marketing essentials for coaches - Executive Business Life Coaching

Transcription

MARKETING ESSENTIALS FOR COACHES
THE 2012 REVISED EDITION
HOW TO STOP STRUGGLING ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS
AND FIND THE PROMISED LAND OF A THRIVING COACHING BUSINESS
Steve Mitten B. ApSc, RYT, CPCC, MCC
Master Certified Coach
Illustration: © Images.com/CORBIS/Magmaphoto.com
Copyright © 2003, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012 by Principal Evolutions Coaching and Training Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Page
7
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FOREWORD
PART 1
INTRODUCTION
The Beginner’s Plight
The Need to Stay in Business
The Need to Grow
Minimize the Pain
Equilibrium: Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone
It’s a Journey
Guiding Principles and Tips
Purpose
Commitment
Support
The Bottom Line
Chapter Reflections
Entrepreneurial Reality Check
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PART 2
THE MODEL
The Forces That Affect Your Practice
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PART 3
ACCELERATING FORCE #1- KNOW-HOW
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE
You Need to Know How to Coach
Stages of Learning as a Coach
Already Trained? Keep Learning
The Value of Informed Feedback
Coaching Circles
Supervisions
Free Learning
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You Need to Know How to Get Organized
Sample Client Payment Tracking Form
You Need to Know Who to Coach
Who – The First Big Question
Who Is a Qualified Prospect?
Age Factors
Ability to Pay
The Inclination Factor
What Does This Mean in Terms of Finding Clients?
Prospecting Probabilities Graphic
You Need to Know About Niches
What’s a Niche?
To Niche or Not to Niche
Sample Niches
How To Develop a Niche for Your Coaching Practice
Picking a Niche Checklist
No End To Niches
You Need to Know About Branding
What Is Your Brand?
Creating Your Own Brand
Communicating Your Brand
Resist The Temptation to Dilute Your Brand
You Need to Know About The Challenge of “Selling” Coaching
Understanding the Prospect’s Mind
How to Give a Great Sample Session
Dealing With Objections
You Need To Know How to Price Your Services
The 20% Rule
Pricing at the Start of Your Practice
Make It Easy to Say Yes
Broaden Your Offering of Services and Products
You Need to Know How to Contact Prospects
Contact Strategies
Direct Contact
Prospect Types
Work With Your Insiders First
Working with Warm Prospects
The 6:3:1 Sure Fire Formula
Time Requirement
Sample Dialogues for Warm Prospects
Working with Rainmakers
Working with Referrals
Supporting Material – Brochures, Cards
Testimonials
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Workshops
Workshop Outline
Wheel Of Life
Where To Do Workshops
Workshops For Business
Networking and Leads Exchange Groups
Keys to Succeeding in a Networking Environment
Typical Networking Venues
The Elevator Speech
The Non-Elevator Speech
Leads Exchange Groups
Bottom Line On Networking and Leads Exchange Groups
Teleclasses
Group Coaching
Speaking
Writing
Websites
Passive Sites
Active Sites
Search Engine Optimization
Have A Focus for Your Web Marketing
Pick Your Keywords Carefully
Choose Your URL Carefully
Prominently Display Your Keyword
Meta Tags
Acquire Links from Other Sites
Pay per Click
Your Home Page – Write Copy that Engages
Useful Website Resources
When to get a Website
Permission Marketing
Newsletters
Additional Products
Online And Social Media Networking
LinkedIn
Facebook
YouTube
Blogs
PR
General Advertising
Selecting the Best Strategies for You
Evolving Your Practice
Common Stages of Marketing a Practice
Packaging Yourself
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You Need to Know How to Troubleshoot Your Practice
The Practice Troubleshooting Guide
Final Comments On Contact Strategies
Chapter Reflections
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PART 4
ACCELERATING FORCE #2 – ACTION
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE
A Basic Marketing Plan
Set Up and Work Your Weekly Routine
Keep Learning More About Your Marketing Business
Other Marketing Resources To Support You
Follow-Up
Set Up Your Support Team
Conduct Periodic Reviews
The Most Important Thing
Chapter Reflections
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PART 5
ACCELERATING FORCE #3 – ATTITUDE
WHO YOU NEED TO BE TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE
The Being Side
Your Best Qualities
Centering Practice: The Way to a Quiet Mind
Developing Your Own Personal Affirmation
A Word on Balance
Being Mastery – The Story of Nachiketa
The Bottom Line on Being
Chapter Reflections
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PART 6
THE SLOWING FORCE – MANAGING THE BAD DOG
The Bad Dog: Managing the Inner Struggle
Good Dog/Bad Dog: The Story
The Impact of Your Bad Dog on Your Coaching Practice
The Impact of the Bad Dog on Your Actual Coaching
Managing The Bad Dog
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Short-Term Bad Dog Strategies
Long-Term Bad Dog Strategies
Chapter Reflections
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PART 7
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Three Realms of Mastery
Chapter Reflections
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PART 8
MOVING INTO ACTION
You Now Know All You Need To Know
Questions and Action Steps
A Specific Action Plan
A Week of Events
Weekly Calendar Graphic
Chapter Reflections
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PART 9
WAYS TO KEEP GROWING
Self
Coaching Skills
Business Skills
Chapter Reflections
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PART 10
THE IMPORTANCE OF COACHING
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ABOUT STEVE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful for this wonderful vocation and all those that have
developed it with such passion. I am grateful for the trust of my clients
and the privilege of co-creating their lives and businesses. I owe a debt
of gratitude to all my colleagues who contributed to this book. I am
particularly grateful to my insightful friends and amazing coaches, Joni
Mar and Susanne Biro, whose feedback and suggestions for this book
raised the bar for me. And I am most indebted to my editor-in-chief, main
cheerleader, partner and wife, Laurie. Thank you for your patience with
my compulsive revising and your tolerance of my nocturnal bouts of
creativity.
FOREWORD
I love coaching. Professional coaches play a vital part in helping people
live productive and purposeful lives based on conscious choice.
Coaches helps people make important changes they simply could not
make on their own. Coaching is very important work, and the world
desperately needs more of it.
More good-hearted people come into coaching each year with the best
of intentions of earning a living by doing what they love. Unfortunately,
too many coaches struggle to fill their practice. I know. I have been
there. It is absolutely no fun.
When I started my practice, coaching was even less known and
appreciated than it is today. As the principal breadwinner in my family, I
had to earn a good living. In the early days, I can remember being
frustrated that so few people really “got” how valuable coaching was. I
use to agonize whether a particular client would work with me. I used to
feel a sense of dread whenever a client decided to take a break from
coaching. I was sure it was a sign that all my clients would soon drift
away. I spent a lot of time doing very unproductive marketing, or worse
just sitting there waiting for the phone to ring. And over the years, I have
seen hundreds and hundreds of other coaches struggle with similar
challenges.
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It doesn’t have to be this way. There are enough clients out there for
every coach in the world to have a full practice. And now, there is
enough known about marketing a coaching practice that you can build a
successful practice quicker than ever. I know this too. Everything I share
in this book I have seen work either for myself or for many other
coaches. I have seen coaches fill their practice in three months. I have
seen many coaches average more than one new client a week, for
months at a time. I have seen dozens and dozens of coaches move
through the Wilderness of starting up a new coaching business, to the
Promised Land of a full and vibrant practice. This stuff works. And
everything I share in this book will allow you to successfully share your
gifts and market yourself with full integrity. (However, it is a fact that not
everyone is meant to be in business for themselves. Before you jump
into coaching, you will want to ask yourself if you are cut out to be an
entrepreneur. See the Small Business Administration’s articles on “Is
Entrepreneurship For You?”, and “20 Questions Before Starting A
Business” at SBA.)
Marketing Essentials For Coaches is written with a sincere desire to
help more coaches succeed. Its focus is the specific strategies,
actions and practices that have been proven to work for coaches. I
will share what you need to know, and what you need to do. And we
will also spend time on the very important topic of who you need to be
to achieve uncommon success in coaching.
When you cultivate these important factors you can experience almost
magical results. It’s like you somehow become better aligned with the
universe. For a given expenditure of energy there is a much greater
return. Unexpected and beneficial things happen. Doors open that you
didn’t even know were there. And you get the sense that success is
beginning to flow to you naturally.
“The universe
conspires to help those
in passionate pursuit of
their life’s purpose.”
As to the information in the book, it certainly draws on my experience
launching my practice. An experimenter and optimizer, I have
investigated many possible marketing approaches. This book also
benefits from the collective wisdom of over 300 other successful
coaches I’ve interviewed or with whom I have worked.
Neither I, nor any of the other coaches who contributed to this book
would make a claim to having all the answers. We are merely a little
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further down the road than many coaches new to this vocation, and are
happy to share our experiences.
I trust that you, the reader, will sift among the various ideas and
approaches presented to find the ones that work for you. You will need
to, as no approach is universal.
A note on grammatical conventions: for sake of clarity, when using a
pronoun to refer to coaches, I have assumed the general (masculine)
pronoun, as opposed to the clunky he/she, him/her approach.
Regarding hyperlinks, when I provide links to reference books it will most
often take you to Amazon.com, where I have long had an affiliate
relationship. I use Amazon simply because it has useful product
information, competitive prices and provides me the convenience of
already knowing the links. Please feel free to get your books wherever it
best suits you, or you might consider setting up your own affiliate
account with the vendor.
In the case of other reference information, trainings, programs,
newsletters and other services, I have provided links to the various sites
but can provide no warranty as to the quality of their products or
services. You must assess the merits of any of these resources for
yourself.
Finally, please fully use whatever you find of value here, and enjoy the
journey.
Steve
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PART 1
INTRODUCTION
The Beginner’s Plight
Here you are. You have recently discovered this thing called coaching.
You were amazed to find there was actually an occupation where you
could make a difference in people’s lives, earn a good living, and work
flexible hours from your home. Even better, you don’t have to go back to
school for another four years to get a postgraduate degree. You say to
yourself, this seems too good to be true.
You look around and talk to a few coaches. You take some sample
coaching sessions and get really excited. You sign up with a great
school and take some training. Now it’s time to get your first few clients
and start building your business.
You get your business cards . . . possibly put together a brochure . . .
make a few calls. You mention what you are doing to a few more people,
hoping they will hire you. Maybe you give a talk or two. But nothing
happens. If you do get a few clients, they are paying you peanuts—if
anything—and some of them don’t even bother to show up for your calls.
“The first rule of
business is to stay in
business.”
You get anxious and begin to wonder if you are ever going to make it as
a coach. Your money situation gets tighter. Maybe coaching is too
good to be true. Maybe I’ll have to go and get a real job.
Now your situation may not be this gloomy. You may have snagged your
first few clients and be optimistic about the future. You may have been
coaching for a while and managed to attract a handful of clients. But
having talked to hundreds and hundreds of coaches, I suspect that many
of you are under pressure to fill your coaching practice and are
struggling to learn what you need to know to succeed in this career.
The Need to Stay in Business
If you're like most coaches, you were drawn to this vocation because
you like helping people. But the truth is you can't help many people if
you don't stay in business.
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And when you are just starting out, staying in business can be difficult.
You don’t have the confidence or competence you will have down the
road. You don’t know what to do and you don’t know what to say. You
likely haven’t discovered with whom you want to work and how to best
contact those individuals or organizations. Yet you have a huge need to
gain more experience in coaching and develop a positive cash flow.
In this book I will share information and strategies that have worked for
me—and hundreds of other coaches. But to make use of this
information you will need to defy the odds of most small enterprises and
actually stay in business. To stay in business, you will need to get better
results. To get better results you will need to grow and change.
The Need to Grow
Nothing I can share with you will help get you clients unless you act on
it. To act on it you will need to walk through your doubts and fears and
current conditioned mindset. To walk through your doubts and fears, you
will need to grow. And growing can be painful.
“Nothing happens
without personal
transformation.”
- W. Edwards Deming
Minimize the Pain
I hate pain. I don’t want you to be in pain. In fact I want you to find the
easiest and most natural way to market yourself. When you do, the pain
is minimal. However for most of us, there is still some discomfort in
building a practice.
Discomfort comes from resisting the growth needed to become the
person you need to be, to get the results you want. And you will not be
able to get better results in your practice—or your life—by being the
same old person.
To reach new levels of success, you will have to grow. That is, and
will always be, the biggest challenge to moving forward.
People can learn more about the process of marketing. They can go
through the motions of marketing their business. But unless they
become the person whose passion, vision, and forward momentum
is strong enough to overcome the bundle of old fears, habits and
limiting beliefs, they will not be able to sustain the sort of effort needed
to get the results they want.
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Ultimately you will benefit from getting as knowledgeable—and almost
as passionate—about marketing as you are about coaching. Anything
less and you will struggle and have far less impact in a world that badly
needs your skills.
Equilibrium: Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone
We are all in equilibrium. In high-school science, we learned about
homeostasis, the tendency of all organic systems to seek equilibrium.
Each of us is a very complex organic system and we are all in some
form of homeostasis. We often call it our comfort zone, and we are very
resistant to move out of it. In fact we can develop elaborate defense
mechanisms to keep us where we are. And so often when we attempt a
change, there is resistance.
“The journey of a
thousand miles
begins with a single
step.”
- Lao Tzu
Most coaches building their practice have a desire to succeed, establish
a more abundant practice, and live the life of their dreams. These
desires initiate change.
In opposition, consciously or unconsciously, they have beliefs and habits
that resist change . . . I can’t do it. They will reject me. Nobody wants
coaching.
To move past this resistance, you need to find a way to feed the desires
pulling you forward and manage or work through the resistance holding
you back. We learn more about this in the pages ahead.
It’s a Journey . . . Be Prepared to be Challenged
Starting anything new is a challenge. Building up your coaching practice
will be a journey. There will be highs and lows . . . moments of great
elation when you get a new client . . . and days of despair when the
phone doesn’t ring and no one returns your calls. At times you may feel
lost in the desert Wilderness uncertain how to reach the Promised Land
of a full practice.
Prepare yourself to travel through this desert of starting up a business.
At the beginning, you will be investing time and money. Make sure you
have sufficient reserves of both. It would be foolhardy to head out into
the desert without enough water. Likewise it would be foolhardy to start
a new business on a shoestring. Success takes time, planning,
inspiration and consistent effort.
“The average full-time
successful coach
invests between $7,000
and $12,000 on training
and coaching and takes
approximately one year
to ramp up to $3,000 a
month in revenue. It
typically takes them 20
months to reach $5,000
in monthly revenue.”
-Survey of 100 Coaches
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Also be aware that there are important lessons to learn along the way.
You will need to learn new skills and let go of old habits. You will need to
move past your doubts and fears. You will need to find and connect to
your inner fire, believe in yourself, believe in the value of what you are
doing and find a way to express your unique gifts that positively impacts
and serves the world. In short, in order to succeed, you will need to
become the type of coach and businessperson to whom success is
a natural consequence.
There will be many people who will not understand you. Prepare
yourself for the rejection you will feel when you find out that most people
do not want a coach right now. Anticipate that your offer for coaching will
be routinely declined and that this has little to do with your worth or the
worth of coaching. It has everything to do with the fact that at any given
time, only a small percentage of people are able to hire you as a
coach. This is just a fact you will need to work with.
To succeed in building your practice, you will need to keep your eyes
firmly on the outcome you want: a successful coaching practice
full of meaning, freedom and joy. And keep taking the daily and
weekly steps you need to get there.
