7 Keys To Keep Clients For Life As An Online Coach (LTV Maxxing)

If you're signing new clients every month, but your business isn't actually growing, this is why. You're signing 5 clients, losing 4, signing 10, losing 8. You've got a revolving door, not a business. And the worst part is that most coaches think the fix is more leads, more content, more ads. No, the fix is keeping the clients that you already have, retaining them, renewing them, getting referrals and making money that way. If your retention sucks, I'm going to give you 7 keys to keep clients for life as an online fitness coach. These aren't theories. These are the exact systems I use and teach my clients to build recurring revenue that stacks month over month instead of resetting to zero every 12 weeks. By the end of this video, you'll know exactly how to plant the seeds for renewal from day one, how to upsell clients for 12-month programs and the exact windows where you can lock clients in before they even think about leaving and the full renewal call script that makes resigning feel like a no-brainer. Let's get into it. Now, first, let's break down some boring stuff, some maths, because this is actually very important because there's just no way you can scale past a certain point if your retention sucks. So let's say you sign 10 clients at $3K, you lose 70% every 12 weeks because it's a 12-week program for $3K, for example. After 6 months, you are stuck at 20 to 30 clients. There's no way to escape that because you constantly have clients churn. So literally the ceiling that you will encounter, you will not be able to break through it, is $60K to $90K per month. Now, with the right retention systems that you will implement after watching this video, you're going to be signing 10 clients at $3K per month. You're going to be retaining 60 to 70% every cycle because you know how to renew them. And you are also going to be, not even mentioning you're going to be getting referrals. After 6 months, you have 40 to 50 plus stacking clients renewing and keeping Keep in mind that renewals are pretty much just pure profit because you don't pay to acquire them, which means you can literally double your revenue and it's growing because you have a great program, you have a great renewal percentage. Now the target would be a minimum 50% re-sign rate. Below 50% is a serious problem. About 70% means you are absolutely killing it. You have a great program. And what I want to say is most of you guys are amazing coaches. You know how to change lives. You know how to do it. But the issue is you just don't have the strategy that I'm going to show you to be able to re-sign clients consistently because you can have the best intentions, which I'm sure you do. But if you just don't have the system, you're not going to be able to do it. Now, key one is we need to get them into green light right away. If they don't have great momentum in weeks 1 to 2, they never really start. If they never start, they definitely don't renew. Now, first things first, when they pay, you want to send them the questionnaire right away after signing, which means at the end of the sales call, after you collect the money, you say, just sent you the questionnaire, please get it back to me within 24 hours so I can get started on your program. If you don't do it, the buyer's remorse is going to increase, which means they are going to be thinking, did I make the right decision? Maybe I want a refund. If you You just tell them exactly what to do. They're going to get homework, which means they're going to get to work. They're not going to have time to question their decision and potentially think about getting a refund. Now, once you get the questionnaire, you want to confirm timelines. So you want to reply, thank you, your program will be ready within the next 7 days. You want to set very clear expectations. Clients should never wonder when their program is coming or what's going to happen next. Next, you want to deliver them the program. Now, key is to hop on an onboarding call. You pretty much want to walk through the meal plan, training plan, and weekly check-in expectations. Explain the app, explain the process, explain how the check-in works, and that you're going to be sending them Looms or hopping on checking calls with them. They should leave excited and clear on exactly what to do. If they don't understand how to use the app, we need to make it very clear how to use it. Because if they don't know how to use it, they're not going to be able to use it after the call, after the onboarding call, to even get started on the program and start getting results. If they're going to be confused at any step, they're going to quit. Now, key is to celebrate early wins. So celebrate their first workout, their first meals. Monitor your app for their first completed workout. Message immediately, like, just so you crushed your first workout, how are you feeling? You know, you need to celebrate it. You need to give them that momentum, right? So they're gonna keep moving forward. Now, during the onboarding process, during the first few days, you definitely need to also