4 Steps to Getting More Clients

For about 95% of the people that I talk to, the biggest concern they have is simple: how to get more nutrition or health coaching clients.

With that BIG problem in mind I’ve put together a 4-step follow through formula where I walk you through some simple steps so you can solve your lack of clients problem.

Let me give you a disclaimer before I begin. I’m about to drop a truth bomb… get ready.

Growing a profitable business is damn hard. It’s time to take off the rose coloured glasses. There are no magic solutions to getting more clients. There is no one right way or social media gimmick. Creating the business of your dreams takes commitment, passion, drive and many, many long hours. It’s entirely possible to make a living being a nutritionist… you just can’t give up right away.

Your Step By Step Approach To Getting
More Nutrition or Health Coaching Clients

Step One: This should be obvious, but it’s overlooked by pretty much all the newbie’s and senior nutritionists. Be very good at what you do. If you keep this as step one in the process then everything you do to get more clients becomes more valuable because they stay longer and are more likely to refer.

Being good at what you do not only applies to your wealth of nutrition or health coaching knowledge, it applies to customer service, referrals, marketing and promotion. Ask yourself; in what areas of your business are you excellent in and where could you improve?

Step Two: Stop being all things to all people. We learn too much in school. It’s overwhelming. School is over and it’s now time to take the foundation of knowledge you received and focus on one area.

When most people think about how to get more nutrition or health coaching clients, they take on any clients they can get. Stop doing that. My suggestion – do the opposite. Figure out what you want to focus on. You are different from all of your competitors because you are YOU.

I am not saying you shouldn’t provide a variety of services. Of course you can… the services should be geared towards a specific type of clientele.

Figure out:

• Who you work with
• Who you want to work with
• What makes you different from your competitors
• How your clients would describe you and what sets you apart

Once you have that identified, focus in on it. Have a clear message to the market so you know who you’re looking for and so that when someone new finds out about you they can say ‘that’s perfect for me.’

Step Three: Get over yourself. Easier said then done, I know. How is anyone supposed to know about how awesome you are if you are not telling them?

When most practitioners think about how to get more nutrition or health coaching clients their first ideas are things like putting ads in local magazines, running direct mail campaigns, putting up yard signs, setting up lead boxes or offering random free seminars.

My suggestion is to go the opposite direction. Start with the people you already know. They already like you and trust you. It will surprise you that most of your contacts don’t even know that you are taking on clients.

Go through your email list. Do all your contacts know what you do? What makes you unique? Have they been invited in to experience it first hand?

Login to Facebook. Do all your ‘friends’ know what you do? What makes you unique? Have they been invited in to experience it first hand?

Now, if you have a LinkedIn account, login there. Do all your contacts know what you do? What makes you unique? Have they been invited in to experience it first hand?

That seems simple, but my guess is that 80% of the practitioners I interact with overlook this approach almost completely. Of the remaining 20%, I’d say that about 2/3 of them only do a haphazard job of harnessing the power of the network they already have.

But if you really want to know how to get more clients, the contacts you already have are your untapped goldmine. Make a master list of all of these contacts and one-by-one reach out to them all with a personal call or personal message (no mass messages allowed) and connect with them. Invite them in to experience what you have to offer at no cost to them.

IF you do this (most won’t) I will promise you that you will get new clients out of it.

Step Four: The fourth step is actually the answer that most practitioners would give me if I asked them how to get more clients: Referrals. Well, kinda.

The first step is to actually build in a referral system into your business. Most practitioners I talk to don’t do this. You are leaving money on the table.

The best way to go about getting referrals is to over deliver. This goes back to step one – be very good at what you do. Give your best service to every single person you meet; talk with and of course, your clients. Over deliver, give value and your clients will feel compelled to shout your name from the mountain tops.

There is a catch. You have to ask for referrals. Don’t assume your clients know to promote you or even how to promote you. Be very good at what you do and give them a reason to introduce their family, friends and colleagues to you.

• Hold a bring a friend events and charity seminars.
• Ask for introductions.
• Use social media to stay connected with your clients.
• Host events that your clients can bring guests to.
• When your clients invite you to events… go.

Your clients can be your best source of new business, but you have to help them do it.

As you can see there is no magic bullet for getting more clients. Pick one strategy and start there. Build up your toolbox of client getting strategies. The first time you put yourself out there it will be uncomfortable. No doubt about it. It gets less uncomfortable every single time.