Your Best Client Is Already Your Marketing Plan

Most coaches I talk to have an ideal client avatar sitting in a doc somewhere. Age range, gender, income bracket, maybe a made-up name and a stock photo. They built it in a course or a workshop, and it hasn't been opened since. This is a mistake in itself and worthy of a million newsletters… just not this one ;-).

I understand why. It feels like strategic work. But an avatar built from your imagination is a guess, and you already have something far more useful than a guess sitting on your roster right now.

The people who stayed.

This came up on a recent group mentorship call while we were talking about lifetime value. Long-term clients are the backbone of a healthy coaching business. They don't need to be re-acquired; they refer friends, hand you testimonials and progress photos without being asked, and, frankly, make the work more fun. So the obvious next question is how you get more of them.

You start by studying the ones you already have.

So start here. Pick your three longest-tenured clients and actually ask them. Not a survey. A real conversation.

• What brought you into fitness to begin with?

• What were you looking for in a coach?

• What made you feel I was the right fit?

• Did you talk to anyone else before you chose me?

Their answers are your messaging. The words they use to describe their problem are the same words your next great client is reading in your captions at 11 pm. When you write in their language, you stop sounding like every other coach and start sounding like the one who actually gets them.

There's a second layer worth looking at. Where did your best clients come from?

I've asked this one in the group before when we were talking about paid ads. Is a client who found you through an ad going to stay as long as someone who was referred by a friend or followed your content for a year? Will they be as fun to work with? Sometimes the answer is yes, although this requires a very strategic and targeted approach with multiple layers, so often it isn't. If your best clients keep coming through one channel, that's where your energy belongs, no matter what everyone else is pushing this quarter.

Because coaches have poor messaging and acquire less than ideal clients, they try to fix retention after the client signs. Better onboarding, better check-ins, better programming. All of that matters. But a lot of retention is decided before the first session, by who you attracted in the first place. You can't onboard your way out of a mismatch.

The flip side is just as useful. Look at your HALF clients and find the pattern there too. What did they say on the sales call that you chose to ignore? What did you agree to that you wouldn't agree to now? That list becomes your filter.

You don't need a better avatar. You need to pay closer attention to the people already proving who you're best at serving. You need to know how to speak to that avatar better. You need to become obsessed with understanding them at the deepest level, down to what time they visit the restroom in the morning (especially useful if you work with them on gut health lol).

So pull up your roster today.

Who stayed the longest, and what was true about them on day one?

Let’s raise the bar for your business this week by starting there.

Keep Raising the Bar,
Paul Oneid MS, MS, CSCS