get them into your client community, which means you can say, hey, this is the invite to our private community. You can send them like a Facebook link or whatever you use for your community. Tell them, hey, make a post introducing yourself. Tell us your number one goal and why you joined the program. And then tell your other clients to welcome them in. And then they're going to feel like they're part of this community, part of this family, which is going to make them want to stay in the program for longer. Their first workout, their first meal prep, they should post it in the community. So encourage them to post their first meal prep photo in the community, celebrate it publicly. Again, make other clients celebrate it as well. Because this signals real buy-in to the program. Now, especially during the first check-in, you want to give them heavy validation. Give strong praise on check-in 1. Make them feel confident they made the right decision. Now, if they miss their check-in, send them a personal video message right away because you need to kill the dragon when it's a baby. You know, you want to escalate it and escalate if needed, like a video, email, text, literally call them until they fill out their first check-in. Don't let it slip through the cracks. If they miss their check-in, address it right away. And overall, during the first 4 weeks, you need to hold their hand like every step of the way. Monitor workouts daily, catch missed sessions immediately. Missed sets, whatever. A message the same day a workout is missed. So, hey, notice you missed leg day. What happened? Follow up on every missed check-in relentlessly, but kindly. Just make sure that they actually do it. Send a personal Zoom video if they go quiet. Send them a selfie. Call them if they go quiet again. If a client misses check-in number 1, especially, the likelihood of completing number 2 drops significantly. Call them, message them, whatever you have to do to make them complete it. Now, most coaches wait until the last week before asking for the renewal. But by that point, the client has usually already checked out. Key number 2 is you need to plant the renewal seed on day 1. Literally day 1. You're on a 12-week program. Most of my clients actually stick with me for about a year or so. At the end of the 8-week mark or 12-week mark, however long your program is, we will talk about your next steps because once we hit this first goal, we will help you lose the 10 pounds. I'm sure you'll want to keep building from there. This reframes your 12-week program as phase 1 and then they continue to the next phase, right? Not the entire journey. It changes their mindset from I'm buying 12 weeks to I'm starting a longer transformation, right? Don't be pushy with this. Just mention it casually on your boarding call and move on. And this seed is going to stay in the back of their mind. They're going to expect it at the end of the 12 weeks. Now, the truth is that you're not selling a meal plan or a training plan. You're selling them a community and accountability. That's why number 3 is having your community and accountability process extremely dialed in. I would recommend at least 2 weekly calls in your client community, especially once you have 20+ clients. Like, you need to have a community with clients because calls deepen accountability and make clients feel connected to a group, not just a program. When a client considers leaving, they're not just losing a coach. They're actually losing relationships, right? Because you are going to kick them out of the program. So that makes them want to stay in the program for longer. And that's why I mentioned it's so key that at the beginning they introduce themselves to the community. People cheer them on, right? Because then they build those connections. Now, what types of calls can you be doing in your client community? There's only really 3 types. You can do 2 out of them. There's one that is pretty much optional, but these 2 ones are pretty much necessary. Now, the foundation of pretty much everything is going to be skill building/value call. You want to listen to what clients are struggling with, then teach a lesson. For example, balancing nutrition and relationships. Making healthy food taste great, dealing with body dysmorphia, maybe how to eat out when you're traveling, right? And on top of that, after that call, this call can be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes long, can put together a presentation. And then at the end, you want to do a Q&A. So pretty much like I said, you want to be doing 2 of these calls per week. And you can do, for example, 2 value calls. You can mix these different types, which I'll talk about right now. But this will be the foundation because, for example, if you have a lot of clients, you can actually start doing Q&A calls alone. If you have a lot of questions, instead of making people ask you questions directly, you can direct them. For example, you can put up a post and make people ask questions there for the upcoming Q&A call. And then you answer these questions on the call. But this is once you have so many