Expert Tips on How to Get Coaching Clients Fast via Public Speaking Forum

In coaching, clients are the protagonists around whom your narrative spins. Hence, the greatest concern of every coach is figuring out ways to attract more ideal coaching clients for their businesses. And one of the fastest way to get coaching clients as well as reach a wide and relevant audience is via a public speaking forum.

So, how to get coaching clients fast by utilizing a public speaking forum? Through public speaking, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and expert in coaching and also use it as an effective marketing tool. In coaching, the coach is the brand that people buy into. So, unlike other marketing tools, public speaking provides a kind of live demonstration of your expertise, use cases, client successes, etc. that establishes a faster, more impactful connect with your target audience. You immediately initiate trust in the audience about your capability and services by captivating them and giving them a firsthand experience of what it would be like to interact with you. 

We’re going to use this blog post to talk extensively about public speaking tips and tricks that will help you get coaching clients fast. But before we delve deep into it, let’s see why you must incorporate public speaking into your marketing strategy. 

3 pointers on the fastest way to get coaching clients via public speaking

1. Brand building 

Talking face-to-face with potential coaching clients about your brand creates a long-lasting impact in their minds. Promoting your business at relevant events would automatically mean more recognition and awareness among your audience. 

2. Building reputation 

The more you speak about a specific subject matter, the higher the chances that you establish a reputation as an expert in that specific niche. This puts you in the lime light, leading to more prospects seeking your expertise. 

3. Building confidence 

Coaching is all about effective communication, and that requires a certain confidence. Speaking at a public event to a number of potential coaching clients is the perfect exercise in confidence-building. 

7 tips for public speaking that can help win new coaching clients 

We have already established the fact that public speaking is an important component for successfully marketing your coaching business to a wider audience. But merely speaking to your audience without a fool-proof strategy won’t generate positive results. Here’s how to get coaching clients fast through your public speaking ventures: 

1. Speak to your ideal coaching clients 

If public speaking is something that you have never tried your hands at before, it’s fine to accept any and every invitation you get. The more you participate in such events, the better you master the art of public speaking. This helps you gain experience and confidence. But eventually you would want to convert a big chunk of your public speaking audience into paying clients, so select your audience judiciously. Try and capture an audience where the profile, interests, requirements, etc. are in sync with your target market and your niche. 

2. Zero in on a public speaking platform 

There are multiple platforms from which you can address your ideal coaching clients. Some of those are: 

• Local events: Look out for local events that will have audiences who will benefit the most from your expertise. If you’re a leadership coach, for example, you could collaborate with a corporate workshop or be part of a large corporate conference. 

• Online & offline conferences: A great place to showcase your expertise to your target audience is in niche-specific conferences—both online & offline. Google search is handy when you are looking for relevant upcoming conferences. 

• Social media: Think live sessions, podcasts, and so on. One of the most powerful public speaking forums is social media. You can join relevant social media groups and communities or may even follow market influencers and get plenty of notifications on upcoming public speaking opportunities. 

Connecting with market influencers is an example of effective networking. 

If you wish to know more about how networking can take you places, our blog post on “Importance of Networking for Coaches” is just what you should be looking for! 

3. Select the right topic 

How to decide what to speak on? It’s important to identify the subject that will benefit your target audience the most and also show you in the best light. It’s simple – look at the same audience for inspiration. Look at the audience profile, gauge their needs in advance, and then plan your public speaking topic. To establish yourself as a thought leader and to shape your audience’s perception about your value and expertise, a lot depends on what you deliver and how you deliver it. 

4. Highlight your coaching prowess 

Showcase your coaching capabilities while addressing the audience and don’t forget to shine a bit of spotlight on your client success stories, without divulging specific client details. It’s best to share your latest bio with the organizers before the event, so that your speech is preceded by a befitting introduction that highlights your coaching expertise. This goes a long way in impressing your audience, making them aware of your offerings and building trust even before you speak.  

The more you pick up public speaking opportunities relevant to your niche and share your insights and knowledge about addressing common challenges, the more are the chances you present yourself as a thought leader. This in turn increases your chances to attract high quality leads directly from such events and convert them into paying coaching clients. 

