How to Attract and Sign High Ticket Coaching Clients

Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith explain how to attract and sign high-ticket coaching clients. They review the reality of what it takes to find, market, and sell high-ticket offers and provide actionable advice on how you can work towards building a roster of high-paying coaching clients. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• What first to look at when evaluating how to attract high-ticket coaching clients
• How it’s important to audit the “rooms that you’re in”
• What commonalities most high-ticket clients have
• What is involved in actually signing high-ticket coaching clients
• How confidence and energy come into play - and how to go about building such
• Mindset reframes you can adapt to rock high-ticket sales calls
• Homework on identifying prequalifers to ask on your next high ticket sales call 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Snag 5 Numbers to Know to Launch a Coaching Business here.

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

How to Attract and Sign High Ticket Coaching Clients - Podcast Transcript

SPEAKERS

Lexie Smith, Emily Merrell

Lexie Smith  

Hey, Miss Lex. It's good to see you. Good to see you miss world traveler. How are you jet lagged?

Emily Merrell  

Kind of actually. Yes. Very gently. No, no, I'm not jet lagged. I'm not jet lagged at all.

Lexie Smith  

You are okay. Well, you need to share with everyone. I think you're probably the have the worst luck in the world this summer when it comes to traveling. Guys, check out what Emily just went through.

Emily Merrell  

Is that locker? Is it experience an adventure?

Lexie Smith  

I love the reframe.

Emily Merrell  

But yeah, Air Canada can suck it. They were so so so terrible. They, oh my gosh, they couldn't issue a ticket for our son. And then they removed we missed two flights. Because of that. We had to fly out the next day. And then the next flight that we were on, we missed a connection. And they had rebooked us to an earlier flight. And the flight that we had originally paid for was sold out. So we had to spend the night in Toronto. So it was just like flight. Fun stuff. Luckily, we're alive. We got there safe and sound. We just ended up missing. Actually, you know what it was the exact time of the I think we were supposed to have 11 days in Canada. And because we missed a day, it was shortened and then we stayed an extra night it was exactly what it was meant to be.

Lexie Smith  

What it was meant to be. I do believe in the very Quiett, queasy cliche quote, to some degree of everything happens for a reason. Now, I cannot explain horrible life events. It's not what I mean. But I mean, in our day to day life. I do think things happen for a reason. Like maybe there was a reason you missed out those flights, right? I don't know.

Emily Merrell  

I think there's a lot of teachable moments and all of them, I think in terms of like preparedness and double checking, which I never done before our kit has gone on so many flights. And we've never had to like pre call the airlines but especially when you fly of an airline that has a relationship with like an alliance. So we booked through United, we're flying or Canada. I think like that was a good lesson. And then the other lesson and this was probably the number one lesson I learned. Pack a pair of contacts and glasses on your carry on because we weren't we didn't have our luggage for the night. We spent the night in Toronto, and I was like super prepared and had that bag packed on the way they're expecting us to lose stuff. But on the way back, I was so so in the homestretch like we're going home, I'm not thinking about any mishaps. So my contacts were like pretty much cemented to my eyes when I took them out 48 hours

Lexie Smith  

later, which I didn't even know this about Emily until I stayed with her in Denver, but she wears thick. Losses actually look fabulous in them. I don't know why, the more but

Emily Merrell  

they're so thick. They make me wildly dizzy.

Lexie Smith  

So fair enough, you know, a shared client of ours, Tiffany, I was just chatting with her yesterday and in between her international flight, they completely lost her baggage. And I guess insurance she can't even I'm butchering this properly, but she can't even submit anything to insurance for 21 days and basically her life was in that suitcase. So she's just out of luck like all her makeup, all her things. So it traveling actually I'm going to give one more shout out peer of our client of mine up away app guys check it out. Check out the other way app, they are solving all these all these problems are basically offering real time human trip concierge support at a really accessible

Emily Merrell  

price point. Oh, that's amazing. Well, I have to tell you one quick story my the mom and the nanny share were in she came over before a trip like maybe four weeks ago and she's like I need a dress and need some dresses to borrow so I just emptied my closet half of the stuff was also my sister's sorry Ali and gave her a bunch of clothes to wear and they lost her suitcase and it has still been lost and they are now traveling starting tomorrow for like a month so I'm probably not going to see my favorite pair of shoes that I also enter in dresses for a very long time.

