Wendy McCallum (01:40)
You had a discovery call that felt great. It was real connection. It was a really good conversation and they seemed ready to move forward. You sent the link for them to sign up and then crickets. A week goes by, then two, you tell yourself that they might've changed their mind or found somebody else or decided that coaching wasn't for them. So you move on. But here's the thing. You might be completely wrong. And the follow-up you're not doing
could be costing you clients. That said, not every lead is worth chasing. Sometimes the reason they didn't sign up is because they're actually not a good fit and deep down, you know it. This episode is about how to follow up with intention, how to know when it's worth pursuing and how to let go when it's not. Hi there, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. This is the third part of a five-part series. So if you haven't listened to the couple of episodes that go before this one,
and I really encourage you to go back and listen to those. You can absolutely listen to this one on its own. But they're all part of a series about the conversations that really build coaching businesses, the stuff that we don't talk about enough, the pieces that are critically important if you want to build a sustainable, reliable coaching business that doesn't burn you out with all the hustle. So we talked in the first of this five-part series about
how to ask for referrals with out feeling salesy. We talked about referrals from existing and past clients, but we also talked about referrals from other professionals who are serving a similar audience to you. Then in the second part of this series, we talked about networking and how icky networking can feel and how to approach networking in a very different way. Especially if you're someone like me who's just sort of naturally uncomfortable in that situation. I think most of the coaches that I support,
would say that's the case. They just find it to be kind of a, just a false social setting that doesn't feel comfortable to them. So that was the second part of this conversation. Today, we're gonna talk about how to follow up after a discovery or sales caller conversation that did not convert without sounding salesy or desperate, which is the last thing, of course, any of us wanna feel. And then we have two more episodes coming, one about pricing, the price conversation, how to address
the question around how much you charge with real confidence. And then lastly, we're gonna talk about difficult client conversations. So some of the things that come up in coaching relationships that are problematic and how to address those in a professional, confident way. So again, today we're talking about what happens when someone doesn't say yes right away and how to handle it with confidence and discernment. So let's talk first about why not right now as an answer.
feels like a rejection to us. If you have ever gotten the response, not right now, I'm not ready for this coaching right now, maybe down the road, I'll reach back out to you, that can really pack an emotional punch. You put yourself out there, you had a real conversation for most of us, especially in the early years of coaching. These types of conversations like sales calls and discovery calls are awkward and hard.
and you thought that that conversation was going somewhere and then you either got no response at all or a polite decline to it. It's hard not to take that personally. Most of us will assume it's a no and just move on. We won't follow up because we don't wanna seem pushy or salesy. And we also often start like dissecting the conversation and asking ourselves like questions like.
Did I price this too high or did I say something too wrong or am I just not good enough at this? And we tell ourselves a lot of stories around it, including like, I'm not likable or they found somebody better or I did something wrong on the call. But the truth is most of the time it's not you. And I've talked about this on other podcast episodes. It's really not about you. People have complicated lives. They have competing priorities. They have financial constraints. They have timing constraints. They have lots of fear.
oftentimes around this area of their life that they reached out for support around and there's indecision that is rooted in that fear. So not right now usually means exactly that, honestly. It doesn't mean never, it just means not right now. Sometimes it's something else entirely and that's worth examining too, so we're gonna talk about that. But the feeling that you have of rejection when someone does not sign up for your offer after what feels like a pretty great sales call,
is totally normal and natural. I just want to normalize that right out of the gate. Before we get into like what to do when that happens, I want to talk about something that a lot of people don't talk about. But if you listen to this podcast for a while, you know that I'm nothing if not very honest. And I would, I want to say like, kind of have to do a gut check before you follow up. So before we even start talking about what follow up looks like, do this gut check.
Before you start crafting the follow-up email, take a breath, because not every lead is actually worth pursuing. And I think this is a skill that you will hone over time. The more experience you get, the better you get at detecting the real reason why someone didn't sign up and that the reason is that the two of you are just not a good fit. I'm really good. I get that sense on calls now. It's very clear to me when I'm on a call with somebody and we're not a good fit.
