The Difference Between Sales, Marketing, & Clients-Enrollment

What is Marketing?

Marketing, simply put, are the activities you are performing to make your offer visible in front those who need it most. It's an umbrella term used to express all the activities you do in order to INFORM THE WORLD* ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF YOUR SERVICE OR PRODUCT. 

* OK, maybe "informing the WORLD" is a bit exaggerated; though, some coaches - and many other small biz owners - do try to market their services to the "entire world," and in theory there's nothing wrong with it.  Though, for best results, it is best if you focus your marketing to Become Seen in Front of Your Ideal Clients only; which, again, in theory could be worldwide - I too serve clients in at least a dozen countries - but in the beginning you have highest credibility and chance to get hired in your own country, and especially around your own location).

Coca Cola, Pepsi, Colgate, etc. can afford to market to the whole world - but our message will get lost and (literally) will be seen by nobody, if we are not making an effort to target our marketing to our Ideal Clients.

Marketing is a Two-Edged Sword

Great marketing can be used in dishonest and deceptive ways. Some business and marketing "coaches" will tell you that if you hire them, you'll be making 6 to 7 figures in no time! Or if you buy their "pill" it'll heal all your ailments in a few days or weeks...

Some people burned themselves as a result of responding to such deceptive marketing practices and came to think of marketing as "evil." Many coaches speak up with great conviction against marketing, saying that it's all about deception...

Fact is, however, Marketing is simply a way to inform the world about your existence - about the existence of your service/s and other offers. It's an effective way to educate and inform, letting the world know you exist and open for business.

Don't Under-Market Yourself

I found that most Life Coaches under-market themselves - meaning, they don't list all of their strengths and credibility-boosters that'll position them in the best light to their potential clients -  and rarely (if ever) did I see deceptive practices.
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Though, YES, I do see at least a dozen business and marketing coaches who'll promise the sun and the moon if you hire them, for "only $30,000" or their more affordable online program, for $7500.00. Be careful with those offers - half of them are borderline scams (some are actual scams); half are hard-to-implement and/or super-pricey to implement; and the other half - the ones that are easy to implement - are hard to find  (if you notices that there are three "halves" - congrats!  And, yes, there are 3 halves to this equation - deal with it! ?)

What is Selling...
and How is it Different from Marketing?

While the role of Marketing  is to get you seen by your ideal clients - by those who need your solution most - the role of selling is to... well, as the name also suggests,  is to SELL your offer to those who need it.

Here's a BIG difference: During the Marketing process, there is NO money exchange. You simply are informing and educating your prospective clients, letting them know your services exist and are available to them.

On the other hand, when you sell your coaching services, this is when a payment will be taken from the client in exchange for your services.

BTW, most of us charge in advance, and we charge for a whole month (NOT hourly), or for 90-days period. We charge before we deliver our services, this way we avoid the stress of needing to collect unpaid bills... Also, most coaches tend to set it up as a recurring payment, and the payment comes out automatically from the client's credit card every month.

WITHOUT A SALE, YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS!

Yep, I had to write that tin ALL-CAPS, as many live under the impression that you can have a (life coaching) business without selling...

It is true, IF you set your business up the right way, you don't have to actually have face-to-face selling conversations in th etradional sense; but a sale still has to happen.

The Client-Enrollment Flow

Let's take a peek at the client-enrollment flow: 

1. Your marketing efforts get your offer in front of your ideal client
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2. Your ideal client acts on what they see (your blog post, article, advertisement, social media post, etc.) and will end up visiting your website, read you article, etc. - whatever the call to action was in your marketing (oh, oh! yep, you need a great call to action in all your marketing materials- one that tells your prospective client what do you want them to do next)
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3. [If your offer where your ideal client landed was well put together] Your ideal client takes action and signs up for a Complimentary Session; signs up for a Free eCourse; Free Video Course, etc.
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4. As they consume whatever they got in Step 3, above, this is the place where the Sale happens: Your complimentary session, eCourse, Video Course, etc. will either result in a sale or not.If your Complimentary Session is set up right, you might not have to Sell in the traditional sense of the word. In my case, about 8 times out of 10, the prospective client would ask the question half way in the session, "How much would it cost me if I hired you?" Or something similar - and after I told them, they'd decide if they wanted to hire me or not...  Though, it's best NOT to tell your fee in the middle of the session, as much as possible; depends, though, why they are asking. Are they ready and excited to get started, or they realized that this is not for them and want to get it over with (or some other reason)...Ok, yes, during the first years of my coaching, when I told the prospective client my fee, that still felt like selling, but tried to say my fee with as much confidence and calm as I could muster. Many newer coaches tend to mess up their "sales conversation" - or complimentary session - at this point in the session: either never mentioning that they want to get hired, or if the topic of "how much would this cost comes up," the coach will start mumbling and/or drop their energy level and their discomfort is often clearly felt by the client.The more you'll practice saying your fee, the easier it'll become. The key is to practice saying your fee as many times every month as possible.

CONVERSION -  The Magic Component

We talked about the difference between Marketing, Sales, And Clients-Enrollment, and as you can see, they are all inter-related.

Most of us, though, don’t give a hoot about the WHAT – what all these terms mean – right? We just want to know how do we get paying life coaching clients. Period.

And this is where this magical term comes into play: CONVERSION

Whatever marketing activities you do – or, in even simpler terms, Whatever you do online - will either generate a response from your Ideal Clients or not. Conversion is the "glue" that connects your online content to eliciting action from those who see your content.

And that is the simple definition of "conversion":  how many people who see your stuff (blog, video, articles, etc.). take action after they read or watch your content.

Our goal is to be seen by as many people online as possible and convert as many of them as possible into coaching clients.

Conversion, though, does not always relate to getting hired as a coach, yet they are equally important conversion puzzle pieces.

When someone visits your website, how many of them will convert into leads/potential future clients? How many will sign up for your freebie (BTW, these two questions are ONE – you convert website visitors into potential clients with your freebie)

When someone watches your YouTube videos, how many will convert into xyz (whatever the call to action was – invited them to sign up for your freebie; join your FB or LI group; etc.)

Out of 100 people who go through your eCourse, how many convert into complimentary sessions; and out of each 10 comp sessions, how many convert into paying clients.

Going forward, I challenge you to focus to increase your conversion rates in every area of your online presence.  If you need help with this, Send me a Message; though, it’s best if you go over some of the tutorials in the members’ area, and implement the lessons that are most relevant to help you with this.

Here are a few examples:

→ How to Build Your List of Your First 1000 Subscribers… for FREE

→  How to Get 3 Life Coaching Clients in the Next 30 Days

→  How to Get Life Coaching Clients with Short eCourses (*** This one is on a fancy Online Coaching Platform - $299.00 VALUE; but it's free for a limited time -  sign up with your eMail or FaceBook - go through it now, while it's still free! ***)

→  YouTube Marketing 2.0

Let me know if there specific areas where you’d love to increase your conversion rates; or if you are looking for training to help you implement a specific marketing activity. I’ll be glad to point you in the right direction (or create the course in the future, if we don’t have it yet).