There’s a MASSIVELY effective tool for marketing your business that’s going largely unspoken about– and skipping this area of focus in your biz causes a terrible effect: the OUTER work you do on visibility, growing your biz, and marketing will NOT get you the results you want if you’re NOT going deep on this ONE PIECE.
In the first four or five years of my coaching business, I worried about whether or not I was having the impact that I wanted to have on my clients.
I worried about how effective my support was- because if your clients aren’t REALLY blown away by working with you– if they don’t understand the effects your service is having for them… then they don’t refer you. They don’t become return customers. They don’t basically create growth opportunities for you (AKA: free advertising).
In the first few years of my business, I worried about whether or not my clients were seeing tangible rewards – I know that’s what I want when I invest in support from someone. And I could already see that it was WAY more cost-effective to keep ONE client happy and returning for my support than it was to keep finding new clients when old ones didn’t find the value in returning.
And even now – almost 10 years in to being a coach and mentor, I STILL periodically feel worried that my clients aren’t seeing enough progress, enough results, enough growth. I still worry a little when a client seems stuck.
Does that happen to you? Do your clients get stuck without you knowing exactly how to help them? Do you notice that you don’t get the return business you’d like? Do you wonder why more clients aren’t referring you, boasting about the results they get working with you, shouting accolades?
Danger Area: When you’re not CONFIDENT about the results that you’re getting with your clients, it’s HARD to SHINE your biz visibility- because you’re not 100% behind the results you’re getting. This will hurt your retention rates, your income growth, your community growth.
Client Example:
I have a client who provides life-changing support for her clients. Seriously- life changing work. But she was stuck manifesting new clients, stuck feeling like she couldn’t bring her vision of a thriving business into manifestation. Then, she had one of THOSE clients. She had a client who broke down CRYING and said that all her life she had felt like she was a failure at the result she wanted- and within DAYS of working with my client, she UNDERSTOOD that there had been a missing piece. Once my client started working with her, she could SEE it clearly. She understood that it wasn’t her fault. She knew- with my client’s help, that she could CHANGE it.
My client wrote to our group: “This is why I do the work that I do. THIS. RIGHT. HERE. I feel incredibly blessed and like my work is beginning to gel. I could not have done it without the support offered here Britt Bolnick.
Even though I have had this vision for A LONG TIME, I was having trouble bringing it into manifestation. Now that I have the systems and support that I’ve always needed, I feel like this can really be something! My message is coming through…finally. Thank you, women.”
Having that experience of how she’s creating results for her clients helped HER to be more visible in her biz. It helped combat the voice of fear of fraud. It helped her articulate her value to prospective clients. It helped her tell potential partners about how she’s CHANGING the life of her clients- and that makes future partners and colleagues WANT to shout her out and bring her to their community.
So it’s been tremendously valuable for me to build in periods of evaluation where I look at the support that I’m providing and the tangible results that my clients are walking away with- and teach my clients to do the same.
This guides my clients (from the perspective of THEIR clients- no guessing!) to exactly what’s WORKING for their clients, and anything that ISN’T. From this place you’re getting FREE and EASY info on tweaking your offerings, business, content to reflect exactly what your ideal client wants and needs– and this means your support is getting more and more valuable every time you take time out for this process.
Why are happy clients SUCH an important marketing tool?
Marketing Secret 101: Happy clients are the BACKBONE of small businesses. They are SO important for you as a business owner- for reasons both external and internal (and if you skip this piece, you invest a HUGE amount of work in GROWING your community and signing new clients, only to have them leave and not come back. It takes WAY more enrrgy, time, and money to keep getting brand new clients than it does to keep current ones happy and re-enrolling! Did you know that?).
ALSO: on the internal front, it feels GOOD to be appreciated by your clients. To have them TELL you how much they love your work, how effective it is for them. It feeds your self-confidence, allows you to grow as a biz owner, and helps you to understand exactly what’s working for them so you can speak to it in your messaging and marketing copy.
On the external front, happy clients are WALKING advertisements for FREE marketing that pull in NEW clients: through referrals. Through testimonials that you can use on your website, in your newsletters, in your sales copy. Happy clients tell their communities about you. They share (and even host!) your offerings. They represent THE SINGLE most effective form of guerilla marketing.
The evaluation process I mentioned above helps to stay connected to your clients and understand what you’re doing that WORKS for them so effectively. Because it’s SO important, I urge my clients to implement this process in their own business. In this article I’m going to give you just a few of the important aspects that I’m considering when I evaluate the tangible results my clients are getting and the support that I’m providing that makes it possible.
(In the video you can grab at the end, I’ll show you EXACT tools to measure what’s working for your clients and what isn’t, so you can keep getting more and more effective at what you do- and get more and more rave reviews, repeat clients, and easy-peasy referrals!).
