3 reasons why helping your clients with their mindset can help your business thrive

When you first started your service-based business, I’m sure that one of the main things you wanted to do, was to provide a solution for something your ideal clients are struggling with. Whether you’re a riding instructor, photographer or mindset coach, your clients all have different things that they are seeking solutions to. It has also become very popular to work on your mindset as a business owner. Working on your mindset has huge benefits. From allowing more money to flow to you, to increasing your confidence promoting yourself. It can even help you with anxiety or feelings of imposter sydrome.

But, have you ever considered the benefits of helping your clients with THEIR mindset? No matter what your business is, or who your clients are, there can be huge benefits to you supporting your clients with their own mindset. Below I’m going to go through some key reasons why you should consider this in your business.

1. Success is 80% mindset

That’s not to say that skill and action don’t matter. However, if your clients have a really poor mindset, but are trying really hard to improve their skills, this can lead to frustration.

Let’s say that you’re a riding instructor and you’re teaching someone to get a better canter transition. Your client could do 100 transitions in a lesson with you. But, if they believe that they are not good enough for their horse, or that they won’t be able to replicate this transition at home on their own, then they will get into a vicious cycle of frustration. This may lead them to believe that they are making no progress. As a result, they could even stop booking lessons with you.

Instead, try working on their mindset first. Begin to understand why they believe that they are not good enough for their horse, or why they think they cannot replicate this exercise at home. Having asked this, you would be able to provide them with better instruction, that is more relevant to them. Once you have understood more about their mindset, you will have a great foundation to build their skills onto.

2. More success = loyal client

If your client feels that they have achieved success as a result of their interaction with you, they are far more likely to remain a loyal client. For a business owner, keeping an existing client is far more cost-effective than finding a new client. According to Forbes, it can cost five times more to find a new client, than retain an existing one. Can you really afford that in your business?

Say for example you are an equine photographer. You have a photoshoot with someone who is really nervous and very body conscious. They believe they are not worthy of a photoshoot. So you need to try to make them feel comfortable and worthy. You could try bossing them about and hoping that you’ll manage to get some good photos anyway. Or… how about taking some time before the shoot to understand why they feel that way. Perhaps they’ve had a really bad experience with a photographer before. Maybe someone at their livery yard laughed at them when they said they had booked a shoot. It could even be that they don’t like part of their body. By understanding what their concerns are, you can be aware of this when directing them during the day.

Taking this time to talk to them will help put them at ease. It will also ensure you’re taking photos that you know they will love. This client is likely to be really happy with the end product and be sure to book you again in the future because you evoked a strong, positive emotional feeling for them. They might even recommend you to their friends and family!

3. Turning potential clients into paying clients

Everyone has their own mindset challenges, including your potential clients. Quite often these mindset blocks are to do with money, particularly where an investment is involved. Some people love spending money, so much so that they get themselves into debt. Others really fear not having any money, so much so that they are scared to part with the money they have. So why as a business owner is it difficult to make sales to some people and not to others? And how does mindset come in?

There are two types of people when it comes to affordability – those who can physically afford the investment but don’t want to. These people perhaps don’t yet see the value in what you’re offering. And there are those who really want to invest but physically cannot afford to. For these people, an option such as payment plans could make a huge difference. If you do not understand which one of these your potential client is, you’ll struggle to move them forward.

You can help them to understand where they should go next. (That’s not to say convince them to invest in you even if it’s not the right thing for them!) What you can do is ask them how it feels for them to invest the money. Is it scary? Is it exciting? If it’s scary, ask them if they know why. (Obviously, investing large amounts of money is somewhat scary for everyone!) However, for some people that fear is overwhelming and stops them from investing, even when it could change their lives. For some people, it could be that they don’t feel worthy of having a coach, for others they might have been told that money doesn’t grow on trees, so it would take a long time for them to make their investment back. A good way for them to process these thoughts is to write them down.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert

I’m fully aware that as business owners, we should try to stick to our own zone of genius as much as possible. If yours is as a riding instructor, and you have no training in mindset, you might feel overwhelmed at the thought of having to learn something totally new. But don’t panic! This is where I come in – I have created a document just for you, with some simple, yet powerful exercises that you can use with your clients. No new degree necessary, just take some time to read through the exercises and understand them.

Download mindset exercises here!

If you want to take this learning one step further, then I have got a brand new course launching soon, specifically aimed at riding instructors and coaches. I have spent hours talking to qualified instructors to find out exactly how they feel they could benefit from a mindset coach. With my NLP practitioner and Life Coaching qualifications, I have put together an online, self-study course that covers three main areas:

1. Increasing self-confidence as a coach
2. Supporting your clients with their mindset
3. Promoting your business – including confidence and basics of online promoting

If you’d like to get on the waiting list for this course and to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the details then sign up here!