Ready Set Coach Podcast

How to Attract Qualified Leads for Your Coaching Business

• Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith • Season 2 • Episode 92

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This week’s topic covers how to attract qualified leads for your coaching business. Em & Lex discuss how to define a qualified lead, how to set up parameters to weed out those who are unqualified, and what type of marketing is needed to find them in the first place. 


Here’s What You’ll Learn: 

  • What a qualified lead is, and what factors make a lead qualified
  • Tips on attracting the types of people who understand and need what you are selling
  • Different considerations of what makes a lead qualified for your business
  • Tips on identifying your qualifiers for your business
  • How to set up lead qualifies throughout your business
  • Tangible things that you can do to weed out the non-qualified leads
  • Tips on making sure your branding is attracting the type of clients you want to have
  • And more!


Listener Links: 

Lexie Smith  

I'm set and let's coach. Hi. Hi. Hi, how are you?


Emily Merrell  

Hi. It's always it's always a treat. It's always the delight to get on here. I have to say it's a lot more fun to record a podcast with you than recording anyone else in the entire planet right everyone else in the entire planet. Did I say that? I said that. Yes. Yeah. mind meld right.


Lexie Smith  

Say what it is. Emily fit me in today. I was given a 30 minute window for this podcast. So this 30 minute window we will maximize listeners because I think Emily reading between the lines you've massively over booked yourself this week.


Emily Merrell  

Okay, I was away at a lake. Oh, last week. lollygagging I was working but more lollygagging and then it was my birthday the week before so it was more lollygagging and then there was a holiday the week before and then there's more Well, like I get and then I was gone the week before so it's


Lexie Smith  

we had a one month hybrid sabbatical slash not.


Emily Merrell  

Not slash I worked the whole time and I think I'm more productive than 90% of the world. So with lollygagging in between lots of lollygagging. That's lollygagging.


Lexie Smith  

So as what you're getting at is that you're packing it all in this week. Yeah,


Emily Merrell  

that's exactly I don't know about you too, but I'm also taking off like the week of the fourth and the taking off the whole week. Yeah, it's the week of the fourth Why would you work?


Lexie Smith  

Emily, we have a business together. I need to work


Emily Merrell  

I'm not taking off the week of the four it's


Lexie Smith  

like the rest of the world just tick off Thursday and Friday.


Emily Merrell  

I'm gonna be in Michigan I'm going to be with my dad but I haven't seen in two years. He's 83 This might be the last time I see him.


Lexie Smith  

Oh my god. I'm not Oh my god. I'm just like okay, you are going to find a reason to lollygag no matter what what day we pick it guys. I am not getting any Emily Merrill that week guys are probably a podcast we'll see if we can batch it. I don't know if she has time for me to batch it.


Emily Merrell  

This is like a public outing. Basically, I feel like things are tight for me. I'm being flogged publicly


Lexie Smith  

writing about like the loneliness epidemic epidemic or whatever and skim the skin this morning and I feel like I don't qualify for the loneliness epidemic but I feel like very needy right now and that you're making me I'm lonely in relation to you like like gagging and Lexie gag I don't know that was That was rough. That is so good. No,


Emily Merrell  

don't worry guys. I'm going to be coming to Lexie, we need to remember our dates are in IRL time. But my sister's getting married this year. And that's also like thrown some fun things into let's see


Lexie Smith  

sister marriage. I'm just kidding.


Emily Merrell  

You're also we after this conversation you need to help me like plan the theme. So that's the theme you know, the theme of the bachelorette party?


Lexie Smith  

Oh yeah, I just did that. I just did my bachelorette party of the summer now I just get to go to the next one. I don't have to plan it.


Emily Merrell  

Oh, wow. That's gonna be weird for you to not be me. Oh,


Lexie Smith  

lovely and are incredibly frustrating. We'll see. I'll challenge myself to let go of control. It's good. I need it once in a while.


Emily Merrell  

Well spoken control I feel like what are some things you know what you haven't control up I'm going to try the transition here we go. Okay, some things that you have control of or your business and some things that you can have control of in your business could be things like your branding and your website and your social and those things can attract what


Lexie Smith  

qualified leads Siri go that was me gotten there. We got there and today we're talking about how to attract qualified leads for your coaching business.