Lexie Smith  

No okay so the takeaway of this beginning chit chat is to have a carry on with your most important things

Emily Merrell  

carry on Yeah, exactly. Carry on. Keep calling carry. Oh, I like it. That's Oh this but the episode can be called

Lexie Smith  

and carry on. Amazing. So let's see here. Speaking of airplanes, you need a ticket to go on an airplane you also fly high and an airplane combine those words and you have high ticket today we're going to talk about how to attract and sign high ticket clients.

Emily Merrell  

You can't see my face over here but I'm grimacing that was that was a rough one. That was a rough landing.

Lexie Smith  

Hey, in a rough landing senior this is working. Oh my goodness, seriousness guys. Okay, we are going to talk about how to attract and sign high ticket clients. We're looking back through our episode library on Buzzsprout. To see what what are the episodes you guys have been liking the best and our most listened to episode was how to land your first coaching client. So we thought we would then talk about after you land your first coaching client, how do you go about landing those coveted high ticket clients? So we're going to give you a hodgepodge of advice here because guess what, there isn't one answer to this question. So I'm, I'm gonna kick it to you to start off what are some insights you have about the high ticket space?

Emily Merrell  

Oh my god. First off, I feel like I'm thinking about buying like a Kate Spade purse in Chinatown versus like a painful price for it at a store like this is the visual for whatever reason that's coming into my brain. And I don't want to say that about clients. I'm not saying that like one is cheaper than the other. But I think there is a client that can be more long term and more long lasting. They're the clients that are more prepared to be clients and really, really have done a lot of the work prior to working with you. Maybe they have been in their business for a year or two years or have hired a coach previously, and are really coachable and are eager to continue growing and expanding themselves personally or their business depending on what type of coach you are. So I think the first thing to note is that a high ticket client is a client that doesn't blink when they see the price tag that you present at them. But it's also a client that helps you shine. Like the more that they do the work, the more they're seeing the results and the return on an investment in working with you. But from this client, you also will be able to uplevel

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I think what Emily's doing a great job of pointing out are some demographics and some psychographics. Right, the high ticket clients are specific type of people. So I think our first first thing here, how do you attract and sign high ticket clients, you have to get really clear, be intentional on who you're targeting, you need to understand that not everybody is at a stage where they're they are ready to be a high ticket client, if you're trying to sell, you know, a $5,000 purse to people who are only shopping at Old Navy, like you're not, they're never gonna buy the $5,000 purchase, you're targeting the wrong group. So one right is to really look at who you're going after.

Emily Merrell  

And so for I'm going to use the example of business coaching because I think this is a relevant one. If this person just quit their corporate job and have not a single client to their name, they might be holding their, their purse string a little tighter, they they really want to learn and they want to grow, but they're not really confident in who they are to invest a large chunk of money unless they can like be guaranteed a large return. And I think this is just like Lesson number one for all business and life coaches and dating coaches out there. Creating the guarantee is really risky. Creating a guarantee can lead to a lot of upset if for whatever reason that that person doesn't make that guarantee that you wanted to deliver to them. So be cognizant of that when when recording clients are looking for the high ticket clients. Rather, if you are a business coach, you'd want to find the client that is already raking in the five to 10k months and feeling really good about themselves but wanting to uplevel and by up level that means they want to refine their pricing. They want to maybe switch from one on one coaching to a group coaching model and they need the guidance and they need your skill set to help them get there.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, and I actually think it's unethical in the coaching space to ever offer a guarantee. It's a line I use actually when when selling clients high ticket clients myself it said you know it'd be unethical for me to in a coaching position ever promise you anything I'm not on, excuse me never promise you anything in terms of guaranteed results. Because I'm not the one at the end of the day executing, executing I'm giving you tools and resources and I'm gonna hold space and give you an environment to thrive. But you you client you you're the one at the end of the day who then has to do the damn thing. Right? So being really intentional with who you're targeting is one of the very first steps so get really, really clear on what stage of business are they at What is the mindset current mindset of this client? Right? Or are they someone who's really grappling with money mindset issues? Well, if that's the case, then they probably aren't going to be the easiest person to sell a 10k package to. So start going deeper than just, you know, the demographics of gender, and income and where they live, start looking at things like mindset stage of business, what are some other ones?