You may have many moments of doubt, but if coaching is what you are
called to do, you will find a way to overcome all challenges and keep
moving forward. And as long as you keep moving forward, you will
reach the Promised Land of an abundantly successful coaching practice.
“When you begin to see
coaching as your calling,
rather than simply a
source of income, you
will find the courage you
Guiding Principles And Tips
Here are a few guiding principles that will help you get the most from this
book and speed your passage to the Promised Land.
•
Before you get really good at something, be prepared to be
mediocre. Don’t hesitate to get out there before you’re perfect. If
you wait until you are perfectly prepared your business will never
happen. Give yourself permission to be a rookie coach and a
rookie marketer; get out there and learn.
•
Coaching is a very young line of work. Less than one in 500
people have ever worked with a professional coach so very few
people really know the benefits of coaching. To successfully sell
something most people have never tried, you will have to
selectively either give away free samples, or package your
need to move forward
boldly.”
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service in terms of solutions or benefits prospects are
already seeking and prepared to spend money on.
•
There is no single perfect, or universal, way to market yourself.
Depending on who you are, your background, your personality,
who your target clients are, where you live, etc, one or more
marketing approaches will work best for you. And what works for
you may not work for another coach.
•
Experiment to find the marketing path that works best for you.
Observe your results. Keep track of what does and does not
work. Don’t give up on a particular approach too early, but don’t
flog an unproductive one for months without results.
•
As you experiment with your marketing, be guided by
authenticity and effectiveness. Authenticity in the sense that
this approach is a good fit for your passions, experiences,
personality, and your gifts. Effectiveness in the sense of what
actually works.
•
Good marketing is not manipulation. It is done with 100%
integrity with a genuine desire to educate, add value, and be of
use to your clients.
•
Good marketing is very similar to good coaching. It involves
asking great questions of your target market and listening deeply.
•
Always focus on your clients. What are their needs? What are
they looking for now? How can you best create value for them?
•
Think give to get. Always seek to give the most value you can to
your prospects, clients, and the world at large. And know that the
more value you create in the world, the more abundance will flow
back to you.
•
The more specific you target your marketing on the existing
needs of a specific group of qualified prospects, and the
more specific your offer of coaching addresses those needs, the
easier your marketing will be.
•
You will experience success in direct proportion to your ability to
quiet the noisy, fearful, doubting, critical, chatter in your mind.
“What we’re all striving
for - authenticity, a spirit
to spirit connection.”
- Oprah Winfrey
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Open your heart, step into your strengths, and share your gifts
abundantly.
•
You will greatly benefit by setting up a daily renewal routine to
connect to an inspiring vision of the practice and lifestyle you are
creating. (These renewal routines help you become more
courageous and more committed to making the changes you
need to successfully market your practice. A good renewal
routine, one that centers you in courage, optimism and hope, will
allow you to better handle the stress, challenges and
discouragement of starting a new business.)
•
For most coaches in the early stages of their practice, it takes
between 3 and 5 hours of active marketing to acquire a new
client. Put in the necessary time and make sure the bulk of your
early marketing involves identifying and talking to qualified
prospects.
•
Persevere. It takes time to build a successful practice. The
average coach struggles for the first few months, and then
averages one new client (net) a month. So budget the time and
money it will take until your coaching business can pay all your
bills. (It gets way easier when you find your niche.)
•
Your marketing is not something separate from who you are as a
coach and person. Good marketing is a natural extension of your
unique gifts, talents and experience applied to the people you
most enjoy working with, in a way that allows them to recognize
the value of your offering.
•
Abundance in coaching is not just about having all the clients you
could ever want. It is about having enough of the clients you
enjoy working with to meet your needs, and leave you balanced
and feeling fulfilled at the end of the working day.
There are three principles so vital to your success, that they deserve
separate attention:
“What’s meant to be will
always find a way.”
- Folklore
Purpose
Antoine De Saint-Exupery captures the essence of the first principle in
this quote.
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"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood,
divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for
the vast and endless sea."
This quote speaks to the power of being connected to your purpose.
When you see your efforts to be in service of truly living your life’s
calling, and broadly sharing your gifts with the world, no challenge
or setback will keep you from achieving your goal.
So before you raise a finger to market your practice, and whenever you
feel discouraged by a setback, connect to why you are called to be a
coach. Coaching is important work. And you are meant to do it.
Commitment
Peter Drucker captures the second key principle in this quote.
“Unless commitment is made,
there are only promises and hopes...
but no plans.”
Wishing and dreaming about a successful coaching practice will not be
enough. You must be committed to act, and do so each and every
workday.
Support
Sustaining a purposeful commitment requires support. We know this. It
is one of the reasons our clients hire us. For you to get value from the
information in this book, you will need to repetitively move beyond your
doubts, fears and old habits. To accomplish this you will need support.
Many new coaches come from professional environments where they
had full support systems; their colleagues, their boss, and even the
reporting or reward system of the organization, kept them focused and
moving ahead.
As an independent professional or “solopreneur”, you will need to set up
new support systems to keep you focused, encouraged, and
accountable. Lack of an effective support system is one of the
biggest reasons why many new coaches under perform in their
businesses. They don’t have meaningful goals, they don’t set weekly
priorities, they don’t routinely review what is and is not working in their
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marketing efforts, they don’t identify conflicting beliefs, and when they
get stuck, they stay there for too long.
Very Important
Before you begin this book, I urge you to set up a regular, weekly
accountability, support and encouragement structure. (This will be one
of the most important factors in determining how much value you
receive from this book.)
We are all blind to the changes we most need to make. We all have
(sometimes hidden) conflicting, habits, beliefs and conditioning that we
will run into, whenever we attempt a big change. Support is critical in
helping you get past these very predictable challenges.
If you already have a coach, great. If that is not financially possible for
you now, find another new coach (or a group of coaches) in the process
of building their business. Agree to support each other, and set up a
weekly schedule of calls. Hold each other accountable. And remind
each other of the importance of the work you do.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately your success, and the impact that you will have on the world,
will be dependent on your ability to progress in three main areas:
mastery of self, mastery of the coaching skills and mastery of some core
business skills. (Note that the operative word here is “progress”, as in
working towards. Only a fool would assume they had arrived.)
Faithfully tend to these three areas, and you will enjoy a long,
prosperous and purposeful career.
We are going to move into the body of the book now. Before we do,
take some time to reflect on the following questions.
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REFLECTIONS / ACTIONS / COMMITMENTS
► What called me to coaching?
________________________________________________
► What would be the impact of a very successful coaching practice on my life?
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
► What would be the impact of my successful coaching practice on the world?
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
► On a scale of 1 to 10, what is my level of commitment to build a successful coaching
practice?
________________________________________________
► How many hours a week can I commit to marketing my coaching practice?
________________________________________________
► What kind of support (people, structures) can I put in place to help me through the
highs and lows of building my coaching business?
________________________________________________
► Assuming I was not afraid, the one change that would have the greatest positive
impact on building my coaching practice is…
________________________________________________
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ENTREPRENEURIAL REALITY CHECK
THE CHALLENGE
One of the significant challenges facing our young profession is that too many of those who are called to
do this important work, struggle to make a good living at coaching. The prospect of starting and
succeeding at any new business is daunting. While there are many conflicting statistics regarding the
general failure rate of any new business, the latest data shows that over a broad sector of businesses, at
least 1/3 fail in the first few years. If you consider that coaching is a relatively new service that few
potential clients truly appreciate the potential benefit of, you can understand why so many coaches
struggle.
THE PARADOX
On the other hand, it is equally true that in coaching we have a service that coaches and their clients know
is uniquely powerful. I believe coaching is the most powerful modality of growth, training and development
available. ICF research data shows that even though we have a relatively expensive service, 98.5% of
our clients are happy with their coach. 83% of our clients stay with us for at least three months. The
majority of clients stay with us for half a year. And some clients simply never leave. Other studies in
organizations have shown that coaching programs have achieved between 500 and 700% return on
investment. These are impressive numbers by any standard. Clearly there is something very powerful
happening in coaching relationships.
WHAT’S POSSIBLE?
Is it realistic to believe that everyone can succeed as an independent professional coach? I don’t think so.
No profession can guarantee full employment to anyone who desires to join regardless of their preparation
or capability. However, I do believe individual coaches must take responsibility to ensure they are doing all
they can to succeed in the business of coaching. I urge coaches and would be coaches to:

Take responsibility to fully investigate and understand what it takes (in time, money, business
competency and effort) to become commercially viable as an independent professional coach.

Give the business side of coaching the time and attention it needs.

Get well trained in your coaching skills set so you can add great value to your clients.

Get your ICF credential so you can identify yourself as one of the most qualified coaches, whose
competency has been independently established, and who adheres to a strong set of ethical
guidelines.

Prominently display your ICF membership and credential on all your marketing material so
collectively we can better brand ourselves and educate the market.

Continue to grow yourself as a coach and human being.
19
PART 2
THE MODEL
The Forces That Affect Your Practice
For many, the first few years of building a coaching practice can be like
a long walk through a dry desert. You have the challenge of mastering
the coaching skills, identifying enough clients, approaching clients,
talking to clients, closing clients, pricing your services, retaining clients,
setting up and administering your business, etc. It can seem like a real
struggle.
And there will be weeks when you lose clients and nobody returns your
calls. And you may wonder: Am I going to make it as a coach?
And if you are there now, take heart; most of the coaches ahead of you
on this journey have gone through the very same process.
To help you get through the Wilderness of the start-up of your coaching
practice as quickly as possible—so you can get to the Promised Land of
a full and thriving practice—let’s look at a model to help us master the
forces at play.
THE MODEL
20
This model shows that the rate your practice will grow is equal to your:
Know-How + Action + Attitude – (Doubts &
Fears)
The model is centered on you, the rookie coach, wanting to accelerate the
growth of your practice. To accelerate anything, you need to apply some
force. I have grouped the accelerating forces into three areas.
The first forward force is Know-How: those things you absolutely must
know to get your practice off the ground, (i.e. how to coach, who your ideal
clients are, what their problems are, how to package your coaching as a
solution to their greatest unmet needs, how to price yourself, etc.).
The second accelerating force is Action, which covers the various
activities that must be done for you to succeed, (i.e. have a marketing
plan, talk to people, ask for the business, put in the time, etc.).
“The significant
problems we face
cannot be solved with
the same level of
thinking.”
The final forward force is Attitude. Here I am referring to the positive
- Albert Einstein.
“being” side of building a successful practice. (Those personal qualities,
habits and the outlook that contribute the most to sustaining your success.)
Together, when properly managed, these three accelerating forces can
move your practice forward at an extraordinary rate.
And wouldn’t life be simple if we only had to worry about these positive
forces? Unfortunately, life, and our model, is not that simple.
Another important part to our model works in opposition to the accelerating
forces. It is all those Doubts and Fears, old habits and limiting beliefs that
hold us back and generally slow our progress. In my coaching practice I
label this “The Bad Dog”. And further on we will look at a variety of
strategies to minimize and better manage The Bad Dog.
The basic model shows that the more you build your Know-How, Actions
and Attitude, and the better you manage your Doubts and Fears, the faster
you will build a successful coaching practice.
Let’s look at each of these important areas in more depth.
21
PART 3
ACCELERATING FORCE #1 – KNOW-HOW
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE
You Need to Know How to Coach
Coaching is a very intuitive process; most people who come to this work
feel they have been “coaching” friends, family, and others for most of
their lives. So it is natural to assume that you know how to coach. You
do, a little. But unless you have completed the best training program
available – and spent hundreds of hours mastering the nuances of
designing the relationship, listening, asking powerful questions, calling a
client forth, moving them into action, holding them accountable, etc. you will not be coaching to your potential. And you will not be creating
the maximum value for your clients.
Whatever your natural abilities may be it is a worthy intention – and as
more and more coaches move into the marketplace, a business
imperative – to work toward mastery in the art and science of coaching.
There are currently over 480 coaching programs out there, with more
coming online each month. Some of these schools offer poor content,
many are average, and a few are excellent. If you haven’t yet picked
your school, you will need to do your homework well.
Fortunately many of the more reputable programs have voluntarily
applied for ICF accreditation. This is a warranty of the highest level of
quality and consistency in coach training. Any work you do in an ICF
Accredited Coach Training Program can be easily credited towards
receiving an ICF credential—which will become more important in the
years ahead as public awareness grows and more jurisdictions attempt
to license or otherwise regulate coaching.
“Coaching isn't therapy.
It's product
development, with you
as the product.”
- FAST COMPANY
If you are looking for a coaching program you can learn more about your
training options at Training Programs.
Pick the training program that fits your learning style and location. Some
programs train in person, some remotely; all have a different style, most
offer a free introductory session and all will be happy to talk with you to
22
explain their approach. (My top recommendation for a great ICF
accredited school remains www.thecoaches.com )
You don’t have to finish your training to begin to work with clients, but at
least begin it. After a couple of months of training, you will have the
competence and confidence you need to add value to your clients, and
that‘s important. The more value you can add to your client’s life, the
more successful your coaching practice will be. Satisfied clients stay
longer and provide more referrals.
TOP 5 REASONS TO GET AN ICF CREDENTIAL
1.
Promotes your personal satisfaction in achieving recognition for your high level of knowledge and
skill, and demonstrates your commitment to ongoing professional development.
2.
Provides immediate, concrete proof that you are an experienced professional acknowledged by the
largest and most widely recognized coaching organization in the world.
3.
Tells clients and colleagues that your values include a strong code of ethics and high professional
standards.
4.
Brings you into a network of highly skilled and practiced coaches, enriching and expanding your
support system.
5.
Establishes you as a thought-leader in your profession, facilitating your credibility and visibility with
civic, cultural, government and media authorities seeking reliable sources of information about the
industry.
Stages of Learning as a Coach
This widely used model is of unknown origin. It shows that when you
acquire new skills you progress through the various stages of learning.
To be effective as a coach, you at least need to be at a conscious level
of competence.
•
The first stage of the model is unconscious incompetence. At
this level you simply don’t know what you don’t know. This is
where you were before you even heard about coaching.
Obviously you cannot coach from this stage.
•
Then, as you begin your training, you enter the conscious
incompetence stage. Now you are aware of how much you don’t
know; but you do know a little. This too is a dangerous place to
coach from. There is just too much you don’t know.
23
•
With more practice and learning you will enter the conscious
competence stage. This is where you can begin to coach
effectively, but you have to think about it. This is the stage you
need to reach before you can hope to be successful building your
practice. Fortunately with the right school and mentor coach you
can get here within a few months.
•
Unconscious competence is where you will be a year or two
down the road when you have completed your training and
certification. It is the stage where you have truly mastered your
skill set and can coach without thinking about it.
Already Trained? Keep Learning
If you are already certified or well along in your training, recognize that
the knowledge base in the field of coaching is growing every day. There
is always more to learn and there is a direct relationship between your
ability to create value for your clients and your ability to grow your
practice. The more value you can create, the easier it will be to fill your
practice.
Strive to master the skills of your vocation. Each year take some
additional training that broadens your perspective and equips you with
more tools and expertise to offer your clients. I strongly recommend you
work towards obtaining the ICF’s Master Certified Coach certification,
the highest level of credential available to coaches. In any line of work
the very best always seem to do well.
