In this edition of my newsletter, I want to share with you which technology you need in your coaching or consulting business and also what I personally use.
It's important that you get this right, especially if you're just starting as a coach or consultant. Making the wrong choice can be costly in both time and money.
When you get it right you'll have the lowest cost but most effective tools at your disposal that will help you to automate much of your business, meaning you can focus on growing it, rather than being a slave to it.
Unfortunately, many people get this wrong. They often go for all-in-one solutions that promise the earth but only deliver in certain areas. and worse they sometimes lock themselves in for 12 months because the carrot of a discount was dangled in front of them!
So why do so many coaches and consultants get this wrong?
- They don't understand the minimum requirements to run a coaching or consulting business.
- They suffer from SOS (shiny object syndrome) and keep signing up for the latest new fad promising to solve all their problems.
- They believe that running a coaching or consulting business requires a fancy website, business cards and being present every day on every social media channel.
But don't worry. If you have suffered from any of the above I'm going to tell you what the minimum requirements are as far as tech goes for your business.
The high-Level Requirements for a Coaching or Consulting Business
Good news: You don't actually need that much tech to run a coaching or consulting business! And you don't need to spend that much money either. Here's the list of the things you need:
- A social media account so that you can post content and reach people 1:1 - free.
- A way of capturing leads, either through a landing page, scorecard, webinar etc. - $25-$200/month.
- An email autoresponder so that you can build a relationship with your audience through email. - $15-$100/month.
- A way to take payments easily and quickly. $0-$50/month.
- A call booking system. $10-$25/month.
- A form creation tool to accept applications. $0-$50/month.
- A video call tool. $0-$25/month.
- (Optional) A way to deliver video content if you have a group program or course. $0-$250/month.
Total cost $50-$450/month
So, let me explain in a little more detail why you need each one of these:
1. Social Media Account
Sorry, but you can't get away from this one! If it's any consolation, I'm generally NOT a fan of social media. I can't stand most of the platforms and only really use them for business.
That, of course, is with the notable exception of LinkedIn - which I love! I won't bore you with all the reasons but let's just say that the standard of interaction is way more intelligent on LinkedIn than on any other platform.
The fact is that social media has become the number 1 way to tell people what you doIts and create a following of potential clients. Its reach is practically endless.
You need a strategy though. And you need to be consistent so that your message gets through loud and clear.
2. Lead Capture App
Building your audience outside of social media is also very important. Many coaches and consultants overlook this, usually because their experience of email marketing by others is so bad or they just don't know where to start.
It's critical for the long term that you do this! The more ways you can reach your audience the better.
Also, when you capture emails, you're the owner of your email list. You're never the owner of your connections, friends or followers on social media and the companies that own them can cut you off any time they like if they think you broke a rule. I speak from experience!
There are many ways to capture emails. I use a scorecard and a simple newsletter opt-in (Just click those links if you want to take a look).
The idea is that people will give you their email addresses and allow you to send them messages in exchange for something of value.
A newsletter can be a hard sell unless they have already experienced it and got value, but things like 'how to' videos that genuinely help people to solve a problem, webinars and scorecards that give people insight about themselves or problems they are facing tend to work well. These are generally known as 'lead magnets', which I'm sure you've heard of before.
For my scorecard I use ScoreApp. Click here to get an extended free trial: https://in.linked.coach/ScoreApp. After the trial it costs $29/month if you pay monthly or $25/month yearly, which is well worth it if you use it properly. This is the main growth tool in my business. I will write an article on how to best use this in the future. 😉
For my newsletter opt-in, all my landing pages and my website I use LeadPages. Click here to try it for free: https://in.linked.coach/LeadPages. It costs $49/month (or $37/month paid yearly) after the free trial. For me, LeadPages is the simplest landing page and website builder out there. Compared to other apps like ClickFunnels it's also very cheap and much easier to use in my opinion.
3. Email Autoresponder
An autoresponder is a tool that allows you to send emails en masse to your audience. There are generally 2 ways to send emails.
- When they opt-in through your lead capture tool the email gets sent automatically to say thanks, or welcome, etc. Most autoresponders also have a way to send out a series of emails based on certain conditions and actions which can become a very powerful tool when used properly.