Emily Merrell  

I think, what rooms are they in? Like, where are they hanging out. So I also like to think about, even myself as like, if I was to be on the reverse of it, if I was the client, when I started my business, I joined like the cheapest co working space. And then when I got more confident, and I got more clients, and I made more money, I up leveled my, my co working space, like I showed up at a truly the first one I was at looked like a fraternity house had thrown a party there the night before, it was very Friday. And then the second one was like very expensive and very female focused and very, I was inspired and surrounding myself with these like minded driven entrepreneurial women. So kind of look at the spaces that they're in. Where are they? Are they investing in themselves in that way? Are they buying spaces for themselves to work at? Are they joining memberships? Are they part of six degrees of a part of dreamers and doers? Are they part of a mama? Like, what is the ecosystem that they're sitting in?

Lexie Smith  

literally taking the words out of my mouth, I think it is such a good room to be in if someone is paying to be in that room, in the sense of potential high ticket clients, this is someone who's already investing in something right? You know, there's some sort of value they're putting on growth in insert category. So if you keep on getting, you know, on calls with people from free Facebook groups, and you're trying to sell them a $5,000 package, and they're like, gawking at 50 What, you know, maybe it's because you're in that free Facebook group, like reevaluate where you're putting your energy to make sure. It's the caliber, and I don't say caliber, and a sense of like, they're better than anyone. That's not what I mean. But the caliber or the how qualified, maybe it's a better word, a given given person is. Yeah, and I think

Emily Merrell  

also from that, seeing if there's any social cues, basically, that yeah, social cues in which they've, on their Instagram, or in conversations with them, you've seen them mentioned coaching in the past, like I love, I think those are the best clients, when they're like, Oh, my life coach told me to write a dream list. And now I'm married to my dream man, or whatever it may be. And like, these are people that really believe in the results of coaching. And they also believe and they, they've lived the transformation in some capacity, so they're more likely to then invest in another coach. I mean, Lex and I combined typical fired tons of coaches over our journey. It's not like you hire one coach, and then you're done. Yeah, but you're not. You want to keep growing, you're addicted to learning and up leveling.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. So those are some initial indicators on just to audit yourself are some things to think about. If you're just getting started? Who are you going after? And what rooms are you in? I think the next thing to discuss is if you're going to put a high ticket price tag on your package, you need to unequivocally No, and be able to articulate the ROI of your transformation, whether that be financial, whether that be emotional, whether that be physical, you need to know the transformation, and have some sort of proof or social proof that it works. I want to point to my back, rewind time back into the PR bar days, my prices were not always what they were at. I initially my same no signature offer, which is priced around 8k, didn't start at 8k. Because to be frank, even though I'm the same person, I didn't have the social proof, nor the confidence which we'll get into to stand at a higher price point. So I had to start lower and start building up social proof and demand until I could then raise that price price of that same package, same package, right, same value there. But you need to be a hold on I feel like I just got off of the main topic. I was talking about confidence or am I tired? What is the ROI of your transformation? Kaylee delete the whole PR bar example. Here, I'm gonna try that again. So you need to be really, really clear about the ROI of your transformation whether be physical or emotional or financial, you have to be able to articulate that, and have some sort of social proof to prove that it works. Here's where I was going with that. Ended up that last part. Sorry, Kaylee. So when I first started with the PR bar, I priced my st package that I have now lower because I needed people in the door, I needed to get them in the door, and I needed to develop demand. And I needed to develop that social proof that supported me raising the price. How about you? Um, what do you think? Oh, 100%?