The Value of Informed Feedback
For us, as practitioners, coaching is a solitary vocation. We work with
many clients but we rarely benefit from the feedback of another skilled
coach. You can be coaching for years making some unconscious
mistake that adversely effects your coaching, and never know it. It is
important to regularly expose yourself to opportunities to receive
feedback from another skilled practitioner. Only through such direct
information on your strengths, and where you might benefit from
additional work, will you continue to grow at an optimal level.
“Some people have
called feedback the
breakfast of champions.
But it isn't the breakfast,
it's the lunch. Vision is
the breakfast. Selfcorrection the dinner.”
- Stephen R. Covey
Coaching Circles
One inexpensive and easy way to get feedback is by arranging a
coaching circle with two other colleagues. In a typical coaching circle,
you meet once a week (or month) to coach each other and provide
24
suggestions to facilitate more powerful coaching. In a typical coaching
circle, Person A coaches Person B, while Person C acts as the
observer. At the end of 20 minutes of coaching, the client and the
observer give the coach feedback on what went well and where the
coach might benefit from a different approach. Then you switch roles
until everyone has had a chance to coach.
Supervisions
A supervision is another great way to improve your coaching skills. In a
supervision you make arrangements with a senior coach to oversee and
provide feedback on one of your coaching sessions. These are often a
valuable part of some coaching schools’ certification process. If it has
been a year since your last supervision or if you have never had one,
you might consider investing in several; they provide some of the best
learning experience you will ever get.
Typically in a supervision, you tape record one of your client calls with
their permission. You then arrange a time to play the tape to a senior
coach whose feedback you desire. The detailed feedback you will
receive will take your coaching to a whole new level.
If you are considering supervision, be sure to choose an experienced,
certified coach. Also, if you have trained in a particular school, consider
working with a supervising coach who trained elsewhere. Being
exposed to other coaching styles will help your growth and development.
The more experienced and gifted the coach, the better feedback you will
receive.
Free Learning
The ICF Virtual Chapter is a great place for free ongoing learning. Every
month several teleclasses are offered free to ICF members. Typically
these teleclasses will deal with topics that assist in developing your
coaching skills and building your practice; many come with ICF
continuing education units, CEU’s, which are important for achieving and
maintaining certification. You can usually see upcoming events on the
Virtual Community under the Calendar of Events link on the main ICF
home page www.coachfederation.org.
“A little learning is a
dangerous thing but a
lot of ignorance is just
as bad.”
-Bob Edwards
25
You Need to Know How to Get Organized
Coaching is not a complicated business, but it is business. So you will
need to set up a system to schedule your appointments, record the
salient points of your coaching calls, invoice, pay expenses, record
income, remit taxes, etc.
With just two or three clients, you can muddle through. But if it’s your
intention to have a full practice, take the time to set up the infrastructure
you will need later on. By the time you get to 25 clients, you will require
an efficient system or you will quickly get overwhelmed.
If you choose to automate your client management, there is some well
recommended software now available. One such program can be
viewed at http://www.clientcompass.com/.
And while it is not the scope of this book to instruct you on office
procedures, for your guidance, here are the guts of my simple and free
administration system.
•
I open a Word document for each client into which I record the
info from the intake form and questionnaire I send to new clients.
For each call I record the date and where I am on my billing cycle
(a note saying this is call two of a set of three reminds me to
invoice after the next call). Finally I always record the important
points of our conversation and the client’s homework.
•
Whenever I invoice a client, I record the invoice number, the
date, the amount, date of receipt, and method of payment on an
Excel spreadsheet. (Client Tracking Form shown below.)
•
All my scheduling is handled on Outlook.
•
For my bank balance, I keep a simple running track, and
reconcile this with a periodical statement from my bookkeeper. I
work with a bookkeeper because I hate doing paperwork and
know my time is better spent coaching.
“Science is organized
knowledge. Wisdom is
organized life.”
- Kant
26
CLIENT
CLIENT PAYMENT TRACKING FORM
( Credit Card Discounts MC is 1.97/.9803 --- Visa 1.7/ .983)
INV # 00 INV.DATE INV. AMT. PAID BY
NET FEE* Date Rcd.
Happy
1048
1085
2-Sep
10-Oct
$450 Visa
450 Visa
442.35
442.35
12-Sep
17-Oct
Grumpy
1049
2-Sep
450 Visa
442.35
4-Sep
Doc
1050
1078
2-Sep
30-Sep
650 Check
650
542.00
16-Sep
Sneezy
1051
2-Sep
450 MasterCard
441.14
4-Sep
Dopey
1052
3-Sep
650 Check
450.00
15-Sep
Bashful
1053
4-Sep
750 MasterCard
735.23
15-Sep
Sleepy
1054
1083
8-Sep
6-Oct
750 Visa
750 Visa
737.25
737.25
12-Sep
10-Oct
Total
$6,000
4,969.91
* NET FEE is the fee net of credit card charges and applicable sales taxes.
You also need to be organized in your marketing efforts but we will deal
with this area in more detail shortly.
You Need to Know Who to Coach
Who – The First Big Question
Deciding whom you want to offer coaching to is a critical factor in
determining the success of your practice. If you don’t get the whom
right, you can be struggling away for years with little success. This is a
place where too many coaches make a big mistake. But if you are
careful in answering the who question, your marketing is going to flow
with a lot less effort.
Since this is an important area, let’s spend some time understanding all
the variables that go into identifying a qualified prospect.
27
Who Is a Qualified Prospect?
There are just too many people in the world that cannot hire you as a
coach. If you tried to market to everyone, you would exhaust yourself. To
build a successful coaching practice you will need to identify and focus
your marketing efforts on qualified prospects. In its simplest form, a
qualified prospect is someone you’d like to work with, who is open to
working with you and could actually afford to hire you as a coach.
How many coaching prospects are there? Lots if you know where to look
for them. Not enough if you don’t.
“There are two kinds of
people in the world,
those who believe there
Let’s start with the big picture. As of this writing, there are approximately
7 billion people in the world with another three people being born every
second. That’s a lot of people. But let’s look at how to sort out how many
of the 7 billion people in the world might actually become your client.
are two kinds of people
in the world and those
who don't.”
- Benchley
For purposes of demonstration – and because of easily accessible data let’s restrict our calculation to the top third of North America (the U.S.
and Canada) and then extrapolate it to the rest of the world. So we will
start looking at a pool of approximately 324,000,000 people.
Age Factors
To begin to qualify prospects, we must consider age. Using U.S. data as
a rough guide of North American age distribution, a little over 54% of the
population is between 25 and 65 years of age. (I have had clients aged
16 to 75, but 95% of my clients have been between 25 and 65, the prime
years for coaching.) So when you apply an age filter, we narrow down
our market to approximately 174 million (54% of 324M) adults.
28
Ability to Pay
To further qualify prospects, consider their ability to actually pay for
coaching. According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics when you introduce an annual income
threshold of at least $45 thousand—a roughly estimated milestone to
indicate a prospect has enough disposable income to hire you - the pool
of qualified prospects is further reduced to approximately 48 million
people in the U.S. and Canada. (Note – Many coaches have clients who
earn less than this threshold. If people really want to change, they will
find the money to work with you. However, I suggest targeting prospects
who exceed the $45 thousand threshold, for one-to-one coaching, as I
estimate that over 90% of all coaching clients have annual incomes in
excess of this figure.)
The Inclination Factor
Not everyone that is of the right age and income level is open to working
with a coach. Many people believe they don’t need a coach. Many
people have not realized that coaching is a solution to any of the
challenges they face. Many people are slow adapters, reluctant to
embrace new services; many more are just downright stubborn,
committed to do it all on their own.
To help us better qualify people on their inclination towards accepting
coaching, let’s use the Stages of Change Model (SCM), developed by
researchers Prochaska & DiClemente. The first four stages of the SCM
model, as applied to coaching, are:
“For every person who
wants to teach there
are approximately
thirty people who don't
want to learn--much.”
- Stellar
INCLINATION LEVELS
1. Pre-contemplation: The prospect has never heard of coaching
or is unaware that it provides any value to them or is currently
close-minded.
2. Contemplation: The prospect has heard of coaching and is
open to learning more about it, or they recognize they have a
dream, a challenge or change they want to work on.
3. Preparation: The prospect is actively gathering information
about coaching, or other possible solutions to the changes they
want to make, in preparation of committing to action shortly.
4. Action: The prospect has already committed to coaching, has
hired a coach or moved ahead with some other action.
29
What this model clarifies is that it would be a waste of time marketing to
anyone in Levels 1 or 4. If someone doesn’t have an interest in
coaching, or has already hired a coach, they are of little commercial
interest to you. You want to focus your efforts marketing to people at
Levels 2 or 3.
What does this mean in terms of numbers? Estimating these “Inclination”
levels is difficult, as it will vary widely depending on a variety of
economic, social and geographic factors. However having worked with
coaches all over the world, if a prospect is qualified by age and income, I
estimate that between one out of six (in conservative areas where
coaching is just making inroads) and two out of six individuals (in
progressive areas where coaching has a higher public profile) are at
Levels 2 or 3 and thus open to coaching.
This Inclination factor means that out of 48 million people in North
America qualified by age and income and inclination, there are between
8 and 16 million individuals that could become your client. For the
purposes of this book, I refer to this pool of people as fully qualified
prospects.
What Does This Mean in Terms of Finding Clients?
If you take the number of fully qualified prospects and divide them by the
estimated 40,000 people currently calling themselves coaches (rough
estimate, nobody really knows), there are between 200 and 400 North
American clients for each coach. If you add in the additional population
base of the rest of the developed world (where coaching has taken root
and is growing the fastest) you can easily multiply these numbers by
two, which would indicate there are between 400 and 800 clients out
there for every single coach. That sort of client base should keep us
all busy for a while. And while we work through these existing potential
clients, more people are becoming open, interested and ready to work
with a coach each day. And if you offer group coaching, teleclasses,
books or other info products you can sell to a much broader
demographic which could easily triple these numbers again.
“There is no safety in
numbers, or in
anything else.”
- James Thurber
These figures can only be considered a rough estimate. I have labored
through the exercise to make two important points.
30
•
There are more than enough people out there, open to coaching,
to keep all coaches busy.
•
When you consider age, income, and inclination factors, only 5%
(16 million out of 324 million) of the general population could
become your client for one-to-one coaching. Thus you need to
target your marketing efforts carefully.
Notice that while there are enough people to keep all coaches busy, if
you went out offering complimentary sessions to people in an ad
hoc way, you would not get the business at least 95 times out of
100. (Ouch!)
On the other hand, if you carefully select your prospects to be within
the most favorable age (25 - 65) and income distribution (over
$45K) at least one in six individuals would be open, willing, and
able to work with you, given the right presentation. And the better
you get with your ability to offer and deliver value to your clients; this
ratio will increase to two out of six.
And when you further narrow your marketing efforts to a particular group
of people (a niche), and present yourself to them with an offer that
clearly communicates who you are and what existing needs you are
here to solve, (your brand) marketing gets even easier. When you get
that specific in your marketing, don’t be surprised if more than one out of
every three people you talk with agrees to become your client. At that
stage your marketing life gets a whole lot more fun.
31
PROSPECTING PROBABILITIES
In each square there are approximately 1,000 dots that
represent an individual. A red dot or area represents a good
coaching client. Note – these numbers are estimates extrapolated from a
M
O
R
E
E
F
F
E
C
T
I
V
E
P
R
O
S
P
E
C
T
I
N
G
sample of 60 coaches. They are provided for guidance. Actual results will vary.
◄ RANDOMLY DESCRIBING COACHING - 1 in 1,000
If you were to just describe coaching to a random sample
of the general population, less than 1 in 1,000 would
become your client.
◄ RANDOM SAMPLE SESSIONS - 5 in 100
If you were to just give out good experiences of
coaching to a random sample of people, 5 in 100
would become a paying client. (That is the 5% of the
population with the right age, income and inclination.)
You would be rejected 95% of the time.
◄ FOCUSED SAMPLE SESSIONS
Prospect qualified by age and income – 1 in 6
If you were to offer a sample session to prospects qualified
only by age and income – the more visually apparent and
easily estimated factors - half will accept the sample session
and at least 1 out of 3 of the sample sessions will result in a
client. (I call this the 6:3:1 formula and we will expand on this
later.) This visually demonstrates the inclination factor that
means at least 1 in 6 (166 in 1,000) qualified prospects
qualified by age and income could become your client.
◄ A GOOD NICHE AND A GREAT OFFER - >1 in 3
When you are working with a specific niche, they are
already heavily qualified prospects. If you were to
offer coaching as a solution to existing problems
encountered by a particular niche of highly qualified
people, over one third could become your client.
(Some coaches average over 50%.)
32
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NICHES
What’s a Niche?
We have just labored to demonstrate that only 5% of the population
would be a good one-to-one coaching prospect. However the more
specific we get with who we market to, and the more specific our offer,
the higher the conversion rate. Ultimately some coaches get to a stage
where over 50% of their prospects decide to work with them. So there is
a great incentive to evolve your marketing efforts to target a smaller
segment of the population, where a higher percentage is interested in
working with you.
When you choose to focus your marketing effort on a particular group of
people who are most likely to value and accept your services, it is called
choosing a niche.
When you develop a clear, relevant, interesting, and memorable
message, to set your offer of services apart from everyone else’s and
clearly answer the question who you are and why you are here, you
have developed your own brand.
“Energy is the essence
of life. Everyday you
decide how you're going
to use it by knowing
what you want and what
When you target at a well-chosen niche and develop a strong brand, you
break into the marketing Promised Land, where you will have more
clients than you ever dreamed of. So let’s look at what is involved in
doing this right.
it takes to reach that
goal, and by maintaining
focus.”
- Oprah
To Niche or Not to Niche
If you are just starting out, you don’t need to worry about a niche. If you
have one, great; but if you don’t know what your niche is yet, don’t
worry. In fact, I believe it is unwise for many coaches to select a niche
too early in the process of building their practice. You may not know who
is particularly attracted to you yet and you may not know how deep,
enjoyable, or sustainable a particular group of clients might be.
A true and very productive niche is something that evolves over time. It
can take months to really brand and position you firmly within a niche. If
you are just starting out and want clients quickly, my best advice is to
33
focus your marketing on the people and opportunities close at hand and
let your niche, if you choose one, develop in due time.
If you are well trained as a coach and put in the requisite ongoing
marketing efforts, it is possible to coach without a niche. However most
coaches experience significant advantages in focusing their
marketing efforts towards a particular set of clients. In other words,
if you choose the right niche – that is a great fit for your passions,
expertise and personality - for a given investment in marketing you will
receive a greater return. And as the profession of coaching grows it
will be even more important to have a niche.
The rationale for choosing a niche is that if you focus on a particular
group—who understands and values your expertise—you can become
a well-recognized big fish in a small pond. Further, because you
know their particular challenges, the solutions they are looking for, the
lingo, and habits of your target niche, you can focus your marketing
efforts and achieve better returns for a given marketing effort. Ultimately,
as you become established in a niche, more and more clients will come
to you.
“Focus 90% of your
time on solutions and
only 10% of your time
on problems.”
- D’ Angelo
For example, if you have ten years of experience working in small
business, you would know the challenges that small business owners
face. You would know how to recognize their strengths and
weaknesses. You would know what associations or trade fairs they go
to. You would know the periodicals they read. You would talk their
language. And most importantly you would know how to package and
price your coaching services so they were seen as an attractive solution
to your niches’ most common problems. Finally, you would appear a
much better choice to the members of this niche, than another coach
who did not have the same depth of experience.
