Common Places Coaches Drop the Ball (And How to Avoid Doing So Yourself)

This week, Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith discuss the most common places they see coaches drop the ball when it comes to launching and growing a successful coaching business. They reframe ‘dropping the ball’ as opportunities for growth and improvement. Tune in to hear what common mistakes you can avoid when starting and running a coaching business. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• The most common mistakes Em & Lex see coaches making in the sales process
• The importance (and opportunity) of follow ups
• Why it’s critical to never assume anything, and ways to reframe an assumption to your and your client’s benefit
• The marketing mistakes they see coaches routinely making - and how to avoid doing such yourself
• How to improve your sales close rate
• Other common places coaches drop the ball and homework on how to turn them into opportunities for your own coaching practice 
• And More! 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

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

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

 Common Places Coaches Drop the Ball (And How to Avoid Doing So Yourself) - Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith  

Hi, Emily.

Emily Merrell  

Jinx. You owe me a soda.

Lexie Smith  

Guys. Before this episode, Emily said she knows how to turn someone into a morning person. And I am an anti morning person. So I'm like, You know what? Don't tell me no, save it for the pod. Here you go am How can you turn someone into a morning person?

Emily Merrell  

Oh, man, okay, this is a lot of pressure right now just to teach at all. First and foremost, it's a gradual. It's a gradual thing. It's not something that's going to happen tomorrow and you're going to be a morning person. It requires a little small adjusting on your end. So first and foremost, checking the time that you go to bed at night. A lot of times when I talk to people, they're like, Yeah, I love working till two in the morning at 8am. And I am 9pm. Yeah, okay. Well, so we don't have checking that system there. There's no adjustments. I would say maybe go to bed later. Like, just getting

Lexie Smith  

a baby. Maybe Maybe. Okay, pinning that. Yeah, not me.

Emily Merrell  

Second, I do believe that there's something about too much sleep. And again, I'm not an expert here. So sleep experts chime in. But I have felt like when I go to bed, and I have like 13 hours of sleep. Sometimes I'm more exhausted than when I have like nine hours of sleep or eight hours of sleep. So what time do you get to get up currently lacks?

Lexie Smith  

I mean, it's hard, free child. I didn't sleep well. I still don't sleep well. I don't sleep through the night. So it's hard to put an average number but right now Ashley lately she's been waking up at like five. So anywhere between five and six. So then person? No I'm not. I'm miserable, exhausted, and I hate every second of it.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, if you like first and foremost, this isn't gonna work for Lexi. So this is for the person out there. That is not Lexie Smith. But this is for the person that wants to be a morning person. And they're currently waking up at like eight or they're waking up at 730. And they're like, oh shit, I want to maximize my day a little bit more. So one thing to consider is again, the time that you're going to bed. Second thing to consider is you waking yourself up. And I think right now to the the reason why you're upset lax is like Ashlyn is waking you up, versus you're choosing to wake up and like this is an exciting thing for you. So what I like to say to people is to, to adjust by 15 minutes, the time that you wake up. So if you're currently waking up at 730, can it be 715 for a week, then is it seven for a week, and then gradually getting to the number that you want to be waking up. The other thing too, is to not rush to something so and this was a learning that I had to figure out where I like got really excited about my mornings, rather than like hopping out of bed, getting in the car, or running to a workout class, giving yourself like this sacred space in the morning. And so what I really love about my mornings, I love it, it starts I get in the guestroom bed, I put a heated blanket on, I have like warm water next to me, and I journal and like I dump out my brain in that point. And I look forward to that conversation with myself. So it's become a ritual where I'm like, Emily, let's talk let's hang out. And so initially, when I started with that practice, I would set a timer for myself to challenge myself to write 10 minutes, I then got into the place where sometimes I'd rate less than 10 minutes, sometimes more, but like the 10 minute timer really helped. Then the second thing that I did is I get a book and like this is usually my time either to read for fun, or I usually alternate between business and fun, but I look forward to it because I give myself like about 20 minutes just to read uninterrupted with no one up and then I move into like workout and movement and it really helps me with my endorphins and my energy. And then at that time I'm ready to be like an acceptable

