#191: What is a Signature Program? (And Do You Need One?)

Hello there health coaches. You know what, when I started my business, this is a long time ago. Now there was no such thing as having a signature program. Like these were not words I had ever heard spoken before. I was taught to sell a six month coaching package. And that is it. So I'm thinking like in retrospect, maybe that explains why I was really nervous when I was in a consultation. I found it really hard to sign clients. And I was constantly having to explain what a health coach is. Like, how many times have you been asked, what is a health coach? What's a health coach anyway? What does a health coach do? Is this happening for you also, I'm very curious to know what your health coaching school taught in terms of packaging, your services. Like, did they promote the idea of having a unique signature program or did they tell you to sell a more generic three month package or six month package?

And how's that going for you today? We're going to discuss this idea of a signature program, so you can see how it fits into your business. If it fits into your business. I think it might, and why it might be very worthwhile for you to create one sooner than later. So if you're here with me live and I know several of you are, I'm peering over here so I can see my Facebook screen. And I'm looking up here to see my Instagram screen. I'm I'm wherever you are, what a wild world we live in. So just say hello, if you're here and tell me what your experie has been so far with packaging up your services. Like, what does that even look like? I wanna talk about this idea of a signature program. Um, like I said, it's become more and more important through the years and it has this sort of negative byproduct of making healthcare, which just go, ah, cause it sounds very scary.

It sounds complex. And I wanna let you know that it's not actually as difficult or like, oh my gosh, I have to create this whole magnificent thing. It's a lot less complex than you think I'm gonna be showing you exactly how to create signature program. It's gonna take us just five days, not even the whole day for five days, just like 15 minutes each day. If you wanna join me for that training, it's completely free and you can register for it at healthcoachpower.com/signature. I'm gonna put that right here in the comments for my Facebook peeps. If someone on Instagram wants to type it for me, it's healthcoachpower.com/signature. It's gonna be fun. We start in a couple of weeks and I've, I've done this before, but it's been years. And I think this is one of the most useful trainings I've ever put together.

So make sure you hop on that list. When I was planning for today's presentation, I was thinking about going to the hair salon, probably because I have an appointment later this week, but imagine if you went to the salon and they were like, okay, well we can do your hair for 30 minutes or would you like us to do your hair for 60 minutes? I'd be like, I don't care. Just make it look good. You know, like of course I'd rather be shorter, first of all, but in the end, I'm there to make my hair look a certain way. That's why I go to the, to the salon in the first place. So salons don't sell services based on time for this exact reason, cuz doesn't that just sound silly. Clients want their hair to look magnificent. And if it takes 30 minutes, 60 minutes, sometimes I'm there for like two plus hours, whatever.

So instead when I go to the hair salon, I get what they call their signature curly cut. And it includes the dry cut, which if you don't know, curly hair should be cut dry. This was news to me when I started wearing my hair curly. But anyway, I get the dry cut, the wash, you know, the product, the styling, I sit under the heat for a while. It's all part of it. So this is what I'm talking about with a signature program. It's less about selling your time or you've probably heard that term trading time for money, which is like, don't wanna do that. So this is less about selling your time as a health coach and more about selling the result that the client wants. So do you need this? Let's see what everybody is saying here. Um, Eliza says, hi, she's brand new.

Very good. Welcome. Uh, Winifred says my program definitely encouraged building a program around a defined niche and trying to serve everyone. You might really not be serving anyone according to their needs. Didn't necessarily refer to it as signature program per se. Yes. So there's two aspects to think about. One is exactly that having a niche, uh, in terms of like, I help, you know, women in menopause or I help truck drivers, right? That's your niche, but there's another part of your, at your program that has to do with what problem are you helping them solve? Right? That that's, that's the part that I think no one's talking enough about. Sometimes we think we're solving a problem, like, um, balancing hormones and that's not actually a problem that anybody wants to solve. Like no one is actively thinking that even that woman in menopause, she's not like, you know, gosh, I just wanna balance my hormones so bad, you know that that's not like her thought process.

So a signature program taps into both of those things. When a friend taps into the who the person is and what do they need. So let me tell you a little bit about how this has unfolded in my own business. When I started my health coaching practice, it was 2009. What were you doing in 2009? Well, I was very, very, very, very new health coach and I was booking consultations. Anyway. I could with anyone that I could and I would offer my package like this. I have a six month health coaching package. We meet every other week and I offer email support in between sessions and it costs, I think I was charging about $1,200 back then. So what did I do? I told them how long I told them the frequency of the meetings. I told them the cost. I told them all the uninteresting parts, just the logistics, the things that, eh, sounds blah, you know, who wants to pay me money, who wants to have to, you know, have a meeting on their calendar every other week. That's not what they want. None of that had to do with what they want. So they would be like, and have you ever heard this? Just like, say me in the comments, if you've ever had a client say or a potential client say, oh, I'll have to think about it as they kind of step backwards out of the room either literally, or you can tell that's what they're doing mentally. Or sometimes they'll let me talk to my husband.

