4 Steps to Scaling Your Coaching Business with Sales Outsourcing

sales outsourcing

You became a coach because you’re passionate about helping others grow and achieve their personal and professional goals. Yet, here you are, researching prospects and writing sales emails eight hours a day. Instead of working with clients, you’re busy selling your services, wondering when you’d even have the time to coach.

If this sounds familiar, it might be time to outsource sales in your coaching business.

Sales outsourcing can take so much off your shoulders. It can free up time for you to work with more clients — or not work at all! Hiring a sales specialist or team can be a great investment that pays off in the long run. By filling your inbox with qualified leads and having a calendar booked out with client sessions, you can finally do what you love the most: helping people achieve your dreams.

Not sure whether it’s worth it and how to even get started?

Read on to learn about the pros and cons of outsourcing sales as a coach and what you need to do to make it worth the investment.

What is Sales Outsourcing?

Outsourcing your sales simply means hiring a professional or an agency to sell your services. Delegating sales isn’t just preserved for big companies. It can be an important step up for you as a service provider to sell more packages and scale your business.

Sales specialists and companies can take care of your market research and client sourcing process and pitch your services to leads, i.e., potential clients. They can handle the boring routine tasks that make your hair stand up on the back of your neck. Plus, some can even help you position yourself better as a coach to land more clients.

Why Outsource Sales? The Benefits of an Outsourced Sales Team

So yes, outsourcing sales in your coaching business can save you a ton of time. But it can do much more than that…

Here are many other benefits to working with a sales outsourcing company that you may not have thought of.

It Will Make You Look Professional

Sales outsourcing companies specialize in lead generation, and they are trained on skills like negotiation, prospecting, and objection handling. They know how to turn a maybe into a hell yes! Represent your business professionally and make you look good in front of your clients.

You don’t have to go back to business school or become a part-time sales agent just to get more clients. You can leave it up to the guys who specialize in this.

Plus, it kind of comes with an added flair when someone else is “picking up the phone for you.” It will communicate to your audience that this is not your first rodeo and that you take your business seriously.

Outsourcing Sales Will Allow You To Scale

It’s every coach’s dream to have a calendar filled with the best clients and a waiting list that keeps the show going. But you can’t really make that happen if you need to split your time between working both in and on your business simultaneously.

Outsourcing sales can speed up and automate your client acquisition process so that all you need to handle is discovery calls — with prospects already warmed up for you. This way, you can take on more clients and scale your business faster.

It Gives You Space To Grow

You can take as many certifications and courses as you like (and we vouch for life-long learning!), but at the end of the day, it’s this one thing that will help you level up as a coach: Actually doing it.

The more coaching sessions you have on your calendar, the more routine and experience you gain every week. Coaching various clients simultaneously will help you earn perspective and try out different coaching tools and frameworks.

And as you gain confidence in your work…

You Can Finally Raise Your Rates

The higher your expertise, the more you can charge. Plus, now you have a team dedicated to selling your services for you — which can help you become a high-ticket coach with premium packages.

Generally speaking, it takes longer to close the deal on high-ticket packages because prospects take longer to decide whether or not to invest in them. This means you need to dedicate more time to objection handling and laying out the details of what they’re getting for their money in return. With a sales professional or team behind your back, you can leave all that up to them.

Should You Be Outsourcing Your Sales?

A lot of coaches wonder whether it’s worth investing in sales outsourcing or whether it’s the right time for them to do so. To help you decide, here are the pros and cons of outsourcing sales as a coach.

PROSCONS
It lets you scale and grow your business in the long runIt takes an initial investment that may take a while to pay off
It saves you time and takes some dreaded tasks off your shouldersHiring the wrong agency poses a risk to your reputation
It allows you to focus on coaching people and other things you loveIt might prevent you from building your own network
It will position you as a high-ticket coach and expertYou lose valuable information you could gain from prospecting
You’ll get access to an experienced team with a process and methodologyYou will lose some control over your sales process
It gives you a chance to work on your packages and client profileIt might not be the best investment if you mainly get your leads from references

If you’re just starting with your first few initial clients, it might be too early to hand over your sales process. Doing the job yourself can help you gain valuable experience and perspective on whom you want to work with and how you want to position yourself in the coaching industry.

[ Read: The Top 16 Sales Skills All Coaches Must Have ]

You may choose a niche and later realize that you need to narrow it down or pick another one altogether. When you come to this conclusion, it might be too late to change directions with an agency handling your sales.

On the other hand, if you’re clear about your client niche and ready to close more contracts, outsourcing sales can be the right next step for you. With a clear direction and expectations, they can take over most of the prospecting and sales process and book discovery calls straight into your calendar.

Additionally, outsourcing your sales is more time and cost-efficient than doing it yourself if you’re expanding your team or raising your prices. This way, you can just focus on building high-ticket packages and giving even more value to your clients — an effort that will surely pay off in the long run.

How To Hire a Sales Outsourcing Company

Lost on getting started? Here’s what you need to keep in mind before signing a sales professional and what you can expect after.

