The Client Journey - How We Signed Our Last 9 High Ticket Clients

In this week’s episode, Em and Lex walk through marketing and the client journey. They pull back the curtain and specifically review how they signed their last 9 high ticket clients and the unique marketing and sales funnel each of those individuals underwent signing. They offer homework to both new coaches and seasoned coaches on things to audit and work on to improve client close rates. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Learn Em and Lex’s thoughts on how to sign high-ticket clients
• Hear tips on the client journey and what it takes to get a client to sign 
• Their tips and tricks for signing high-ticket clients
• Examples of the specific marketing tactics that brought them their last 9 paying clients. 
• How to audit your own actions to better be able to sign more clients
• And more!

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachcommunity

Join the Ready Set Coach Community: https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/community

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

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Lexie Smith  

So when we're not immersed in our coaching community on circle, we're busy managing our other businesses navigating the ups and downs of life, and of course, recording this podcast.

This is where we dive deep into epic conversations about life business coaching, and everything in between. So are you ready Lex?

Lexie Smith  

I'm set and let's coach

Emily Merrell  

Lexi sexy

Lexie Smith  

whoa whoa awkward start Hi guys. Lexa and here are YouTube today

Emily Merrell  

wow. I was I was trying to see what lives are the Lexie and that was only when I got

Lexie Smith  

Lexi sexy. Usually it's the other way around people's sexy Lexi. But I'll I'll take it. That was yes.

Emily Merrell  

Whole whole life whole whole like college experience. I'm sure.

Lexie Smith  

Actually, like awkwardly more so in high school, which is super inappropriate. Um, yeah, I don't know. Um, but clearly this is Emily's like eight teens call of the day. I'm honored to have made made the cut the 18th call what

Emily Merrell  

my brain like leaking out right now.

Lexie Smith  

melty. Oh, and so my computer I'm here. I'm also I'm just going to tell everyone right now I'm multitasking. For those of you who say you can't, you don't have time. Look, Mama multitasking, I'm holding up a monitor to the camera plug for you to

Emily Merrell  

I don't know if I told you Lexie, but Jackson's started throwing himself out of his crib. And of course it was when I was out of climbing, like, climbing out like one leg over. I don't know if he's been had success in getting out or if he's been stopped because I haven't witnessed it. But I came back from my trip. And literally, it looks like there's like a barracks in his room. There's just like a barricade around his bed using mattresses and stuff. So

Lexie Smith  

you can Oh in case he falls, so it's like soft. Totally. It's like

Emily Merrell  

under and over and like a high gate like a high fortress and with the moat around him. Baby jail.

Lexie Smith  

It's our castle. Exactly. No, you didn't mention that actions just still unless slinging her head on the crib phase, which I'm like, oh, that's hopefully not going to do too much damage.

Emily Merrell  

That's fine. There's it's soft. It's all. It's all good right now. Right? And maybe she'll be a head thing or later, she's going to just want to rock out.

Lexie Smith  

And oh, no, like of all Yeah, we're not going to manifest that one. She can do it ever she wants I will love her no matter what, but no. Um, so it is Wednesday. And our kids are on a journey of life. And what we're going to talk about today is the client journey. Mm hmm. rough transition guides, we're gonna pick things up now brains are on we're just we're getting flowing. What we decided we want to talk through today is some real life client journeys, meaning me is going to reflect on some of her clients and how they came to be. I'm going to reflect on some of mine. And then we're going to talk about ReadySet coach. So rather than just saying this is how you get clients, we're going to talk about real people will probably change their names, I'm going to change my names, but we will tell you the exact steps that they took to become our high ticket clients.