In professional coaching, there are some broad and clearly defined
specialties such as life coaching, career coaching, business coaching,
corporate coaching, executive coaching, etc. Within these general
categories hundreds and hundreds of niches are evolving. New niches
are appearing all the time.
34
Sample Niches
Here is a sampling of some common niches.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Life Planning
Teens
ADD
Health and Fitness
Spirituality
Relationships
Parenting
Women’s Issues
Christian Coach
Gay Community
Dating Coach
Personal Empowerment
Stress Management
Speaker’s Coach
Marketing
Emotional Intelligence
Writing Coach
Corporate Coach
Leadership Coach
Executive Coach
Business Coach
Start-up Coach
Small Business Coach
CEO Coach
Etc.
Within a broad niche you can further specialize. For example, you would
be in a primary niche if you were a small business coach. If a niche is
deep enough, you can further specialize and become a small business
coach for retail stores. Or further, a small business coach for start-up
retail stores. (A great niche specifies a specific “who” you are working
with, and a specific “what” you are helping them with.)
Being recognized and being able to focus all your marketing in a
particular direction does have its advantages. And this will become even
more attractive as professional coaching continues to mature and more
and more competition appears on the scene.
35
How To Develop A Niche For Your Coaching Practice
Having watched hundreds of coaches develop their businesses, I now
believe a good niche will give you five to ten times more clients - for a
given expenditure of time and money – than general marketing.
The benefits of finding a good niche are well documented in the
coaching literature. The key question for most coaches is how do I find
my own niche? So if that’s what you’re thinking, here it is in one
sentence.
The key to finding a great niche is identifying where your passions
and strengths allow you to package coaching as a solution to your
target market’s biggest unmet needs.
5 Steps To Developing A Powerful Niche
To streamline the process of finding a powerful niche, I have developed
the following 5 straightforward steps:
1. First, identify your top niche possibilities (i.e. the people you are
most drawn to work with; work-at-home-moms? business
owners? leaders? soul seekers?).
Places to Look. Look at the clients you most love to work with.
What do they have in common? Look at the type of work that
gets you most excited? What are you called to do in this world?
What big changes do you see need to be made? What type of
work most aligns with your values? (i.e. You may not want to
commit to training CEOs in coaching skills if that means you will
be on the road, away from your family half the time.)
Do not forget to look at those places you have fled from. For
example, if you are a refugee from corporate life, you perhaps
are not even considering looking there for a niche, “They took my
soul, I will not go back.” While you may never want to work in a
corporation again, wouldn’t it be great to help others flee
corporate life if they found it as difficult as you? And wouldn’t you
know a great deal about what this niche’s life was like and how to
reach them?
2. Create a matrix to rank each of your possible niches through the
lenses of your passions, strengths, and the needs in the
36
marketplace.
Specifically, list all your possible niches in column 1. Label
subsequent columns for a variety of subcategories that might
represent your passions, strengths and needs. For example, as
relates to passions, you might have columns labelled “Aliveness”,
“Values” and “Impact” to represent how alive you are when you
coach this group, how well working with them would align with
your values, and how much of an impact you would have
coaching this niche. For assessing how well your strengths
favour a particular niche, you might label columns “Life
Experience”, “Training”, “Accomplishments”, and your “Capacity
to be Great”. For assessing market needs you might label
columns “Identifiable Unmet Needs”, “Ease of Access for
Marketing”, “Ability to Pay” and “Level of Competition”.
Once you have created the matrix, you can proceed to rate each
niche, in every column, on a scale of 1 to 10. For example, if you
already have the emails of every business owner in your region,
you would give this niche a 10 out of 10 for Ease of Access for
Marketing. Whereas if you had to track down each work-athome-mom individually, you might only give that niche a 2 out of
10 on the same category. Once you have filled in each box on
your matrix, you simply total the score. The niches with the
highest score will be the best fit for you. (IMPORTANT – To see
a detailed example of what I am describing here, go to
http://www.acoach4u.com/nichetool.htm).
3. Once you have identified your top niche contender(s), dive into
research mode. Interview some prospects to better identify; what
their greatest needs are, how to best communicate to the niche
(do they have an association magazine or national convention?),
what your competition looks like, how to position yourself as an
expert to the niche, and how to best package your coaching as a
solution to the niche’s greatest unmet needs.
It’s in going out and talking to at least three or four members of a
possible niche that you will really learn the specific information
you need to know. Sometimes you find out that the niche is not a
good fit for you. Most of the time you will begin to get really
excited. You will see big problems they have. You will see where
coaching can be used as a better solution to what they are
37
currently doing.
By the time you have competed your interviews with your niche,
you should have some very good ideas about how to best
package coaching as a great solution to the biggest unmet needs
of your niche.
4. Test market your solution. In other words create a program, (a
one-to-one coaching program, teleclasses, workshops, etc.) to try
out with your niche. Don’t be afraid to promote it at a greatly
reduced cost to get your first few clients. You will learn a lot, and
you will gain a number of valuable testimonials that will make it
easier to sell out your subsequent offerings.
5. Roll out your finished product while seeking every opportunity to
speak, write, present or otherwise share your knowledge with
your target audience to increase your exposure and solidify your
position as an expert solution provider to this niche.
Now is the time to really raise your profile so that your niche can
easily find you, and come to appreciate all the ways you can help
them.
Developing a great niche takes as long as it takes. You may have to go
through this process a few times before you arrive at your ultimate niche.
Keep at it; the rewards are worth it.
And don’t think it is all up to you. In some mysterious way, as long as
you do your part to get out there to see where you can add the most
value, the world will most certainly reveal some unmet need. The
universe seems to conspire to help those that are passionate about
adding genuine value.
38
Picking a Niche Checklist
If you pick a niche, just make sure of these points.
•
The niche is big enough to support you.
•
You can easily and cheaply contact sufficient numbers of your
niche.
•
The competition is not entrenched or dominant. (You really want
to stand out and be the most obvious choice in your niche.)
•
The niche is open to your services and can afford them.
•
You have enough knowledge and experience with the niche that
you understand the challenges within it, you can add value, solve
some of their most pressing problems, and ultimately be
recognized as an expert.
“Gather in your
resources, rally all your
faculties, marshal all
your energies, focus all
•
You really enjoy working with this niche. Your niche should bring
out the best in you, bring to light your strengths and experience,
and tap into your passion. It should be a very good fit for your
calling; a logical and fulfilling way for you to make an impact.
If you choose to work a niche, get close to them.
•
Get to know their common challenges, opportunities, and
aspirations.
•
Get to know how they currently handle the problems you plan to
solve.
•
Join their associations.
•
Seek opportunities to speak or present at their conferences.
•
Subscribe and contribute to their periodicals.
•
Network at events frequented by them.
•
Let local media know you are an expert in this area.
•
Consider creating a newsletter to provide useful information
targeted at your niche.
•
Look for ways to stand out and be recognized as someone who
adds great value.
your capacities upon
mastery of at least one
field of endeavor.”
- Haggai
39
A TIP ON ESTABLISHING A NICHE
Coaches fear claiming a niche because they are afraid of being too narrowly defined or turning
potential business away… At least that’s what I did.
Here’s what I found out: Claiming a niche gives the world something solid to hold on to.
As “everyone’s coach” I got lots of head-shaking and polite, glazed-eye agreement at networking
events. I also got to bathe in that dreaded question, “What’s coaching?” What I didn’t get was
clients running into my camp. They didn’t know where to find me - or who to send me - because I
wasn’t on their map.
After examining my own passions and values, here’s the niche that came to me:
“Business Dads - Men who had their first child (or started a second family) in their mid-thirties or
later, are managers, executives or own their businesses, and are passionate about connecting
with their children… So not a moment is missed.”
When I share my niche now, I hear comments like, “Wow, that’s specific!” or “I know someone
who could really use you!” I also get “push-back,” people saying “no, not that,” or “is that the only
group you work with?”
A clearly defined niche based on your passions and values is a neon flag-pole that some folks will
rally around and others will run away from. The key is that by staking your claim, you’ll have clear
ideas of why they are coming, or not. You’ll give prospective clients and referral sources the
opportunity to know something about you rather than wonder about you. When that happens,
you’ve put yourself in a position to get the valuable feedback you need to plan your next move,
even if your next move is standing firmly where you are.
Kenneth Mossman, CPCC
The Business Dad Coach
http://www.cirruscoaching.com/
No End To Niches
There is no end to coaching niches. Coaching is such a young vocation
that new applications are being invented all the time. What is important
is that you choose to focus on groups to whom you are attracted, who
can afford you, with whom you have credibility, and who are open to
experience the benefits of coaching. It is also important that your target
niche appreciates your unique marketable attributes—those things that
better qualify you for this type of coaching and set you apart from other
coaches.
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YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BRANDING
What Is Your Brand?
Regardless of whether you choose to work a particular niche, you will
benefit from developing your own brand. (Sometimes it is called your
position in the market.) The goal of developing your own brand is to
establish a unique identity that favorably sets you apart from your
competitors. You are trying to stand out from everyone else and earn a
memorable share of your clients’ minds and hearts. By that I mean it is
your goal to have them remember you, value you, and care about you.
Branding is a big part of successful marketing in competitive
marketplaces. Even if you have never owned a Volvo, I bet you are
aware that they brand on safety. And you probably know that a Disney
movie is going to be something you can take the family to. If you go to
buy a book you pretty well know what you are going to get with Stephen
King. A successful branding message conveys what the person or
organization stands for. In your coaching practice, you need to clearly
establish what you stand for. And what you stand for in your coaching
practice needs to be in complete alignment with what you stand for as a
person.
“If you want to be truly
successful, invest in
yourself to get the
knowledge you need to
find your unique factor.
When you find it and
focus on it and
persevere your success
will blossom.”
- Madwed
To understand the rationale for a brand, take a minute to imagine the
mind of your potential customer. In a word, it is noisy. In two words, it is
noisy and confused. In three words, it is noisy, confused, and
suspicious. Look into the mirror. We are all consumers. All our minds are
like that. We get hit by hundreds of pitches each day, suggesting our life
can be miraculously changed by buying a new deodorant or toothpaste.
So we consumers are a cautious and doubting lot.
And if you want to sell us something, you need to get to know us and we
need to get to know you. We are talking about creating a relationship
based on a consistent, unique, and memorable message.
Creating Your Own Brand
Here is an exercise to help you establish the key points in your brand.
Ask yourself these questions.
41
•
Who are my customers and what do they want? Few of my
customers want coaching. Many want practical solutions to
specific situations in their life that will give them immediate value.
(Build their business. Attract more clients. Become a more
powerful leader. Get clarity on what’s next in their life. Find out
what they are passionate about, etc.)
Clearly define your ideal customers: age, profession, sex,
interests, industry, associations, etc. And find out what their
special needs are. What solutions would they benefit from? What
are their top ten most common problems? What are they ready
to spend money on now?
•
Who am I? Describe yourself and your service in a sentence or
two, with particular attention to the benefits you provide your
ideal customer. Start with you as a person. You want to make
sure what you are doing professionally is in alignment with who
you are as a person. Make sure you tap into your emotion. Why
are you here? What is your stand in the world? What is it that
gets you out of bed in the morning? What is your gift to share
with the world?
Then describe who you are as a professional within your chosen
niche. Identify the significant benefits you provide your
customers.
•
Who is my competition? Describe them in a few paragraphs.
Notice how they brand themselves. What is their offer to the
marketplace? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
•
What makes me unique? Identify at least three recognizable
ways you are different or offer more value than anyone else in
your niche. (Your background? Approach? Track record? Way of
working with clients? Your special offer?) In effect, you are
answering the question, “Why am I the best pick for my target
customers?”
•
Claim your brand. Once you have identified your key
marketable differences that set you apart from the pack - those
unique benefits that customers can get only from you – they
should be stated as clearly and as memorably as possible.
For example, in my practice the key components of my brand are
“The first principle is
that you must not fool
yourself - and you are
the easiest person to
fool.”
- Richard Feynman
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contained in the following statement. “I am an experienced
Master Certified Life Coach and Business Development
Strategist who helps Leaders, Independents and
Professionals find their niche, be their best and have an
impact.”) This statement says who I am, whom I work with, and
even what some of the outcomes are. To me the phrase find
their niche speaks to my love of helping people find the best
path forward in life as well as their niche in a marketing sense.
The be their best phrase talks about my love of helping
individuals and businesses build on their strengths and deal with
the being side, which I believe is critical to any success. And
finally the have an impact phrase speaks to my love of helping
people get the results they want and make a difference in their
businesses or the world at large. And, as you can probably tell, I
am passionate about all these things, so there is full alignment of
who I am as a person, and my brand.
•
Check it out. Try your brand on a few friends and closest clients.
Does your brand align with your passions, values and interests?
Is it something that gets you and your customers excited? Does it
have the feel of a calling? Can you put your brand forward with
100% authenticity and integrity?
Communicating Your Brand
Once you have chosen your brand, it is important to communicate it
clearly and consistently. You need to let everyone know who you are
and what you do. Your cards, brochures, e-mail signature blocks,
website, stationery, advertising, etc., should communicate your branding
statement.
You also need to be patient. It does take some time to benefit from
branding. Advertising research tells us that the average consumer needs
to be exposed to a message – in our case a brand - at least six times
before its qualities can be fully absorbed. If you persist you will succeed.
Resist the Temptation to Dilute Your Brand
Once you have your brand, you will need to resist the urge to dilute it
and try to be all things to all people. This is a particularly challenging
task in that intuitively, you feel you are giving up opportunities. And you
will be, in the short term. But the benefits of focusing all your energies
toward the group that more fully appreciates your value—and is
43
prepared to pay for it—will result in much greater gains over the longterm.
There is also something called the “Halo” effect. Simply put, this means
that if you are seen as an expert in one field, you will be generally
perceived as an expert in others. So even though you may be marketing
to a narrower segment of the market, you will attract customers from
other segments.
A TIP ON PERSONAL BRANDING
When I started my coaching business in 1996, I coached anyone who showed up. I was unclear
about my strengths and who I really liked to work with. After several years of average success, I
realized it was important to differentiate myself if I wanted to stand out and get noticed and attract
clients more effortlessly.
Then, I did two things. I targeted a specific group and their key challenges. For me it was executive
women rising up the corporate ladder. I spoke to women’s groups on the issue, and wrote a
newsletter so that they could see that I understood their issues, and they would come to trust me
enough over time to hire me. I went deep and broad in a specific target market.
At the same time, I developed a second specialty as a marketing coach for independent
professionals. I carved out a niche as a specialist in internet marketing because it was something I
really enjoyed learning and teaching. The effect was that my business, and my fees, increased
substantially.
So, for me and for the clients I work with, developing a strong personal brand has become the key
to success. To me it means having a very clear picture of my key strengths and passions and who I
ideally love to work with. Then, differentiating myself by becoming an expert in my narrow area of
specialty, targeting that group with my promotional material, and adding value by meeting their very
specific needs with my products and services.
Developing your personal brand based on your authentic gifts, talents, and interests will make it
easier for clients to find you and give you an edge over your competition.
Jan Marie Dore, PCC
Marketing Coach and Professional Mentor Coach
Web: www.janmariedore.com
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You Need to Know About The Challenge
of “Selling” Coaching
To establish a successful business, you need to know how to sell.
