“How do I get more clients?”
It’s one of the questions I see most often in the coaching space. And all of the social media ads are aimed at inviting potential clients and customers into a course, a webinar, masterclass etc. to ’10x your income’ or ‘Get more clients!’ And whilst in most cases, I think the intention is there, I actually think it’s the wrong question to ask?
For me, the better question is:
How do I reach the people I’m here to help?
And whilst those two questions might sound similar, they actually come from completely different places.
Getting clients is about you.
When your focus is on getting clients, your attention naturally turns inward and you make it all about you! Your mind goes into overdrive asking questions like:
- How do I make this person say yes?
- How do I improve my conversion rate?
- What should I say to persuade them?
- How can I close more sales?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with these questions. Businesses need customers and you have to plan how to do that. But when they become your primary focus, marketing can start to feel forced. Every conversation carries an agenda. Every post feels like it needs to perform. Every interaction becomes another opportunity to sell. It feels more like manipulation rather inspiration, and peopel can sense that.
Reaching clients is about them.
Reaching clients on the other hand, begins with a different intention.
Instead of asking, “How do I get someone to buy from me?” you ask, “How do I help the people who need what I have to find me?”
It’s a subtle shift, but it changes everything because you stop trying to convince and start trying to connect. You stop creating content to impress and start creating it to clarify. You stop thinking of potential clients as prospects and start thinking about human beings and your marketing starts becoming service based rather than sales based.
Marketing becomes an act of service.
When you genuinely believe your work makes a difference, marketing isn’t about taking something from people, it’s more about making sure the people who need your help know you exist.
If you’ve found a solution to a problem someone else is struggling with, keeping quiet isn’t humility. It’s a missed opportunity to be of service.
Marketing, at its best, is simply communicating the value you bring to the world in a way that helps the right people recognise it. So it’s not about reaching everyone-just the people who need it. And when you truly see that, marketing feel so much lighter!
Ironically, you’ll often get more clients.
When you start to see marketing as service rather than sales, the paradox is that you’re likely get more clients, because the less you obsess about getting clients, the more you focus on reaching them, the more naturally clients tend to come. It’s all about the energy from which you show up. It’s tangible and people feel it!
People aren’t looking for someone who’s desperate for business. They’re just looking for someone who understands them, who sees their challenge clearly and who can help them! It’s simple really!
And that’s what your marketing should communicate. Not that you want another client, but that you’re ready to serve the next one.
So perhaps it’s time to stop asking, “How do I get more clients?” and start asking, “How can I reach the people I’m here to help?”
The answer to that question changes not only your marketing, but the way people experience your business.