Now I have processes in place that help me reduce the likelihood that that happens, including an application process before a discovery call, which I believe I've talked about on other podcast episodes, but it still happens, of course. People get on calls and it's just clear to me that we're not a good fit. We're just not vibing. The personality fit isn't there or the particular thing that they're looking for support around just doesn't feel like the right fit for me as a coach. And when that happens and you know it, you get to not follow up.
So I wanted to make sure that I talked about that. You don't always have to follow up after every sales call if when you think about it, it becomes clear to you that maybe it's just meant to be that you don't work together. So questions to ask yourself include things like, how did I feel during the call? Was it energizing or did I feel drained afterwards? I know I can like physically feel right now what it feels like to get off a call and just feel like relief, the call's over and kind of drained from it.
If that's the case, it's usually a sign that we're not a good fit. Every once in a while, it's something else. you know, I just had my day was overloaded and it wasn't a great day for a discovery call because I just had run out of energy at the end of the day. But a lot of the time, it's that that is not a good fit for me coaching wise. Did the person seem coachable? Was the person standing in personal responsibility? Did they seem open to actually doing the work themselves? Did they acknowledge the fact that it was only them that could change this and they were looking for support and guidance on how to take action?
Or did they sound really needy? Were they in a victim mentality? Were they asking for advice as opposed to true coaching? And that is usually a sign that they're not a good fit for coaching and will be kind of an exhausting and unrewarding client, right? Were there any red flags? Like I've been on calls before where there's been resistance to everything. If there's resistance to everything I say, it's probably not a good fit. Not because I'm always right.
but because that's likely to continue happening in a coaching session and that's just not going to be productive for anybody. And then I guess the real question is, was I really excited about working with this person? And sometimes the answer to that is just an obvious no. I was not excited about them. I was just really looking forward to filling that slot in my roster, to having that revenue booked or whatever the situation is.
You got to ask yourself those questions because these answers to those questions will often lead you to ⁓ be able to sort of disengage and let go and just let it be and not follow up. It is tempting to pursue every need, especially when business feels slow. I get it. But trust me, like taking on the wrong client often costs you a lot more than losing that revenue.
It costs you energy, it costs you time, and sometimes it costs you peace of mind. I have had experiences with clients in the past that have been turned into very emotionally draining experiences, become very complicated, and been quite difficult for me to extricate myself from. I feel much more confident and competent in doing that now than I did in the early days of coaching, but I learned from every one of those experiences. You should be excited about working with someone. A good fit is somebody who...
you are really excited about working with. If any of these things are showing up for you, it's probably not a good fit. If they push back on everything before they'd even started, not a good fit. They wanted you to fix them instead of be a partner for them in action and growth, not a good fit. If their goals didn't align with what you actually help people with and what you actually do as a coach, not a good fit. If something just felt off and you can't even name it, if there's just something, if your gut is just telling you,
something's off here, listen to that. And definitely if you found yourself sort of dreading the idea of actually working with them, you have to listen to that. Trust your gut, your instinct is not going to steer you wrong. I have had a few situations where I have felt intrigued and
certainly not unexcited to work with someone, but also just had a little bit of a nagging feeling that maybe this person was gonna be a lot more work than some of my other clients, which is not necessarily a bad thing, by the way. And I have started a coaching relationship with them and been just blown away in terms of everything about them and the coaching. And those have been some of the best relationships ever in my coaching practice. The ones that I thought, this person's gonna be a tough nut to crack. But I have...
with those people never felt like I didn't want to work with them or was dreading it. It was more just a thing I'm to have to get creative with this person. I think there might be a few barriers that we need to get through before we get to the meat of this issue. But whenever I have a feeling of like, ugh, I don't know, I don't think this is a good fit, I do not follow up anymore. And so I just wanted to give you permission to follow the gut check. Let it go gracefully. You don't need to follow up at all in that situation.