“Selling” as it pertains to a coaching practice, requires an explanation.
As mentioned earlier, very few people actually know what coaching is.
How can you sell something nobody understands? The answer is, you
can’t. Would you buy an expensive service you had never tried and
knew very little about? Not likely.
For someone to buy your coaching service the prospective client needs
to know what it is; the person must see your service as a solution to
one of their existing problems. They need to know you, like you, trust
you, and have a very good sense that you are competent and fairly
priced. And they have to believe that coaching will provide the benefits
they are seeking.
While very few people are actually looking for a coach or have reached
the conclusion that a coach is the answer to any of their existing
problems, everybody has a dream or is going through challenges or
wants to make some changes. When you are just starting out in your
practice your job is to find the easiest way to have all these people see
you as a means of achieving their dreams, overcoming their challenges
and effecting great changes. In other words, you are attempting to raise
their awareness that they do have areas of their life they want to work
on, and have them experience coaching as an effective means of
delivering solutions in those areas. If you can do that, you will have all
the clients you will ever need.
“Patience is the
companion of
wisdom.”
- Augustine
To accomplish this we are going to focus on the most powerful and wellestablished principles of building a coaching practice: Give to Get. The
best way to “sell” coaching (in the early stages of your coaching
practice) is to simply “give” away great experiences of coaching to
qualified prospects – that 5% of the population that could actually work
with us.
The main point is that a great coaching experience is the best way to sell
coaching. Note: the key word here is experience. You definitely don’t
want to fall into the trap of trying to explain coaching to prospects. You
45
can be as eloquent as a poet, yet your finest words will at best translate
into a state of bemused confusion, which is not enough for most
prospects to make the leap of faith required to become coaching clients.
When you give people a great experience of coaching, they connect
emotionally to important parts of their life that have often been left
behind. Work with a prospect on his dreams, his biggest challenges, or
the changes he is going through and he will begin to see coaching as a
powerful way to connect with and realize the results he most wants. If
you do this with qualified prospects you will get lots of clients. As we will
expand on later, if you simply contact six qualified prospects (qualified
by age and income) with an offer of coaching, at least three will agree to
a sample coaching session. And if you give three qualified prospects a
great sample coaching session, at least one will become your client.
Understanding the Prospect’s Mind
In the section on branding, we briefly touched on the nature of your
prospect’s mind. To more effectively sell your coaching services, it will
help us to take a deeper look at this area.
“Confusion is always the
most honest response.”
- Indik
Anyone’s mind is a very complicated place. Depending on the prospect,
their mind may be described by one or more of the following statements.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Noisy, filled with conflicting desires and fears.
Focused on their situation and their challenges.
Confused, wondering how to best solve their problem.
Uninformed or inexperienced with coaching.
Skeptical, doubting whether coaching is for real.
Resistant, stuck in their perspective.
Wondering how it works and if it will work for them.
Wondering if you are the best coach for them.
Wondering if they are paying too much.
Wondering if they can afford you.
Sound familiar? This is probably how you feel when you go out to
purchase something you have never tried before. In times of stress, or
when moving beyond our normal behavior, you can expect to see
everyone’s doubts and fears emerge. To convert a prospect to a
customer, you must overcome any possible negative concerns with
a stronger positive desire.
46
The desire you want them to experience are the feelings associated with
the better future they imagine is possible by working with you. Your job
is to help them identify and experience (at an emotional level) the
feelings of those future benefits. If you can help a qualified prospect feel
their deepest desires, and address any legitimate concerns they might
have, you will have a client.
Imagine a prospect’s mind as a little teeter-totter. On the one side, you
have their doubts and fears. You need to put enough value on the other
side of the teeter-totter to have it tip in your direction; and you only have
a brief opportunity to do this. The best way to do this is through a
powerful sample coaching session.
How to Give a Great Sample Session
As coaches we know that coaching is a very powerful and successful
service. In fact coaching is proving to be one of the most effective
methods of growth, training and development available. As mentioned
earlier, ICF research data shows that even though we have a relatively
new service, 98.5% of our clients are happy with their coach, 83% of our
clients stay with us for at least three months. The majority of clients stay
with us for half a year. And some clients simply never leave.
Other studies in organizations have shown that coaching programs have
achieved between 500 and 700% return on investment. These are
impressive numbers by any standard and speak to the great value to be
had in working with a coach.
Clearly there is something very powerful happening in coaching
relationships. Yet coaching is so new, and so few people have actually
discovered its power and applications, that many coaches struggle to fill
their practice. The following description of how to give a powerful sample
session is intended to help coaches reveal the power of coaching to more
prospects and thus generate more happy clients.
In the early stages of your coaching business, before you have developed
a niche and marketing strategy to attract large numbers of qualified
prospects, your ability to deliver a great sample session is a critical factor
in building a successful coaching practice.
47
Since most prospects have never worked with a coach, don’t understand
coaching, and probably are not even looking for a coach, a sample
session is often your best way of introducing them to the process, giving
them experience of the benefits, allowing them to see the potential payoff,
and thus moving them to a place where they would want to work with
you.
After years of experimentation, I offer a rough recipe outlining some of the
key components that will help you deliver powerful sample sessions. As a
cautionary note, remember coaching is most powerful when it is fluid,
natural and unscripted. So don't try to impose these steps in a mechanical
way. Think of them as guidelines that you can naturally weave into the
conversation where appropriate and when the opportunity presents itself.
1) Tune Your Instrument
If you were a professional musician, you would never think of giving a
performance without tuning your instrument. The same principle
applies in coaching. Whenever you are preparing to coach someone,
take a little time to get present, open and receptive. (Perhaps, simply
take a few conscious breaths. Alternatively, you can imagine your
awareness as the attentive yet empty space in a room. It doesn’t
matter what things may come and go in your presence, you will
effortlessly adjust around them. You need not resist anything, and
therefore nothing will disturb you.) Heightened presence greatly helps
your ability to listen and access your intuition.
2) Coach Them On Something Genuinely Important
Sometimes when you engage a prospect in a sample session and ask
them what they want to work on, they will reply with some superficial
topic. They might say, "I need to organize my garage." Respond by
affirming you both could certainly spend time on that, then inquire if they
might have something a little more important - perhaps a dream,
challenge or change they want to make - for which they would like some
coaching. Even if you are successful in helping them organize the
garage, it won't be seen as an important enough benefit to justify hiring
you as a coach. However, if you can help them make a breakthrough on
a dream or some big challenge they are facing, (ideally a chronic,
adaptive change they have been struggling with) the prospect will more
fully appreciate the value of coaching. Also, make sure that the
prospect has at least a 4 out of 5 level of commitment to make this
48
specific change. There is no point coaching them on something they are
never going to follow through on.
3) Take Them out into the Future
Let's say a person wants coaching on a big goal or dream. Ask: "If
you are really successful with this, where will you be in XYZ
months?” (You want them to create and experience a very clear and
compelling vision of the most successful outcome.)
4) Find the Meaning
Once a prospect has described where they would be if the coaching
was hugely successful, explore the meaning of that goal. "What is
important about this goal to you?" or "What will achieving this
goal give you?" (You are beginning to move them out of their
thoughts about the goal—which have a short shelf life—into the more
powerful realm of the meaning and emotions associated with the
goal.)
5) Explore and Embody the Emotions
Once you have a prospect in touch with his most desired outcome,
continue to explore the emotional payoff. "What will you be feeling
when you know your dream has come true?" Ideally, you want the
prospect to see, touch, taste or otherwise embody the emotional
reward. Again you are building the prospect's emotional connection to
the goal; this emotion will fuel the actions needed to overcome all the
obstacles in the way. (Naturally, there will be situations - perhaps a
business client who is not comfortable discussing emotions with you
yet - here you might wisely choose not to explore the emotions
associated with a goal.)
6) Identify Any Barriers
Coaches are most often hired to help people make changes they
simply cannot make on their own. Often the reason people struggle to
make certain changes is that they have some conflicting belief or goal
that undermines their change initiative. Should you encounter one of
these issues (Gremlins, Saboteurs, Shadows, Limiting Beliefs, etc.) in
your sample session, you will need to identify it. (You really want them
to connect to what this is costing them.) If you can help the client
understand how working past this issue will be critical to the ultimate
success with this change, you will be well on your way to getting a
49
new client.
7) Coach the Person, Not Just the Circumstances
Remember the most powerful work you will do is coaching the
prospect, not the situation. So don't forget to explore who the prospect
wants to be—the qualities they need to bring forth—to achieve the
desired outcome. For example if the prospect wants to get into a
leadership position in their career, explore what leadership qualities
they need to bring out or develop to become the best possible leader.
And wherever possible, coach the prospect to a place where they can
feel and physically embody these qualities. If you get your prospects
to this place, nothing will stop them.
8) Find the Payoff
Find out what it would be worth to your prospect if they were
successful in achieving their desired outcome. “So if you do find a
job that you love, (double your sales, lower your stress, improve
your health, etc.) what would it be worth to you?” The answer to
this question may or may not be financial, but as long as the prospect
connects with or reflects on the value or importance of the changes
they might make through coaching, they will be far more likely not to
begrudge paying for your services.
9) Weave In Examples
Whenever possible, find a way to weave in examples of successful
outcomes experienced by previous clients who faced similar
situations. This helps establish credibility and third party validation of
the fact that coaching really works.
10) Bring the Prospect Back to the Present and into Action
Once the prospect has seen and experienced the outcome they want
and experienced the associated meaning and emotions, bring them
back to the present and wrap up the sample session by asking: "So
what is the next—or first—step forward?" (toward the great dream
or outcome they have described). Coach the person to break off one
tangible first step and set up some accountability, so the step gets
taken.
“The great French
Marshall Lyautey once
asked his gardener to
plant a tree. The
gardener objected that
the tree was slow
growing and would not
reach maturity for 100
years. The Marshall
replied, 'In that case,
there is no time to
lose; plant it this
afternoon!”
- JFK
11) Remind Them Many Changes Don’t Happen By Themselves
Find a way to point out that knowledge and intention alone does not
50
translate into changing behaviour. (Otherwise everyone would be
keeping their New Year’s Resolutions.) Everybody has had the same
experience of wanting to change, but never seeming to get around to
it. The format of coaching allows the focus, accountability and growth
necessary to make changes happen and stick. If you can get this
point across, you will get your share of enthusiastic clients.
12) Ask for the Business and a Referral
Once you have taken a prospect through a powerful sample session,
you both will have a sense of whether there is a fit. From your side,
you simply need to confirm you would like to work with this prospect
(and that they can afford to hire you). You can say, in your own words,
with 100% integrity and authenticity, "That is a powerful vision you
have for your future. If you are serious about realizing it, I would
love to be your coach." Or you could say something like this, "I
really enjoyed coaching you. If you want some support in
reaching your dream, I would love to be your coach."
Dealing With Objections
When you master the art of a sample session, you should expect at least
one out of six qualified prospects to decide to work with you. (This
number will increase to two out of six or more as you master your
coaching skills and get better at identifying truly qualified prospects.)
However, no matter how good you are, you will inevitably encounter
objections, reasons prospects have for not being able to say yes to
working with you. Sometimes it is a concern about money. Sometimes
they simply are not at a place in their life where they think they can
benefit from coaching.
The key to handling objections is for you to stay in 100% integrity,
authenticity and detachment. There is no point in bringing undue
pressure on the prospect. It is not good for you, and it is not good for the
prospect, as they will only quit coaching at the earliest possible moment.
Sometimes objections simply indicate the prospect requires more
information. Carefully and respectfully take the time to clarify what
additional information they may need. (See the tip section that follows.)
51
Sometimes the objection is on price. If it is a genuine affordability
concern, and you really want to work with this prospect, you can explore
some ways to make this work. If you do not have a full practice, consider
reducing your rate, or providing fewer coaching sessions in a month.
(More on this later.)
If you sense that it is not an affordability issue, but rather the prospect’s
doubts and fears that are surfacing you can simply explore what will be
the cost of not taking action.
Anybody who has ever sold anything will benefit from developing their
own way of handling objections. If you approach the situation with full
integrity and a sincere desire to help the prospect - detached from
whether or not they will decide to work with you - you will safely navigate
through the majority of objections. And remember, at the start of your
practice you should expect five out of six people to turn you down.
A TIP ON HANDLING OBJECTIONS
To proceed with coaching, a prospect has to have a need and be ready to buy. Trying to get
someone to buy when they aren't ready will have you meet with resistance in the form
of objections.
Dealing with objections effectively requires three steps: clarifying the objection, asking for
permission to continue, and then addressing the concern. All three steps are important. However
asking for permission is critical. I found that when I asked for permission to continue the
conversation I had a high percentage of prospects become clients. Over 90% of folks wanted to
speak further. Surprised? I find that if you give people choices they don’t get defensive.
Additionally you are demonstrating your respect for them. Here are some scripts to use when
working with objections:
1.
Acknowledge that you heard them. This is where active listening is useful: ”What I hear
you saying is that you really like the idea of coaching and can see where this would
help you to do “X”, but the fees I charge are a stumbling block for you, is that
right?”
2.
Ask permission to continue the conversation: “Would you like me to address this
concern or would you rather wrap up the call/meeting/conversation right now?”
3.
Then address the concern or objection. This is where the coaching comes in and you don’t
have to be a sales person to have success here. Just keep asking questions to clarify the
concern.
Linda Finkle, CCG, PCC
Business and Executive Coach
www.InnovativeSolutionsGroup.com
52
You Need to Know How to Price Your Services
Many coaches struggle to price their services. A very common error
among rookie coaches is to let their doubts and insecurities price
their coaching services. The logic goes like this, “I have only been
coaching for a few months, I cannot be really good, and therefore I can’t
charge much for my services.” Thus the average new coach charges
between $150 and $200 per month per client in the first 12 months of
their practice.
Your humility is a very natural reaction, but it’s kind of like offering a
discount for brain surgery. “I’m new at brain surgery, in fact you are my
first patient, so I would like to offer you surgery for half the regular price.”
Most patients will head for the door because they don’t want to be your
guinea pig.
The point is that many people will make assumptions on your
competence as a coach based on the fees you charge. Pricing your
services to your experience level will make many potential clients look
for someone more competent. But if you are content to price yourself
this way, God bless you. Some people will take you up on it.
If you prefer to optimize the pricing of your coaching services, you will
want to consider pricing to the market you are serving. In general
terms, as of the writing of this book, competent and well-trained life
coaches may average between $300 and $500 per month per client.
Anyone doing business coaching would typically start at $500 per
month. Should you have the fortune, aptitude, experience, or inclination
to work with senior executives or successful entrepreneurs more
common fees would be in the range of $750 to $1,000 per month.
“What is a cynic? A man
who knows the price of
everything and the value
of nothing.”
- Oscar Wilde
What is included in the monthly fee? There is wide variation among
coaches. One of the most common formats is three or four 30-minute
sessions per month. But one of the nice things about running your own
practice is that you can decide what works best for you and your clients.
53
The 20% Rule
As a general pricing rule, you will know you are correctly priced—for the
particular clientele you are targeting—if one in five (20%) object to your
pricing. If fewer than one in five object to your pricing, you are priced too
low. If greater than one in five object, you are priced too high.
