Are you embarking on your journey as a sleep consultant, eager to attract your first clients? If so, you’re in the right place. Today, we’re diving deep into three simple yet effective strategies to help you secure your first five clients. But before we delve into the details, I want to let you know that if you prefer visual representations, you can watch the original video for a more immersive experience.
Now, let’s delve into unlocking the secrets to gaining your first clients in the sleep consultancy world.
Imagine your business as a flywheel. At the top, you have your service, and as you acquire customers, they have a great experience and become ambassadors. They promote you, generating social proof, which in turn brings in even more people.
The focus today is on acquiring your first five clients – the spark needed to ignite the flywheel.
This aligns with the second crucial factor: human connection. People tend to buy from those they know, like, and trust. Social proof becomes your secret weapon, especially in the beginning.
So, we’re on a mission to fast-track your digital presence, secure tangible results, and gather testimonials. Each happy customer, each testimonial becomes the fuel propelling your business flywheel, until you build momentum and it starts working for you.
Pull together a list of contacts
- So, the first step to get this going is to compile a list. Access your email account and retrieve all the contacts you’ve ever messaged or emailed. These contacts form list one.
- Next, if you’re active on social media, whether professionally or personally, visit every social media profile where you can direct message people. Note down every follower you can DM.
- For list number three, retrieve your phone and export your contacts. So now we have three lists: your email contacts, your social contacts, and your phone contacts. Combining these contacts, you’ll have a substantial list to work with.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – are you seriously going to ask me to contact those people and start selling? Don’t worry, we aren’t going to do anything weird or sales; that’s not how we do things.
Choose a platform to engage with people
So, if you are starting out and most of your contacts are on email, then we are going to use email to contact people.
If you are starting out as a sleep consultant, and most of your contacts are on social media, you are going to focus on connecting people on social media. Start there – choose the platform you have the most followers on and keep it simple.
Reach out and personalise your message
Next step – we need to figure out what to say. So you want to personalize your message to the person you are talking to. This is about being human and building genuine connections.
Take 20 seconds to look at someone’s profile and find something you have in common. Then, reach out to them and say something like, “I saw you recently had a baby” or “I saw you recently moved. Great to see you a few weeks ago.” It doesn’t matter what it is, but it needs to be genuine.
So take a few seconds to do this, rather than blasting people with some kind of random generic message they won’t respond to.
Consistently reach out to them
Next, you are going to be consistent in reaching out to people every day. So let’s say you have 200 contacts, between all your emails, all your phone contacts, and every single follower you have if you have a social media channel. You want to set yourself a doable goal – let’s say that 20 people every morning.
This may sound hard but as a wise mentor once said to me,
“you’ve got to do the hard work to make everything else easy”.
So, it’s a matter of getting going, and realising nothing bad is going to happen when you contact people. The first time I did this, I think it probably took me about 20 minutes to send the first message, overthinking everything, and then everything after that took no time.
Now when people start responding – having a structured approach helps.
Build connections using the APP Framework
I call it the APP Framework. Acknowledge. Praise. Pose a Question.
For instance, if someone just announced returning to work after having their second child, acknowledge their situation, and offer praise like, “You’re juggling two kids and a full-time job – impressive!” Then, tie your question to their situation, easing into a conversation about sleep without diving into sales.
Remember, this initial interaction is about building connections.
As we are in the world of sleep consulting, I’d say, “Having had your second baby, or having just started back at work, how are you managing in terms of getting sleep, or how are you managing that transition back to work?”
So, you have asked a question, they’re going to talk to you, and then you are going to ask if they know anyone who’s looking for support with:
Transitioning back to work after maternity leave and dealing with their child’s sleep.
Having toddlers who are struggling to sleep and are looking for a gentle holistic approach.
Experiencing frequent night waking and looking for a gentle approach.
Whatever it is, at the start, it might be quite general, so you might want to support families with children between 12 months – 3 years. Or maybe you actually have a specific type of person in mind you want to support – so parents going back to work who are struggling with sleep. Whatever it is, you just want to be clear on that.
Invite their friends
So, then you say because I’m opening up a few slots to help people do exactly that.
So, you’re just asking them if they know anybody.