Emily Merrell  

My God, my brain just went into like how to plan a bachelorette party to attract a husband but that that doesn't track


Lexie Smith  

No, because you should already have the husband if you're Yeah, yeah. Or how to how to attract qualified time with Emily.


Emily Merrell  

Exactly. Oh, do you have a free trip? I can go on. I'm there.


Lexie Smith  

One au pair. You can pay yourself, you can pay your ticket, and then you can sleep on the couch in the hotel room for free. Time.


Emily Merrell  

That sounds so lovely. I cannot wait. I'm in really


Lexie Smith  

made it in life. Yeah, this track is fine.


Emily Merrell  

It's Tuesday. Here we are. Okay, so let's talk about qualified leads. And I think this is such a interesting topic in that. When you start a business, there's two types of people who started a business there are the people who build believe in building it, and they will come. And then there are the people that build it and are also simultaneously as they build it, really doing all of the things to like pull in the clients to them. And so let's talk about some of the things that you need to get right to to to be client number two, or to customer number


Lexie Smith  

one, before we even get into the how, Emily, what's a qualified lead? She's leaving She's literally leaving the screen. She's walking out of the room.


Emily Merrell  

This is this is me leaving?


Lexie Smith  

I'm not I will take this question. Talk to you back to myself, Lex what is a qualified lead? So a qualified lead is quite literal. It means someone is qualified to work with you. And there are different things that can make someone qualified. So back to you. I'm now that you didn't leave the room. What are some things that are considered qualifiers? Or what would make a lead qualified,


Emily Merrell  

we should drink while we do this podcast? I am


Lexie Smith  

but it's coffee. It's the third of the day, which my chiropractor would be mad about. Anyways, the question was,


Emily Merrell  

what would make a qualified lead a qualified lead is someone who understands what you're selling, it is someone that understands the program understands your offering, also is in are already understanding that like working with you is not going to be free free dollars, it's going to usually have a cost associated and is comfortable with the cost that is going to be the will


Lexie Smith  

and I'm gonna paraphrase, it's someone who's willing or ready to actually buy and that can look like qualified meaning. Like we could talk about price point, they're qualified to pay what you charge, it could be qualified, meaning they're ready to buy now versus a year from now. So time can be a qualifier. It could also be someone that's qualified to truly fit what you're offering if you're doing a program for weight loss, but they're looking for just maintenance, maintenance or whatever right that might not be qualified for your program. So qualifiers can take form in a few different categories from price to readiness to a true fit. So I think the first thing here is identifying what are your qualifiers? What does a qualified lead look like for you as a coach?


Emily Merrell  

You did that so beautifully. Thank you guys. This is what you get when you coach with Lex and I you get a lot you get a lot. Organized


Lexie Smith  

should show this organized, no eight, a shit show of organization. It's like underlining what you're saying. Okay.


Emily Merrell  

Yeah, no, I think I think you bring up really incredible points just in terms of when someone's, when you're getting in on a call with someone. And oftentimes, we think that like for someone to buy, they have to get on a call for you to buy. But that doesn't have to be the case. Lexi and I earlier this year, we were shopping for a coach to teach us something very specific. So we were very qualified lead because we wanted to work with a person in a very specific timeframe. We had budget put aside to work with this person. And we had a specific thing that we wanted to learn from said person. So we were very clear in our intentions. Right off the bat in every single sales call that we had, which was great. I think that was also probably we were like the best gift for a lot of coaches that we got on the phone with. Well,


Lexie Smith  

I think we're qualified to some. Yeah, there's no point there's like we ended up we weren't qualified for others. There was one girl we got on the phone with whose budget was like 5x What we wanted to pay. Sure, right. And then there was another coach, we got on a phone with what whose format wasn't what we were looking for. So we ended up being insanely qualified for the gal we went with. But I think that goes back to knowing your qualifiers. And there's a lot of things that those coaches that we got on the phone with that we weren't a fit for, could have done better to further qualify us. And the first step once you know your qualifiers, it's this is really kind of a part of just knowing who your ideal client is. Right? It's another thing to think about. So beyond just it's a woman and she's 35 What else makes your woman qualified? Knowing your person really, really well? is so key here because the first step in qualifying is reflecting your messaging and In your marketing to speak to them, not everyone.