Emily Merrell  

I agree with that. I think it's definitely, I think the client, the high ticket client has also grown and developed as I grown and developed. So me creating that social proof, more confidence I get, I'm able to clear, be clear on how I vet clients, because you also have the clients that you realize, like, oh, no, I shouldn't have accepted that client, or, Oh, this is my ideal client, and you'll, you'll be able to make a more distinct selection of who you want to work with. And then, yeah, I think the what you nailed it by saying, like, being able to articulate the return on investment of your transformation, and use the proof in the pudding, so to speak, and be able to speak to your past clients transformations, to then sell and demonstrate what the future could look like for these potential clients. Yeah. So

Lexie Smith  

if you're sitting there going, we don't have past clients, here's a great opportunity to tap back and listen to our episode on beta clients, for example, what can you do to build up that repertoire, it might be your high ticket offer, starting a little lower ticket, and simply from a strategy standpoint, to not saying you're not worth it, but to build a pool of testimonials that you can stand on, because typically, the high ticket buyers, also a more informed buyer, they're going to want to see those if they're investing that much money in you. They want to feel good about it. Right? They want to feel confident that other people have spent this amount of money and seeing the transformation.

Emily Merrell  

Yes, I think that's a great way of articulating that. Um, something else that I think we should talk about is, what level of business are they?

Lexie Smith  

Hmm, yeah, that's a big one. So let's talk about Ready Set coach, okay, ready set coach looks at or we're going after more young businesses, you know, they haven't launched yet, or they're newly launched, and they just haven't quite figured it out. That means they haven't necessarily had tremendous financial success yet. So it would be really, really hard for us to try to sell them on a 20k program, right? Like, it would be a very rare find, to find someone who hasn't been in business yet, who would feel safe and investing in that. So pay attention to and this this is transferable to other categories, like let's let's talk about fitness, you wouldn't sell a marathon training package to someone who hasn't even ran a mile in 10 years, right?

Emily Merrell  

What kind of think about Equinox to him, like, if you haven't worked out in five years, you would probably be more comfortable walking into like a 24 hour fitness, or like a Planet Fitness than, say, an equinox, where you want to be around people who are similar to you. So similarly, with your example of ReadySet coach like we are attracting people that are in a similar boat. And they're in a similar situation in a similar state of business. That being said other our other offerings at our own individual businesses are going after more of a high ticket customer who is ready to make have a very, none of very large investments, but a more like targeted investment.

Lexie Smith  

Yep. And one sir, I like to share which is kind of shows you the mindset of money mindset. Progression of a client is me as a client. So the first coach I ever hired, the first I bought into a 3k group program. And that was such a hard investment for me to make I was new with this. However, if you looked at my background, I'd been in business for a while. So there, there was enough indicators that you know, I was the right buyer for that price point. Now, fast forward to my next hire. And I know associated a certain level of coaching with that 3k As more entry level and I wouldn't even look at a coach under five to 8k, I ended up settling on a 10k one because I equated the value of that I felt ready. I felt like I wanted a more advanced coach and anyone who wasn't charging at least you know, eight to 10k in my mind was a coach that were just ready for more beginner level people. So like Whoa, talk about being your own example here of the power of perception and level of business someone is at.

Emily Merrell  

I think that also is a great example of thinking of like, who's in the room with you, you know, if you were at a certain stage of business, you don't want to be around people that are brand new in business, you want to be around people who are crossing the seven figure mark, or the high six figure, Mark? And do you want to, I think this is a, I forget who said this quote, but like, you want to be the dumbest person in the room basically, like, will you want to surround yourself with people that are smarter or further along with you, so you can up level just by being in their sphere. And I think that's a lot of the value of group programs, at any stage that you're in is just to be able to pull that knowledge and that growth from people who have have been doing it.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. And a lot of things were, what I want to talk about is energy a little bit because confidence, energy, all these things keeps coming up. And a lot of these examples that we're talking about, and I think this is a big key to high ticket clients is an energy exchange. At some point in business. As a coach, when you're selling, you reach a point where you do feel confident in your offerings, and you don't feel desperate anymore. When you can start to embody that energy. It is magic, what happens to your business that comes across in a sales call, you no longer seem desperate, right? You seem like hey, I'd love to work with you if you're fit, but it's not like I'm going to be okay, too. And there's something to be said that energy tends to attract a high ticket buyer.

