How to Get Coaching Clients: 8 Successful Coaches Shared Their Best Methods

Last Updated : July 14, 2023 By Rana Leave a Comment

Wondering how to get coaching clients to grow your coaching business?

If yes, you are not alone!

Finding new clients or customers is one of the biggest ongoing challenges for any business, particularly when starting.

Learning how to say no is one of the most underutilized marketing strategy, especially when growing a coaching business.

You get the space you need to focus on what is important to you by saying no to a coaching client who doesn’t fit into your niche. It also helps you stay on track and achieve your coaching goals in your particular niche.

However, life and business needs kicks in and saying no when you need to pay bills isn’t easy.

To help you out with this, we have asked the following question from industry-leading life coaches:

How to get coaching clients? What is your best advice for coaches who are just starting out?

Check out their generous replies on how they overcome this biggest challenge to grow their coaching businesses.

1. Marcia Reynolds

Dr. Marcia Reynolds has provided coaching and training for leaders and coaches in 43 countries with a focus on establishing strong relationships.

She holds a doctorate in organizational psychology and two master’s degrees in learning psychology and communications. She was the 5th global president of the International Coach Federation and recognized by Global Gurus as the #4 coach in the world.

Best advice on how to get coaching clients:

People need to know you exist to hire you. You have to discover ways to be visible in print, online, and in person if possible.

First, decide if you want your business to be local in your city or broader nationally or internationally. This is important when considering how you can be visible to potential paying clients.

Second, determine where your potential clients go to find support services. I don’t recommend buying advertising for coaching. Most people hire coaches they feel personally connected to through conversations or when reading what they write or watching their videos. Locally, what groups do they join that you could join as well? Where do they gather on social media? What social events do they attend, including the gyms they go to? Show up with advice. Don’t try to sell them. Be of service so they experience how you can help them.

If your potential clients are national or international like mine, then create visibility by writing books, being a guest on well-known podcasts (you need to have special advice to offer), posting short, useful videos on YouTube, and above all, writing blogs. You can then post your blogs on LinkedIn, convert them into short audio and video tips you can post on your website as well as your social media sites, and send them out in a newsletter that has links to other useful sites (not yours) to demonstrate you are a valuable resource (but don’t put people on your mailing list without permission).

Third, when people thank you for your tips and ideas, ask them if they would copy and paste their comments in a LinkedIn testimonial and if you can use their words on your website. If you ask right away when they are grateful for you, they will say yes.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask people for business after they thank you for what you gave them. You might offer a complimentary session to try coaching, or ask them if a short engagement with you, maybe three sessions, might be worth it to them to get ahead of their difficulties and see a clear path forward.

2. Melissa Wiggins

Melissa Wiggins, a Scotland native currently residing in Orlando, Florida, is a proud mum of five and an advocate for change in pediatric cancer. She holds a law degree from the prestigious University of Edinburgh.

She is a life coach who helps you become your very own life coach.

Best advice on how to get life coaching clients:

If you are thinking of being a coach a couple of things you should think about before you decide:

1. Am I an entrepreneur? Most successful coaches are

2. Grow some extra skin as you will get a ton of rejections in the beginning.

That’s okay – keep going!

3. Ask yourself why you want to be a coach – if it’s just to make money that is not enough to sustain you- there must be passion and purpose.

After you have done some of that work and you have your credentials your number one job is not only to tell the world you are a life coach ( no niche the first year) but to BE a life coach! I went from a lawyer turned CEO to “she is a life coach” everyone knows this is my job now! I create content about it! My social media has a heavy push on it! Not in a gross sales way BUT in an “I want to impact people’s life type of way! “

The biggest advice I can give is to go all in! Don’t do a side hustle!

Don’t half work it I’m evenings – if you want to make $100k plus a year and be one of the top-earning coaches you should plan your start around being all in!

Life coaching changed my life – when my life coach suggested I be a life coach my inside world began to match my outside! I’m more impactful and successful today than ever!