You're like, great. That's the sort of thing that I was getting. Now these days... Oh, and Zerella's saying me all the time. Yes. I know you guys are hearing this. I've heard this stuff for years of my own practice. And I always am getting, uh, feedback from all the coaches in our Health Coach Power Community. That this is what people say when, what they're really saying is I don't think it's worth it. And they're not saying, I don't think you are worth it, or I don't like you or you're no good or any of that stuff that we kind of put into it, you know, that's, that's our brains filling in the, the blanks a bit. No, they're just saying in all honesty, they don't see the value. They don't see the value and that's fair. That means we're not communicating our value. Well, and we can fix this these days, like 90% of my client consultations turn into paying clients.

And that's because I don't talk about the logistics, none of that boring stuff that nobody wants. I said, I talk about the results of, of my signature program, which coincidentally is designed specifically for them specifically for this type of person standing in front of me or this type of person on the phone with me. And they say things like this. Yep. Sounds good. When can we start? I always fell over the first time that I heard that it was always this wishy washy me kind of answer on the other side. How many of you would love to hear that? Yep. Sounds good. When can we start? And then you're like, oh, what? And you start rustling around on your calendar looking for a good start date. Cause you weren't expecting it. But that's the difference when you are communicating your value. Eliza says, oh me, she's had this problem.

Tesha says me. Uh, Yolanda says they feel they can do it on their own. That makes sense. Why do I have to sit down and meet with someone to talk about whatever my food, my exercise, I can, I can do that on my own. Right? They're not seeing the value of what you have to offer. If you're selling them. Like I did a six month health coaching package. I've had clients actually say, oh my God, it sounds like you've been reading my diary. That's how much they're resonating with what I'm saying with like the specific things that I am telling them. So of course they're going to sign up and they're not asking what my credentials are. Anyone worry that someone's... or, have you ever had someone ask, well, are you a nutritionist? Are you an RD? Are you a whatever? Where'd you get your certification?

What kind of qualifications do you have? This is like the last thing any health coach wants to hear. Right? None of that happens when they see the value. They're like, whoa, again, you've been reading my diary. This is exactly what I need. This is exactly the type of help that I need to get the results that I've been looking for. They're not nitpicking over the details. They're just in, they're like, here's my credit card. That is the client that you wanna work with. You're not the one that you have to convince. Oh, not definitely not the one that you have to convince. You want the one who is already sold because I'm gonna tell you a secret. You might be the exact same coach on the other side, but they are coming at it from a completely different energy. When they're in, when they're like, this makes sense I can do this.

This is what I want. Like, they bring a whole different energy to the coaching. And sometimes we forget this. We think, uh, we're the ones who are providing answers and providing results and making all the magic happen with our health coaching clients. We're not, you're not as a health coach. That's not the client is doing that. We're facilitating, right? So we want them to enter into the relationship feeling really, really confident, feeling really, really good about what they've just decided to do for themselves. We want, I want you guys to understand that you're not going to sign clients, at least not consistently. You're not gonna sign clients consistently if you're selling that generic health coaching package, because nobody wants to be health coached. Nope. I mean, nobody even wants to go to the dentist. I mean, and everybody knows what the dentist does and okay.

I do really like when my teeth get cleaned, but it's definitely at the bottom, my priority list. I do it cuz I have to right? Like very few people want that and they're gonna pay a high, high, high premium to go to the dentist. And a dentist is something that everybody understands as has been doing their entire life. A health coach. People are gonna think, you know, just like, uh, Yolanda was saying over here, eh, I don't really need that. I can do it on my own. They saying, I have clients that say, I'm all in. When do I start? Then I tell them the price and now they have to think about it. Yes. Well, there are different ways to deliver this information. We should talk about that another time for sure. But we want them to, to be in on the content of your program, the results that we're, they're gonna get and feel like that is completely worth the price, which has a lot to do with what problem you're solving.

Small problem, small price, big problem, big price. Everyone is happy to pay for a solution to the big problem that they are, are desperate to solve. And a signature program is that solution health coaching, not necessarily the solution. You know, clients used to look at me, kinda like, uh, like they didn't trust me. They didn't believe me. They were like, well maybe this could help. How do you know this could help now? They're like, obviously this is gonna help. And I can and talk about the umpteen, different other clients that are just like them, that I've helped get this result and that result and oh, this happened to this one and oh, this person was just like you, and now she's feeling this way. It's the solution to what they've been looking for. So in my opinion, yes, you need a signature program. Absolutely. What do you think when you tell me in the comments, what do you think when you hear me say signature program? Like what is the thing? What is that? Just tell me in the comments, whatever comes to mind.