- One-off campaigns. These are 'one-time' emails that you send to your audience periodically. For example, I send a weekly newsletter by email from my own autoresponder.
Some autoresponders offer a free account. However, they are very limited in what they can do and once you look at upgrading to get extra features they become very costly.
I recommend ActiveCampaign. It's very affordable at only $15/month for up to 500 subscribers. When you pay yearly it's $9/month which is ridiculously cheap! The pricing scales as your number of subscribers does so it's great for getting started. It also has some very powerful automations and other features which is why I love it. Get a free trial here: https://in.linked.coach/ActiveCampaign
4. Payment Gateway
It's critically important that you have a way for people to pay you over the phone or through a link that you can send to them whilst on a call with you.
People will 'go cold' if you don't make it very easy and fast for them to pay. I've lost count of the number of times I had a call with someone who said they wanted to sign up for my services but I didn't collect at least part of the payment there and then and then they ended up backing out for one reason or another.
It doesn't happen all the time but people are people and in the moment they genuinely see the value of working with you but when you give them time for their 'rational' brain to talk them out of it they end up getting doubtful about the whole thing.
In sales, speed is everything so make sure you can take a sale very quickly!
I used to recommend an app called PayFunnels as it was so quick to create new invoices and subscriptions. Now Stripe seems to have cottoned on though and is making it way easier to take quick payments through links or over the phone straight from their platform.
They do charge commission on each transaction though (as do all payment gateways) so keep that in mind. Also, you'll need to link your Stripe account to a bank account. You can sign up here: https://stripe.com/
5. Call Booking App
Making it easy for potential clients to book a call straight into your calendar takes so much time and effort off your plate that once you use a good app to do it for you, you'll never go back to your old ways!
These tools send out automated emails and even SMS reminders in some cases that ensure you get the highest show-up rate to your calls as possible.
And some of them are even free for a basic account... If you get no other tool for your coaching or consulting business, get one of these. They'll save you time, trouble and money!
I recommend ScheduleOnce from OnceHub. It's the most versatile of all the booking apps I've tried, and I have tried several! ScheduleOnce meets all the needs and covers all the scenarios any coaching business comes across in my experience.
Sign up for a free account here: https://in.linked.coach/ScheduleOnce. As you grow you may need some of the paid features but even then you only pay $12/month or $10/month paid yearly. This is NOT a lot of money for something so valuable to your business and the free version is just fine for getting started.
6. Form Creation App
This isn't essential, but I highly recommend one. Once you start booking calls regularly and begin to fill your calendar, you're going to want to know that the people on the calls are qualified.
Otherwise, you can end up wasting lots of time talking to the wrong people about your services or products. The good news is that most of these are free, with a few limitations and caveats.
I recommend TypeForm to create your forms. It's free with some restrictions so great for getting started. As you grow and need to unlock more features you can upgrade for $29/month or $25 if you pay yearly.
The paid plan is great when you need more complex and interactive forms that can give features such as automatically cancelling the application if certain criteria are not met. You can get a free account here: https://highperforming.coach/typeform/
7. Video Conference App
You can always use the good old telephone to speak to potential clients but these days, video calling has become the norm.
If you work online, you'll also need a way to simulate being in-person with your clients as much as possible and video is a great way to do this.
There are a few tools out there, some have free options and none are too expensive. Just be sure to get one with the capability to record sessions as you may want to share the recordings with your clients, use them to improve your sales skills or even use them as content if you have a program.
I recommend Zoom, simply because it's free to get started and most people out there are using it so it has become the standard in video conferencing. You can get a free account here: https://zoom.us/
8. Program Content Delivery Platform
Finally, if you have a program, you'll need a way to deliver the training content. There are lots of great tools out there for this.
Previously I have used Kajabi, but honestly, the pricing is way too high. Yes, they have lots of features like email marketing, a website and landing page builder etc. But in my experience, none of those features work very well which is why I opt for other simpler and more effective tools.
I recommend Thinkific. It's free to get started with one course and then you can scale and add features as you grow. You can get a free account here: https://www.thinkific.com