Pricing at the Start of Your Practice
When you are beginning your practice, your greatest need is to build
your competence as a coach. Therefore, if you want to work with a client
and he cannot afford your regular rate—and since you do have lots of
room in your practice—find a way to make it work for him. You can
simply say, “I would really like to work with you. Can you afford
$X?” (2/3 of your rate). Alternatively you can say, “Well, I would love
to be your coach. How can we make this work?” Your client will get a
coach; you will get the practice. Some income is better than none.
54
TIPS ON PRICING
All I can say about pricing, is to stretch yourself! Pricing can be one of the most challenging things to
get your head around. How much am I worth? How much can I charge? Is that enough? How can I get
more?
The biggest challenge is to get the words out of your mouth with confidence. “I charge $500.00 per
month. I charge $500.00 per month. I charge $500.00 per month.” Practice makes perfect, and I really
had to practice asking for what I wanted before I spoke with a client.
I also pre-empt the money question now, so that I can be the one in the driver’s seat, instead of
waiting nervously for the inevitable question. And finally, just keep raising your rates, as often as you
are comfortable, until you reach a point where all your clients are paying you top dollar – I’m still
consistently raising my rates after four and ½ years, and I haven’t found the top – I don’t even think I’m
close yet!!
Katie Bennett HBA, CPCC
Professional Coach, Speaker and Seminar Leader
[email protected]
____________________
While I hold fee integrity, I offer a range of services to accommodate clients’ various wants, needs and
ability to pay. This allows me the flexibility to be creative about structuring coaching to suit a client’s
budget while at the same time have them stretch themselves financially. I discuss with the
prospective client the optimal coaching arrangements, how deviating from it can impact their results,
and how investing in themselves beyond what they ‘believe’ they can afford will generate a higher rate
of return from their coaching. I ask them to consider what it would be worth to them if they achieved
the results they want. Then I allow them to make the choice.
Joni Mar, BA, BJ (Hons.), CPCC
Certified Professional Coach & Speaker
Design For Living
www.jonimar.com
___________________
When I started out coaching I didn’t have the confidence to charge very much. This made it quite hard
to raise my prices, once I did have the confidence in my coaching, because I was coaching people in
low-income brackets. I would have pretty much lost my entire practice on what I thought I could afford.
My money gremlin was doing the pricing for me.
Most people who come to this profession have been doing some form of coaching their whole lives.
The training they take simply crystallizes their existing skills and introduces some new ones that add
great value to the client. Once I started to really see the value I was creating it was easy to set higher
fees.
Another big learning was to state my fee and close my mouth. I also set a price that I wouldn’t coach
below and that was helpful. I have structured my practice to accommodate full fee paying clients,
coaches-in-training who receive a reduced rate for six months and two spots for low-income clients
who pay a nominal fee. I have also learned over the years that the clients who pay more get more out
of the coaching because they tend to be more committed.
Laura North, CPCC
Certified Professional Coach
www.truenorthcoaching.ca
55
Make It Easy to Say Yes
One final note on selling: always make it easy for a client to say yes to
your offer. For example, after a powerful complimentary coaching
session, should the prospect indicate he wants to work with you, make it
easy to begin. Don’t digress into a long dissertation about contracts,
minimum commitments, cancellation notice, and extra fees for intake
sessions, etc. The client has recently made a decision to move ahead in
spite of his reservations. Any complicated intake process simply gives
him time to reconsider his decision.
If you have a preference to work with contracts, spell out all the
necessary details on your brochure, website or intake form - in a simple,
straightforward fashion, so that any prospect can understand it.
“After twelve years of
Here is my approach.
brought tears to my
therapy my
psychiatrist said
something that
eyes. He said, 'No
•
I talk for free to any serious prospect to get to know what he
wants to achieve through the coaching, give him a feel for the
process, and help him understand how it all works.
•
Should he decide to proceed, I send a welcome letter that spells
out the commitments of coach and client and a questionnaire that
provides all the contact information. The answers to the
questions provide me insight into his strengths, weaknesses, and
what he wants to achieve through coaching.
•
I don’t charge separately for an intake session, but cover all the
necessary bases in my welcome letter and through the first few
calls.
•
I don’t have the client sign a contract; they are free to quit
anytime they choose. (However I encourage them to make a
commitment to themselves to stay with coaching for at least
three months to experience the full results.)
•
I typically call my clients so they are not faced with any long
distance charges. (With a good long distance plan this only costs
a few dollars a call, but makes it easier for the client.)
hablo ingles.’ ”
- Ronnie Shakes
There are many different ways to successfully work with your clients.
Find the right way for you. Remember to make it easy for clients to say
yes to you and to coaching.
56
Broaden Your Offering of Services and Products
Most coaches have a store with one product in it, one-to-one coaching.
As we have discussed, there are a limited percentage of people at the
higher end of the economic ladder who could afford this product. But if
you also provide group coaching, teleclasses, tapes, books or articles,
you can offer a wide variety of products at different price points.
You will benefit by having more to offer, and the world will benefit
because more people will have been coached. (I believe that if coaching
is going to fulfill its promise of positively impacting the world, we need to
make it more accessible to a wide section of humanity.)
You Need to Know How to Contact Prospects
Every coach has his favorite way to contact people. Depending on your
personality, life experience, network, and where you live, one or more
contact strategies will end up being far easier and more productive for
you.
At the start of your practice, you will need to experiment to see which
ones are a good fit for you. To help in your decision, here is a list of
some of the strategies that work best for the hundreds of coaches I have
known.
Note: The strategies that involve you actually connecting with people
personally - so that they can get to know you, appreciate you, and trust
you - are generally the most effective.
“What we do today,
right now,
will have an
accumulated effect
on all our tomorrows.”
- Alexandra Stoddard
Contact Strategies
In order of effectiveness for most coaches:
1. Direct Contact
2. Workshops
3. Networking and Leads Exchange Groups
4. Teleclasses
5. Speaking
6. Writing
7. Website
8. Online Social Networking (LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs.)
9. PR
10. General Advertising
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1) Direct Contact
This is the single most effective strategy for building your coaching
business in the early days of your practice. In its simplest form, direct
contact means that you talk to a prospect, tell him who you are and what
you do, and ask if he would like a complimentary coaching session.
Now the specifics:
The network-marketing gurus frequently point out that the average
person knows 200 people on a first name basis. Whether you know 200
or 20, start by creating a list and dividing your contacts into three groups:
Insiders, Warm Prospects, and Rainmakers.
“People want economy
and they will pay any
price to get it.”
- Lee Iacocca
Prospect Types
Insiders
Insiders are your close friends, family, and old colleagues that are
sure to welcome a call from you and be happy to assist. These are
generally people too close to you to be coached. In other words
they know you too well, may not see you as independent or may
assume you have an agenda for them. The people too-close-tocoach are still wonderful sources of referrals for you. They are also
very receptive audiences for you to practice your coaching.
Warm Prospects
These are fully qualified prospects – of the right demographics and
open to coaching - that you either know or have been referred to
by a mutual acquaintance, such as one of your Insiders. These are
A-1 coaching prospects. (And for the purposes of this book we will
focus our efforts on identifying, cultivating and working with “warm”
prospects, as opposed to the more difficult “cold” prospects –
people that have never heard of you.)
Rainmakers
They are special people in your practice; a good Rainmaker can
make it rain clients. Rainmakers are key sources of ongoing
referrals to your practice. They are the people in your life that
already deal with hundreds of other people. With the proper
approach a Rainmaker may be motivated to direct a large stream
of prospects your way. Typical Rainmakers include: your
accountant, bookkeeper, lawyer, doctor, hairdresser, barber,
58
dentist, dental hygienist, physiotherapist, naturopath, chiropractor,
financial advisor, real estate agent, corner grocer, etc.
Work With Your Insiders First
If you are just beginning your marketing efforts, you may want to start
your prospect building with your Insiders. It is always easier to talk to
people you know really well. In this case you will be calling with the goal
of giving them a complimentary coaching session—so they really know
what you are doing—then asking them for referrals to qualified
prospects. Here is a sample dialogue.
Coach:
Insider (I):
Coach:
I:
Hello, Anne. How are you doing?
Hi, Steve, how are you?
Well, thanks. Anne, I am calling to ask a favor. As you
know, I have been training to become a Professional
Coach. Now it’s time to build my practice. The way I am
doing this is by giving away free sample sessions to
people. You are too close a friend to me, so I could never
be your coach. (You simply can’t coach anybody to whom
you are really close.) But I would love to give you a
sample coaching session, just so you know what I am
doing.
Steve, I would love to have a sample session. How does
it work?
At this stage you organize a convenient time to give your Insider a great
coaching session. Upon completion of the session you simply say
something like this.
Coach:
I:
Coach:
Anne, thank you for letting me practice my coaching on
you. I trust you now know what I do.
I want to thank you, Steve. That was a wonderful
experience. I really enjoyed it. Now I know why you love it
so much. It is so you.
Thanks Anne, I’m glad you enjoyed it. And since I am
building my business by giving away complimentary
coaching sessions to people, I would really appreciate
any referrals you could make of other people you think
would enjoy a free coaching session. Who do you know
that has a big dream, a challenge, or some changes he or
she is working through? (The more specific you can
59
describe your target clients, the easier it will be for your
referrer to help you.)
Your better Insiders should be able to identify at least two or three
people they know who would be a good qualified prospect and who
would benefit from a free sample session.
Working with Warm Prospects
Once you have your confidence up from working with your Insiders,
move onto your Warm Prospect list. Warm Prospects already know you,
(or they know a mutual friend) and are thus more open to talking with
you and accepting an offer of a complimentary session.
“Free advice is worth the
price.”
- Robert Half
Initially your Warm Prospect contact list will include the people you know
directly (of the approximately 200 people the average individual knows
on a first name basis) that have passed through the qualifying filters. It
will also include any qualified prospects your Insiders have referred to
you. For most coaches this will add up to between 20 and 40 Warm
Prospects.
However if you don’t have that many Warm Prospects don’t despair.
Once you have at least six Warm Prospects (remember these are
qualified prospects), you can begin to employ a systematic approach to
turning these prospects into clients. Once such system I developed is
described next.
The 6:3:1 Formula
Here’s a formula that can really help you to fill your practice. Years of
experience in my practice, (and interviewing many other coaches) has
taught me that on average, if you contact six qualified prospects
(qualified by age and income), at least three will agree to a sample
coaching session. And if you give three qualified prospects a great
sample coaching session, at least one will become your client.
(Thus the one out of six prospects we talked about earlier.) This ratio
gives us the name, 6:3:1 formula. And as we have discussed, the better
you get at coaching, qualifying prospects, defining a niche, and refining
your offer to the niche, these conversion rates move higher.
What this means is that at the start of your practice, on average you will
need to contact six qualified prospects and offer them a sample session,
to obtain one client. This means three people will refuse your offer of a
60
sample session, and another two will take your sample session but
decline to work with you at this time.
Remember from our work on the statistics around qualifying prospects
that eventually up to one half of all prospects qualified by age, income
and inclination may ultimately be open to coaching. But timing is
important in these matters. At any given time a significant percentage of
otherwise qualified prospects are at a place in their life or career that
simply makes them unwilling to enter into coaching. Just know that six
months down the road they may be in a much better place to consider
your offer. But for now, just know that at least one in six of the qualified
prospects you contact should be ready to become your client.
“Facts are stubborn
things, but statistics are
more pliable.”
- L. J. Peter
I have seen the 6:3:1 formula yield great results for the coaches who
have diligently applied it. The formula helps them focus on the key
activities needed to get clients, and it really works. Some of my clients
average one new client a week just by working this formula. And while
there is a natural ebb and flow to clients that directs us to talk in
averages, I have seen coaches get ten new clients in ten weeks on this
system alone.
Typically they start each week by identifying six qualified prospects.
Then they contact these individuals with an offer of a complimentary
session. Of the three who agree, at least one becomes a client.
Notice, that even if you work the 6:3:1 successfully it still means you will
need to continue to function with an initial rejection rate of five out of six.
Simply know that this is the price you pay to live the life you want.
Thank everyone you talk to and don’t forget to ask for a referral. This is
important. Don’t forget to ask everyone you contact for a referral to
someone who might have a dream, challenge, or impending change for
which he or she would like a free coaching session. If you continually
ask for referrals, you will be continually replenishing your Warm
Prospect list.
Time Requirement
The process of identifying six qualified prospects, contacting them with
an offer of a complimentary session, actually giving the three 30-minute
sessions, and asking for the business or referrals, takes the average
new coach between three and five hours. So if your goal is to get one
61
new client a week, you will need to commit about five hours of marketing
each week. (If you want one new client a month, you will need to commit
five hours of marketing that month.)
The better you get at identifying prospects and coaching them, the
higher the conversion rate becomes. Soon you may find you are
converting over one third of the people you contact.
“Half our life is spent
trying to find
something to do with
the time we have
Sample Dialogues for Warm Prospects
Once you have your list of Warm Prospects, get your thoughts together
on what you are going to say to them. Your goal is to be authentic,
interested in adding value to their lives or business, and unattached to
the outcome. Here are two sample dialogues.
rushed through life
trying to save.”
- Will Rogers
Informal Coaching Conversation with someone you know.
Coach:
Warm Prospect (WP):
Coach:
WP:
Coach:
WP:
Coach:
WP:
Coach:
Hello, Judy.
Hi, (Steve), how’re you doing?
Absolutely fantastic.
Wow, what's up?
Well, Judy, I think I have finally found what
I am meant to do in life.
What's that?
I’ve discovered Professional Coaching. I
have taken my training and now I am really
enjoying coaching people to accomplish
some amazing things.
How does it work?
It would take me ten minutes to describe it
and you still wouldn't understand. I would
rather give you a free sample session.
When will you have 25 minutes?
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More Formal Coaching Conversation with Someone You Know
Steve:
WP:
Steve:
WP:
Steve:
WP:
Steve:
WP:
Steve:
Hello, Mr./Ms X. This is Steve Mitten
calling. How are you today?
I’m fine, Steve. How are you?
Very well thank you, Mr. X, and I am
calling you for a purpose.
Oh, really? Let me have it.
Mr. X, you are someone who has
accomplished a lot. You are dynamic and
you really go after the things you want. For
a long time, I have been looking for an
opportunity to work with you in a mutually
beneficial way. As you may know, I am a
professional coach; I specialize in helping
high-achievers get to the next level in their
career and life. As a way of building my
practice, and letting more people know
about the benefits of coaching, I am giving
away complimentary coaching sessions. I
would love to offer one to you.
Well, thanks, Steve, but I am not sure I
need one.
May I ask what your biggest challenge is,
Mr./Ms. X?
Well, I guess my biggest challenge these
days is balancing my career with my
family.
That is a perfect topic for a free coaching
session. Mr./Ms. X, when might you have
30 minutes to talk?
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A TIP ON CONTACTING PEOPLE
The single most frightening thing for me in building my coaching practice has been contacting
people whom I already knew. I have a wealth of contacts from my prior life as a massage
therapist. These are all people who think highly of me, paid me well for my services before,
and were sorely disappointed when I left the area. Furthermore there were my contacts in
complementary professions who referred people to me back then. Now, four years later my
hands tremble and my body sweats as I contemplate picking up the phone to call them.
I decided to start with two of my professional contacts in the hopes of developing a referral
network with them. They are both in the health field. Determined, I bit the bullet and wrote to
each of them, sharing what I was up to and telling them I'd call in a few days. (Ack, now I had
to call!) So I called. And I called. And I called. They didn't take my calls. They didn't call back.