Emily Merrell  

And I think a good example of that could be like, I want to work with clients that have already had clients before. I don't want to be someone's who has a million ideas, and I need to help them sort out their ideas to come up with what they're building, like this person needs to know what they're doing. Put it in the sand, a stake in the sand of what they they are offering and as had at least three clients previously, so then that way, you're, you're you have that jumping off point, and you can serve them in a way that you know, serves your program. And then I think, LAX. My question for you is, how do you make sure that your onboarding has qualifiers in place? Like how can you do that?


Lexie Smith  

You're gonna hate me, because I feel like we're jumping too far ahead. Okay. Let me backtrack. I like going.


Emily Merrell  

Okay. Let me let me let me re ask that question. Guys, I'm fine.


Lexie Smith  

My Type A is so on fleek. And your giggling is so on fleek. So we're on fleek


Emily Merrell  

by B plus, and also on fleek. What are we like? 12? What does that mean? I don't know. I don't know. We need to Google that at Urban Dictionary it later. But how are what is the way that an individual especially a coach can make sure that they are attracting qualified leads?


Lexie Smith  

Okay, thank you, Emily, for that perfectly timed and set up question.


Emily Merrell  

Well, off my time, to kind


Lexie Smith  

of, to kind of in all seriousness, to kind of piggyback off of what we were just saying, once you know your person and you know your qualifiers, you do need that to reflect on everything that means reflecting that on your website, in the language you put on your website in the vibe or the look of your website, and the imagery you use on your your website. For example, if you're looking to attract, let's go back to this weight loss example, you're a health coach looking to help people lose weight, your website needs to reflect that it needs to probably showcase your weight loss journey and or your clients weight loss journey, there needs to be language that is calling out that person. So everything you're putting out from a personal or company branding standpoint, needs to be in alignment with that ideal client. Because what's going to happen if you don't, and you just cast a wide net, and you just say health coach, period. Sure, you might be flooded with 500 calls and that feels exciting, but they probably aren't qualified.


Emily Merrell  

Yes, I will argue, well, I'm going to argue that at the beginning of your health coaching business, you might want to do health coach period. So then you understand what type of clients you want to have.


Lexie Smith  

And that's a different podcast, we're talking about qualified leads where that's a different podcast. So this is really great. I'm a big old asshole.


Emily Merrell  

Like, Cory is gonna be listening to this and be like, and she officially has her diagnosis of ADHD,


Lexie Smith  

dyslexia, type a to the bold. Okay, finish your thought, though. I didn't mean to cut you off. Because even though that is not exactly what we're talking about, I think, you know, it's something we've talked about in other episodes. And if someone's listening, and they're not, at the point where they no qualifiers, I think that's a really valid point. So here's me validating you finish your thought,


Emily Merrell  

thank you for validating me, I think it's a way for you to understand what you want a qualified lead to look like. And so in terms of experimentation, and creating the business is a lot of experimentation. It's a lot of understanding who you want to work with, and also who you do not want to work with. So if you have that person, going back to the weight loss person, you have someone that says I want to lose weight in two months, and it's like 900 pounds, I want to lose 900 pounds in two months. I don't know if that's a thing, but people do. But in two months, that's probably not a realistic person you can serve. And so you might understand that you don't want to work with that type of person versus someone that says, hey, I want in six months to get in really great shape for my wedding. And this is what success looks like and you know that you can deliver on that result. You also know that this is the type of client that you like you know that this client has like a reasonable goal in mind. Then you can then understand who your qualified lead is. Hey, everyone, Lexie here, and M


Lexie Smith  

and if you haven't heard, we did something pretty darn cool. We


Emily Merrell  

sure did. We launched a completely free community built specifically for coaches. Say


Lexie Smith  

it again for the people in the back. We launched a free


Emily Merrell  

community for coaches. Tell them quickly who it's for and what we're doing inside Lex. Sure thing.


Lexie Smith  

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 to learn, launch, grow, connect ideas, collaborate, fence and evolve together.


