Most coaches are not sales people and most sales people don't always make good coaches.

However developing your salesmanship is a crucial part of any business.  Like most people, I am not a salesperson.  I treat potential clients as I would want to be treated by letting them decide and not force anything on them.  In fact, I feel quite the opposite, I am an anti hard-sales person.  The reason was that, like many, I mostly saw salesmanship as being pushy and forcing ideas onto people.  I never realized that that was not salesmanship.  That is being a pushy sales person.

Salesmanship is an art.  Some people have the knack, others need to develop it.  Selling tangible goods are fairly easy.  You build up the need and desire, hopefully based on truth.  For the last few decades salesmanship has been wedded to marketing with terrible consequences, pushing any products to anyone at any costs regardless of those products being needed or not.

True salesmanship is a subtle art, especially with services.  Coaching is a tough cookie mostly because people have a vague notion of what coaching is.  Coaching ultimately helps people get on with their lives and acquire a better sense and vision of their lives.  It helps them achieve their goals.  It helps get unstuck from situations.  Well, how does one sell that?

When I sold IT services, it was easy.  The need was there, artificially created by software and hardware manufacturers with the promise of an easier life.  I don't know about you but computers have not made life easier and certainly not been a great gain in productivity.  Selling coaching services is even trickier because how to do you define the value of what coaching does, unless you have experienced it yourself?

One obvious way is to tell your story.  How has coaching helped you?  Another is to tell the story how you got involved.  Why did you become a coach?  Another is to give concrete situations where coaching has helped you.  But ultimately, you will need to be out there, antenas wide open, fully turned to people around and near you, and be ready to receive whom you attract.  You need to be ready to help out and be of service, devote and unattached.

I don't believe in advertising.  I feel you attract anyone.  I'd rather depend on referrals.  Referrals, though not quite as fast, attract the right people to you.  They know the person who talked about you.  Nonetheless, you need to train your clients to talk about you.  Have them talk about you and how much you have helped them.  The word help can be a little dangerous.  Instead of using that word, find others such as, being there, offering a safe place to think and see things more clearly, whatever your unique catch phrases are.

All in all, develop your own sense of salesmanship.  Look for opportunities to be of service.  Be there for people and ready to act on a dime.