I was devastated, disheartened and distraught. I'd put myself out there. For what? Nothing. Or
worse - rejection. They clearly thought horribly of me, and selling wasn't my forte and I was
never going to build my business. Right?
Wrong. What I did was set my intention, put myself out there, despite my fear, and kept going.
What came back was exactly what I wanted, just in a different form than I expected. Two of
my clients referred me - individually - to a chiropractor with a thriving business. She came to
our sample session completely intrigued, inspired and ready for what I had to offer.
After our session (which blew her away!) we talked about how we might work together.
Now she is one of my favorite clients, and in exchange for coaching she is referring her
clients to me. And, no, I don't know why the other two professionals never got back to me.
That's okay. I've remembered again that the Universe works in mysterious and providing
ways, and that I am whole regardless of who returns my phone calls.
Julie N. Serritella Life Coach
Realized Potential
www.realized-potential.com
Working with Rainmakers
I have saved the discussion of Rainmakers to the end of this section for
a reason. Rainmakers can fill your practice quicker than any other group.
If you are successful in properly cultivating a good Rainmaker, they can
continue to deliver qualified prospects to your practice for years to come.
Remember Rainmakers are the people in your life that already deal with
hundreds of other people: your accountant, bookkeeper, lawyer, doctor,
hairdresser, barber, dentist, dental hygienist, physiotherapist,
naturopath, chiropractor, financial advisor, real estate agent, corner
grocer, etc.
For a Rainmaker to be a good source of referral business, he needs to
know you, like you, trust you, and value your service. In other words, you
have to educate him and cultivate his support. To do this you really need
64
to find a way to give him a great experience of coaching. If you can give
him a direct positive experience of the benefits of coaching, you are
halfway home.
With Rainmakers, you must also guard against negative bounce-back
from their referrals. In other words, you must make it easy for them to
make a referral and virtually eliminate the possibility that one of their
clients will ever go back to them and say, “Why did you recommend that
coach? It was a waste of time and money.”
To accomplish this, once you have given the Rainmaker a good sample
session, let him know that anybody he may refer to you will be granted a
complimentary coaching session, so the referral can experience
coaching and make up his own mind as to the benefits.
This setup will allow a Rainmaker to say to one of his clients, “Have you
ever thought of working with a professional coach? I know one
who would be happy to give you a complimentary session so you
can make up your own mind as to the potential benefits.”
“There's no business
like show business,
but there are several
businesses like
accounting.”
Think of Rainmakers as key business alliances. You can have informal
alliances, where the Rainmaker is favorably disposed to help you just
because they know the work you do is beneficial. Or you can have more
formal alliances where there is exchange of services for a commission;
say $100 per referral that actually becomes a client.
- Letterman
However you do it, be sure to make it a priority to identifying and setting
up a mutually beneficial alliance with several Rainmakers in your
practice. It will pay off very well for you.
Finally, a word of caution: don’t go after your Rainmakers until you are
confident in your ability to deliver a good sample session and have a
clear idea how the relationship can be mutually beneficial. You don’t
want to nullify a huge potential source of clients by approaching them
prematurely.
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A TIP ON THE RELATIONSHIP BUILDING MIND SET
I moved to a new area a little over a year ago, and knew all of three people. In addition I had little or
no marketing experience. A major part of what helped me build my practice was a “mind set” I
adopted. I act as if I already know you.
When I meet someone, or call them, or connect in any way I behave as if I already have a relationship
with them. This attitude sets us both at ease and let’s us get right down to connecting. Of course, I still
need to learn all about you, but the attitude I come from is that we are already connected…and, in the
greater scheme of things, I know that to be true anyway; we are all connected. Breaking down the
social barriers that keep us apart by just not having them show up in my communication took me a
long way in creating almost instant relationships, which in turn helped me to build a successful
practice.
Shell Tain,
$ensible Coaching,
www.sensiblecoaching.com
Working With Referrals
A good referral is one of the best sources of business in a coaching
practice. First, they are free. Second, they represent a recommendation
of your service by a third party who usually has no vested interest. As
consumers we are far more likely to trust people we know to direct us to
services than be swayed by advertising.
Think about it, when you are looking for a good Doctor, Lawyer,
Accountant, Hairdresser, or Restaurant; what would influence you more,
an ad in a paper or a recommendation by a trusted friend? Of course
you are going to go with the recommendation by a trusted friend. In
building your coaching practice, you want to harness the same power.
To get referrals, you need to ask for them—well and frequently.
Before You Ask
As mentioned in our discussion of Rainmakers, for anyone to be a good
source of referral business, the person needs to know you, like you, trust
you, and value your service. In other words you have to educate and
cultivate your referral network. For an individual to be a great (and
enthusiastic) source of referrals, he or she really needs to have actually
experienced coaching. So you will really benefit from giving every
potential member of your referral network a great experience of
coaching.
66
Who to Ask?
Good sources for referrals include existing customers, friends and
family, colleagues, members of groups or associations you belong to,
professionals you use or give referrals to, and other prospects to whom
you have given a coaching demo session. Pay particular attention to
prominent and well-networked people – Rainmakers -- who might know
many qualified prospects.
When to Ask?
The best time to ask for a referral is when you have just delivered
something of value to the individual or client, such as a good coaching
session or a referral to their business. Other good moments may include
times when you are having any form of heart-to-heart conversation that
would naturally lead to your being able to ask for something you want.
“The statistics on
sanity are that one out
of every four
Americans is suffering
from some form of
mental illness. Think of
How to Ask?
For a client you already have, this approach works well.
“John, I really enjoy coaching you and would love to find a few
more clients just like you. I build my coaching practice by giving
away complimentary coaching sessions to people with whom I
would like to work. Who do you know who is, (say) facing some big
decisions in his or her career (challenges, changes, dreams)?”
your three best friends.
If they're okay, then it's
you.”
- R.W. Brown
If your client is very busy, you can retain the initiative if you collect the
name and contact information, then call the new prospect and introduce
yourself as being referred by John.
For a prospect that has declined to work with you, the conversation may
go like this.
“I understand you are not in a position to proceed with coaching
right now, Ken, but I trust you got some value from this sample
session.”
To which Ken will most likely respond,
“Yes, I did. I can see how this would be of great use to someone
who could afford it.”
To which you might say,
“ Well, Ken, as a way of building my practice, I give away a handful
of complimentary sessions each week. Who do you know who is
facing some big decisions in his or her career (or has a big dream
or challenge) and would benefit from a complimentary session?”
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It Is Best To Get As Personal An Introduction As Possible
Sometimes the best you can get is the name of a possible prospect from
a referral source. If that is the case, call up the prospect and introduce
yourself via the connection to the referral source, (i.e. – Hello Mr. Smith
our mutual friend John Doe suggested we talk. My name is…).
However, if the referral is coming from a good friend, associate or
colleague, try to arrange for a personal introduction. For example, if
your friend can arrange a meeting, coffee or lunch where they can
properly introduce you to the prospect it will have far more impact.
Supporting Material – Brochures, Cards
When you start to market, you will need a business card. You don’t have
to go overboard on this. All you need is a simple card that shows your
name and title as a Professional Coach (life coach, business coach, etc.)
with your phone, address (website if you have one) and e-mail info.
Once you get further down the road you can develop a consistent style
or brand that reflects the full message you want to convey to target
audience.
As to brochures, they are not mandatory but can provide a sense of
security at the beginning of your practice. When someone asks you for
more information, it is useful to have something to hand out. You may
find that as you progress with your marketing efforts and get better at
giving sample sessions, you will have less need for a brochure. Keep in
mind that there has not been a brochure written that can be as
compelling an argument for coaching as a great complimentary coaching
session. Wherever possible steer those who want more information into
a good sample session.
If you feel you need a brochure, it doesn’t have to be sophisticated. In
other words, don’t put your marketing efforts on hold for a month while
you develop a killer brochure. If you have some of the most common
software like Word, or Publisher, you will find templates that will help you
put together a good-looking brochure. If you have a relatively new
printer, simply buy some satin or glossy 26 lb. paper and print your
brochures yourself. Alternatively, write your copy, do a rough layout,
and take it to your local print shop. As to content, here are some of the
main points.
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Have a professional layout, your business name and your
picture. (If you have a brand statement, it should be reflected
throughout the brochure.)
Have good headings that speak to solutions your prospects want,
(i.e. LOOKING FOR CLARITY or STRUGGLING TO INCREASE
SALES). Remember most people scan the headings before
deciding whether to read the text.
Once you have caught the interest of a prospect by speaking to
their needs, qualify yourself by providing sufficient info on who
you are, what you do, and otherwise educate the prospect as to
why you are the best pick.
If you can add some third party validation such as client
testimonials, ICF logos, etc. it will add credibility.
Explain the basics of how your coaching service works.
Speak to the typical outcomes or benefits.
Have a call to action, or something that directs a prospect to take
a next step. (Perhaps call for a free report, assessment, and
sign up for your newsletter or a complimentary coaching
session.)
Provide the basic contact information.
“Disbelief in magic
can force a poor soul
into believing in
government and
business.”
- Robbins
Testimonials
Testimonials are a powerful component in all your marketing efforts, and
they can be included in almost all your promotional material.
Testimonials provide third party validation to the benefits of your
services and carry far more weight than any claim you alone might
make. This is particularly true in the marketing of coaching services
where the benefits are not well understood by your target audience.
From the very start of your practice, ask for testimonials from every
satisfied customer. The more benefit-specific and animated the
testimonial, the more effective they will be. And a testimonial from
someone well known and respected by your audience carries even more
weight. Wherever possible get permission to use a picture and full name
with the testimonial; if you can capture the testimonial on video or audio,
even better. Some coaches reward anyone who gives a great
testimonial with a free booklet, tape or other small gift, as a way to
encourage enthusiasm.
If you do teleclasses, workshops or speeches don’t forget to ask for
testimonials. They will make it easier to sell the next one you do, and
even justify a higher price.
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2) Workshops
Developing and delivering a workshop is a very powerful way to build
your coaching practice. It allows you to present in front of a group of
qualified prospects a topic of interest to them. In the process they get to
know and like you, understand how coaching works, examine their
progress on a number of areas of interest to them, and envision the
benefits of making significant progress in one or more of these important
areas. At the conclusion of the workshop, the prospects will have
everything they need for a significant portion of them to agree to be your
client.
At the end of a workshop delivered to 20 qualified prospects, it is not
unusual for ten of them to accept a complimentary coaching session and
to have five of those individuals agree to work with you. (That’s a better
conversion rate than simply working with Warm Prospects.)
If you have never done a workshop or had experience facilitating groups
of people, join your local Toastmasters group (www.toastmasters.org)
and build your competence for speaking in front of people. Then enroll in
a course or teleclass that will teach you the basics of how to facilitate
groups and/or work with a coach experienced in this area. For you to
feel comfortable and effective, you must master a few communication
skills.
If you are comfortable working with groups, here is a basic outline for a
mini-workshop. I have done variations of this same workshop in 1.5
hours, half days and full days. It works great. I have shared it with many
of my coach clients and they love it too. One client did this basic
workshop with 17 participants and 11 asked for complimentary sessions.
Workshop Outline
•
•
•
•
Icebreaker: A game or fun process to get people out of their
shells and engaged.
Welcome and overview: Welcome them and tell them what’s
coming.
Coaching demonstration: Demonstrate the process and show
the group how they are going to interact during the workshop.
Introduction of Wheel of Life: This can be the wheel of life or
for business crowds, the wheel of
business/leadership/management competencies. (See below.)
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Demo: Do a demonstration with a volunteer to illustrate how the
wheel is used.
Activity: Individuals complete their own wheel self-evaluating
their level of fulfillment or competency in each segment of the
wheel.
Demo coach an individual: Select an individual; take him
through a coaching demonstration that includes the part of his life
on which he wishes to focus, the outcome he wants to see, his
biggest challenge, and end identifying the first step forward to
make this change. Finally set up a simple accountability piece.
Dyad coaching: Break participants into pairs; have them coach
each other with the guidance of some carefully selected
questions you have put on a flipchart. (i.e. What area do you
want to work on? What is the best possible outcome? What is
important about this to you? What qualities do you need to bring
out of yourself to accomplish this? What is the first step? etc.)
Sharing: When they have completed their coaching, bring
people back into a large circle to share their commitments.
Wrap-up: Thank them for their time, wish them luck, and offer to those who are serious about making positive changes – a
complimentary coaching session.
Wheel of Life
The wheel of life is a tool that is widely used in professional coaching. I
first came in contact with it through training I received at CTI,
(www.thecoaches.com. You can learn more about the wheel and its
uses in the excellent book Co-Active Coaching.) A typical wheel is
simply an 8, 10, or 12 segment pie where each segment represents an
area worthy of examination. Each segment has radial gradations that
represent different levels of fulfillment.
• A 1, 2, or 3 rating would indicate very low levels of satisfaction.
• In contrast a rating of 8 or 9 would indicate a high level of
satisfaction.
“Life is something that
happens when you
can't get to sleep.”
- Lebowitz
The participant draws a line segment across (concentric with the outer
circle) to mark his level of satisfaction in that particular area of his life.
When the exercise is complete (shown in miniature below), the various
segments will represent a wheel whose degree of symmetry reflects the
individual’s level of balance.
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Blank Wheel
Completed Wheel - In Miniature (In PDF some images are degraded.)
Where To Do Workshops
You can do a workshop anywhere you find qualified prospects and an
empty room. Many coaches have met success approaching gyms or
fitness clubs, small business groups, service groups, leadership groups,
parent-teacher groups, community groups and businesses. To illustrate
how you might arrange a workshop let me use the example of a fitness
club.
Fitness clubs are filled with people who are interested in improving
themselves. And the fact that an individual belongs to the club raises
the likelihood that they have disposable income to qualify as a prospect.
To set up a workshop you simply approach the manager of the club,
introduce yourself as a professional coach, and say that you would like
to put on a 1.5 hour workshop on, say, “Balancing Your Life” for the
benefit of the club members. (And if you want to increase your likelihood
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of success, you can commit to donate all proceeds to a popular local
charity.)
If you do a good job at highlighting the benefits of the workshop – having
all participants look at the important areas of their life and receive some
coaching on how to become more balanced while achieving higher
levels of fulfillment – the manager may recognize this as something of
interest to the membership. All you want from the club is use of one of
their meeting rooms for free (particularly if this is for charity) and help
promoting the workshop.
Many club managers see this approach as a win-win proposition. The
club wins because they are providing something of interest to their
membership. And you win because you get to present to a large
number of qualified prospects, many of whom will become paying
clients. And once you have a reputation of delivering valuable
workshops, you can more easily charge for the workshop itself.
Workshops For Business
If you wish to target business clients, you can use a similar approach.
Select a business in your area with sales between $10M – 50M. (If the
business is too small, they may not have the people or funds. If it is too
big, they may have their own HR staff and training programs which might
make it a little more difficult for you.) Do your homework and learn what
the business does, where they fit into their market, how they see
themselves, and where they plan to go. Most company websites will
provide you with a wealth of information.
“It is never too late to
be what you might
have been.”
- George Eliot
Approach the CEO, VP, or manager in charge of training, (the
receptionist can often tell you who is in charge of training for the
organization). Often the first approach is by phone or letter. You
introduce yourself as a professional coach that works with highperformance management teams. Request that when the contact has 30
minutes free, you would like the opportunity to stop by, meet, and
describe a process that will help their company further develop the key
productive competencies of the management team. (Note – if you ask
for 30 minutes, be sure to complete your presentation within that time.
