Ep #34: How To Create the Best Client Onboarding

Hey, coach. One of the things I noticed about the coaching space is that no one's talking about how you onboard new clients. Seriously, because onboarding is not just a nicety, it actually plays a vital role in your ability to keep clients from getting cold feet and wanting to back out of coaching with you. It helps you keep clients longer, and it creates amazing client referrals.

I'm Kendall, tune into today's episode, where I'm going to share with you how you can use a simple onboarding sequence to build sustainability in your coaching business, so that you're not always chasing new clients. You don't need ads, and you have clients you adore working with. All that goodness, it starts with onboarding.

In this episode, I'm also giving you a sample of my own client onboarding sequence. So, of course, you get that as a checklist, as a helpful takeaway. It's all here for you in this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. Let's dive in.

Welcome to The Money Coach School Podcast. To really excel at coaching women, you have to be skilled, confident, and even fearless at money coaching. If you're passionate about women holding genuine money power, and love supporting women entrepreneurs, then this is the show for you. Now, here's your host, money feminist, Kendall SummerHawk.

Hello, beautiful coach. I’m going to jump right in here today, because I absolutely love this topic. It's actually a topic I get a little geeky about. There is so much emphasis given in the coaching space about marketing, marketing, marketing. Which is certainly important for creating a high-income coaching business, of course.

But one of the things that I decided early on in my business to focus on was client longevity. I decided I would rather have clients stay with me longer, so that I was not always having to market so much and expend all that time and energy. I think also, because I value connection so highly, that creating a really exceptional client onboarding experience felt like it honors my value of connection.

Growing up, my mom was a successful hairdresser. She ran her own business. It was 100% just her, and a 100% client-based business. She was successful because she made great money at a time when, let's be honest, none of my friends’ moms worked. And most women who did work were in helping jobs like secretaries or receptionist or teachers or nurses.

Those are great occupations, but they don't pay that well, and the women in those jobs typically had to deal with a lot of workplace gender bias. And being under the thumb of a boss in ways that we would just not tolerate at all today.

My mom was also successful because she was booked up for appointments two months in advance, so she was definitely sought-after. So, growing up with a mom who worked for herself, who was her own boss, who made the equivalent… I looked it up one time online… of what would be in today's dollars, about $200,000-$250,000. That's a lot of money.

She was an incredible influence for me. One of the biggest values we were taught is that you take care of your clients. Each of our clients was treated like a VIP. So, that was what was instilled for me, was this deep appreciation and respect of a client.

Back to onboarding, I decided, practically from day one, to treat clients like gold. To respect their time and trust and their investment in themselves. I created simple and easily scalable ways of onboarding clients that really let them know how important they are.

So, why are we talking about onboarding? And why is client onboarding so, so important to your client attraction strategy? Well, this is how you build sustainability in your coaching business. It means that you're not always chasing new clients, you don't need ads, and you have clients you adore working with. All that goodness, it starts with onboarding.

By the way, I should mention that what we're covering here is an excerpt from just one of the trainings and templates that the students inside of Certification will get with me. It's actually inside the Coaching Business Starter Kit, which we include in my certification, that trains you to become an awesome and income‑earning business coach for women entrepreneurs.

Today, at the time of recording this episode for you, we are just about to head into a free workshop all on teaching you how to coach women entrepreneurs. So, I'll be sure and link to that free workshop in the show notes. Alright, back to onboarding.

The three reasons why onboarding is not just a nicety, but it's actually a really significant part of your growth strategy, is because, reason number one: Client onboarding is the secret to keeping clients longer. Which gives you the opportunity to work even more deeply with clients, because you have more time with them.

Reason number two: You want to create raving fans for your coaching, so that you can get referral after referral after referral. Especially if you're coaching women entrepreneurs, because guess who women entrepreneurs know? They know other women entrepreneurs.

And reason number three: When you know in advance, and you're clear about how you onboard new clients, it gives you this incredible confidence when you're talking to prospective clients. Because you can easily walk them through what's going to happen for them when they start coaching with you, whether it's one on one, or in a group or a VIP day.

It's like you're painting this amazing picture for your prospective client so that they can really see themselves experiencing what you're walking them through. What happens when you do that, is they hear and feel your confidence. They feel connection to you, and they trust you.

So, onboarding is part of this amazing synergy that does not just start when a client says yes. It actually starts before then, in your marketing, and it flows through your enrollment conversations and into a client enrolling into your coaching programs.