Lexie Smith  

human being. Okay, so here's what I'm hearing. This is great for those listening who keyword want to be a morning person and that keyword want I think is really tied into mindset. My sacred time is in the evening. means. So I have no desire to be a morning person, thus I will not be. So the pitfall of why I am not going to be a morning person is my mindset. And I'm saying all this because today, we're talking about, here's the transition guys. Places that coaches dropped the ball or the pitfalls, the moments, the things they do that aren't working in their advantage mindset, of course, but we're gonna go into specifics today.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and I think that was a pretty decent transition. Lex, I liked it. I liked the Brady minus, no, it was great. But I do think back to the mindset of morning, yes, I think for anything, be it being a morning person being it, you want to lose weight, you want to be a coach, you have to make a choice. And that choice ultimately is up to you. Because as it's a technical, you're a morning person, you're up at the crack of dawn, but it is not your choice.

Lexie Smith  

I think also, that's interesting, because we all have different definitions of what a morning person means. To me a morning person is someone who enjoys the morning. My dad is a morning person, my sister is a morning person, you're a morning person, I am up because life, right. But I don't enjoy it. It's never been a time of day where I feel connected to I prefer that in the evenings, which is totally fine and space. And I didn't tell you this last squirrel, and then we're going to rein ourselves in. I haven't read really since my daughter was born, I used to be a reader every night. That was part of my ritual. And the past week, I have reworked it back into my ritual, but at night, and I'm the Tweak I had to do was I now because I can't beat my daughter still in our room for some health reasons. But so I can't read in bed. I'm not reading on the couch at night. So I'm trying to formulate that new habit. But back to our topic at hand, commonplaces coaches drop the ball. So we were inspired to talk about this for a variety of reasons. But in our grad program, this past week, we kind of went over this topic, and you can frame it in a way such a way of dropping the ball or you can turn it into a positive and see these dropping the balls as opportunities. And so that's what we're going to do today we're going to point these out because they're opportunities, places for you to improve. The first one we want to talk about is follow ups. Emily, take it away.

Emily Merrell  

Got it. You're always following up with me. It's crazy. Yeah, I think follow ups. It's, it's fascinating because again, like what Lex chambers reiterate what Lex just said, this was a conversation that we had in this was inspired by real life things where, and this happens to all of us. And so this is a friendly reminder, if this is happening to you, while we're talking be like, Oh, shit, this is me. But thinking, when you talk to someone, you're like, Hey, I'm a coach. And yeah, I offer this 90 minute Deep Dive. And this is what this is how, what happens in it. And that person says to you, oh, my God, I need that. And then nothing happens. From there. They're like, yeah, cool, like, reach out to me when you're ready. No one is ever going to be ready, or necessarily prioritize this in the moment thought, because they've got 1000 Other things to do. Sure, there are people who, you know, they go to Google, and they search out what they're looking for, and they find the solution to it. But when you're in that moment, we're letting this money kind of slip through your fingers. Or instead of saying, Great, I want to get home, I'm gonna send you an email so we can get a time on the calendar right then and there. So I think following up is such an important thing. And we with friendships or with casual conversations like that, we let them slide by when in reality, there's such an opportunity to close the deal in a 24 hour span. So Lex, do you have any other things to add to that?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I would say eight out of 10 Don't quote me on that. But a high percentage of our clients were closed in the follow up series. I totally Yeah. I also want to share that for my PR agency. 100% 100% of our pitches in the last three months have been landed after a follow up then theme you Yeah, and if we hadn't followed up, we wouldn't have landed. So guys, like follow up. We are busy human beings. If you think you're busy, guess what the person at the other end of that inbox or that DM or that phone call. Also really busy. They may or may not intentionally be not responding. So slide in to their inbox or Yeah, inbox or DMS, wherever you are.

Emily Merrell  

Wherever your sis is subscribing to all the things that you have. So lacs follow ups are, are probably number one area of opportunity where people can add more revenue or add more money and close that loop and create a system that they can implement to not drop the ball. We're gonna keep going back to sporting things Y'all not drop the ball and, and fill that void of like hoping that that that potential client reaches out to them. What are some other areas people drop balls?