Emily Merrell  

Can we say that coaching or selling is kind of like dating, like when the guy is a little bit stiff, or person that you're pursuing is a little standoffish, or like I want them that much more. So I don't know about you, someone was blowing up my DMs some coach recently. And it was a low ticket offer. And she followed up like 17 times and I swear, I almost blocked this person. I think I just started ghosting. But it felt so desperate. And it felt so like they needed my $95 it was a very small investment for whatever that thing. I wasn't even clear what she was selling. But it felt icky to me. Well, I've appreciated the cool, calm collected people who I get off the phone with that I'm like, chomping at the bit to continue talking or working or seeing that person again.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. And if you're thinking like how do I get that? How do I get that energy again, pointing back to you have to start small. If you haven't had clients start with beta. If you are currently priced at five cane, it's not selling considered dropping it you need to get something going in your life that allows you to build the confidence. Once you have that confidence that energy's going to follow. 100% agree with that. One other thing I want to talk about is if you want to put a high price tag on your services, the reality is you visually need to look legit. So again, would you buy a $5,000? No name brand purse off of a blurry picture you see on the internet? Probably not right now. However, if it's a highly styled like, visually appealing picture on a beautifully done website, like perception of that is drastically different and aids itself to that higher price point. So if you want to go after high ticket, look at your branding, look at your website, are you coming across in a legit manner? If not, you might want to consider investing in some of those items.

Emily Merrell  

And it's so funny you say that because lakhs when I first started, I felt so anxious with the idea of like a big picture of my face on a website. I think like the websites, mind you, this is like end of 2015, early 2016. And it's like a banner picture of you. And that was so overwhelming. And the only pictures I had for iPhone pictures or pictures that were haphazardly like cropped from a wedding I was in some you know something so pieced together. But truly investing in branding photos was one of the most up leveling feelings because I felt legit. And I felt like I was very intentional about the placement of these pictures and the styling of these pictures. But in the same time, I do want to caveat this before you go build a website before you go and invest like 1000s of dollars into things. This is a reminder for someone just starting their business, test out your product, test out your offering. And I love the expression you know like if they build it, they will come and I want to believe in that expression. But it also you need to figure out if people want what you're offering. Yeah, just because you're putting it out there doesn't mean they exist. So just,

Lexie Smith  

ya know, it can be a band aid because again, if you spend all this money and you get brand photos and a fancy website yet you haven't done the confidence work either. It's not going to work. So it's gradual. You need to take baby steps, start with your, your energetic start with proof of concept, proof of concept, then work on your confidence, you need to do a lot of self work. And then as you start to notice, like, Okay, this is starting to get into the swing of things, and you start looking at that price raise now is a time where you can evaluate and make some of these investments. Because eventually if you do want to become a reoccurring more high ticket offering, just you're going to need to come across in such a way that doesn't mean you need to look, let's talk about this actually, Emily, because you and I have what we strive for, as an approachable, more accessible brand. We don't come across visually as like the incriminating. Yeah, intimidating. That doesn't mean like, high price tag doesn't only mean luxury branding at all, it just means cohesive, well done, like consistent branding. Right, exactly.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's something that is also important to think about, I was just thinking about, like, How did my high ticket I was a high ticket client, you've been a high ticket client to like, what were the reasons we said yes to these individuals. And it wasn't because their website was perfect. My business coach that I hired, like, barely even had a website, it was the confidence in what they were delivering and what they were selling. And, like them seen, and me feeling really seen. And I think that was like, the main thing, and, and also seeming really generous, like seeming really generous in their ideas for my business. So let's talk about, like strategies on how we can actually attract and sign these ticket. High Ticket clients.

Lexie Smith  

Like we did talk about.

Emily Merrell  

No, I think we can talk a little bit more about like, outreach on Instagram, is it having an event?