Let's walk through what happens when you don't have your onboarding created ahead of time, the mindset that you want to embrace for your onboarding, and then, three secrets to help you jumpstart a simple and powerful onboarding of your new clients. And of course, because it's me, I’ve thrown in a quick checklist for you. Plus, I'm going to share a sample of my own onboarding sequence.

So, this is what happens. You did it, you just signed on a new one-on-one client, or group coaching client or a VIP day client, and now comes your onboarding sequence. What I would offer you here, is to think of these two words when it comes to onboarding new coaching clients. The words are “connection” and “results”. Connection and results.

If your client onboarding sequence is nonexistent or it's haphazard, then you risk clients backing out, because they will. Or you risk of clients spreading negative feedback about their experience. I'm sure you've experienced, like I have, joining a coaching program or a group and the onboarding left you feeling like a number; you were just a number. Or you felt lost about how to get started.

But great onboarding is this fabulous secret to clients staying with you longer, clients re-enrolling multiple times, and clients referring their colleagues to you. Those referrals are easy, easy clients to enroll, because they come with that personal endorsement from your initial client who referred them.

I just saw this happen last week with one of our Certified Money Breakthrough Business Coach graduates. She enrolled a full pay client. This client was worth multiple four figures for her, so that's really awesome. And she enrolled immediately. Why? Because she was referred by an earlier client for the same coach. So, her existing client referred this other person, and that other person signed up immediately.

That's what you want. That's the grace and ease of a coaching business. So, here's the mindset that I really want you to embrace. It's really simple. “Onboarding is my way of creating connection, and connection creates long‑lasting clients who refer amazing new clients. That's it. That's your mindset.”

I actually think I could say it a little differently. I could say, “Onboarding is my way of creating connection, and connection creates clients for life, who refer amazing new clients.” I like that version even better. So, I just gave you two versions. Because in my business, we actually have a ‘clients for life’ philosophy.

Alright, so let me get into the three secrets to help you jumpstart a simple and powerful onboarding of your new clients. Plus, I've got that checklist that I promised for you, and an example of my own onboarding sequence.

So, secret number one: Keep clients from backing out. It's natural for people to get cold feet. It happens all of the time. You're over here doing this happy dance because you got a new client, meanwhile, their brain kicks in and says, “What have I just done?” Their fear talk sets in, saying, “Do I really need this coaching? Maybe now isn't the right time. Maybe I should do this by myself first,” whatever their brain is making up. That's the fear part of their brain taking over and not wanting your client to change anything, no matter what.

You want to help them override that part of their brain, that fear part. You want them to override it with the prefrontal cortex, the thinking part. Your client made a beautiful, great, wonderful decision to start coaching with you, backing out because of fear? Not a great decision.

So, what does that mean you want in your onboarding sequence? Well, your onboarding should include ways to engage your client’s thinking and to empower them. Here are three simple ways you can do that. Number one: Take action. Think small tasks or activities here, that anchor in that your client just made an awesome decision to come into your coaching program.

Number two: Feel committed. That means asking them to put dates in the calendar, to introduce themselves on a Facebook group if you have that. Make your client feel welcome. Make them feel special. Make them feel important. You can do that in the Facebook group. You can do that in whatever community software you may use, or in a private email.

You can have them complete an assignment and send it back to you. For example, inside Certification, the ARCH certification students have their new clients complete the branding with archetypes assessment and book their kickstart call. So, that's what they, as new coaches, do for their new clients.

Number three: Envision success. Getting your client to be future focused, and starting to see themselves as successful is huge here. You can do that by asking them to vision board, or posting their goals or emailing their goals to you, anything to support them, and why their goals matter for them personally is going to be really, really impactful.

Alright, secret number two: Create quick victories. Victories create dopamine, which is a feel-good neuro chemical in the brain. Your client has a lot of energy when they become a client; that’s those first few moments or hours of that first day. So, you want to use all that energy to support them in getting into action quickly, to creating quick victories, and championing them to start feeling successful right away.

Now, this comes from a place of service. Because you care about their success and you know what's possible for them when they hire you as their coach. Initial victories, they fuel your client's desire and energy to keep going so that they can get the results that you know they want and that are possible for them. So, I recommend assigning a quick, simple task, actually right at the end of your enrolling conversation, right then and there. And have your clients send it back to you.

And then, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. I love this part of our onboarding, because everyone is excited and we know that the quick victories that we're creating with our clients are going to pay off for them immediately and down the road, because they are building on those wins.

Secret number three: Create a “results” culture that inspires referrals. When a client enrolls, and you're getting them into action and getting quick victories, they're going to enthusiastically refer you and talk about you to others. Reputation matters, it matters a lot. A professional, great start with your client, what it does is, it creates a glow that will carry them and you forward as they dive in and do the work that your coaching is going to bring up.