5. Make sure to leave a mark 

Your speech should be solid, not shallow. Don’t include a huge number of facts and data unless it’s original – it will only prove that you can do your research, and audiences can hardly retain much of it. Design your speech in a way that the audience gets robust takeaways before leaving the venue—valuable ideas, action steps, etc. Offer your audiences an experience of a lifetime through your speech. Here’s how: 

• Audience attention is at its peak usually at the very beginning of any public speaking session. Design the introduction of your speech in a way that it creates a lasting impact in your prospects’ mind 

• Incorporate visually appealing and high-definition graphics or videos in your presentation 

• The art of storytelling goes a long way in pulling emotions from your audience, and adds that extra personal touch to your presentation. Slide in real-life anecdotes to draw and hold attention. 

• Offer tangible takeaways in the form of handouts (even your contact information). Drop in information about your website or social media handle for them to check it out later. With Simply.Coach’s “Showcase Page”, you can create your own branded landing page that comes with lead generation touchpoints, and share the link to that. These small steps help add a nice actionable touch to your public speaking session. 

• Clients are the hero of any coaching session. Remember that while delivering your speech—make it inclusive. Make your audience a part of your conversation and presentation as much as possible. 

• Keep your speech simple, straightforward, and break complicated concepts into bite-sized information.  

Pro tip: Prepare yourself for any public speaking session well in advance. Rehearse your speech thoroughly to avoid frequent glancing at your notes – if possible, avoid it altogether. Maintaining eye contact with the audience helps connect with them better. 

6. Make an offer 

Public speaking is a great marketing tool that drives prospects directly into your sales funnel—a powerful medium to get coaching clients onboarded faster. Hence, come up with an offer that’s relevant to the topic of the day, lucrative, specific, and unique. For instance, if you are talking about “post-partum depression: it’s real”, you may offer a discounted deal on a one-month coaching session on how to cope with the mood-swings associated with the “baby blues”. 

7. Following up is necessary 

Public speaking is a time-consuming affair. So, when you’re spending time preparing for these events, you need to make sure you make the most of any leads that come out of them.  

Here’s what you need to do: 

• Gather the contact information of the attendees 

• Offer handouts to your audience 

• Get in touch with the attendees, thank them for attending the event and offer them any coaching help they might need 

• If possible, take the networking to your social media platforms 

Takeaway 

Hope this article has answered the question, ‘how to get coaching clients fast?’ Public speaking is perhaps one of the most effective and fastest way to get coaching clients, load up your marketing pipeline, showcase your credibility and expertise to prospects and, in turn, amp up your digital marketing strategy. With these tips to use in your public speaking ventures, you can create a steady flow of clients for your business. 

Sources: Expertbox, Getclientsnow, Coachfederation, Thefullybookedcoach, Nlp-leadership-coaching, Iamdanram  

FAQs 

1. How do you attract coaching clients? 

There are a number of ways to attract coaching clients. Some of them are: Creating a solid social media presence, carving a niche for yourself, optimizing paid advertising, creating thought leadership content, utilizing referrals, and so on. 

2. How to get the first coaching client? 

There are multiple ways in which you can get your first coaching client onboarded. Some of the most effective methods are: public speaking, attending relevant events, networking with who’s who of the industry, reaching out to leads via email, optimizing social media presence, and so on. 

3. What are some of the benefits of using public speaking opportunities to get coaching clients?

Some of the benefits of public speaking for coaches are:

1. It helps reach out to a wide and relevant audience.
2. It helps establish yourself as a thought leader and an expert in coaching.
3. It helps in brand building through live demonstration of your expertise, use cases, client successes.
4. It helps establish a faster, more impactful connect with your target audience.
5. It’s the perfect exercise in confidence-building.

4. What should I do to prepare for a public speaking event to promote my coaching services?

The following steps would help you prepare for your public speaking events:

1. Know who your audiences are.
2. Get settled in to your surroundings.
3. Outline key points as foundation to your speech.
4. Ask a peer to review your speech.
5. Rehearse to get comfortable.
6. Use hand gestures as an engagement tactic.
7. Aid your speech with proper technology.

About the author

Jayashree Mukherjee

Content Specialist @Simply.Coach

Jayashree Mukherjee is a content specialist by day and a content junkie (on OTT) by night. Passionate about traveling, street food and overturning the underuse of em dashes — she would have been a globe-trotter if she hadn’t been so lazy.