What do to if your Coaching Course Launch Fails…

You’ve put your heart and soul into creating your group coaching course.

You’ve created a curriculum you feel will deliver huge transformation for your aligned clients and just KNOW it’s gonna be incredible!

You’ve worked out exactly how you’ll deliver it, how much coaching support you’ll include, all the logistics are in place.

You craft your messaging, and get started with your launch plan.

And then…

Nothing.

Crickets.

No matter what you seem to try, not one person signs up for your brand new, life changing coaching program.

WHAT IS ‘FAILURE’ REALLY?

The first thing to remember is that every set-back and ‘failure’ is really an opportunity to learn, refine and improve.

Failure is just an – often painful – opportunity to leverage the experience and take stronger actions to achieve your goals.

So the first thing to do it – KEEP GOING!

Successful people are successful because they never quit – they kept going no matter what.

WHY LAUNCHES FAIL?

When course launches don’t work it’s generally down to one or more of a few things:

  1. The offer is wrong (the audience targeted don’t value the solution enough to invest)
  2. The audience aren’t ready (they need more warming up / educating before committing to a full-blown course)
  3. The messaging is wrong (what you’re sharing / saying isn’t resonating / aggravating the pain enough)
  4. The price point doesn’t fit (for the level / value of transformation the price point isn’t hitting right)

It can be tricky to know exactly why a course launch didn’t work out, but having the above 4 areas to interrogate and analyse will go a loooong way to helping you figure out the weak points, iterate, and move forward.

WHAT TO DO NEXT?

If no-one signs up for this first course launch here are a few things I’d suggest:

1. MARKET RESEARCH:

Hopefully you’ll have done a significant amount of this before putting your course together.

It’s a vital step in truly understanding who your aligned clients are, their top priorities, what they’re feeling, what they’re most interested in changing, what they want to learn, and – importantly – what they’re willing to do (invest) to get the change.

BUT, even if you did market research before creating your course, this is not a one-and-done type exercise.

Ongoing market research is a vital part of sustainably successful coaching businesses because it ensures you keep current on who your audience is, what they’re experiencing, how they’re feeling, what they’re ready for.

So here are a few ways you can do some marketing research either before/after your course launch:

Surveys

There are plenty of easy ways to create an online survey such as Typeform, Survey Monkey and Google Forms.

The key is to keep your objective front of mind – what exactly do you want to learn and what will you do with the information you gather.

If you keep that close in mind, you’ll get all the info you need.

For an online survey you can send it via email and out to your social media community.

Remember – you’ve got to let them know what’s in it for them. It could be that one entry will be selected at random for a free coaching session, but it could also be the promise that the information they share will go on to help hundreds of others in their exact position / situation.

People have a natural desire to help others who are suffering as they have suffered, so that alone could be a powerful motivator.

The kind of things you should want to know are

  • What’s causing them the most distress right now (as it pertains to your coaching expertise)
  • What they are most interested in changing and why
  • What they want to learn / develop / grow
  • What their top priorities are
  • How the problem they are experiencing is stopping them from achieving their priorities
  • Whether they’d prefer to resolve this problem in private (online only with 1:1) or with a community (group)

Get as specific as possible and use all the learning and specific language to modify both your course and your messaging.

Focus Groups / 1:1 Interviews

Invite your community to jump on a zoom with you to chat about their experiences.

You can slant these as ‘free group coaching sessions’ or some other language that will appeal to your chosen audience.

This can be a powerful experience – getting you closer to your target audience’s hopes, fears, experiences and desires AND giving you an opportunity to test out your methodology / coaching direction in real time.

Record these sessions and note down EVERYTHING – from feelings to specific language to motivation…everything.

This is all incredibly useful when it comes to modifying your course content and messaging.

I have a FREE DOWNLOAD on How to Validate your Course Idea – email sally@salllyoddy.com with the words ‘VALIDATE COURSE DOWNLOAD’ to claim one.

2. MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE NOW:

In my group coaching programme – The Aligned Online Coach Academy – I teach members to create a Simple Client Pathway™

This foundation of this framework is that we meet our future clients where they are now…which may be ‘not ready to invest in a course’!

It could be that you’re new on the scene and haven’t built enough profile, authority and trust yet.

It could be that your particular audience need a bit of warming-up or educating around the problem.

It could be that they simply need a baby-step to take first before diving into the full-scale solution!

So the solution here is to offer a smaller product – create a lead magnet like a cheatsheet or checklist to give your future clients an opportunity to take one small step forward toward the solution.

Give them an opportunity to feel it all out – what you’re like as a coach, how it feels to step into the change, what it feels like to take a step in the right direction…

This is a kind of ‘try before you buy’ scenario – they get a little taster of what it’s like to be coached by you and what it feels like to start working toward the solution.

You could offer another smaller step after this by upselling a short, focussed coaching session for a lower investment once they’ve worked through the lead magnet.

Think of it as nurturing your future client to help them be ready for your coaching programme.

Once they’ve had the focussed coaching session with you, THEN they may feel more ready to move into the bigger investment of your coaching programme.


Whatever you decide to so, please remember that you’re course launch didn’t fail because you’re not a great coach, or no-one likes you, or you’re business is doomed to fail…

That’s just your ego catasrophising the situation to try to keep you safe (aka stop you from doing this brave stuff that’s all new to you and has the power to completely change your life!!)

Failure is part of life, and it’s a big part of business too.

Everyone who succeeds has failed.

You are not alone.

This is not the end.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, analyse what didn’t quite work, tweak it, and do it again.

[side note: the truth is people in your community aren’t paying that close attention, so if you take a month to research / refine and then launch again, it’s unlikely people will notice / ask if it didn’t work out the first time round!]


I truly hope this advice will help you to recover from this ONE failed coaching program launch, take positive action, and keep moving forward.

You are a powerful coach and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the world who desperately need your help.

We simply CANNOT give-up.

It is our duty to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and carry on.

The world needs us.

Lots of love you to, Sally xo


MEET THE AUTHOR

Sally Oddy has a business and marketing career spanning over 20 years and brings huge passion, creativity and courage to everything she does.


Empowering women to step into their true potential and turn their passion for coaching into a purpose-driven business is what Sally does inside The Aligned Online Coach Academy.


This is a powerfully transformational and highly supported coaching experience where you will be guided to build rock solid foundations for your coaching business and gain the skills and strategies to massively increase your impact and income


Click here to find out more about The Academy and Apply.

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Let's do this together xx

MEET SALLY ODDYBusiness, Marketing & Mindset Mentor

Sally works with soulpreneurs, pouring over 20 years experience into their hearts, minds and businesses.

Passionate about living life on purpose, Sally is all about honouring and accepting the fullness of self.

In-powering her clients to experience life in beautiful, bold, expansive ways is how they create and attract abundance and success into their lives.

Guiding her clients to dive deeply into their vision and mission, Sally shares her aligned approach to building online businesses that have a deeply positive impact in the world.

Sally is a Yorkshire Lass who grew up in 80's South Africa and is on a mission to inspire you to fulfil your dreams and potential in order to create a more in-powered and happy world.

Find out about how to work with Sally privately in her unique Mentorships or in a supportive group setting in The Soulpreneur Success Hub Monthly Membership

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If you're an established online business owner who knows a few tweaks and focus will get you headed in the right direction...[BUT YOU'VE EITHER NEVER WORKED WITH A BUSINESS MENTOR BEFORE SO ARE UNSURE IF IT'S FOR YOU, OR YOU'VE BEEN BURNED WITH A BAD EXPERIENCE AND WANT TO TEST THE WATERS]

I invite you to book a 30 Minute 'Plan Of Action Session'Here's what happens during a POA Session...

  • Look at your niche, programs and price points to see what's possible for you in the next 90 days
  • Assess your current marketing, sales and delivery systems to uncover the #1 thing that's been holding you and your business back
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