5 Simple Ways to Use Webinars to Close More Prospective Coaching Clients Showcase your energy and personality to potential customers using video, one of the leading technologies today.
By Imran Tariq Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Coaching, whether it's aimed at helping a business improve sales or helping someone lose weight, is largely dependent on personal relationships. As such, forming strong personal connections during the sales process is essential if you hope to land new clients.
Related: 12 Steps for Creating the Perfect Webinar
In a time when technology enables coaches in a wide variety of industries to reach clients around the world, using that technology to form meaningful connections can help generate leads and close prospective sales.
A webinar is a great example: With a webinar, you have a way to put your face in front of prospective coaching clients, no matter where they live. And, from what I've seen in my career, it's also a great way to achieve a more personal connection, even when you aren't communicating one-on-one, in person.
In fact, webinars may ultimately prove to be one of your most effective closing tools. Here's how they can help:
1. You can showcase your personality and energy.
A successful coaching relationship often comes down to the right personality match. If prospective clients have communicated with you largely via phone or email, a live webinar is a great way to better highlight your unique personality and enthusiasm for what you do.
Don't get intimidated by the fact that you're transmitting a live video on the internet. Be confident. Stand up and speak clearly, as if you're communicating with a coaching client in person. This will help your communication style shine through and help prospective clients know if you will be a good match.
Related: How to Create Webinars That Close More Business
Just how important is your energy? A survey by Redback Conferencing found that 48 percent of attendees polled felt that "a poor presenter" makes a webinar completely unenjoyable. In contrast, a "passionate and energetic" host is the top engagement factor for nearly one-third of webinar attendees.
2. You can take time to address questions and concerns.
Business coach and author Lewis Howes wrote for Copyblogger that question-and-answer sessions are one of the best ways to use webinars, in large part because they allow coaches to "give back" to a market while also gaining valuable intelligence. "You can usually bet that the questions you get in your Q&A sessions are ones that lots of other customers have as well," Howes wrote. "When you solve real customer problems, you put yourself at the head of the pack in your niche."
Not everyone who attends your webinars will submit a question, but there's a good chance many of your prospective coaching clients qill share the same questions and concerns. Providing them direct answers will alleviate their doubts and showcase your transparency. Better yet, these sessions will help you identify new topics to address in the future as you reach out to other prospective clients.
3. You can upsell and cross-sell.
From what I've seen, not everyone who attends webinars is a prospective client -- and that's okay. In many cases, your webinar attendees will include those already using your coaching services. You aren't done selling to these individuals.
Chances are, you have related products and services that they can benefit from as well -- and a webinar is the ideal platform to highlight those offerings. In an article on the ClickMeeting blog, content marketing specialist Jakub Zielinski explained that the visual presentation of the product or service is key regardless of whether you are upselling or cross-selling.
During the presentation, or afterward, in an extra video, coaches can use screen share to demonstrate the product or service, Zielinski suggested, noting: "Seeing the product in action is helpful because prospects can get the "try before you buy' experience or at least get a stronger image of what they'd actually do with this service.
"This is especially helpful for products with complicated features."
4. You can extend special offers to webinar attendees.
Few tactics will boost webinar attendance and increase your potential for sales after the event like exclusive offers for attendees. People like a good deal! Whether you're offering a free item giveaway or a special discount on a coaching session, these extra incentives can go a long way in helping you land new coaching clients.
For best results, tap into the power of scarcity: Webinar attendees can qualify for a special promotion only if they sign up within a limited time frame after the event. Time-dependent limitations drive home the "FOMO" fear of missing out, increasing urgency and driving potential clients to act now, rather than wait to make a decision.
A success story from Jenna Soard and Mariah Coz is illustrates this principle in action. As Coz, who sells online courses and webinars, explained on her site, "The offer for this webinar was a bundle of our two products … The offer was available for 24 hours, we added in exclusive bonuses, and the price was $997. Most likely, a purchase of that size will need a few hours or a day [for buyers] to think about. So for [branding expert] Jenna, most of her sales come from the tail end of her promo period -- toward the last few hours of the offer before it expires."
The result was $5,000 in revenue from a webinar attended by only 30 attendees.
5. You can get to better know your attendees.
Even though you will mostly be communicating with a group, there are still opportunities for one-on-one interactions in a webinar setting. As real estate investor, Brandon Turner explained in an article for Entrepreneur, "I like to log in to my webinars a few minutes early to chat with the audience and get to know them … The more I can get to know my audience, the more comfortable I feel giving them all of my energy and enthusiasm. After all, why should I expect them to get excited about what I'm talking about if I'm not excited?"
These insights may provide you an opportunity to make subtle adaptations to your prepared materials. Understanding what someone is hoping to learn from your webinar or why he or she is interested in your coaching services will help you directly address these concerns in your presentation. Speaking to "the one" will make that person feel valued and increase your odds of closing the sale.
Related: Automated Webinars May Be the Tool You Need to Scale Your Marketing Efforts
When done right, live video can be a powerful tool that helps you connect with prospective coaching clients. Personally, I've seen it time and time again. By leveraging the best video-streaming tools available and producing high-quality content to deliver a memorable webinar experience, you will get the conversions you're looking for.
