It’s Time to Overcome Your Wellness Coaching Business Barriers

Wellness coaching begins with understanding the psychology of the decisional ambivalence prospective clients struggle with…

… and ends with you taking action to educate and inform prospective clients in bite sized pieces. Just like you’re on a journey to build your coaching business, your clients need cohesive step-by-step approach to built in trust in you and your offers.

You can attract more prospects and sign more clients in your wellness coaching business when you put psychology and relationships first.

If you’re like most of the health and wellness coaches I’ve worked with over the years, you’re passionate about helping those who desperately need powerful “wellness coaching” solutions.

You would think that the fact that you may have expertise and credentials would inspire them to choose wellness coaching, but research shows the struggle goes much deeper than that.

It’s an interesting pattern I’ve seen in the “wellness coaching” industry for years.

You would think that everyone suffering with anxiety, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, diabetes, weight gain etc. would want to feel better, right?

They do, but gaining entrance into their sacred world is both art and science.

Why Fear Prevents Clients From Choosing “Wellness Coaching”

You would be mistaken if you think they don’t want help.

That’s what your mind tells you when you get tired of working really hard on your business, working a job and caregiving for many.

I get you on a deep level.

When you’ve done everything you know…it takes a bite out of your reserves.

Reality: Clients want to have healthier bodies, minds and spirits, but they have been struggling with the emotional toll of chronic illness and likely depression.

After struggling long-term, they are very hesitant to disturb what little balance they’ve established in their lives. That’s why your wellness coaching strategy might not be breaking through.

That was my story when I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome among other health issues.

I desperately wanted help, but worried that there would be negative consequences that I couldn’t ever right again. I didn’t want to be disabled again.

Not everyone has a crazy mother to drive them crazy enough to find a way,  like I did (blessings hidden in the bullcrap!).

It takes a ton of energy to keep going when you’ve been coping with chronic illness, so your client attraction methods need to come in through the back door rather than trying to convince them from your services page or in a short networking visit. 

So, while “wellness coaching” solutions might make sense to them, they’re afraid of “rocking the boat,” so they leave and keep looking instead of landing and starting their holistic recovery with you.

Working with doctors & chiropractors to bring in traffic and in my years as a leader in the field of Psychology, I’m keenly aware that most prospective clients aren’t even aware of what causes their suffering.

They’ve been sold on medicating symptoms instead of addressing root causes for decades.

That’s why ‘how and when’ you communicate your wellness coaching offerings has to overcome their unconscious training one message at a time – see below.

Address Underlying Fears To Build Wellness Coaching Credibility

While the right information can be helpful in raising awareness, it doesn’t get up and under the hood of long-term habits.

It takes a different tack to wake prospective clients out of their trances and get them on board with necessary lifestyle changes.

That’s why it’s important to understand Stages of Change from Psychology and how they inform the Buyer’s Journey. In short, new clients seeking services are in the awareness stage of change, so you need to be careful to pace and stage your wellness coaching messages to match their stage of readiness in your marketing campaign.

Simply put:

Prospective clients won’t choose “wellness coaching” as a solution until you address the inner psychology that controls their ability to consider an alternative.

Honor their natural decision-making process, so they’re first motivated on the idea of very simple change BEFORE being introduced to higher end “wellness coaching” solutions.

How do you honor their natural decision-making process, and gain wellness coaching clients in the process?

RECOMMENDATION:

Remove prices and services from your wellness coaching website and create a simple relationship marketing campaign.

I know – I really said that, but it will make sense in a moment.

Slow Down & Gain More Interest In Your Holistic Approaches To Health 

So what can you do instead of listing services on your wellness coaching website?

After all, you’ve got coaching solutions and your coaching website is where the rubber meets the road.

However, think about going on a first date and telling a prospective boyfriend or girlfriend EVERYTHING you have to offer up front.

No mystery.

No curiosity evoked.

In fact, whoa, right?

No second date.

That’s what happens when you give all your “wellness coaching” solutions away up front.

It leads prospective clients to think they’ve seen everything, make a snap decision in the 5-7 seconds before they surf to the next option.

Let’s stop that pattern and get prospective clients to WANT to learn more about you and the incredible wealth of knowledge and skills you can bring to their lives.

Introduce Your Services In A Relationship Marketing Campaign

I’d like to see you dramatically improve your rate of re-connecting with prospective clients, so I’m sharing some tools to help you better understand the role of Lead Magnets in relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing is all about having more than one shot at gaining interest and inviting people into your “wellness coaching” services. .

Lead magnets help you gain traction by sharing your coaching solutions AFTER you have an email address.

Rule #1: Educate Prospective Clients About The Origin of Their Problem

Give Free Information in Your Blog. End an informative blog post with a lead magnet – see below.

Then follow up with at least 6-8 emails that gradually lead prospects from learning about the origins to how your wellness coaching solution is better than how they’ve been trying to solve their problem.

Remember: Speak to their underlying fears, uncertainties and objections to doing things differently as respectfully as possible. When you touch their emotions, they’ll feel your authentic presence guiding them.

Not a writer at heart? Don’t worry, just sign up for someone offering similar “wellness coaching” services.

Don’t copy their emails, but use them to stimulate your own email copy. Studies show that 6-8 email touches are essential in deepening their connection to you and sense of trust in your solution.

Check out this post by Hubspot for an excellent Email Writing Guide.

Don’t forget to put a testimonial in emails after the 2^nd email. That builds credibility and helps them see how others who weren’t sure were helped by your solutions.

Remember, do your best. Perfect is great, but done is much better!

Join a great email autoresponder company to send your emails.

I use aWeber, because it’s easy to learn and I like easy. http://www.aweber.com/ – Note: I do not make a commission off of this link. I offer it freely so you can hit the ground running.

Rule #2: Use Lead Magnets to Build an Email List For Your “Wellness Coaching” Service

Do you know what really drove sign ups 10 years ago? Newsletters.

Now the sign ups are extremely low and newsletter readers have low conversion rates for “wellness coaching” (unless your specifically targeting the elderly). Most people don’t have time to read them and there’s no urgency or SINGLE call to action.

Choose simple to create but effective lead magnets that make a difference:

• Checklists – Example: 7 Step Checklist for Reducing Adrenal Fatigue Flare-Ups. It’s short, powerful and reaches right into a prospective “wellness coaching” clients health trauma and offers hope.

• Short Guides/Reports – less than 5 pages (with images)

Don’t over do it. Lead magnets are to be short and to the point and just a snippet of what you would offer if they were your paying wellness coaching client.

• List of resources or tools

Ex: Create a list of the resources you use to inform your work – create a short paragraph for each one (that’s related to your wellness coaching steps) and why it’s important to your reader and the link to the site/tool. That’s it – one page and done.

• Cheat Sheets

Example: 5 Simple Steps to Lower Your Blood Pressure Without Expensive Medications

• Audio/Video Download or a Mini-Course

It’s easier than ever to create audio’s and videos. Rather than have the video on yourself, consider using Power Point slides that you flash through when you’re talking.

Want an even easier way to create free videos for your wellness coaching business? 

These kind of videos hold attention better because there’s both audio and visual, which helps reinforce the information and your energy! There’s a free service that makes this a snap. Adobe is great. Get started here: Free Simple Video Creator.

Need a little video coaching? No problem. Just click this link to get your copy of my Video Sizzle PDF – scroll down the page to get your free copy of simple strategies to make your videos soar.

Remember:  Wellness Coaching Starts Well Before You Enroll Them As A Client 

For specific information on how you can personally tailor your wellness coaching messages with your blog posts, contact me here:

To Your Brilliant Success,

Dar