Emily Merrell  

And the reason we're digging into this is because a lot of people we were in ReadySet coach right now a lot of people are focused on Oh, I have to be amazing on LinkedIn, or I have to be amazing on Instagram or they'll have analysis paralysis and their, their website needs to be perfect. When when Lex and I were reflecting on it. In our journeys of our clients, it wasn't from one particular place. We didn't have one particular wasn't like all of a sudden a million people were sliding into our DMS and that's how they became our clients. So they all have unique journeys that often touch multiple different stops on our brand before deciding to work with us. So

Lexie Smith  

lax omni channel

Emily Merrell  

omni channel effect. Oh my gosh, those are the words I missed the most from corporate evergreen and omni channel. Organic. So let's money it off for us. Tell us about your clients.

Lexie Smith  

Let's do like ping pong. I'll do one QD one I'll do your like pick the hottest girl. I know trending trending if we drop the word pickleball and guys, maybe more people will hear this podcast, we'll add it to show notes. And this is how

Emily Merrell  

a pickleball expert.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so I'm gonna make up fake names for these people's. This client, I'm going to call Sally. This is how Sally Sally currently is in one of my high ticket one on one coaching packages. This is exactly how she came to be my client, a journalist that I am associated with or friends with retweeted something I tweeted on Twitter, or x, whatever we're calling it. And this person would I named Sally saw this journalists retweeted me, that led her to click on my profile and learn that I have a PR agency. And she booked a call. I know this because I always had the form that says how do you how do you book or how do you hear about me, so I initially got on a call with her to talk about my PR agency, it was quickly apparent financially speaking that there wasn't going to be a fit, it then became also apparent that she would be potentially a great candidate for coaching. So I introduced the concept to her. I ended the call, I sent her a follow up email, I said, if you want to explore coaching, we can schedule another call. So she ended up not scheduling another call, and she ended up just booking me. So I do want to share just succinctly right it went from Twitter, but there is third party credibility there. So it came from a retweet. She came to my agency website booked a call that I down soldier and follow ups to coaching

Emily Merrell  

or was hoping for like a Sally sells. She sells seashells by the

Lexie Smith  

seashore.

Emily Merrell  

My brain was going like how can I make this into a thing, but I'm gonna I'm gonna let that die. Okay, so if your turn, no, well, I do want to reflect on that. So it she saw your authority on on Twitter. So it sounds like authority was a big piece there that she saw your authority. And she trusted you. And it was by being on a on a platform like Twitter, and I'm still using the old school word Twitter.

Lexie Smith  

I still call it that because it's still twitter.com. So I don't know,

Emily Merrell  

if still a lot I don't understand that. But anyways, she saw your authority and your authority was the number one reason that had her following you to learn more about your expertise. And then it was a painful journey that led her to finally booking you. Is that correct?

Lexie Smith  

Yes. And what made me look credible is a journalist was retweeting me. So if someone is interested in PR, right, they're interested in getting in front of journalists. So to see a journalist is retweeting me in a PR standpoint, that gave me credibility.

Emily Merrell  

Yes, okay. Love that. All say my next client, Susan, Susan, I can SS all that says I want to just go see if

Lexie Smith  

we can do that. So that's officially our challenge. They all have to be SS. Yes, that's

Emily Merrell  

perfect. Okay, so Susan, we connected through lunch club, which I don't know if you guys are familiar with lunch club. Lunch Club was basically like a free matchmaking networking platform where you'd meet someone, virtually. And this particular individual is based in a different city and state, we connected we hit it off. And I think she was supposed to come to an event never came to an event kind of like forgot about her her. And then fast forward to this year, I posted a roundup of all of the podcasts I had recorded from this year on my LinkedIn, she had just gone through a job transition. She clicked through my podcast, especially on one on a career coach listen to it was like, Oh, I think I'm gonna hire this career coach. But before I do, maybe I'll also talk to Emily and just catch up with her and realized that working with me was the right next immediate step because she had been building a side hustle while she had been at her corporate job. And so we have been working together. So on the sales call, it was pretty much an immediate, yes. So thinking about the steps that she took to get there.