Lexie Smith  

This is a big one. The word is assuming Ooh. Okay, assuming anything. Here's a bunch of examples, assuming someone can or can't afford your services, assuming that someone is or isn't happy with the services that you're delivering, assuming insert anything unless someone tells you or you have concrete data or evidence, stop assuming Stop it, stop it. PSAs stop it.

Emily Merrell  

But what do they say? When you assume you make an asset of you and me

Lexie Smith  

that I had a coach a while ago reframe it to me in this way. And I want to share this because I thought it was very powerful. She said, How would you feel if when this was a coach I hired a few years back if on our sales call Lexi. I had just came to you on the phone and said, you know, you probably can't afford this meaning I assumed and I said outright, that I probably couldn't afford it. How would you feel Lex? I answer I'd feel offended. How dare you assume that I'm someone who can't afford this. And that's essentially what you're doing. Whether you're saying it literally or not. Anytime you put an assumption on someone else, when they haven't given you anything concrete to assume off of

Emily Merrell  

Oh, amen to that one. And I have definitely made the mistake of having an assumption and that that's the person that played pays in full. That's the person that maybe came into had been saving up money for this particular moment, or to get a PPP loan or sold something to make it work. And I think one of my favorite books is you're a badass at making money. Do you ever read that book? Lex?

Lexie Smith  

I don't know. But I'm aware of gender work? Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

yeah. And she talks about a time when she was making like $28,000. And I think her first investment of a coach was, for whatever reason she was really gravitating to this like $35,000. Coach. And she figured out figured out a way I think it made it might have been a payment plan, it might have been asking it for a loan from her father, whatever it was, she figured it out, because she wanted it so badly that she made this investment work for her. So as a coach who was making an assumption, here's another reframe, or a way to fix that assumption is how can you? How can you make it work? So maybe they can't pay you in full? Is there a way for you to do a payment plan or installment payment? So it still works for them with the the freedoms that they have? Max, how can people find out how to work with us?

Lexie Smith  

Super simple, go to ReadySet, coach program.com Link in show notes. But first, stop assuming anything, that's obviously until you're at that point until it has been brought to the table. Don't assume on pricing. Don't assume someone isn't happy with your services. And I did this a lot too. I was a helicopter coach when I first started. And if I wasn't hearing from someone, I would assume they were unhappy when that just was not the case. So dropping a ball number two is assuming what's our third ball that this

Emily Merrell  

is one where people are trying to copy and paste someone else's approach. So guys, it is noisy out there we get it. It is hard for us to put blinders on, we can get caught up in it as well. But you see something working for someone and you're like, Whoa, they're getting more engagement or they're getting more clients or this is their reality, their perceived reality or a perceived reality of their life is sunshine and flowers. And so you can go into like a scarcity mode and just want to be like I'm just going to do exactly what they're doing because it's clearly working, when it doesn't feel right to you. And because it works for for person number A or person number b or letter B it doesn't mean that it is uniform for every single person. So lean into your own intuition and your authenticity and be who you are.

Lexie Smith  

Be who you are nobody Seriously. So here's a few concrete examples. If you've seen people who are doing paid advertising that leads to a webinar funnel to their coaching program and you think you need to do that, because that's what everyone else is doing, but it doesn't feel good to you, then it's probably not going to work. If you're seeing everyone dancing on reels pointing to things and you're like, oh, geez, I guess I need to dance on rails and point to things. But it doesn't feel good to you. But it's not going to work. For me. I don't feel comfortable sharing everything in the kitchen sink on social media and laying my heart on a platter. So if I did, it wouldn't work. Because that's not me. Be true to you. ashtag.

Emily Merrell  

Then another hashtag just for effect just to hashtag double hashtag. Yeah. All right. I think the other one too. I don't. I think there's like three years ago, everyone was on Kajabi. Like, oh, you're you're a coach. You're not in good job, or are you broken? Like what's wrong with you? You have to be on Kajabi or you have to be on ConvertKit? Or you have to be on fluid? eschar or you have to be on clubhouse? F word. clubhouse you remember club clubhouse?

