“I Just Can’t Find My Ideal Clients Online…” In REALITY, in the online space, we are interacting with and getting seen by hundreds, some thousands of people DAILY… so a lack of sales has nothing to do with clients not existing, and everything to do with how we are getting (or not getting) their attention. 

Chances are it’s less about you finding them, and more about them finding you…. Or that they already found you, but keep passing you by because they don’t realize you can help them. 

If you’re like, “OMG Jen – yes! I totally see other coaches in my niche KILLING It. I am getting scrolled by!”
The good news is, this is a solvable problem to have! 

When I first stepped into the online marketing space in 2011, I didn’t truly understand the layers behind why some people could fill their programs while others struggled. I say this because — We all have a day one. I have been in your shoes. 

Unfortunately, when novice coaches are in this boat, meaning they have lack of sales month after month and bills to pay, they sometimes turn to desperate marketing tactics in hopes of a quick cash infusion… So they’ll do ineffective, time sucking activities like…

1. Tagging influencers in your IG post — a post that has nothing to do with them. You’re not shouting them out or quoting them… it’s a mass tag of bigger accounts to IDK get in front of their followers/get their attention 2. Or sending ppl BDAY videos, audios, and DM’s

— Yeah, my birthday just passed on Feb 4th and I’ve never seen my inbox so full of people who I’ve never talked to before. I’d get a message — say thank you and IMMEDIATELY, I’d get a response, “any fun plans?” UHMM… if I had fun plans, would I in my FB DM responding to messages?

But real talk, I KNOW this is taught in some network marketing companies because they tell their people — FB will show you in their feed more if you are in their inbox! I can say for sure, none of the people who DMed me have been in my feed. BOTS – follow unfollow, or view IG stories — Just no.

Short term – in hopes of a win, without a long term – polarizing people — not in the good way! These things DEFINITELY won’t sell your offers faster, but they will piss off a whole lot of people!

If you’re a coach doing these things right now, you either had some “guru” tell you this worked or you are just straight up trying ANYTHING hoping someone will bite. THIS is not a sustainable way to get clients to find you online. And maybe I didn’t mention one here, but you KNOW if you’re doing something that’s not sustainable.

SO – The real work of attracting clients begins with your messaging – anddddd nailing your messaging begins with knowing your niche. PITCHING to your niche. You can send people to your website or social platforms all day, but if they show up there and they’re confused, they’re going to leave. 

You have 5-10 seconds to keep someone’s attention and peak their interest… It’s quick!  We’ll talk more about HOW to dial this in in just a bit — before we do, we need to talk about why do many dang people – coaches and guru’s alike — saying that it takes TIME.

I’m not getting sales… Well, it takes TIME. I have several issues with this. First and foremost, please define time. 5 minutes? 3 months? A year? 10 years? When we are as chunked up and vague as saying TIME, every human creates their own idea of what that means. I have no idea what guru’s mean when they say that other than, it’s not happening now. It’s the greatest cop out. 

Do they mean it takes time to dial in your messaging? Time to identify your niche? Time to develop your content voice?Time to learn paid advertising? Time to set up your funnel?

Secondly, I’m not saying these things don’t take some unit of time – they do – but the time it DOES can be shortened by hiring help — or investing in a program that teaches you what you don’t know. You CAN shorten the gap.

When it comes to attracting more people, you can use organic marketing strategies which typically takes more time for word to spread of your awesomeness — or you can incorporate paid ads which takes money to get in front of your ideal audience.

Time is relative.  All is to say, instead of this blanket term “it takes time…” — Let’s say, potential buyers need to understand how you can solve their problem before they buy. Now THAT, sure, that can take YEARS of nurturing and them feeling ready to take action — butttt it can also be a lot shorter. 

From selling to cold audiences off of webinars, I’ve also seen it take 60 minutes — I’ve had people who have bought off a live video after 15 minutes — or people who opt-in to a freebie with a one click upsell that gets them buying in seconds. ALL because what is being presented, clearly solves their problem. 

Now if you just thought, “Paid ads? I don’t have money for that!” I don’t even know how to set that up. Just be aware of the box you are creating for yourself and your OWN money objections that are being created based on YOUR lack of understanding of the transformation of paid ads. .. because really, when ads are done right, it’s like a winning slot machine. If you knew for every $1 you put into ads, you’d get $10 back.. how many dollars would you put in???

Everyone Has Money Objections And People Just Don’t Want To Pay!
People prioritize their money based on what can solve their most urgent problems. 

My fiancé and I live in NYC and are moving to a bigger place and I had a LONG checklist of things I was looking for and he had a few on his list as well. We saw a few places earlier in the week… we really liked two places, but something wasn’t 100%… we kept going back and forth, doing pro’s and con’s… 

Why didn’t we immediately close? Neither one TRULY solved our problems. THAT was why we were moving. Problems. And we were willing to pay more for solutions. One of those places was at the top of our budget, which was presenting a problem as well. 

Two days later we had 2 additional showings… We walked into a place and instantly said THIS IS IT. It solved ALLLLL the problems we experience in our current place like, great lighting, spacious office, newly renovated, enough storage, an outside terrace where I can do yoga, read, sunbath, complete and Total quiet, 5 minutes from the river and park, 5 minutes from the train to midtown, etc.

This was was ALSO at the top of our budget, but the value was there and then some. Suddenly the price didn’t seem to matter as much. 

So in online business, if you’re getting one or two people who tell you they can’t afford your offer, that’s normal. BUT if it’s chronic, where you’re just getting nothing but money objections, it’s that they don’t understand the transformation they’re going to get. They don’t see the vision of their desired end result. 

Confused consumers don’t buy. They wait. And think about it. And then get distracted and do something else. I gave you the real estate example — let’s tie this into coaching.

One of the BIGGEST areas where I see coaches struggle in their messaging is in their I help / hook statements. — now let’s be clear – this is ONE TINY LITTLE SLIVER OF MESSAGING. But it’s important to be able to simply and clearly articulate what you do.

The big problem I see with I help statements? 
They sell the “how” instead of selling the transformation.  Let’s take look at an example:

Let’s say we’ve got a relationship coach. She’s not signing any clients right now.  Her IG Bio says, ‘Relationship Coach Helping single women find self love first through healing their inner child. Hypnosis, Shadow Work, EFT.’ Now in her mind — she’s CLEAR about what she does… BUT.

What she doesn’t realize, is she’s telling her potential clients her process of HOW she’s going to help them transform… but if they knew the how, they would have done it already themselves. 

That’s NOT what they’re typing into google. What is the problem she solves? She helps single women manifest the love of their life.  The measurable problem is, her ideal client doesn’t want to be single anymore.  THAT is the transformation that she is looking for.

So this is a moment for you to take a step back from your business and look at it objectively, which I know is a challenging thing to do because we LOVE our business and we are IN our business all day.

But try to look at it from a bird’s eye view and ask yourself, if you were a new follower going to your IG or website, would you clearly understand what you do?