⁓ You really don't. You can sit with it for a while and if your thoughts don't change on it, don't follow up. Okay, now let's talk about what the words like not right now or some version of that, what those actually mean. There are so many reasons why people don't say yes immediately. A lot of the time they actually need time to think and that is totally legitimate. And this is one of the reasons why my approach to discovery calls and sales is so different than the
approach that I was trained in. Because for me, if I am not given time to actually think about things and make a decision on my own, I am going to be an immediate no. I cannot stand pressure on sales. It's like someone is questioning my ability to make the right decision for me when I feel forced or pressured into making a decision right away. That's why don't like scarcity and urgency tactics. So I'm not going to do that with the people that I talk to. And I think most people feel that way. They just need time to think.
Also, sometimes the timing genuinely just isn't right. It's not right for them financially, logistically or emotionally. And I always say to people like, it needs to be the right time for you to join in this program or take advantage of this coaching opportunity. If it's not the right timing for you for any of those reasons, financial, logical, emotional, then you're not gonna get best value out of this. I'd rather you come back when the timing feels right to you. Sometimes they're scared, as I said.
Getting into a coaching relationship feels really vulnerable. Oftentimes it's the first time people have talked about this issue with anyone, certainly with a stranger, and that feels really vulnerable to them and a little bit scary, right? And sometimes they're actually scared of the change. They're scared of the cost of the change, is probably a better way to put it. Oftentimes people will need to go check with a partner on the budget once they get the information on the offer and the pricing of the offer.
I'm also cool with that, by the way. Like if you are in a relationship where you share your financial situation as such that you're sharing resources and you're budgeting together, like, yeah, of course I'm gonna give you time to go have that conversation. Sometimes people are comparing options. I talked about in an earlier episode, sometimes I get on discovery calls with more skeptical clients and they've actually interviewed a bunch of coaches. Again, that's their prerogative. I respect that.
they may still have people they want to talk to and I always going to give them that opportunity. Sometimes life gets busy and they just forget guys or the email from you gets buried in their inbox. There might have been some crisis that occurred since the time you talked to them and you know the follow-up. So there is a big difference between not right now and not ever and I need you to remember that. Some people
As we've said, genuinely not a fit, wrong timing, wrong offer, you're the wrong coach for them. But that is not always the case. Many people are just not ready yet and your job is to figure out which one of these you are dealing with and then respond accordingly. Once again, guys, I'm coming back to curiosity over making assumptions. If you stay curious in the entire, I'm gonna call it sales conversation. I don't even like the word sales in it. It's really a conversation.
a connection that you are building with this other person, oftentimes the very first step in that is a discovery call. It's the first time you actually meet the person and start a conversation with them. If you stay curious in that conversation, instead of making assumptions, that's gonna serve you really, really well. Asking them ⁓ questions that allow you to find out what is actually going on for them is so helpful instead of making assumptions around that. So.
How do you respond in the moment on a call when, or in the beginning of a conversation when someone says, well, that sounds great, but I don't think it's right for me right now. I need to, or I need to think about it. I'll tell you that I always respond to that in the same way, which is of course, I totally understand that. That makes perfect sense. Take the time that you need to respond. Now I have said that in times when my private practice is full, which frankly for the last five or six years has been consistent,
I don't have a lot of extra spots. I usually have one or two spots that open up and then I let people know that I am accepting applications for one-on-one coaching clients. And so I might say to that person, you know what, take some time to think about it. I totally respect that. If you could get back to me by the weekend, I'd really appreciate that because I don't open up another slot for coaching until I know that you're not going to be going forward. So that's something that I do. But again, it's because it is the truth.
And I still always give them at least a couple of days to think about it and let me know one way or the other. So I think that that's important to just normalize it and say, of course you do. I totally understand that. Take the time that you need. Now, you can ask questions there, too. You can start to get curious, right? You can say, can I ask you what's making the timing tricky right now? Or is there anything specific that you're weighing that I help you with? Do you have any questions that I could help you with that might make this decision a little clearer for
But most of the time I don't even do that. I just give them the time to go away and then I send a follow-up later, which we're going to talk about in a second. When a person says, can't afford this right now, this is just way outside of my budget, don't assume that that's a hard no. It might mean I can't afford it at this price or in the way that I need to pay for it, which might mean, for example, a payment plan might be a solution for them. It might mean they can't afford it this month, but they can afford it next month.