I noticed that a lot of our coaches immediately jump to things like an online course. Oh, I gotta get, um, an member site and I need to put together an online course and I have to shoot videos for my online course on the member site. You know, you need some place where people are gonna log in. We think that a signature program is going to be tangible in some way, you know, at it's at least going to include, uh, you know, 47 pages of like a PDF document, right. It has to, it has to be a thing. And you know, it might be, it might be for some coaches that's true.

Your signature program might in fact be an online course today or in the future. But I want you to know it doesn't have to be like that at all. Especially in the earlier years of your business, it doesn't need to include a lot of stuff. That's going to take you a lot of time to create. I'm a nervous saying that she makes her think about the specialty a coach has. Absa freaking literally. And whenever it says I hear signature program and I think about something fancy and therefore more on the pricey side. Okay. That's interesting. The it's two different thoughts. We think about something fancy. I think that's what I was just describing. Right? Like it has a lot of stuff. It has a lot of bells and whistles. It's highly polished. It's fancy. And then it's therefore it's on the pricy side. The price is related to the value of the result.

If I can get you a result that you've desperately been looking for and I can do it in like 30 days and I can do it with, you know, a couple of phone calls that take up very little time in your calendar. Would that be more or less valuable than if I had a hundred hours of video that you had to watch? Right. The more simple it is, sometimes the more valuable it's going to be Tesha says my signature program is what I'm known for providing. Yes. Do all your fans and followers know about it, maybe, you know, sort of like, oh gosh, I don't know. Maybe like Nike signature sneaker or you know, something that people are not, I don't know if we really get known for it. Uh, but we know we sell it. Right. And it's so great because then you know what you're selling and you're not trying to come up with it on the fly.

Have you ever done that? You're listening to someone and you're like trying to gauge like what they're willing to pay and what they're willing to commit to. And then you kind of come up with their package, like right there during the consultation. I know, I know it's embarrassing, but I have definitely done that. And if you've done that too, you are not alone. I know coaches do that because sometimes we talk about it. So I'm just airing out the dirty laundry right now. But when you have a signature program, it helps you sell a okay. I was just talking to someone in our Facebook group earlier today, right now the name is escaping me. I'm sorry if this was you, but we were having conversation about how it can be overwhelming to put yourself out there. And as a coach, it is like kind of scary, cuz it's personal, you're selling your own services to somebody. You're kind of like, do you like me? Do you wanna hire me? Oh, I find that with the signature program, it's more like I'm selling a product. I've created this product.

It is what it is. I'm not like on the fly, creating it for you. You're not buying me. You're buying it. Let me tell you about it. It depersonalizes the transaction in a way. And it, it allows me to come into the meeting from a much more balanced place. I'm just like, is this the right thing for you? Let's figure that out. I'm not thinking I'm not going into the meeting going, am I the right coach for you? Uh, right, scary. So that's another reason I really like having this product. So to speak this program, we have created that we can sell that is in some ways removed from just selling time with me, just time with me. Okay. Once again, I'm gonna be showing you how easy it is to create a signature program so much easier than you think during our free event, create your signature program in just five days.

And I'm telling you by a number five, you can enroll clients into this program. So if there's someone that you've been waiting to work with, cuz you're not quite sure of what you're selling, they're gonna be in on day five. That's how quickly you can get rolling. It is simple as that. So I want you to make sure that you're registered to join us at healthcoachpower.com/signature. And you know what? We haven't talked too much about pricing. We mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I wanna reiterate this point that when you go from a generic health coaching package to selling a evolution focused signature program, you're no longer charging hourly. And that means that the sky is the limit. A lot of us get stuck in, wait a minute. You know, that sounds really expensive cuz that's X hundreds of dollars per hour and I'm a new coach.

And I can't charge that. Uhuh basically the bigger problem that you help a client solve, the more valuable it is, the more you are able to charge. And this is really key if you've been seeing clients and you're kind of on that hamster wheel where you're like, well there's only so many hours in the day and there's so many, you know, so many clients that I'm able to work with that I'm able to sign. Even if I had a full roster, have you done this Smith? Even if I had a full roster of clients, I'd still only be making what now? Oh, that's not good. So if you want to break into that next income level, at some point in your practice, again, having a signature program is going to help you do that. It's just easier to sell. It can be priced higher and it, your life so much easier because you get really, really good at helping a certain type of person achieve a certain result.

Now, even within that, of course, every individual is unique. No two clients are ever going to be exactly the same. But instead of thinking that you need to have the answers for everyone in the world about everything you're really become and specialize at doing one thing. And you just do it really, really well. You don't have to know the answer for everything. That is a huge load off you specializes and it completely streamlines your business. I think you need this. So join us to create your signature program. We start on April 24th. It is completely free to sign up at healthcoachpower.com/signature. And I will see you there and I will see you back here next week. Thanks for joining me today everybody. See you soon.