clients, right? And you have so many questions coming in that you would rather do it on a group call. So this is another type of call you can be doing. But again, you can also just stick to that skill building slash value call. And another one can be a weekly form review call, which means you can have clients film themselves performing exercises. You can set a fixed weekly time and pull up videos live, review form in front of the group. This way everyone learns, everyone benefits. So just to summarize, if you're a beginner, if you don't have that many clients, I would stick to the skill building/value call. Do them once or twice per week. If you have more clients, as you get more clients, also start doing weekly Q&A calls, and you can even add weekly form review calls. So I would start with one call per week. Just pick a time that would be suitable for everybody. You can put up a, like, a poll, like a question in your client community, what would be the best time for our calls? And then you want to start doing these calls once per week, twice per week, start transitioning to these other types as well as you get more clients. Now, it's also key to build a good culture in your community. No victim mindsets. You want to solve problems, don't complain. You want to teach it to your clients and also relate it to your own stories, which means On these calls, for example, you can talk about, hey, I've struggled with this yesterday, but I still went to the gym, right? You want to keep teaching them this mindset. Celebrate wins out loud. Hype each other up on these calls. Celebrate wins. Show up. You answer within 24 hours, Monday through Friday. And it's going to be easier after you get a community manager as well. And then any clients must show up too. Zero conflict between members. Make sure that everybody's celebrating, everybody's cheering each other on and teach them to do the work. Be disciplined, right? Put in the work. Now without calls, you're going to see a 70-80% retention. And with calls done properly, you can bump up to 95% retention because people don't want to leave your program just because they've built so many relationships in your program that they don't want to lose their friends. Quick pause. So if you're watching this and you're realizing your retention is costing you thousands every month in lost revenue, this is exactly what we can help you fix. The acquisition, the retention, the systems, pretty much all of it. If you want a done-for-you help building a coaching business where clients actually stay, click the first link in the description and book a call. There's a video of me explaining how the program works and what's included. Like I said, everything is completely done for you. It's not some mentorships. It's not some business coaching. We will look at your current numbers, find the gaps, and put together a plan to plug the leaks and actually implement it for you. Key number 4 is they will not remember the program, the workout plan, the meal plan, but they will remember the touchpoints. You might have 30, 50, 100 clients and kind of unfortunately see them as numbers, especially over time. But they only have one coach and it's you. So make the relationship special. You need to have a 15-minute morning routine. Open your client management app, see who hit the workouts, send them a congratulation message again, cheer them on, especially in the first weeks. See who missed, send a personal message again. If no response in the app, text them, right? And lastly, also check for any unanswered questions. Make sure to get back to everybody. Another thing that you're probably not implementing right now is Momentum Zooms. So you want to shoot a short video, uh, sent to clients, for example, to your client community throughout the week to keep them motivated, inspired, and informed between calls, the group calls, and check-ins. This can be a difference between a 70% and a 90% retention. So for example, what you're currently learning, what you're listening to, answers to the most common check-in struggles that you're noticing, mindset and motivation topics your clients need, featured content, podcasts, interviews, resources you're following. So it can be a quick video. It doesn't even have to be a Loom, right? Um, it can just be a selfie, you talking for like 2-3 minutes, something that inspired you, something that you're listening to, learning about some common check-in struggles that you're noticing. Number 5 is you need to set the rules before they break them. You need to make it very clear what you commit to and what they commit to. You commit to answer any questions within 24 hours, Monday through Friday, weekly check-ins set on a specific day that you pick. It can be a call at the beginning, and then usually you transition to just Looms going over a— their check-in. But for example, you can tell them that weekends are off. They they shouldn't expect you to answer on the weekends. Now, what they commit to: check-in replies by a certain deadline, which I'll show you in a second, post in the community regularly, and reach out when struggling. Don't go silent. You need