Or it might mean, and frankly, it almost always means that they're scared and the money thing is an excuse. Oftentimes that's the case. It's just the easiest thing to say in the moment. So I might ask them, is it like the amount of the investment or is it the timing of the payments that it feels tricky to you? And if they say, well, it's kind of the timing of the payments, I'll say, well, I can be flexible on that. What could I do that might be helpful to you?
if that makes sense for me, which it doesn't always, but with like larger ticket programs, it almost always does for me to do that. And sometimes that's the solution to the problem when we move forward from there. Like I just sold a program last month that is normally has a three payment plan and the person was really looking for a five payment plan. And I was like, well, it doesn't matter to me. I can easily create a five payment plan on my.
payment provider platform. That's very easy for me to do. I'll just create a link for you that's five payments and I sent her out that
you you can sometimes there's a solution to that. If the answer is, you know what, it's actually the total investment. Like it just feels like too much right now. I might ask them if just curious, like I hear you on that. I'm just curious if the budget wasn't a factor, would this offer feel like a good fit for you? Or do you think we are a good fit for coaching?
Cause I want to get feedback on that too. Maybe it's something else that's happening there and I want to get that information. If they go completely quiet after that conversation, sales call, whatever you want to call it, don't assume their silence just means no. Like I said earlier, they might be just busy or overwhelmed or something might have happened, life got lifey, whatever it is, they might just need a nudge. Oftentimes I send a reminder email out or a little follow up to people and they're like, my gosh, sorry, totally forgot to sign up.
And then, you know, things move on from there. And we're going to talk about follow up in a second. What you definitely don't want to do is get defensive or pushy or, you know, do that. This is the one thing I'd say, like, please don't do this. Coaches do this all the time. They start, they drop their price. They start throwing in bonuses. Honestly, it's just never been the case for me that those are the types of things that cause people to shift.
If people are genuinely afraid and fear is holding them back, you throwing in a bonus or dropping your price by a hundred bucks isn't going to make a difference. And it just frankly, I think just looks kind of desperate and unprofessional. You need to know the value of your offer. We've talked about that in other episodes and be able to stand behind it with confidence and just state the price. The price is the price. And definitely don't make anybody feel guilty for not saying yes, obviously. But the biggest mistake people make
is they just disappear after this. And honestly, I feel like this is almost as bad as pushy sales because when I look at how often on a follow-up or in a continuing conversation with someone, that person eventually starts working with me and gets an amazing value out of the coaching engagement, it's a complete disservice to people to just like assume they don't wanna work with you, make a bunch of assumptions and then just ghost them. If nothing else in this episode, wanna...
dissuade you from doing that and having that be your practice.
I wanna share with you one question that I sometimes ask that can actually change everything in a conversation where you have made an invitation to an offer and the person has said no or said not yet. Really if it's not yet, I think this is where I would say this. Is there anything that I could do right now that would make this a no brainer for you? It's an easy question that covers all of the potential objections, right? And it's not desperate, it's just curious.
And you might say that you might say, I'm curious, like, is there anything I could do that would make this a no brainer for you? And they might say, well, you know what, like, honestly, I just that amount a month is just overwhelming for me right now my budget. But if I could spread that out over double the time, I'd be it. Right. Or they might say, well, you know what, I just feel like those sessions that you're offering, they're, too long. I feel I feel anxious about getting into a one hour conversation with a complete stranger. And then you might say, I don't know if this will work for you or not, but I'm just kind of
talking off the cuff here, you might say, what if we did half an hour sessions to start, right? So you just don't know what they're gonna say. When they might say, well, I'm really afraid that if we start talking about this thing, that we're gonna end up talking about this other thing and I'm not ready to talk about this other thing yet. And then you can say to them, you know what? You're in the driver's seat in these coaching sessions. This is a collective process. I will never take you somewhere that you don't want to be. If you tell me you don't wanna be there, I will respect that, right?