Emily Merrell  

You nailed it, Lex. Now the wallets free, you must apply in order to gain a free membership, you know, so we can make sure everyone inside is awesome, like us. Apply


Lexie Smith  

today at Ready Set Coach community.com. And I think that's beautifully illustrating that to get to the point of knowing what a qualified lead is, is a journey. And usually you have to have a few unqualified ones to figure out what qualified means to you. So, yes, you know, that kind of like underlines, you might not depending on where you're at listening to this podcast, you know, you might not be ready for qualified leads if you don't know what qualified leads looks like to you. But when you are come back to this podcast, and cannabis, and pause, and keep listening. Okay, so we talked about really knowing your person getting really specific reflecting across your branding. Now we're back to onboarding, Emily. So what are some very tangible things that we can do to weed out the looky loos or the non qualified leads?


Emily Merrell  

Oh, Lexie, what a genius question you just asked me,


Lexie Smith  

well timed,


Emily Merrell  

and well timed question in the order. Um, so as for those that are booking calendar, or booking calls, where you have like a calendar system, like a Calendly, or acuity, those tools are incredible, because they have the opportunity for you to create a form. And you can include language for qualifiers in this form. So like a good example of a qualifier, could be starting to work with Emily and are starting to work with them and lax begins at $4,500. And so people know that like, Okay, this is what it's going to cost for me to enter into their program, I can swing, I can swing that money or like, you know, maybe I'm not there yet. And I'll do their on demand offering instead. And that feels like a better price point. So it's kind of allowing the person to self select whether or not they make sense to get on the phone with you. While simultaneously it's an opportunity for you to screen the person before you even accept the call. So this person could say that they don't have a business and they have an idea, and X, Y, and Z, a bunch of things that just don't make sense for the program that you are currently focused on selling. And you can convey that to them before you get on the call without wasting either of your time.


Lexie Smith  

Uh huh. Yep, absolutely. You know, one of the simple things simple ways I like to explain qualified leads, or how to build a qualified lead intake system is just to put up barriers, thoughtful barriers, the harder you make it, to book a call with you, the more likely that if someone makes it out to the other end, they're qualified. Now harder can mean it takes more time, meaning a longer form, harder can mean further out on your calendar. So they can't just jump on your calendar today, harder could mean what Emily just highlighted, like more questions, more specific questions harder can mean, you know, just basically putting in moments of pause, so that the person on the other end, the potential client really has to be committed, because if they, you know, if they make it through your booking system, they're that much more ready, when they do speak to you. So it's a really, really powerful thing to do. Generally, it's not something you turn on when you're brand new coach, because again, you might not even know what qualified is, but when you're starting to ramp up your your clients, or you really just don't have time to talk to people just to talk to people. Putting these up is great. You can also call it like an application, an application could be a form of a qualifier. So there's a lot of different tools that you can do. Anytime you take them from one page to another page, multiple steps is also adding more qualifiers, right? That means you can also lose them you can also lose qualified leads by doing this that's the risk you run because some people don't have time, but it's really you know, a balanced they're about what you're looking for who are you? What's more important to you more volume of calls or less volume but more qualified.


Emily Merrell  

And I think I'll add in terms of an another qualifier, it's like putting a time constraint on it. We're at the end of their booking and like I understand having them check something like a tangible to do like I understand that if I am accepted into this program, I have 48 hours to accept or so there is also that opting in to whatever, whatever happens after the


Lexie Smith  

sales call. Yep. Okay, so that's great. Emily and Lexi, how do we get those people even to my website. So there's a few things besides just getting really specific with your messaging. One of the things I think is the biggest is showcasing relevant in the right case studies. Okay, so showcasing the type of client, you want to rinse and repeat. Now, I don't mean literally, like blonde girl named Lexi's, you want to track them. But if again, back to this weight loss example, if that's what you're selling, you need to showcase true stories of clients going through that process and be selective with who you feature and your testimonials. Because those testimonials, help sell and qualify the people who do reach your site. You


Emily Merrell  

want people essentially to see themselves in the testimonials and see the future version of what they can be and what their transformation could look like, by opting into whatever it is that you're selling. And same same goes with your phone call if you end up doing a sales call. Or maybe it's a program that you don't need a sales call. But it's something that you want them to be able to dream a little bit, and you want them to be able to be like, Oh, I know this person, and I know where she was before working with them. And now she has X, Y and Z and I want X, Y and Z. So yep, they're putting.