Lexie Smith  

No, I get to analyze it. Sorry, Analyze Me, you can't analyze your own. That's not how pickleball works. Emily, what I'm sorry. Back to my side of the court, um, what I'm hearing as this was really a long game turn short game at the end. So while yes, it was immediate, yes. On the call. This was something that didn't just happen overnight. You had already established an initial relationship prior. And then circumstance happened later in life that you were putting yourself out there routinely. In this case, I think you said on social, she found your podcast, she listened to the podcast, it reminded her of how awesome you were. So she wanted to reconnect and then it was a yes. So It wasn't as simple as an immediate Yes. When we think of all the touch points in the longevity that backed up the relationship.

Emily Merrell  

Yes, I think that's a great digest for the experience. What about you? Who is your next s?

Lexie Smith  

My next s? Okay, we did Sally and Susan, Samantha. Samantha, this one's actually a shorter one. So I just got a clarity call booked on the calendar one day from Samantha we hopped on a call. And she said she heard about me from a past client of mine. The past client of mine who referred her, to me, was the same type of entrepreneur as she and this client and had a lot of success with me. She's great. I just during our containers, she had a lot of results. And so automatically, she came to me with this raving referral. It was a longer phone call. Funny enough, I took the phone call while in the car with my in laws because of a calendar thing. So they heard the whole sales call. She ended up booking for months ahead. So I think we talked in like September, and we kicked off in January, we had that initial call. It did take though, a few follow up emails to get her to feel comfortable to commit. So the recap quickly it was referral to call to probably a couple of weeks worth of follow ups.

Emily Merrell  

Wow, okay. Well, Sonia, my next client, she, she found me I am also a coach at an outside program, and I host workshops for them. And she was a student at this program and had seen my workshops. But funny enough, I had never met her live I don't remember and I don't remember her showing up in any of the workshops, but I think she watched the recordings. And she actually reached out for ReadySet coach, thinking she wanted to be a coach, but then realizing that she wanted to go in a different direction. So she ghosted me when I sent a recap email for ReadySet coach, and then I posted on Instagram that we I was doing one on one coaching and she DM to me and she said, I want that. And then I sent her the next details over email, we had one sales call. And that was it. So it was interesting to see the and I think this is going to be a common theme at least for another another individual as well is this idea sometimes you borrow or think they want group and then they really want a one on one high ticket high, high level approach where they feel like they're not yet ready for group. They want to be more established before they commit to a group container. So

Lexie Smith  

they started to just reaffirm she first saw you at a workshop. She saw

Emily Merrell  

me at like a pre recorded workshop where I was a coach.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, cool. Yeah, great. So not even live, which is also

Emily Merrell  

not even live. So she must have been watching the replays because she had seen me and a bunch of my workshops through that platform. But I had never met her at a live version of one of the workshops.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, cool Lurker, a lurker Lurker that's actually kind of similar to that the the last one I wanted to share. I picked this one, this recent client, because it it's a example of a hybrid cell. So she saw me I gave a live workshop. Actually, this brought us to RSC clients, this one live workshop. I'm realizing that in real time right now, because two of our clients were in the same workshop, that was a great workshop, I started see what workshop that is. No to everyone listening, if you have a successful workshop, rinse and repeat and a lot. I digress. I hosted this very specific workshop in an outside community, it was probably to a room of, you know, 15 woman, it was not huge. This particular client from that workshop, booked just kind of a connection call with me. And I had no idea it was going to be a sales call. But she while on the connection call, asked if she could coach with me. And the more I learned about her business, I said yes, but I actually think that you'd be a really great fit for my other company as well. Now it took a little bit more time here because she was ready and knew she wanted my PR coaching. She wasn't ready. She didn't know if she wanted the other ReadySet coach side. So it took some back and forth with email follow up but eventually this did become a hybrid coaching client for both the PR bar and ReadySet coach, she's still with me to this day. So this was just an interesting one of me truly listening to what I thought she needed. This wasn't me saying Oh, I see an opportunity to double up. It was okay I know you want to learn PR but based on what I'm hearing and based on what your problem is. I actually think this is your first step. And the first step I suggested to her was ready, set coach.