Lexie Smith  

Club? How about like, maybe even realising you were just on a really good point about the actual conversation? So I feel like we talked about Kaylee, this is not for the episode, I feel like we talked about attracting a little bit being in the right rooms, some of the marketing materials, I think you were just on a really good point of the actual exchange happening.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. Okay, so let's, I think one of the things that we need to talk about more is like, Okay, we talked about, you know, what rooms, people are in the visual, looking visually legit. But what about the actual conversation? Like, how do we actually book these ticket high ticket clients?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I think there's two things you said that are helpful here already. And then I'll add something to it. First, what you were just saying that,

Emily Merrell  

what were you what were the words? I was saying about? Like, how she was generous, how she made me feel seen.

Lexie Smith  

Thank you. Yes. Okay. One thing you pointed out, that was huge. In my decision, when I became a high ticket buyer was the it didn't feel transactional on the sales call. She spent time with me, she heard me she listened, she made me feel special. Now, there are going to be high ticket coaches that don't do that. Emily and I are just speaking to our experience, how we've been buyers and how we've had people buy from us. And that's taking the time to really, really listen, learn and lean lean into whom you're talking about give legit value. Don't be so transactional here, what they're actually saying here, what their real problems are, speak to their problems, specifically, give value, I think, confidence energy giving value and not training it. So transactionally, you're going to all of a sudden realize you're having a very honest and open conversation that will land in a yes.

Emily Merrell  

It's interesting you say that, because I think there's this aspect of selling, where people are like, Oh, you're a coach, you're sleazy, or there's a lot of words that can be thrown around in this industry. Some are true. But I think going back to your purpose and selling with your purpose, rather than selling as a way to $1 sign so rather than seeing a client as a potential client as a potential dollar sign, like think of them as really channeling your why and why you are getting out of bed every day to do this work. Are you doing this work? Because it's just a means to an end. Are you doing this work because you are so effing it started to spread the gospel about eating with your gut health in mind, like, go back to that. And then your when you sell back to what you were saying lacks about energetics, then you're, you're selling from a very I hate using these words but like authentic version of yourself, you're not selling to make us you're not selling to just make a sale you're selling to make a difference.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I'm gonna pull a couple, I'm gonna like try to loop this all together, guys. So you ready you hanging hanging in, it's gonna come come round to your homework, are you going to land it? I'm going to attempt to land that high ticket plane we've been talking about. So we've talked about demographics, we've been talking about energy, we've been talking about purpose, we've been talking about being in the right rooms. What we want you to understand is that when you are on a sales call, it is equally you vetting them, as they are vetting you, I want you to adapt that mindset. Not everyone who gets on your sales calendar should be someone you want to work with. If you start going into a call, kinda like speed dating, like I'm getting to know them just as much as they're getting to know me, your world will change, it really will, the conversation will be different your energy will pivot. So your homework is I want you to write down who is actually a good fit. You know, for PR, this is an easy example for me. I like to say play match matchmaking. So if you come to me for PR, I really get I asked questions that helped me decide if I think you'd really do well, in my program, because there's a lot of people who wouldn't, and I go as far as referring people to other people if they're not a fit, right? That energy exchange is not only genuine, it helps my confidence. It feels good. It makes everyone feel good, right? Yeah. And more often than not, it does lend me those high ticket clients.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's such a great way of describing it. And I liked the matchmaking part and and you want to feel like this is a hell yes for you. And that's the last thing I think I want to the last like soapbox I want to get on is finding your high ticket client is like finding your soulmate, like your business soulmate, it might be a temporary business soulmate, that you want to be frickin excited about this person being really, really, really excited to help them make some sort of change or growth in their life or business or whatever the subject matter is. But I want you to be excited about them. And when you are going to approach your next client, and hopefully it's a high ticket client, think like, how are you? How are you going to make a difference in this person's life? And again, I'm repeating what I said earlier, but like, how can you sell from your purpose? And remember that like, you are just as involved in this choice as they are in the choice of picking you.

Lexie Smith  

So here's an actionable thing for you to sit down with pen and paper to do. We want you to write down what questions you need to ask to a find out if they're fit for your transformation. Like will they genuinely have a transformation? Okay, so what's their challenge? Is your solution, something that will solve that part too? What else? Do they need to have to be a hell yes for you? Okay, I'm going to repeat that again. What qualities does this person needs to have Divya help? Yes, for

Emily Merrell  

you? And Lex, I think it'd be helpful if we share some prevenient examples, like, what are some ways in which you could prevent a high ticket? Client?

