Congratulations!

You finally got your coaching website up!  But did you know it may already be obsolete?!

(Michael with Russell Brunson)

According to Russell Brunson, creator and director of ClickFunnels, and online sales platform, most websites – and this includes most coaching websites – are set up like online brochures.  This means that your main contact with the public is NOT to sell them on your services – it’s to simply tell them about you and your services:  your background, education, type of coaching, and how they can get in touch with you.

While a website like this makes sense to you, this is NOT what the vast majority of people are looking for when they go online looking for a coach or consultant!  Unless they know you personally, they will spend roughly 3 seconds on your site – if they ever land on it at all – before zipping off to watch kitten videos on YouTube, or hiring your competitor who offers a clearer solution!

So what IS the purpose of simply “having a website” in the first place?  Let’s look at the pros and cons of websites over the years . . .

(Brief) History of Websites

When the Internet first got up and running, say, in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, websites were gold – and much more effective for attracting customers.  Remember when “You’ve got mail” meant something exciting and new?  Now we happily label everything that comes in as spam or trash.

On a more personal note, back in 2000 I (the non-techie) was able to set up a simple HTML website for our Bahamas vacation rental.  With very little knowledge and effort, I was able to leverage this little property into a $30k per year net income just using the website and PayPal, and sell it after 7 years for twice what my wife and I had in it!

We were lucky.  We got in before the big rush of online marketing really hit.  At that time, anyone savvy enough to stick up a brochure-style offering with a PayPal button was sure to sell his or her share of stuff.

Not anymore.

Online surfers are now more sophisticated than ever.  They want to relationship with you before they whip our their card.

Today, online buyers trust Amazon and EBay, and will buy from these sites without hesitation (or very little anyway…) They know that after they buy, they will get their goods delivered within a few days – or the next day, if they are Amazon Prime members!  They have access to a ton of reviews for everything they buy, and social proof helps them feel comfortable they are making the right choices.

This doesn’t mean you can’t sell “stuff” online.  It does mean, however, that unless you sell through Amazon or one of the other giants like Walmart, you are in for a slim ride financially.  You simply can’t compete with their online dominance and sheer volume of reviews and information.

Amazon for Coaching Websites?

Services are a different matter.  Most professionals can sell their services locally if someone is looking for that particular service . . . AND if they use what is called a “portal website” to lead prospects to their door.  Once the prospect arrives at their door (or on their website), its the responsibility of each professional to SELL them on the idea of using THEM to solve their problem or need.

All major service providers use portal websites, i.e., plumbers, electricians, Realtors, doctors, dentists and other professionals.  They are almost always tied to a larger portal website, like www.realtor.com or www.angieslist.com for example.  These sites give the professionals greater exposure than they would get from their own site.

So what about Coaches?  As a coach or consultant you also need wider exposure if you are to get any kind of traffic at all. Try doing a google search for “life coaches.”  One of the most prevalent sites that pops up is www.noomii.com.  This is your “Amazon-like” portal that you should seriously consider if you want to attract more people actually searching for life or personal coaches.

In the eyes of your potential client, Noomii.com may be THE go-to place for coaching services for solving a particular need or problem.  Maybe not.  But it will pay you to test them.  They will charge you a fee for referrals,  but if you are make good money with your services, the cost may be relatively small.  For most coaches, this is a great option for getting more calls, or visits to your website.

Your Coaching Website

And yes, you DO need a “website,” but not the usual brochure nonsense everyone has been trying to sell you.  You need a place where a potential client or customer can go to get more information specifically about his or her problem…. AND lead them organically to seeing YOU as the only obvious solution!  This requires that you steer them into a so-called “website” that acts more like a sales funnel and sells YOU as the solution to their problem.

Russell Brunson set up ClickFunnels for two reason:

1. To be a better selling platform for your products and services, and
2. To be user-friendly and easy enough for “non-techies” to set up and use.

This sounds like a perfect tool for coaches.  Like you, and maybe thousands of other coaches and consultants, Russell considers himself a “non-techie.” He loves to consult with clients, not spend all day building websites.

Seeing this problem as an opportunity, Mr. Brunson then set out to create one of the most powerful platforms for online sales that exists today.  According to Russell, ” “I got together the best group of guys and gals I could find to help me do what I really wanted to do… and could not find anywhere else.”

I personally still advertise on “portal sites” but don’t count on them to automatically sell my services.  For this I need a “funnel” that I can use to bring in lots of traffic and drip out a few solid sales.  Just because someone is looking for a diet coach, for example, does NOT mean they will automatically choose YOU as their diet coach just because they found your website.

Unless your website is also a sales funnel, you risk losing them to cute videos or your competition! ClickFunnels can turn your existing website or web address into a portal site that leads your prospects to hiring you as a coach . . . simply because they arrived at that decision naturally by going through the funnel! 

Take about 10-20 minutes to check out Russell’s free training and see if the light goes off in your head about how this platform can explode your business by converting website visitors into coaching service buyers!

Also, let me know what you think of this article – and if you’d like to see more like them.

Please leave me  your comment below…