How to Keep Your Connection With Your Clients While Doing Group Coaching

By: Stephanie Tuesday June 7, 2022 comments Tags: product creation, Time management, Customer Service, Business planning

 
Do you ever find yourself thinking, "I'd love to be able to coach more people at a time, but I don't want to lose the important, intimate connection between me and my clients"?

This is one of the most common fears I hear coaches express when they're thinking about expanding their business.

We all know that having your income tied to the number of working hours in a day means your wealth and the number of lives you change are both limited, and your income is dependent on you continuing to be able to work. But the challenge of scaling up is that you need to find ways to give your clients all the time and attention they need, while working with more of them at once.

If you've been considering creating a group coaching program, but this fear is holding you back, here are a few strategies you can use to tackle that problem:

1. Switch from 1-1 calls to group coaching calls.

This lets you share your wisdom and strategies with more people at a time, while also allowing your clients to talk with you in real time, hear your voice (and see your face, if you use video calls), and ask questions either during the training or in a Q&A at the end of the call.

It also gives your clients a chance to get feedback and encouragement from each other, and to learn from each other's questions and experiences, which can create a more complete learning experience. As a client of coaches, I've had times when I couldn't think of any questions I needed to ask, only for another client to ask a question which I suddenly realized I needed the answer to. Two heads are truly better than one!

To be clear, there are times and places for group coaching calls, and for one-on-one calls. If the subject is highly personal and subjective, and your guidance is completely customized to each individual, group calls may not be the best choice for you.

But if you've been sharing the same strategies and principles several times a week with just one client at a time, and you'd rather share them with the whole group once a week and then use the time you save to answer clients' questions, grow your business, or have some "me time" or family time, group coaching calls are probably a good fit for you.

2. Use pre-recorded materials to help people while you're offline, then support them via calls.

Instead of spending a lot of time sharing the same teaching points over and over, you can record them once and then keep on selling them indefinitely.

Self-paced materials can be especially useful in situations where your clients need to be walked through a task step by step; they can read, watch, or listen to as much of the instructions as they need to complete the next step, then pause, complete the step, and resume learning. They can also refer back to the material whenever they need to refresh their memories.

Having this way to share your wisdom without being actively involved enables you to serve your clients even when you aren't working. You could change lives while you're on vacation or asleep!

It also creates a legacy that can outlive you, so you can keep making an impact even after you're gone.

But it doesn't mean you have to cut yourself out of your clients' lives.

You can still support them via coaching calls, where you can maintain your connection, hold them accountable to their action steps, answer their questions, help them tailor your teachings to their specific situations, and anything else they need. These could be weekly group calls, regularly scheduled 1-1 calls, or the ability to call you whenever they need extra help - though that last one is generally reserved for higher-ticket offers.

As you can see, there are many ways to structure this arrangement. The important thing is that you find a learning method that works well for your clients, while also using a teaching method and creating a lifestyle that brings you joy.

3. Upsell to 1-1 coaching.

If you still want to offer 1-1 coaching, while also using group coaching to scale your business, you can use group coaching as a lower-ticket offer and 1-1 coaching as an upsell.

Group coaching gives you a way to serve people who aren't ready to pay the prices your 1-1 coaching deserves, but who still need and want your help. Once you've gotten them great results with your introductory group program, or if they're partway through the program and realize they need more in-depth guidance and hand-holding, you may be able to upsell them to your 1-1 coaching.

These upsells should be strategically placed - not so obnoxious that they get in the way of your clients' attempts to use the stuff they've already paid for, but easy to spot and use for those who need them. You can even tailor them to the part of the course your clients are going through - for example, "If you need more personalized guidance to help you create compelling capture pages, you can book an in-depth 1-1 session with me here."

This call to action should either include a link in the text, or be followed by a button that leads to your 1-1 session signup page.

Ready to get this program started?

I hope this blog post set your mind at ease, and gave you some ideas you can use to scale your coaching business in a way that fits your ideal business and lifestyle. If you have any questions about the strategies I shared here, please feel free to contact me and ask!

And if you're ready to create your group program, and you'd love to get a step-by-step walkthrough of the whole process, I'm happy to help! You can get this easy-to-follow process in book form, audio/video form, or live coaching form, so you can choose the method that works best for you.

Get the book            Get the audio/video course            Get the live coaching

About the Author: Stephanie

Stephanie is a writer and coaching program design specialist. She helps coaches to create and sell life-changing coaching programs, so they can help more people, make more money, and have more time freedom.