Lexie Smith  

And I think the easiest and best way to attract a high quality lead is by being an exceptional coach to the people you really like. Not saying you should be a shitty clients you don't like but let's say someone enters your ecosystem that truly to a tee is your ideal client. Just showing up and delivering and being an extraordinary coach and making them so happy with their experience will naturally lend itself to more referrals. Anytime you could have a referral. It's already much more qualified because there's some level of trust already baked in. Right. And generally, when someone refers someone, it's someone that's semi like minded or is someone in their world, there's a greater chance of them being you know, with a cop, yeah, we're qualified.


Emily Merrell  

Amen. And then from there, I think this is an important lesson. And this is the hardest lesson to learn. And some that some that we're still learning pretty much but getting really good at saying no to when it's not a right fit. And when it doesn't hit that checkbox that you want, have a qualified Leave, leave, lead, lead. And you don't want to make too many exceptions. And I think with business and with experience, you are going to make exceptions and you're going to always make exceptions to your rule. Sometimes that happens. And that's part of the learning journey. But what you want and what you want to get to is getting good at saying no when it's not the right fit


Lexie Smith  

so hard. It's so hard, guys. I mean, I've fallen trapped to this at multiple stages of business. Oh man, I'm in a scarcity mindset or revenue is low. And there's someone who wants to buy Why Why the heck would I say no? Right? Because it's a domino effect. Entering getting that one unqualified lead takes up your time from finding potentially more ideal clients. So it's really, really hard. It's something that requires patience. It's something that I think you get better, better as you continue in your coaching journey. Don't be hard on yourself. If you've made that mistake. Emily and I have made that mistake. It's Supernatural, supernatural, super common natural.


Emily Merrell  

It is super natural. And in terms of saying yes, when you want to say no. And I think and I just got finished him recording a podcast episode on intuition, and listening and pausing and listening to your intuition when you know that like everything about this client is screaming red flag and not exciting you and not energizing you but to what you said lacks you're, you're saying yes to it because you're in, you're like, well, one client is better than no client. Right? So just Just remember, we'll all have those seasons in some capacity. Yep.


Lexie Smith  

And I think a theme I just wanted to underline here is the journey to finding and attracting and closing qualified leads can be frustrating. It can take time because the reality is you're going to receive less leads more crickets, but the ones who do make it through really should be these aha moments but That's not easy. It's not easy if your calendar is impactful, of calls like that can be, it's almost like a vanity metric of sorts, right? Like, you could have 20 calls, and you hear you hear a lot of marketing, like get 2020 calls or 20 qualified calls. And like, there's no freaking way. First off, I could serve as 21 on one clients right now. And the likelihood that there's 20 qualified people on my calendar in one week. Unless you've been in the business a long time, or you have some crazy, large network or audience or you you've really just made it. That's just not generally the what happens. So


Emily Merrell  

yeah, that's so don't don't think that that's the reality of what it means to get qualified leads. So LAX to recap, it'll basically know your client really freaking well make sure to speak to them not to everyone, make sure that your branding reflects who you're trying to reach. That means like your website, your social, everything talks to each other, make sure that your onboarding has qualifiers in place. So that could be forms pricing, having some sort of opting in to understanding that the pricing and the value of working with you utilize your website and social media to showcase case studies of clients that you want more of playing lean into those testimonials that are those sweet, sweet, sweet clients. Get good at saying no and practicing saying now and that know that sometimes getting qualified leads means getting less leads, but better leads.


Lexie Smith  

Boom. And honestly, I think your homework sprinkled throughout because that's a whole doggone checklist. So listen to that checklist and identify if there's one area that you could improve upon from identifying your qualifiers. If you haven't done that start there. Yeah,


Emily Merrell  

I think that's a great homework. And with that, we will see you the next time. Emily and Lexi. Vale if you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, Visit Ready Set coach program.com