So, when you're onboarding sequence is step by step, it's professional, and it's created to generate quick victories, it shows that you're professional. It shows that you're prepared for new clients and that you care about your clients.

I promised I would share an example of one of my own onboarding sequences, so let me give you a quick glimpse into the onboarding that we use for the Money Breakthrough Business Coach certified coach training. When people enroll in MBBC, as we call it for short, this is the onboarding experience that they have.

There are eight elements that we have in our onboarding that are easy to do. They are highly, highly effective for our coach training students to achieve those quick victories, and to start their certification journey with us on the right foot.

So, element number one: The moment someone enrolls inside of MBBC certified coach training, we send an email message. That comes automatically from the software that we use, and it gives specific, quick exercises, right away, to start goal setting. Immediately, we create accountability by asking our new client to send it back to us, which they love.

The key here is that everything we're asking of our new client are actions that they can do very, very quickly.

Element number two: We send a welcome email, with logon instructions, into their coach training portal so they're never lost as to what to do first.

Element number three: We add them into the Facebook group quickly, and we ask them to introduce themselves.

Element number four: Inside of the Client Center, their training portal, we have a “How to Get Started” video. It's right there on the very first screen that they see. We also include their training curriculum, so they know exactly what to do, and in what order, with very specific milestones that are mapped out for them.

Element number five: We have a specific orientation video series that I designed. I'm actually super proud of our orientation. Our orientation is simple, it’s energizing, and it's designed to elevate their mindset into feeling confident and empowered right away. Orientation also includes quick victories to get their coaching space cleared up and made really pretty, so that they feel ready to bring in new clients.

We give them specific clearing money clutter exercises, and strategies on how to free an hour every day in their calendar so they can begin creating that freedom that they desire. And we give them a tool for quickly shifting their money mindset.

That's all part of our orientation. So, several things, but they're very quick, they're very short, and each one has its own little, short video to go with it. Now, this may be more than you want to do, and that's fine, but you can see that everything is simple. It's thoughtful. It's easy to complete. And it's designed to massively free up their time, their energy, and to start to create a powerful self‑concept.

We receive rave reviews about our orientation because it's inspiring, it's practical, it's elevating right away, and it shows that we care and that we have a pathway planted for them that will deliver success for them.

Element number six: We get their first private coaching session booked, because inside of Certification we include private coaching.

Element number seven: Our new client receives either a personal ‘thank you’ call, or a ‘thank you’ email from my team member. It depends… If they're in the United States, we do a ‘thank you’ call. Outside the U.S., then they get a ‘thank you’ email from one of my team members. This is not computer generated, it is manually done. It takes just a few minutes, but it's a really lovely personal touch.

And speaking of personal touches, element number eight: I personally send a ‘thank you’ card, hand signed, to every single client who comes into Certification.

Alright, that's what we do. I promise that if you create a simple onboarding sequence that gets your clients into action, with quick victories, feeling committed, feeling connected to you, and already envisioning success, that you're going to have a client who never thinks of backing out, who keeps renewing with you, and who refers their colleagues to you.

I know I make it sound easy, because, guess what? It can be that easy. I love running a business that is simple, is easy, and that really puts forth this pouring into our clients how much we care about them and their success.

Alright, to wrap up here, if you really want to be in the space of transforming lives, coaching women entrepreneurs in a feminine centric way, then certification as a money breakthrough business coach, that may be exactly the springboard that you've been looking for. MBBC, this is what we call it for short, is how you go from thinking about coaching women and wondering what that can look like, to actually having a thriving business that gives you that income and impact and freedom-first lifestyle that you want, while transforming the lives of women entrepreneurs.

So, definitely check out the free workshop we have coming up next week, and definitely check out Certification. I'll put those links in the show notes here, and you can check both of those out.

Alright, thank you so much for sharing time with me. Be sure to send me an email, Podcast@kendallsummerhawk.com, to ask any questions that you want about money, pricing, or coaching. I'm here for you.

I will see you next week for our next episode together.

Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you follow so you never miss an episode. Also, I would so love and appreciate if you would leave a five‑star review. Your review supports women just like you in discovering all of the juicy tips and insights I’m sharing here on how to coach women on money.

And if you want to learn how to excel at coaching women on money, definitely go to KendallSummerHawk.com and check out the wealth of money coach trainings that we have for you. Thanks so much for being part of this money coaching movement and for tuning into the show every week.