You don't know what they're gonna say when you ask them that question, but the answer to that question, curious, like, is there anything I could do that would make this a no-brainer for you right now? The answer to that will often give you really, really helpful information and give you something to continue the conversation, like a basis upon which to continue the conversation. Remember that you're not trying to convince or manipulate anyone ever. If you feel like you're trying to sell something or convince someone or manipulate someone,
you are gonna come off as salesy, manipulative, and pushy. You're just trying to make it easier for them to say yes if they want to, okay? You're not trying to convince them they want to. If they want to, you're trying to help them say yes. So if they're like, you know what? Yeah, you could make this a no-brainer for me if you just told me, you assured me of this, or if you were able to meet me here, or if I have had clients who are like, you know what, I don't think I'm ready to start yet.
I'm leaving this job in a month and I feel like that would be the better time for me to actually start this coaching engagement. I have had that happen multiple times and I've said, well, of course we can do that. We can get you registered and we'll put your first session in the books now, but we'll put it in the books for this date. And if you have a few minutes, we can spend a few minutes talking about what you can do between now and then that might be really helpful for us when we start that coaching engagement. That's happened to me a number of times. So again, you're not trying to convince anyone.
You are just trying to make it easier for them to say yes if they want to. You're trying to understand what is standing in the way of them saying yes when they have already admitted that they would love to do this coaching. Okay? So let's talk about follow-ups. So we're gonna talk about the type of follow-up that keeps the door open. That's all you're trying to do with a follow-up is just keep the connection, keep the conversation going. And most coaches don't follow up.
which is why I'm doing this episode. And that is a huge mistake. Again, we've talked about why they don't follow up. They don't want to be annoying. They don't want to be pushy. They're making assumptions. And then the lead just gets super cold. But again, the truth is it's nothing to do with the person. It's not nothing to do with you, why the person hasn't ⁓ followed up. And so a gentle follow-up is actually a service, not a disservice, as I said earlier. You're just reminding them.
of something they knew they would, they know they want, right? So you've had a conversation, it went great, they were excited about it. You're just reminding them that that opportunity, that invitation is still there. You're not pushing them into something that they don't want to do. So when do you follow up? I follow up within 24 hours, maybe 48 at most if I'm super busy or I forget, but it's within a day or two that I'm following up with a simple check-in. Simple, okay? Might say something like,
hi there, just wanted to follow up. It so great getting to know you a little bit yesterday on our discovery call. No pressure at all. I know you wanted some time to think. I just wanted to let you know that if you have any questions, you can always just reach out here by email. And if now's not the right time, I understand that too. So that's the type of follow up that I send. If they've gone quiet for a long time, I don't heal back from them. I might send them one more follow up and I might say...
Hi there, just wanted to check in. Haven't heard back from you. I know things get busy. If you're still thinking about coaching, I'm here. I'd love to work with you. And if the timing's not right, no worries. I just didn't want you to think that I'd forgotten about you. And I send them a note like that. Again, not pushy, but it does keep that connection alive. Let them know that I haven't forgotten about them. Again, it's about being friendly and warm and helpful, not pushy, needy, salesy, all of those things. Okay.
The truth is not everyone is gonna be ready right now, but a lot of these people are gonna be ready down the road. So you just wanna keep people in your circle who feel like a good fit for you. Your job is to stay connected with them without being super annoying. That's a really helpful way to think about it. I'm just trying to keep a connection going here with this person, but I don't wanna be annoying. I've had lots of clients that have come back three months, six months, 12 months later, whenever the timing feels right to them, and I just wanna stay connected with them. The first thing is make sure they're on your mailing list.
because that's a way for you to keep in touch with them if you're sending out a weekly newsletter. But also keep track of people who've expressed interest and haven't moved forward. People who you've had like one-on-one conversations with at a networking event, people that you've like interacted with, you know, with the voice notes in the DMs or somebody you've had an actual discovery call with or an email exchange with, keep notes of those people. Those are warmer leads than any other like...