to make it very clear. Again, the key is setting the right expectations in the first week on your onboarding call, because then it will be top of mind for them throughout the entire program. Now, for the check-in compliance system: Wednesday 6 PM, check-ins go out. Thursday 6 AM, reminder sent. Thursday 9 AM, everybody should have already completed their check-in. Worst case, you also send Follow up Thursday noon. Now, if somebody misses their check-in, like I said, especially in the first few weeks, hey name, just checked my check-ins for the week and yours isn't here yet. Even if you had a rough week and you're not proud of it, still get it done. Knowing where you're at is how I can help you adjust and get back on track. Send it over. You can message them, you can call them, and this is kind of like what you want to say pretty much. Don't make them feel bad, especially at the beginning. They might be struggling. They may have missed the workout and they're not really proud of it. That's why they don't want to submit your check-in form, right? But you want to make them feel like you're going to still cheer them on. They're okay. You need to make adjustments and make it easier and better for them. Now, the key here is is clients who consistently miss check-ins are consistently the ones who don't renew. So you have to fix the check-in problem early and you fix the retention problem pretty much automatically. Key number 6 is don't wait until the last week. You have 3 shots. First window is the first 4 weeks. So you want to offer them a loyalty offer. If they're crushing it early, offer a year commitment at a loyalty rate. Now they probably have not lost 50 pounds in the first month, right? But even if the momentum is good, if they feel great, right? If they're motivated, if they're sending you pretty much love letters about how great they are feeling, you can still offer this. You've been crushing it in the first 4 weeks. I actually want to offer you a loyalty rate for the rest of the year so we can guarantee we hit your big goal. So you can send this as a message. You can send this as a voice note. You can just, whenever you record your Loom going over their check-in, you can also just mention it in the Loom. Offer a 20 to 30% discount for the year, subtract from what they already paid. And I will show you the exact sequence on how to pitch that offer on the next slide. Second window is going to be a big win moment. So strike when they're high. Anytime they're motivated, they message you that they're happy and they hit the milestone, that's a renewal window. That's incredible. How do you feel about locking in for the rest of the year at discounted rate? They're emotionally high. They love you. They feel very easy this way. The last window is 1 month, 4 weeks before expiry, not last week. Book a dedicated call 4 weeks before the program ends. Like, hey man, how's it going? I would love to book a check-in call to review your progress and map out your next phase. On that call, you want to run them through the 11-step renewal script on the next section. Key number 7 is having the right renewal call process. So you want to, like I said, book this call 4 weeks before the program ends. The first step is to set expectations. So thank them, tell them What you will cover, review progress, where they were before, where they want to go, and how you will support them. Step 2 is get them in a positive state. What was the best part about working together? What results are you most proud of? Scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel right now? How has life improved outside of training? You want to dig into past pain, so rewind before we started. What was your biggest struggle? Scale of 1 to 10, where were you before? How was that impacting the rest of your life? You want to kind of pretty much redo the sales call. Then you want to cast the vision. So if your body and life were exactly where you wanted, what would that look like? You know, how would it feel to wake up in that body every day? Next, you want You want to create a gap, pretty much the cost of an action. Are you ready to take it to the next level? Like now imagine if you didn't. A year from now, you stepped back. Could you live with that? Like what would that feel like? You know? Next you want to ask permission to pitch. I can see exactly where you need to go next and I can definitely help. Do you want to hear about the next steps? Like what will be the plan for them? Let's say they lost weight. Now you want to help them build muscle, like a body retope, right? You give them a tailored solution. For example, for nutrition, we need XYZ. For training, we need XYZ. And mindset is the biggest piece for long-term consistency. Next you get them to sell it back to you. So out of those three, which is most important for you right now? They tell you why they need continue. They're basically selling themselves, which is super key. Next, you want to drop the price. So normally it's X, but you're a preferred client, you're a loyal client, so I'm going to give you XYZ discount. My rates, by the way, are going up from the next