Lexie Smith  

It was a blink? I do it was there.

Emily Merrell  

I think people still club in the house.

Lexie Smith  

But it's not hashtag trending?

Emily Merrell  

Fashion? Who knows?

Lexie Smith  

I don't think so. Will it like took the entrepreneurial space by storm. The point being? Sorry, it was your point continue. I wasn't making a point.

Emily Merrell  

You make your point about my point. The point being, though, is there's going to be a lot of trends, there's going to be a lot of, Oh, I feel like I don't know, if I think you feel this way. Because we're basically the same person at this point next, but this feeling where it's like, well, Instagram is changing the algorithm, we must do more videos. And all of a sudden, you're like, oh my god, I have to do more videos. I hate videos, why am I doing more videos? Because this arbitrary platform? That is amazing. And thank you Instagram for providing a free marketing strategy. But like, do we have to follow all the rules and change who we are for it?

Lexie Smith  

It's just not going to work in this space, specifically for coaching, where you are the product people in the market is going to see through the bullshit. And when you're not being you and it comes across energetically. When you're faking, it really does. So if you're sitting there wondering why things haven't clicked for you yet, because you're trying all the tried and trued strategies that work for X, Y and Z people. Take a beat and get honest with yourself. And it's a platform of strategy that resonates with you. If you don't like video, but you'd like to talk maybe try a podcast. If you hate talking and you hate video, maybe try writing, right there's, there's different options that you can there's a lot of options out there. So it's basically our soapbox here is find the one that works for you.

Emily Merrell  

Exactly. And it doesn't it could work. Yes, it doesn't have to work for your best friend who is in the same industry as you can you guys can hang out in different places. Amen. I think um, man, I haven't been to church in a while. I don't know. Anyways, that's

Lexie Smith  

next, we're gonna talk about or, again, it's a dropped ball and or an opportunity is talking too much on a call with a potential client. Are you just are you calling

Emily Merrell  

me out for talking too much?

Lexie Smith  

No, you're a squirrel, but you don't talk too much. You're just a squirrel. You're a squirrel. And I love it. And I'm here and I squirrel too, but not talking too much. Excuse me, I said that wrong, you threw off my game am talking too much and not listening enough. So the mistake is talking too much on the sales call, rather than listening.

Emily Merrell  

And to continue on with that thought to cutting people off. But I also just want to say that in real life to be mindful of when you talk Don't cut people off. That's just a PSA, guys. I've seen it so much recently. Anywho. But yes, listening more and reflecting back what that person said.

Lexie Smith  

Exactly. So the biggest mistake, really like what we tell our cohorts, what you shouldn't be doing when you're going into that first sales call is going in with the objection to learn to find out if they truly are a fit and to understand their problem. Don't go into it thinking okay, I need to be ready to convince them that I'm awesome and sell them my program. Go in and listen, listen to what their problem is truly, truly hear them. That's going to then give you the tools needed to efficiently effectively and genuinely sell them if it makes sense.

Emily Merrell  

For sure. And I think in those sales calls to by listening, you're able to guide them to the destination they need to go. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I think that's a great one. But yes, listening. Listening should be a core skill that is taught in all high school classes.

Lexie Smith  

So totally agree. Let's go over to more balls before we up this juggling party,

Emily Merrell  

I was going to ask, Are you going to juggle at the end of this

Lexie Smith  

video? I don't have my juggling balls. You know what Emily talk I'm gonna go get my juggling balls.