Emily Merrell  

And I liked that example too, and that you're able to support her in multiple different ways where she was a first time entrepreneur and needed the community and needed the accountability and the framework, but then also could go further with you in the PR world where she wanted to really amplify using PR as a tool, which

Lexie Smith  

I think, oh, no, hold on, Mike. Court might side by side. Wanted to point. Good point, just wanted to point out the the importance of that lesson from that story to is the importance of active listening on a call, not just going into immediately selling one thing, but hearing what the core problem is, and really offering us a true solution, even if that involves getting more creative.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a really great point. Which brings me to my final one on one your loud, client, thank you. I know, active listening as we cut each other off for hypocrites. Is is Sarah and Sarah found me via Google. And she found me via Google. And she was searching for a mastermind and she initially applied for the mastermind. But when upon further exploration, realize that one on one was a better fit. And then when we were working together for a certain amount of time, I thought that ReadySet coach was actually the next fit for her. So I was able to bring her into the Ready Set coach world, and also do create a hybrid experience with both Lexie ReadySet, coach and myself. So, point being, you're going to analyze me, I'm going to stop.

Lexie Smith  

Hey, everyone, Lexie here, and M. And if you haven't heard, we did something pretty darn cool.

Emily Merrell  

We sure did. We launched a completely free community built specifically for coaches. Say it again, for the people in the back. We launched a free community for coaches. Tell them quickly who it's for and what we're doing inside Lex.

Lexie Smith  

Sure thing. So it's for anyone from the coaching curious to side hustlers to coaches ready to scale. And through the virtual platform that we've built, we've created a safe and fun space that we learn, launch, grow, connect ideas, collaborate, bent and evolve together.

Emily Merrell  

You nailed it, Lex. Now while it's free, you must apply in order to gain a free membership. You know, so we can make sure everyone is inside is awesome. Like us.

Lexie Smith  

Apply today at Ready Set? Coach community.com. Look, you've been active listening? No, I think that was a really great example. This is the first time we're bringing up a tactic of Google and SEO. I know for your coaching, she found through six degrees, your six degrees Society website has phenomenal SEO and I know that's brought you a ton of traffic to your events as well. So you're one of the one of the people I know, adjacent to the coaching industry that that Google's really worked well for them. So I think it's an interesting case study to hear and highlight as well.

Emily Merrell  

It is and it's one of those gentle reminders when I'm saying this out loud how much I need to up my my SEO in terms of including coaching tips in my blogs, versus a lot of times the things that will bring people to my my blogs will be like how to best co working spaces in your city. So it's a bit a bit more generic or like casting a wider net and then we'll narrow people in. But I think being more specific in how I niche down and my talking can be really powerful and attracting the ideal client to

Lexie Smith  

us. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so now we're going to talk about some of our Ready Set coach clients. So just to kind of recap, Emily and I just shared our one on one independent hybrid high ticket clients. The next four we're going to talk about our mid take mid ticket range was our group program. So the first Oh Ss are getting hard Sindy with an S.

Emily Merrell  

Cindy. Oh my god. Okay,

Lexie Smith  

the next we'll do three. This one. Okay. I like this one. I think this is one of the more a really great example of omni channel. So Emily and I were in a season of launch. And we had, we were hosting a signature event. We were self hosting through Eventbrite, and we went and we posted about the event and a ton of different Facebook groups. This particular individual saw posts in a Facebook group. She then came to the event, our call to action of the event was to book a clarity call. She booked a clarity call, got on the call with her. We tried to sell her. She didn't close. She followed us on Instagram. There was a lot of DM exchange, a few more phone calls and then a vet Initially, she did sign on to the program.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, that was, that was definitely an example of like meeting your client in multiple different channels. I'm going to talk to you guys about Sinead now. And Sinead. I thought that was a good use of an S. And she's too, she started following us on Instagram, and was probably one of our earlier adopters of our podcast, and booked a sales call from the podcast, I think it was a clarity call. And it was a hell yes, on the call in that she was already like, know, and trusted us based on both the podcasts and the Instagram. So it was a pretty straightforward, like, once the doors were open, and we were able to invite her in, she was in with open arms.