1. Set Clear Goals For Your Business

Nine times out of ten, outsourcing proves inefficient because your contractors aren’t fully clear on what you expect from them. You need to let them know your capacity and availability so that they can book those calls straight into your calendar. You don’t want to end up with double bookings or sessions clashing with your personal commitments.

Define what times work best for you, how much time you need between sessions or discovery calls, and how many hours you want to dedicate to coaching in a week.

Next, think about the ideal rates that you want to offer to potential clients. With added costs to your client acquisition process, you’ll need to round up your rate to a number that will keep your business profitable in the long run. If you notice that the main objection from lost leads is your rate, you can always decide to revise it or work on your positioning.

2. Develop a Strong Package

Once you hire a sales team, your cost to acquire clients will go up, and not just because of the new hires, but also the tech stack they’ll need — for example, a sales dialer. This, however, will pay off tenfold in the future — but only if these client relationships are long-term with repeat contracts.

The easiest way to do this is to offer coaching packages instead of individual sessions. This way, you can close the deal on a set of sessions at once and encourage your clients to commit to working with you for several months.

The more convincing your packages are, the easier it will be to sell them. If you position yourself as an expert with a strong offer on your website and LinkedIn profile, your sales team will have a higher success rate.

You can even put together a deck with your packages and testimonials that can be sent out to prospects. Some sales agencies and professionals help you do this as a part of their services and train you on how you can position yourself better.

3. Create a Specific Client Profile

Perhaps the most overlooked part of outsourcing your sales successfully is having a strong client profile. This means having a detailed customer avatar for the clients you want to be coaching. 

Lay down the demographics of your clients, including whether they are local or remote, their age group, occupation, educational level, and income level. You don’t have to restrict your client profile just for the sake of it, so if you’re not sure yet or it’s not relevant for your services, leave it out.

Next, map out the psychographics of your customer avatar. How do they spend their day? What are their hobbies and interests? This information can help your sales team come up with new platforms and groups where they can source clients for you and make sure that they fit the profile of your ideal client.

4. Hire a Specialist

There are a few ways to outsource your sales. You can hire an individual sales specialist through a marketplace like Upwork or through LinkedIn. You can also look at some of the most respected sales outsourcing companies and inquire about their offers for small businesses and service providers.

The important part is that you hire someone who understands your industry and has a track record of success in exactly what you need. Don’t compromise capabilities for costs; this is a long-term investment that will only yield returns if you work with the right professionals from the start. Make sure you ask questions about their sales process and their projected timeline for bringing you the leads you expect.

5. Monitor Your Return on Investment

Your job isn’t done when you hand over your expectations to your sales outsourcing partner. You still need to monitor their progress and evaluate the leads they’re delivering to you. Meet with your sales representative on a regular basis and hold them accountable.

If you get any new insights on the way regarding your ideal client profile or the packages and terms you offer to your new clients, don’t be afraid to pivot. Think of it as a learning process that helps you adjust your expectations and find the best pool of clients for your coaching business.

How Much Does Sales Outsourcing Cost?

Sales outsourcing specialists and agencies have different sales models, and their costs differ accordingly. Here’s a quick overview you can consider for your coaching business.

Pay-Per-Lead or Pay-Per-Sale

Some companies charge you after each lead they connect you with (based on your parameters), while others do so based on deals closed.

Maybe you’re particular about whom you work with, and you’re in a coaching niche where you need good chemistry with your clients for the relationship to work. In this case, you’re probably better off with qualified leads delivered to you and then deciding whom you’re ready to sign with.

On the other hand, if you’re a business coach or in a niche where personal chemistry isn’t that important, you might prefer the pay-per-sale model. This might come with higher costs, but the result will be actual paying clients signing their names on the dotted line.

Hourly Fees & Retainers

As with all contractors, these fees depend on their expertise and location. Hiring a sales specialist or agency will cost approximately $20 to $150 an hour or more. Yes, this is quite a wide range, so you’ll need to make sure you interview your contractors and not compromise expertise for low fees.

You’ll get a better deal with them if you work with them on a retainer basis. This may mean paying them a daily, weekly, or monthly fee with a significant discount on their hourly rates.

Project-Based Fees

Some sales providers offer services beyond lead generation, such as improving your online presence on various platforms. This may be included in their package deal or come as an add-on complementing other sales models.

It’s also possible that they offer flat-fee services for short-term engagements like contact sourcing, market research, or a launch campaign with a set timeline.

Automate Your Client Management Process with Paperbell

And since we’re talking about optimizing your time and working in your business rather than on your business, you might want to hear about Paperbell.

This all-in-one client management tool is built by coaches for coaches. It has everything you need, from simple landing pages payment processing, contract signatures, appointment booking, and more.

With Paperbell, you can onboard your clients by simply dropping them a link. Since they can’t book their sessions with you without first making a payment for your packages, you can forget about manual follow-ups and just focus on coaching your clients.

Try Paperbell now for free with your first client.

sales outsourcing

By Annamaria Nagy
Annamaria Nagy is a Brand Identity Coach and Copywriter. She's been writing for over 10 years about topics like personal development, coaching, and business. She was previously the Head of SEO at the leading transformational education company, Mindvalley.
November 8, 2023

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