And since you’re friends with them and they are genuine contacts, you’re asking them for a favor (which is a little ask); you’re not asking them to buy from you (which is a huge ask).
And this should help you not feel weird about messaging people. If they say, “Hey, I’d like to find out more.” Now, what they have done is they’ve transitioned from a lead to an engaged lead.
And an engaged lead is someone whom you can contact, who has shown interest in the thing that you sell.
So, if she says, “I have a little one and I’ve been struggling with sleep recently,” now they have shown interest in what you do.
And you might be thinking, well how do I get them to sign up for my sleep support, well you remove the friction and you make it super easy for them to say yes. How? By making it free.
And they probably know that you’re not that experienced. That’s OK, Just be honest.
Now, you want to set some parameters around this. So you want to say something along the lines of ‘I am happy to support your child’s sleep for free; however, all I ask is 3 things’:
- You engage with my service and implement the things we work through together.
- You give me feedback on the experience you have had working with me.
- You leave me a great review if you think I deserve it.
These are the terms of the exchange – that’s it.
Now the reason I want you to start with that is that one, it’ll get you more people to work with.
Two, if you’re just getting started, you are probably not feeling super confident, and you need to practice what you are doing. So the process of working with families, experiencing different challenges, writing plans, and working with parents.
This leads me to my third point, which, like anything in life, we get better by practicing. And it’s easier to practice and get more clients when it’s free.
So we want to remove the friction, get confident in supporting families, get results, get social proof. And by lowering the barrier to entry, you are actually getting the better end of the deal from these clients.
And they are very much clients because they are exchanging something for your service. They’re exchanging their time and their effort, and also, you are asking them to write a review for you.
So 2 ways you can ask this, using what I call the transformation statement.
Do you know anybody who (describe their zero states related to sleep) who is looking to (state their desired outcome)? I’m taking on five key studies for free because that’s all I can handle. I am ultimately looking to get some testimonials for my sleep coaching service.
And we’re being honest because you are learning. So small numbers are good
Or to keep this really short you could say,
I help (who the person is) to go from {pain point) to (goal) so they can why (core desire).
EXAMPLE:
I help women with toddlers who are dealing with frequent night waking, find a gentle approach to tackle this, so they can feel more confident in their parenting, rested, and have more energy. And I am doing this for free to get more testimonials as this is an area I am really passionate about and want to focus on.
Thats it.
Now some people will say (and I’m pretty sure I’ve said this in the past too) that you should never sell your time for nothing – this is completely undervaluing yourself. The reality is, if you have no experience, and no testimonials then its going to be hard to get clients. Because we know people buy from those they know like and trust.
And now here, If people get value from working with you, especially if it’s free, they’re far more likely to leave positive reviews, give you feedback, and send their friends and family your way. And that is going to get you even more clients.
So you go through this process, so you contact everyone on your list – and some people would have responded to you and then you go back to all the people that didn’t.
So now you are thinking, but Emma, I can’t work for free forever.
And of course, you do want to start charging…
Start charging sleep clients
Now, you could keep repeating the process, but then charge a bit more each time; it’s such a powerful and easy strategy. I’ve used this so many times in my business.
So, the first 5 clients are free.
Next 5 – 50%
Next 5 – 70%
Next 5 – 80%
Next 5 – 95%
Next 5 – 100%
Using this example, you would have worked with 25 humans, and it’s likely you would have received lots of referrals (because you have given a ton of value), and you would have banked a good number of testimonials. All of these things will build your confidence and get the flywheel going in your business…
Now, you could also just say that after 5 people, you start charging full whack if you feel really confident. Or a variation of that.
The number is less relevant than the objective of gaining skills, confidence, and social proof.
So this is about thinking long-term in your business, setting the flywheel in motion, and building momentum.
And remember, when you are connecting with people, you also want to provide value to them on a regular basis. So share interesting content, share your testimonials, and the results – all of this is going to create interest, where people will think… this looks good – how can I find out more? And you’ll have people reaching out to you – further helping the flywheel in your business to gain momentum.
So, there you have it – the blueprint for getting your first five clients as a sleep consultant. Remember, it’s about connection, authenticity, and building a foundation for a successful and impactful journey.