. It's the gold standard of marketing.

Even as communication becomes more digital and we have the ability to run advertising, people still make the majority of their purchasing decisions based on recommendations from people who they trust.

So here's the question: if word of mouth is so effective, why don't most coaches leverage it?

I think it's because we all want a quick fix, and you can't "hack" word of mouth.

The only way to have people recommend you consistently is to provide a remarkable service to a group of people who are hungry for it.

Word of Mouth Is All About Exceeding Expectations

Let's be honest...

People don't talk about average things. And they don't recommend products or services to their friends unless they believe that they'll get credit when the other person benefits.

So why would someone spread the word about your coaching if it's average?

No one's going to do that.

When you over-deliver with your coaching, it becomes easier and easier to get new clients. When you under-deliver, it gets more difficult. And when you match expectations, getting new clients feels just as hard as it did on day one.

Which means that if you've been coaching for a little while and it's not becoming easier to get clients...something's wrong!

This doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad coach. It could mean that you've been unwilling to focus in on who you can best serve and so you haven't found your sweet spot.

It could also mean that you don't have a framework for how to run an effective coaching session every single time.

Why You Should Have A Framework For YOur Coaching

Most coaches just kind of show up and try to "work their magic" without a framework. And sometimes that works really well. But other times the conversation gets a bit out of focus or the person leaves without knowing what to do next.

What do I mean by a framework?

Well, there are really five steps that allow you to run powerful coaching sessions consistently. If you're missing one of these steps, you're probably not serving your clients as much as you could be.

I've created a one-page PDF that walks you through through each step of the template so that you can reference it during your coaching conversations. Up until now, I've only shared this with my paid clients. But I've decided to give it to you for free so that you can better serve your clients and generate more word of mouth.

You can use whatever coaching skills or questions you'd like within the framework. But you won't ever have to show up to a call with no idea how to lead it. That always used to make me nervous, which is why I created this template in the first place.

The Bottom Line On Word Of Mouth

Most coaches assume word of mouth is out of their control.

But it's really not. You just have to get better at over-delivering for your existing clients. And if you don't have any clients yet, you may want to consider offering some free sessions for people so that you can start to generate that word of mouth.

Of course, it's not enough just to be great at coaching. I've written before about why you shouldn't do a coach certification and assume you're all set.

Another thing you can do is start asking for referrals the right way at the right time:

There are all sorts of things you can do to encourage word of mouth. But none of those will work if you don't provide any real results for the people you work with.