cold lead that you'll ever find, right? These people are already warmed up to you. So I've already said, low pressure ways to keep them connected, add them to your newsletter list, engage with them on social media. Like I do that sometimes I'll go into my messages on social media and I'll scroll through them and I'll see like an old client there who I've been following. And I might just drop a note and say, ⁓ or somebody who I, you maybe I...
had a discovery call with, but never ended up working with or met somewhere. And I'll just say, hi, I just saw your post. Thanks for sharing that. Me too, I feel the same way. Just wondering how you're doing. If you have a second, me a voice note back and let me know what's new in your world. So just keeping that conversation going. Sending them something that might be helpful. So I'll do that sometimes too. If I have coaches, for example, that I've supported in the past and I see something they're doing on social media.
and I know that I've just listened to a podcast episode or maybe I've put one out that's on topic that might be helpful to them. I'll send them a note and say, oh, hey, I thought this episode, I saw your thing that you were talking about and I just thought of this episode and I thought it might be helpful for you. Here's the link if you want to listen to it. Again, it might be my episode, somebody else's podcast episode. Just checking in directly as well, I told this story on a episode of the podcast about a client of mine who, one of my coaching clients, coach clients who,
just took the time to go through all of her past clients and send out a personal note to all of them. Now it took some time to do this, but she had a new program she was offering and she wanted to start the conversation with these people and let them know that she had this brand new offer that's kind of cool. And she ended up getting a bunch of those people enrolled into her new program as a result of that reach out. Again, it wasn't pushy, it was just informative. Like, oh, hey, loved working with you, been thinking about you.
I just, have this new thing. I thought you'd be a great fit for it. Here's the information on it. If you have any questions, let me know. Happy to hop on a call anytime. I'd love to catch up. Again, long game here, guys. I think the biggest mistake we make is we assume that it's just a one and done thing, that we're supposed to get on a call the first time we meet someone and convert to a sale. Does that happen sometimes? Absolutely. Usually in those situations though, I think that that, I find that that person has been following, has been in my world for a long time.
And as a new coach, there often isn't the same opportunity for somebody to get to know you without getting on a one-on-one call with you, right? So for me, I've had podcasts over the last 15 years. I'm out there all over the place. There's all kinds of free resources people can download, and I've been on other people's podcasts. And mean, people, think, probably have heard more than enough from me, right? So it's very common for someone to get on a discovery call with me and feel like they know me.
because of that. But if you're a newer coach, you're just not gonna have that yet. And that's okay. I really want you to be thinking about this call as the first step in a conversation, right? Take away any pressure to sell. You're not chasing them. And then after that, the follow-ups and the continued connection is just trying to stay in there. You're just staying in their orbit. You're just reminding them that you're still out there so that when they're ready, you're the first person they think of, or when somebody that they know is ready.
you're the first person they refer, right? This is relationship building, it's not sales pressure. Follow ups is a critical, like are a critical part of this. If you're not following up, the conversation dies. The person probably feels like you don't wanna talk to them anymore because they didn't buy immediately. That's the last thing I want someone to feel, right? So that's how I would follow up. It's really, yes, there's some formal.
there's a formal structure to it then I will always send an email within 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes I'll send another little follow-up email down the line saying, you know, life probably got lifey for you, just wanted to let you know I'm here if you ever need me. But really the continued connection conversation for me happens in a more casual way, interacting on social media and the newsletters that I send out every week, maybe dropping them a note if I see a resource or an article or I think of a book that I think might be, they might be interested in. It's not about pushing a sale.
All right, we have to talk about this in this conversation. How do you know when it's time to let go? Just because sometimes it's truly not a fit. We talked about that at the beginning. If they're not your ideal client, they're not ready for coaching at all, which you'll get better at knowing when that is the case. They're not standing in personal responsibility. They're blaming everybody else for the way their life is. They say things like, and then this happened to me and this happened to me and I don't understand why all of these bad things keep happening to me.
and it's clear to you that they are actually not recognizing that the only person who can change things is them, then they're probably not ready for coaching now. Maybe they've decided to go a different direction, that happens sometimes, or like I said earlier, your gut's just telling you that they're not the right person for you. All of those things tell you it's not a good fit and to maybe just let it go, or let it go for now at least.