Lexie Smith  

Great. Okay, I'll just ask them. I'll give you an example of some of the questions I literally asked on the phone. I will straight up say, do you have two hours a week to dedicate this is for PR, a PR example, to outreach for the media? And is that something you want to do? That is a question I straight up ask. And if they say, Oh, I could carve out two hours, and I don't really want to bear, you just saved me a headache of a client and I will send you you know, here's a referral for a firm. So that's one example. What about you?

Emily Merrell  

I think asking them how much money they're making each month. Like if they're making are you making less than 5000? Are you making five to 10? Are you making 10 plus k 10k. Plus, then you're able to kind of know like where they are in terms of their business success, and having like a pre call for him. I think the other thing too, that I like to ask is have you ever worked with a coach before? If so, in what capacity? Yep. And

Lexie Smith  

what was your experience? I think to on that how much they're making. Now this is it's business related and how much they want to be making is a big indicator of how much growth They're looking to achieve someone saying they're making $3,000 Right now, and they want to make 100,000 Over the next four months. It also tells you a lot about like, their mindset. Like, you know, that's some people do that. But that's like, Okay, you want to grow that much. And there's some things like, the reality is we might need to carve out some ad spend for that, then you can ask, Do you have a budget for ad spend? If they don't? All right now we're starting to see some some issues that will probably arise No, in this business coaching example.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a great one. And then again, the question about have you been coached before is great in that it lets you know, if they are coachable, they're like, Oh, my God, I worked with a fill in the blank coach, and it was transformative, or it inspired me or whatever it ended up doing, it means that they, they are definitely someone who is open to coaching and will most likely do the homeworks or the tasks that you assign them to do.

Lexie Smith  

And some non business examples. Let's say you are a health coach, and the the transformation you're delivering is getting them to have good gut health. Maybe a question you ask is, are you willing to dedicate a budget to you know, buying a set of organic food? Or are you open to shopping in different places? Like, do you, you know, have an hour a week to dedicate to this work? There are questions like specifically to your craft just wanted to give an example that wasn't business that can help you very clearly understand. It's also going to demonstrate your knowledge, it's going to make you come across authentic, and it'll help you understand if they're a hell yes.

Emily Merrell  

And I also think there's ways to word opt ins into into your language. So for example, you could say like, If accepted, moving forward, are you ready to commit and starting in the next two weeks, if, if fill in the blank, trying to think of some better ones?

Lexie Smith  

I usually ask when they're looking to start and when they want to see the transformation by AI, one of the starter questions that I have is, what are your goals for the next six months? Yeah, that's

Emily Merrell  

a good one.

Lexie Smith  

Here. If their goals for the next six months, actually, I'll speak to this person without saying the name Emily and I have a shared client through Ready Set coach who, when this question was asked a year ago, her her goals were a year out. They were short term, like she's like, well, over the next year, maybe like the last half of the year, I want to be able to to do X, Y and Z. Okay, that was an indicator for us. She wasn't ready right now to invest. We earmark that we came back to her well, we stayed in good contact. Regardless, we continued to deliver value. We had another conversation. Okay, now what what are your goals in the next six months now her goals were really short and ready, and she became a client.

Emily Merrell  

I think that's a really good example. So being intentional about asking questions to prevent your clients. So guys, gals, we have a lot of homework for you, humans.

Lexie Smith  

Just to Yeah, reiterate the homework. So step one, are just really getting your qualifying questions to paper. What do you need to ask to know if they're coachable to know if they can see a transformation and what questions do you want to ask to note with their help? Yes for you.

Emily Merrell  

Sounds great. Well, great job and landing that lax. Thank you. Thank you all so much for stimulants turbulence along the way, but we had no masks put on during the flight. So thanks for tuning in and listening to our banter back and forth for this episode of Ready Set coach, and we put the podcast and we will see you next time.

Lexie Smith  

Bye bye