How to Use a Membership Site to Get More Clients

Posted on | June 4, 2010 | 3 Comments

Selling a high-ticket service, such as coaching, consulting, or training, is not a simple task. There are only 2 basic ways to sell it:

#1. Build a relationship with someone over time, which includes networking and referrals. This approach may take months or years, although many people do very well with it.

#2. Establish yourself as an expert, sell information products and educational workshops, then offer your services. This approach also includes public speaking, teleseminars, article publishing, and product launches.

Both are wonderful ways to fill your practice, and you can decide which one is best for you based on your personality and lifestyle goals.

But there is ONE major problem with these methods of building your business. While you are out networking, writing, and speaking, you’re not generating any income. Sure, you may sell a product or two, or get a new client every month. But wouldn’t it be great if you could network, write, and speak with complete peace of mind from knowing that you are also getting paid, even while you are marketing?

Here’s my best secret weapon for selling more coaching this year than ever before… A membership web site!

But not just ANY membership site. First of all, here’s how and why it works:

1. A membership-based web site allows you to build a community of people who trust you – one of the major barriers to getting a client is taken down with your own membership site.

2. They already gave you money to become a member, so you know these people are truly interested in your topic. They have already shown that they are buyers, not tire-kickers – a great way to pre-qualify prospects.

3. You can communicate with your members on a regular basis sharing your expertise, ideas, and resources with them. You are not only their trusted adviser, but you’re now an expert in your field. People LOVE working with and buying from experts!

4. You are generating revenue, while you’re promoting your life coaching practice. What a great mental place to come from, when you’re not desperate for money.

There are many more benefits to creating your own membership-based web site (recurring monthly income, ever-growing database of your knowledge, etc.).

But here’s one I want to emphasize when it comes to your life coaching career.

THIS IS A BIG ONE!!!! ARE YOU READY?

You can actually build your coaching or consulting service right into your membership site! Here’s how:

First, treat it like a coaching club. Create multiple tiers of membership and include coaching in the top tier.
Always remind lower-tier members that they can get help and coaching from you when they upgrade to the top tier.
Allow your top-tier members to contribute content, classes, and ideas to your membership site.
Add a coaching retreat (fee or free – depending on what you charge) as part of their top-tier membership.
If you run live events, create a “VIP style” treatment package just for your top-tier coaching club members.

Now, what do you offer in your coaching club? What type of content do you add to your membership site? How do you set everything up? How do you price the different membership tiers? All of these questions and many more are answered inside my How to Build a Six-Figure Coaching Club program so be sure to check it out.

Another thing I really love about having a membership site is that it can sort of become your “play pen” – you can share your best ideas, strategies, tools, discoveries, and breakthroughs.

Most importantly, when you speak, write, network, or teach, always invite people to join your membership site or coaching club. Don’t try to sell coaching right upfront. Once they join your low-tier membership site, they’ll become aware of everything else they’re missing if they’re not a top-tier member, and upgrade if desired.

Category: Marketing, Passive Income

Comments

3 Responses to “How to Use a Membership Site to Get More Clients”

Christine Georgopoulos
July 14th, 2010 @ 9:53 am

Hi, please not my website is still under construction…
Melina, thankyou so much for your insights and giving nature. I have learned that I need and expert and you’re it! I would like to go out and speak but I don’t know to whom and how to start. I am about to decide on my niche and can’t wait to study the info I purchased from you. How did you get started in public speaking and what specifically did you speak about? Chris
Milana
July 14th, 2010 @ 11:16 am

Well thank you Christine! I got started in speaking by creating my own event, and holding my own live events every year! But of course, you need a fan-base (tribe) to market your event to, first! And that’s what http://CoachingMillions.com is all about!
Erin Jackson
March 8th, 2011 @ 12:08 pm

Dear Milana,
I am a certified speech pathologist looking for a way to make passive income. I have read your “New Coaching Manifesto–The Whole Truth About Coaching Business” and am currently reviewing your 10 week course on Recurring
Revenue Streams. I decided to focus on the preschool speech impaired as my niche because it can be difficult to schedule them within the course of the regular school day. I know, because I worked in the public schools for over 20 years. I don’t want to create a website that will make parents of preschoolers think “Well, why pay for this membership when I can get similar information at the public schools for free?” I wish to create a program that is an added resource for these parents, since I would not be servicing their children directly. I’m too burned out both physically, mentally, and emotionally to do direct speech intervention in the schools. A relative of mine suggested I do a reading program for preschoolers, which I think is a good idea. In the meantime, I have been writing down ideas pertaining to an online speech resource program, using monthly events as the focus (ex: focusing on events in January–wintertime–p is the puffing sound, say p sound 10 times, do an activity based on the word of the week–penguin, for instance, using videos to demonstrate how p sound and p sound in words is said. I don’t know where I should start and I want to be in a niche that is sure to give me membership clients. I don’t know how or where to go about conducting a survey to determine the exact niche to go into. Any suggestions? Also, how would I go about building a mailing list?