I also think like, hopefully this is obvious, but if someone has explicitly said, no, I'm not interested, I will never follow up. I am not gonna be pushy there. Doesn't mean I might not chat, drop them a note on a social media post they've done. If there's something interesting I have to add to it or say, or whatever, or follow up with them and say, hey, just wondering how you're doing, or I saw that thing you did, that was really cool. But I'm definitely not going to like really be focused on continuing a connection with somebody. I'm gonna respect that.
If they've stopped responding after multiple follow ups, same, like I just kind of, I'll let it go. My gut will tell me it's time to let it go. And as I said earlier, this is important. If you ever realize you're chasing the money, not the client, that is something to listen to, okay?
If you've decided they're not a fit, you don't owe them an explanation on that or a follow-up. You really don't. You can just like quietly let that connection die. And again, don't take this personally because a no or not yet even is not a verdict on your coaching. It's just not for all the reasons I've talked about earlier. Let it go. Focus on the people who are right. Or if it's not right now, just gently continue fostering the connection over time. All right. So.
You know, this information that you get is a reframe on this, this whole thing. Hopefully I'm reframing this for you. I know I've talked about this on other podcast episodes. I really wanted to do a specific episode on follow ups and sales calls in particular, discovery calls, because this is just so often an area of anxiety for people when I'm supporting coaches. A reframe on the right now is that it's not a failure, it's information, it's data.
It's just a not yet or a not right now and not necessarily the end of the conversation. It's probably the beginning of a relationship, honestly. Sometimes it's the end of one that was never meant to be. Your job is not to close every sale. I wanna just remind you of that. You need to trust the process. The timeline can be long on this. you know, everyone has a different timeline and sometimes the first follow-up will result in...
the person signing on. And sometimes it's a newsletter six months later that they reach out to, remember we did that discovery call. I wasn't ready then, but now I feel like I'm ready. Right? So it's about trusting the process. It's about relationship building. It's not about making a sale. And I think the coaches that succeed are the ones who just keep showing up. They keep connecting. They keep choosing wisely. They're not pushy. They're not salesy. They just keep connections alive.
So I hope that that was helpful for you. That is the third episode in this series. Again, go back and listen to the other couple of episodes if you haven't yet. And there are two more episodes coming on important conversations you need to learn how to have as a coach in the next two episodes this month. I wanna leave you with a couple of things to think about. Think about your last few discovery calls that did not convert. In fact, go back and look at your notes. Did you do a gut check afterwards? How did you feel?
Have you been missing that? Have you been feeling like, it's so bad, I really wanted to work with that client and then they never signed on? Or would you kind of just happily accept it and move on? I mean, that's really the got checked piece of it. And this week I just wanna challenge you to reach out to one person who you genuinely wanted to work with that you didn't follow up with. Just send them a note to check in, see how they're doing. Low pressure, warm, check in.
and just notice what happens and notice what feels, how it feels to you. And start building that into your experimental model of coaching business, these follow-ups. Another little thing you can do is start creating a warm leads list if you don't have one yet. And then you can start, I call them points of contact, but just reaching out and making like a little point of contact with somebody every day from that list. And again, you can do that through the DMs on social media.
comment on a post that they had on LinkedIn or something. You can send them a little personal note. Maybe there's a resource or something that you think might be helpful to them. I love sending a voice note or every once in while send a Loom video just so that people can see my face. So many ways to do it. I hope that that helped you reframe follow-ups, put them in a different light for you. And I hope that that really invigorates you and just gives you some motivation.
to actually start actively tracking your follow-ups, making sure that you are in fact continuing to foster connection after the first point of contact, which is usually for a lot of us is that discovery call or that sales call. As always, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you love it and you know coaches who might also enjoy it, please share it. I'm building this podcast on word of mouth.
And if you've got any ideas for me or any feedback on the show, you can always send them to me by email at wendy at wendymcallum.com. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next week on The Coaching Edge.