Lexie Smith  

She's also continued to work with us both. So she's been a really nice longevity of a client. And then the final s we're going to talk about is Sienna Sienna. She was on our email marketing list, I, we probably could look up, how she got on whether it was a freebie, whether it was an event, I'm not entirely sure how she made it onto the ready, set coach specific email list, but she was on the email list. Again, we are in launch period. And we decided to try a new tactic where we were just going to offer some free coaching, no strings attached. We had framed the free coaching around an audit, we were going to audit until like we had a takeaway for the calls that we were offering. So like the first five people will get a 30 minute coaching call and we're going to audit your practice, she signed up for this. So we got on a call with her there was no sales call on this, on this email. On this call, we literally just delivered value, post the call, we sent a follow up, it did make sense for us to mention ReadySet coach in the follow up, we didn't sell hard, she did ask to hear more information, we then were in that way invited into the call, it took a couple of follow ups per usual theme here. And then she she joined our program. So the lesson

Emily Merrell  

that I think we could take away from all of this is that it's not typically a one and done type of thing. It's not you post one Instagram post and you're gonna get a million clients, or you're gonna post one LinkedIn post, and they're all they all fall from the sky. But really, it's the the aspect of being omnipresent being kind of everywhere in their life where they see you at multiple touchpoints. And they experience you at multiple touch points be at a podcast, or be it at a workshop or be at at a sales call or Instagram, there's so many ways for clients to get to know you. And like you. And then the timing. A lot of times, I think, in understanding all of these clients and reflecting back on it, I think the pivotal moment is inviting them in. And like they might be lurking or they might be wanting but a lot of times they need to like feel like they, they want to want to be wanted to. And so extending the invite to these individuals as well.

Lexie Smith  

I'll also share if you're starting to feel overwhelmed and what you're hearing and the takeaways that you're having are Oh my God, I need to know mark it on a million different places that is so much like they they don't have one tactic that works. They said Twitter, email, social media, speaking yada, yada, yada, right, that can feel overwhelming. What I want to offer, rather as this is really good news that there are more than one way to successfully market. Right? So Emily and I are past a point in our career where we have a massive, massive resistance to showing up. Okay, we've done a lot of work, we are okay to show up, which is why we do have the bandwidth to where we have systems in place that help us show up on all the places. That being said we didn't start there. So take this is really great news that you can find clients on Twitter, you can find clients through speaking you can find clients through networking, right? But do understand ultimately, it's going to require some amount of exchange of relationship building. Probably across more than one medium and one medium can be as simple as a social media platform to emails and calls does it have to be like LinkedIn and Twitter and, and Instagram and calls? It can be as simple as different forms of communication?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I think that's a great, great way to do that. So Lex, what's the homework my homework queen?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, your homework to part. If you are a past your coach that already has clients, we want you to do this activity for yourself, like your past four clients and track the client journey. See if you can find some actionable takeaways from yourself or lesson learned. And if you're a new coach, looking for your first client, then your homework is to what Emily

Emily Merrell  

Jones Do your homework, guys, this is very much in real time, the way that we host our podcasts, I think your homework is to take, take an audit of the platforms that you are using, and the traction that you are getting. I will say I'll add a 90 day challenge to all of it though, a lot of times, we'll post for a week and then feel discouraged because no one's engaging or people aren't booking or XY and Z. So give yourself 90 days to experiment and to play with different platforms and see how you feel and how people feel and how how you show up there. So a 90 day challenge.

Lexie Smith  

There you go, guys, there's your homework, great homework, message us on Instagram, but even more so. Shout out to apply for our community. If you're not in the community yet and messages there. Let us know your takeaways. Let us know how you did on your homework. Let's chat client journeys and all the things

Emily Merrell  

and we'll see you the next time on the coach podcast where it was that like if you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, visit ReadySet coach program.com