Growing a financial coaching business means that you need clients to coach, right? But if finding clients has been a challenge for you, you need to find where the gap is in your process. I wish I could say that you need to do XYZ, but the truth is that the solution is different for everyone. But the path to find the solution all starts in the same place: tracking your leads, prospects, and clients…every week.

Understanding the Categories: Leads, Prospects, and Clients

Leads:

  • Definition: A lead is someone who expresses an interest in your services. They might sign up for your newsletter, show interest in your free offerings, send you a direct message on social media, or schedule an initial call with you.
  • Note: Leads have not yet been qualified as potential clients, meaning you have limited information about them.

Prospects:

  • Definition: Once a lead has been identified as a potential fit for your services, they transition into a prospect. This qualification usually happens after an initial conversation or call.
  • Note: Prospects can transition from the “lead” category within the same week. This progression indicates a deepened level of interest and engagement with your services.

Clients:

  • Definition: A client is someone who commits to your services and makes a payment. They may book a discovery session or any other paid offering.
  • Note: A client status can be achieved in the same week as being a lead or prospect, depending on the intensity of the engagement process.

The Importance of Consistent Tracking

The process might seem tedious, but tracking these numbers offers invaluable insights. Without this data, it’s challenging to pinpoint the exact gap in your client acquisition process. Consistently updating your leads, prospects, and client data not only provides a snapshot of your business performance but also highlights areas that require attention.

The process of tracking is simple: Create a spreadsheet and, every week, record how many leads, prospects and clients you have. This will give you insight into where you need the most support. Maybe you have a lot of leads but very few prospects. Or maybe you have a handful of prospects but haven’t converted one to a client yet.

A drop in leads might signal a marketing or visibility issue. If you’re generating leads, but they aren’t converting to prospects, your messaging may not resonate with your ideal client. Lastly, if you have ample prospects but few clients, it might be time to refine your sales techniques.

Continuous Refinement: The Key to Success

Sales and marketing are dynamic, requiring constant adjustments. Regular tracking helps this process, so you can see the impacts of the changes you make. It forms a feedback loop where you identify issues, implement solutions, and then assess the results. This cycle of continuous refinement, sometimes in the form of automation or systematization, ensures that you are consistently improving and adapting to your potential clients’ needs and wants.

To be an effective financial coach, it’s crucial to do more than master the craft of coaching, which means you need clients to coach! Each January we host a Client Creator Challenge to help you with this. Get on our waiting list so you’re the first to know the next time we open the doors!