month, but if you lock in today, I will keep your rate the same. Next, you pretty much the easy stuff. You capture the payment, credit PayPal, and I'm gonna send you a link right now, by the way, and you want to send them the sale. So you just made a great decision, super excited to keep working with you. I'm going to give you some secret sauce on how to upsell people for a yearly program. Pretty much if you implement this right now, you can make like 10, 15, 20 grand like, like this. Don't do it too often because you will cut your actual cash collected because you need to give a bit of a discount, but you can make $10-15K. If you need some money right now, definitely implement this. Pretty much the renewal flash sale is a private discounted offer sent to existing clients to extend their coaching. And we mentioned that a bit earlier on some of the early windows when they are winning early in your program, you can utilize this. But keep in mind that this is a cash injection strategy, not a recurring tactic. You cannot keep doing it. So you can pick 3 to 5 clients per campaign to maintain scarcity, offer a 25 to 30% off for a 52-week extension, which for a year. And obviously try to not offer it to the same clients multiple times and don't do it too often, right? Now for the initial DM, hey, I don't know if you're interested, but in the spirit of we have the new year, we started this, it's my birthday, I want to give back. I'm only offering this deal to 3 people because frankly, I don't want to put myself out of business. If you're loving the program and want to crush your long-term goals with me, you can mention their goal to make it even more personalized. I would love to expand for 52 weeks. You can maybe just say for a year at 30% off. If that sounds interesting, just let me know or reply this and I'll send you the details. This can be sent as a voice note as well. I think voice sound great because it feels less pitchy. It sounds a bit more personalized. If they reply, close it. Love it. So the deal is a full year of coaching, like I said, at 30% off. Usually it will be X, but today I'm offering it for 30% off, right? So let's say your program is $6K. That would be 30% off. That would be minus $1,800. So that would be $4.2K, for example. Over the next 12 months, we're going to mention their specific goal. Only 2 spots left, you in? And again, I would recommend sending this as a voice note because it feels a bit more personalized. If you sent this and they said yes, what would that look like? Just tell them, hey, do you have a quick 5 minutes and hop on a call with them? Just literally call them, right? They will be more likely to buy it, right? On a call, it's kind of like a sales call. Obviously, if you just send somebody a price for your program in the DMs before a sales call, they would most likely ghost you. So it's the same here, right? Just get on a quick call with them, 2-3 minutes, sell them, collect the money, and you just made some good money. Now there's some objection handling methods here as well. If they give you a price objection, just split it. Totally get it. If it helps, we can actually split it into 2 payments, half now and half in, let's say, 30 days or 60 days. That way you're locked in for the year at the lowest rate ever. You can even mention that, hey, I'm actually increasing the prices from the next month. So I want to make sure that working together. Now, if they don't respond, just circle back. Hey, I don't know if you saw my message on Trainerize. For example, you can reach out to them on Instagram or text them, but I would hate for you to miss this out. I'm offering 30% off early renewal for a yearly extension, only for 3 people. Interested? So again, you want to message them on a different platform. Don't double message on the same one because it will feel just salesy and a bit weird. Now, overusing flash sales slashes your monthly revenue and your money because obviously you offer a 30% off. So if 20 clients all extend at once, your recurring can drop to near zero. Because let's say you have 20 clients on recurring revenue and they all extend for a year, well, pretty much your recurring drops to zero and you just sold your program to 20 clients at 30% off, right? So I wouldn't necessarily renew everybody like this, but like I said, if you want to make a quick $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, you can do it right away. If you implement this, you will stop losing 70% of your clients every quarter. You will start stacking revenue every single month and your business will actually grow instead of resetting to zero every 12 weeks. If you want the full onboarding breakdown, you can watch this video right here. Here. And if you want help implementing all of this completely done for you, front-end acquisition, which means we will book calls for you. We will not teach you how to get clients. We will just get the clients completely done for you. So if you want, just check the first link in the description. If no, I hope you enjoyed the video. Leave a like if you liked it, leave a subscriber, and I'll see you in the next one.