You want your clients to SEE the progress they’re making with you (grab the video I mentioned above to understand how to help them do this!). And because you’re invested in them, you want to see them setting up for success, and be able to be a concrete part of that success- after all, that’s why they’ll keep wanting to come back to you, right? And that’s why you do what you do.
Additionally, it feels terrible when your clients AREN’T feeling the impact of working with you, and it triggers all those icky fears and fraud beliefs that get carried around deep in your head. It can make you question yourself, and that beats down confidence- which is crucial for your inner workings, and necessary to be able to stand in a position of leadership and guide your clients.
Here are some tried and true ways to make sure your clients are feeling an impact in your work together. Their positive feedback and success will make your heart beam, foster the growth and change they want to see, and set you apart in your field.
1. Show up in 100% professionalism:
Be on time. Set a container for your work. Be present for your time together. Follow up on previous work and be prepared. Smile (this actually has benefits even if you’re meeting over the phone!). Set a mental reminder for 10 minutes before the session ends and begin to wrap it up so you both feel complete and can finish on time. Mind your own inner work and energy management (don’t come your time together with any of your own fears, beliefs, or baggage getting in the way). Make sure that your words and actions are 100% in integrity.
Homework: take a week and track yourself: are you on time for clients? Do you end on time? Are you able to be present for your time together (internally and externally- no checking FB, no day dreaming or making to-do lists while talking to them…)? Do you come to meetings prepared and up to date on where they are and what you need to know? Do you set a container for the work you’re doing, step into leadership so they feel held and guided, know that you’re guiding the work and they can relax into your hands? Is there any energy work that needs to be done on your part (focusing before your session or appointment, clearing any annoyance, fear, discomfort, lack of confidence, etc that you might be carrying)?
2. One of the greatest gifts you can give your clients is also one that will- if you do it EFFECTIVELY and authentically- set you apart in an increasingly disconnected and fragmented world.
It’s the gift of SEEING and hearing someone. Of setting up, maintaining, and NURTURING spaces where this happens for your clients, your community.
People have an ACHING need these days to feel HEARD. To be listened to. To have space made for them. To feel held and welcomed and attended to.
Listen for what’s being said between the lines. Pull the pieces your client can’t see from where she’s sitting. Connect the dots for them. Think outside the box, and outside of what their perspective can see. Offer suggestions that connect them to other people who can support them. Spend a minute or two before you work with your clients getting into a place of love and respect for them, and gratitude for the space you have the honor of holding for them.
Homework: Get permission to record a session (assure your client it’s ONLy for your ears, and will be deleted after you listen to it). Listen for where you could have taken them deeper. Supported them more. Listen to see if you’re supporting them in their own discovery, or getting stuck in “fix-it” mode (SO common for healers and people in the business of support!). Listen for where you could have asked more questions. Check to see if you set a safe and complete container for the work: was it clear that you were leading it? Was time paid attention to? Were there clear expectations set for the work? Did you make time to check in with client at end, ask what they’re taking, make sure their next steps are clear, check in with how they’re feeling?
If you can’t record, just make 15 minutes at the end of a session to reflect on the above. Read through the questions before the session so they’re fresh in your mind and you’re checking for them.
3. Help your client work effectively between sessions or once they leave.
Ideally, your client is learning to empower herself (or himself) and step into leadership for themselves, depending on what kind of work you do, and for whom. Help them to do this by supporting them to set up the structure they need to keep moving forward BETWEEN work with you.
How do you set up the structure they need?
- Wrap up your sessions with some clear, small steps that your client can move forward with on her own.
- Check in with her to make sure the steps feed her larger goal, feel small enough to take on, feel CLEAR and measurable, and that she has the support she needs (this is a good time to set up a next session for the near future for the support you know she needs).
- Ask her what structure and support she needs in her day to day life to keep moving forward.
- Ask her what she’d like to have done or in place the next time she sees you.
Homework: create a system for helping your client to see the big picture of their goal. Most likely, this will be helped by regular work with you, so it’s also in service of clients investing in packages or programs with you for the ongoing support they need in service of their goal. Check your initial session or consultation framework to make sure clients are guided to the big picture, and then to the steps that are needed for it, as well as the support that’s crucial for them to implement the work. Having this framework will be invaluable for them, and position you as someone who can guide them through from where they are to where they want to be.
Each of these pieces will set you apart in an over-saturated market.
Each of these pieces will help YOU feel better about the work you do, and help your CLIENTS feel better about the investment they made- and this allows your reputation to travel without you even SPENDING money on advertising or pulling teeth to grow your visibility.