Emily Merrell  

Oh my god, I created a monster. Okay, so we said another thing listening, not listening, not just talking and selling and pitching. But another thing that we see so often, or a ball that is dropped is stopping too soon, is throwing a few things out there, throwing a little bit of spaghetti on the wall, and then not feeling like they're getting the response that they deserve with the little bit of spaghetti. And stopping and being like I'm taking myself out of the game is getting uncomfy I'm gonna stop before it gets. It gets to be

Lexie Smith  

something like going for hard for three months and deciding Oh, I tried. Hashtag I tried. It makes me think of when you go to the blood drive and you try to give blood and then they give you the I tried sticker that happened to me a lot in high school because I could the whole nother speaking of me calling you out on a squirrel watch me squirrel. But it's a long game coaching is a long game. There are certainly opportunities and exceptions to every rule in life, people can see quick success, but 99% of people it's a long journey, it's committing it's staying course it's understanding that at first there's going to be trial and error. It's your business is a lab experiment. And if you really, really want to have success in this industry, whether it be full time or as a coaching revenue stream, you need to stick with it and you need to try try things more than once more than twice and more than three times probably.

Emily Merrell  

And to also go back to our first point about make not making assumptions. A lot of times people will make an assumption. Well, no one engaged. No one paid attention. So no one's listening. When the truth is, they might be listening or the person might there might be lurkers out there but they're still lurking. I feel like there's multiple stages. There's like the lurkers the engagers. And they're like, I want what you're selling errs. But it takes time and consistency. And I just want to personal experience wise, I find it so fascinating. I like I still feel discomfort. When I talk to the to the screen. When I talk at my camera. I'm like, Who am I talking to? No one cares, I'm not paying attention. No one's paying attention. And then I'll have a conversation with someone. And they're like, Oh, I saw your story today. And they quote me back, are they like, they relate back to it, or they've texted me back? Depends where we are. And I'm like, Oh my God, you didn't even like like it, you didn't even engage with it. But they're paying attention. And so when more and more of those moments happen, it's gonna give you more confidence to like, continue talking to a random void, what feels like a random point, but then you'll you'll know who the person is on the other side.

Lexie Smith  

It's a great point, Emily, and I'll share to a personal experience. I have a client right now on the PR side of things who reached out to me about four months ago. So we've been working together for four months. She said, I've been following you on LinkedIn for a long time. And I would like to hire you. I literally didn't, I have no idea who she is. I've never talked to her once I didn't even know we're connected, she doesn't comment on anything, I get very low engagement on LinkedIn, by the way. Um, and a client came into my inbox, and it was the easiest sell I've ever done in my life. So isn't that wild

Emily Merrell  

again. So I think that's a great just reflection on if you're about to stop if you're about to put your juggling balls away. And you're like, I'm not going to put them away. Try to again, because Try it, try it. It's worth. So what's something else that on that same vein likes that you we see people do

Lexie Smith  

this will be the last one we talked about today because I want to juggle when we wrap us up but I'm not flying their flag enough. So the opportunity is to fly their flag more not talking about what they do. And this is again very in alignment with what we were just talking about. But one of the mistakes we see people make is they'll post once on Instagram about their services and then they'll wait for two weeks and be like Why is no one booking a call? Guys you need to talk about it more than once you need to keep talking about it. You're going to a networking mixer share what you're doing fly that slag so that people know they can work with you.

Emily Merrell  

And I want to I get I want to share personal stories because I feel anxious. I'm someone who loves to fly other people's flag so it's like no one I love. I love you don't talk about me. Let's talk about you, Lex let's let's brag about how amazing you are. And one thing with social media I want to point out to everyone is when you're flying your flag and you're selling your product, you're most likely going to have the most shit engagement that you have posted in a very long time and that it can be very discouraging. Or like oh my god my pictures with my family or my my cute squishy You'd be like those do so well that's where I'm gonna keep going. Yes, however, you're not selling your your squishy baby you're selling a service and so that's another squirrel but sell you and, and lean into that like those aren't going to be the posts that are going to be doing well but those are going to be the posts that people who are shopping you and are considering hiring you are checking back in

Lexie Smith  

on. Beautiful. And on that note I want to give some homework. We just went over a lot of balls that you can drop. Or if we read lemonade. If you're listening. I'm actually going to give a plug for YouTube in a second here but first your homework. Good balls that you can drop and or reframe opportunities. Sit down pen and paper in hand or phone and open note. What ball Are you dropping? Get objective? What opportunity do you have? Are you following up? Are you assuming anything? Here's a polite wake up call to think for a second on what balls you could be dropping.

Emily Merrell  

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