Respect your client’s time and keep your commitments.)
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Once you are in front of a decision maker, you want to quickly direct the
conversation to inquire what the main competencies are that contribute to
the success of the company’s key personnel.
Once you have identified the top 8 -12 competencies and determined if
the company has the funds to proceed with coaching, you can then pitch
your contact on doing a workshop for his top 15 people that will give them
some coaching skills, help identify each individual’s developmental
priorities - with regard to the previously identified corporate competencies
- and identify the action every participant will need to take to increase their
effectiveness.
In other words, you are simply doing the same workshop described
earlier, but this time you are renaming the segments of the wheel of life to
reflect the competencies most valued by the company you are talking to.
For example rather than having segments labeled Personal Growth,
Money, Relationships, Health, etc.; you will have segments labeled
Leadership, Getting Results, Managing Change, Empowering Staff, and
so on.
If the company is really excited by your proposal, charge them for the
workshop. Many executive coaches have a minimum fee of $1,500 for a
one-day workshop. If the company is not fully sold on you or the content,
offer to do a mini workshop – 1.5 hours - for free and think of it as an
investment in building rapport and demonstrating your value to the
company. Typically, once they know you, like you, trust you, and have
spent the time in the workshop getting familiar with coaching and looking
at how much work they need to do in all the areas of competence, they
will very likely want to proceed with an executive coaching program, which
is your main goal for doing the workshop.
When I was first building my practice, I tried this approach with a number
of companies. Years later, I am still getting high-paying executive
coaching clients from them. All the other coaches that I have seen use
this approach report the same results.
Remember, this is just one suggested approach. Always feel free to
develop your own. As long as you remember to be focused on adding
value to the prospect while remaining authentically yourself and
unattached to whether they work with you or not, you will succeed in time.
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If you are cold calling, you simply have to expect your fair share of
rejection. But the better you do your homework, and the more you tweak
your approach, the more you will get in to see your share of decision
makers. (And it does not take too many “yeses” to fill your practice.)
3) Networking and Leads Exchange Groups
Networking implies systematically building (and then maintaining) a
network of contacts that will generate clients, leads, qualified prospects
or other opportunities to build your business.
Networking can be a very powerful marketing strategy for coaches. With
a concerted effort you can identify and cultivate a select number of
networking groups and create an infrastructure of contacts that will
perpetually supply your coaching practice with clients. You can even
learn to enjoy it.
However, an unusually high percentage of coaches struggle with
networking. They don’t pick the right groups or events. They approach
each event with doubts and apprehension. It seems their main goal is to
hand out a few cards and get back home at the earliest moment.
“Life is something that
everyone should try at
least once.”
- Tillman
People who really master the art of networking see it very differently.
They look to actively participate in events or within groups where they
can achieve the following outcomes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Enjoy and learn
Raise their profile
Build long-term mutually beneficial relationships.
Increase awareness of their coaching practice and the value of
coaching
Connect with prospects
Assist other members to build their business
Successful networkers have an attitude of simply being themselves and
seeing how they can add value to the other people at the event. They
think give to get.
Keys to Succeeding in a Networking Environment
Not everybody loves networking. But if you want to expand your
contacts:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pick a group or event, rich in prospects, in which you would enjoy
participating.
Go there unattached to whether you get business or not, with the
sole intention of adding the most value to everyone to whom you
speak.
Follow-up on any opportunity to add value to good contacts. (The
more business or good coaching insight you can direct their way,
the greater the return to you will be.)
Go to the selected networking events regularly.
Always take business cards.
Always exchange business cards with new acquaintances.
Seek to meet five to seven new people a week.
Put special attention on the “super networkers” in any given
group. (The really great networkers have huge numbers of
people in their network.)
Prepare a short, memorable and authentic “elevator speech”
about who you are and what you do (15 - 25 seconds long).
Have some good questions ready, “How did you get into the xyz
business?” “What is your biggest challenge?” “What do you like
most about your work?” “How would I recognize a good client for
you?” (Remember, help them with their business and they will be
inclined to help you with yours - it is give to get.)
Show genuine interest in others. (Ask good questions.)
Seek to arrange sample sessions with any qualified prospects
you meet.
Look for opportunities to make a bigger contribution (a talk,
workshop, serve as a director, etc.).
“The best and most
beautiful things in the
world
cannot be seen or
even touched.
They must be felt with
the heart.”
- Helen Keller
If you go to networking events with an attitude of seeing how you can be
of most service, the focus of your activities is on the other people
attending the event, not you. And when you are focused on helping
others you will not have too much time to notice your own anxieties.
Typical Networking Venues
Some of the more tried-and-true networking venues include service
clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis), Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade,
women’s groups, men’s groups, parents’ groups, leadership groups,
Toastmasters, and professional associations. And recently many online
sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn offer tremendous opportunities to
network without leaving your office.
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As a coach, remember to participate in all your local coaching functions
(ICF meetings, etc.). About one-quarter of my corporate clients can be
traced back to coaches I have met at local ICF meetings inviting me into
various coaching projects they had initiated.
TIPS ON NETWORKING
When I first started coaching, the profession was fairly new and naturally when I used the term,
"coach," the first question everyone asked was "what sport?" Now, with coaching gaining in
popularity, I've noticed a real shift in people's reactions to the term. It's almost as if they roll their
eyes and silently say, "Oh no, not another coach!"
To avoid this reaction, I started shortening my introductions, emphasizing the benefits of what I do,
and eliminating my title. I found this got people's attention and they wanted to learn more. Their
questions were an open invitation for me to talk about what I do and how I could help them.
My clients report that by following suit and keeping their self-introductions to ten words or less, they
always pique the curiosity of the other person and in effect, gain "permission" to market their
services on the spot. The end result is that instead of trying to "sell" their coaching services, they
"attract" more clients to their practices.
Leni Chauvin, CPCC,
Superstar Networking
www.superstarnetworking.com
____________
My old way of networking was that of DOING. In coaching it feels more appropriate to me to shift it
to one of BEING. Instead of marketing as I had successfully done in my previous interior design
practice, now I enroll people by engaging them with how I am BEING. As a coach, I view my role as
a guide and supporter for people to generate the success they want. I am intentional about BEING
congruent. One of my highest values is contribution so I am always looking for opportunities to give.
When I am in conversation with people I am genuinely interested in them and I listen to what they’re
saying and more importantly what they’re meaning. People are drawn to my energy and often they
say they don’t know why. I believe that’s because in their daily lives they are not feeling
acknowledged enough and with me they experience being seen, heard and valued. The beautiful
thing is that when I am BEING authentically me, the very people who I would choose to be my
clients are naturally attracted to me!
Design For Living
www.jonimar.com
The Elevator Speech
For networking, as well as the general marketing of your practice, you
will want to have a good answer to the question, “What do you do?”
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You will find it useful to prepare a short, memorable description of who
you are, what you do, and how you benefit your clients. Since very
few people have ever had a coach, be sure to emphasize the benefits
of working with you. (In essence this is a short description of your
brand.)
These brief descriptions are called Elevator Speeches, because they
should to be short enough to deliver in the average elevator ride – or
networking introduction. An elevator speech can be as simple, “I am a
Business Coach who works one-to-one with independent
professionals, helping them market their business and enjoy their
success.”
Good elevator speeches start with a focus on the target audience. What
are the needs, challenges, or changes they want to make?
Once you have identified what existing problems are out there looking
for a solution (and you should restrict your search to problems people
are willing to pay for) you can then move on to describe who you are,
and what benefits you can uniquely deliver.
The more authentic, benefit-laden (for your niche), and memorable you
can be, the greater the response you will get. Ideally you want to elicit
the response, “That sounds interesting, tell me more.” Also the more
your elevator speech ties into your branding message, and your stand in
the world, the greater power it will have in the marketplace.
“My one regret in life
is that I am not
someone else.”
- Woody Allen
Here are some examples of good elevator speeches. The first comes
from Coach Ken Mossman CPCC, who contributed a Tip on creating a
niche earlier in this book. “I specialize in coaching ‘Business Dads’ men who had their first child in their mid-thirties or later, own their
own businesses or are senior executives, and are passionate about
connecting with their own children... So not a moment is missed.”
In Ken’s elevator speech you clearly see whom he coaches, and what
the benefits would be. Because Ken’s speech is specific it is a far more
effective and memorable elevator speech than, I am a coach that helps
people balance work and family.
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Another Coach that provided a Tip to this book provides the second
example of a good elevator speech. Coach Jan Marie Dore PCC
describes herself as a “Marketing Coach and Personal Brand
Strategist who encourages solo professionals to be confident,
successful self-promoters so that they stand out, get noticed, and
get hired.”
Again, this descriptor is specific on who she works with and what
benefits she delivers.
My general elevator speech is “My name is Steve Mitten. I am an
experienced Master Certified Coach and Business Development
Strategist who helps Independents, Professionals and Leaders find
their niche, be their best and have an impact.” And depending on
the particular interest of the group I am saying this to, I will typically
emphasize particular words or benefits. For example, if I am talking to a
crowd interested in life coaching, I will insert “Life” in front of Coach, and
substitute “path” for niche.
For most coaches creating an effective elevator speech takes time,
because choosing a good niche takes time. Until you get your ultimate
elevator speech, simply try to focus your description on the most
relevant (life or business coaching) benefits of interest to the group you
are being introduced to.
The Non-Elevator Speech
For those of you like me, who hate the triteness of most elevator
speeches, here is one I have used as a 30 second self-introduction at a
networking event.
“My name is Steve Mitten I am a professional (life or business)
coach; and I hate describing what I do. Since most of you have
never worked with a coach, no matter how well I describe coaching,
no one will truly understand what I am talking about. However if
anybody here is really serious about getting significantly better
results in your (life, career, or business), I would be happy to give
you a free consultation to allow you to actually experience the
tangible benefits of great coaching.”
Don’t be surprised if a number of people are curious enough to come up
and inquire more about your services.
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A TIP ON ELEVATOR SPEECHES
A word about the 30-second introduction... Before I introduce myself I inquire what a person or group’s
biggest need may be and then I explain how I am the solution to their specific problem. I outline the
benefits of working with me, speak to their emotional self (feelings of overwhelm, confusion, lack of
balance, dissatisfaction) and give examples of some of the results my clients have generated by working
with me. After describing ‘coaching’ without naming it they are now open and curious about what I do.
This is when I tell them that I’m a professional coach. People are then often intrigued and want to know
more.
Design For Living
www.jonimar.com
Leads Exchange Groups
If you are one of the personality types that feel lost at traditional
networking events—like the proverbial deer-in-the-headlights —
consider joining a Leads Exchange Group.
A Leads Exchange Group is a small collection of members from noncompeting fields who work as a team. Each member of the team is
focused on generating qualified leads for each other’s business. You
develop strong relationships with your team, educate them on what you
do and what a qualified prospect for your business looks like, then help
build each other’s business through the very best of word-of-mouth
advertising.
A good Leads Exchange Group can be a powerful contributor to a full
practice.
To learn about setting up your own Leads Exchange Group, visit Coach
Leni Chauvin’s site at http://www.superstarnetworking.com. Leni is a
Networking Superstar and offers a valuable free newsletter. Another
resource for leads exchange groups can be found at www.bni.com.
Bottom Line On Networking and Leads Exchange Groups
People that take networking and leads exchange groups seriously,
attend regularly, and really learn each other’s business and ideal
prospect profile do very well. They master the art of working a room,
making purposeful conversation, adding value to contacts and
importantly, they really enjoy building long-term relationships with great
people.
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As a coach, you owe it to yourself to explore past any hesitation you
might have. It is quite common to initially approach networking with
some dread. Most of us have had dreadful experiences of going to
events, not knowing anybody there, not knowing how to make
conversation, and feeling like a fish out of water. Don’t let this stop you.
There is a small set of skills to learn. But once you learn them you can
be building productive and enjoyable networks with ease.
There are many good resources to help you master the art and science
of networking. You can start with some of the good books written on the
topic. They will build your confidence and competence. As an example,
you can check out Darcy Rezac’s The Frog And Prince.
A TIP ON CHOOSING THE RIGHT NETWORK GROUP
Before becoming a coach, my career was in higher education as a marketing professor and as an
administrator for continuing education. My commitment to lifelong learning continues to draw me to
professional meetings in the education field. This has proven to be an excellent place to network
and attract coaching clients.
Some attendees at professional meetings are people considering a job or career change. Since they
are in transition, they are often good candidates for coaching. I recently attended a meeting of
educators and administrators who are using online learning, and by networking at that meeting I
gained three clients.
There’s a natural connection that seems to take place between coach and prospective client when
it’s grounded in some common areas of interest. I know another coach, Jennifer, with a technical
background who attends professional meetings of engineers and finds clients by networking at
those meetings.
I have discovered that by focusing on a field that truly interests me and networking within that
professional field, I’m able to attract new clients in a way that feels completely natural.
Amy Grossman, MBA
Broader Vision Coaching
[email protected]
4) Teleclasses
A teleclass is a practical and powerful way to attract and engage
potential coaching prospects. Teleclasses can also be a separate profit
center in your business because they allow you to leverage your time by
coaching groups of people instead of individuals. It can also be a
powerful way to share the benefits of coaching with a much larger
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audience of people who could not afford to hire you for one-to-one
coaching.
Essentially, a teleclass is a group call led by you, the coach. Generally
the premise of a teleclass is that you, the coach, have knowledge to
share or a program to take participants through. You pick a topic you are
an expert on; that you know will be of interest to your audience. You
book a time, rent a conference line (called bridge line) and design a call
that, in a typical hour-long teleclass session, would:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Welcome the visitors.
Orient them on the need to keep the background noise to a
minimum (most good bridgelines have a group mute function).
In smaller groups, let everyone give a short (20 second)
introduction on their name, where they’re from, and what they
want to get out of this class. (In groups over 30 you simply do not
have time for everyone to be introduced.)
Introduce the topic. (Give an overview of the class and the main
areas you will cover.)
Make your first point (try to keep your monologues to less than 5
minutes) and then ask for comments, questions, etc. (The more
interaction you can generate in the group, the greater the
learning, and the higher the energy and engagement.)
Continue on to make your next point, pausing every 5 minutes or
so to field questions and encourage discussion in the group.
(Typically in a one-hour teleclass you would only have time to
make 4 or 5 main points.)
Towards the end of your class, summarize the key learning
points, and assign any homework.
Let the class know where they can go for additional learning. Be
sure to inform them of any other program or products you might
offer. (Hopefully you can get them to subscribe to your
newsletter, to keep learning.)
Teleclasses can handle between two and 1,000 people, depending on
the nature of the topic. The larger teleclasses, where you would have
more than ten people, are typically more content-driven. By that I mean
the larger numbers of participants reduce the possibility of interaction
and personal attention so you will need more step-by-step information.
Because there are more people simply listening (as opposed to
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interacting), you want to make sure the content is valuable to all
participants and that it keeps them engaged.
In smaller groups, fewer than 20, you can have a high degree of
interactivity with the participants - and thus you require less structure.
Teleclasses can be singular events, but typically the content is spread
out over four to 12 weeks of one-hour calls. If you are not well known by
your audience yet, you may want to offer a free initial call to fully
introduce the topic, discuss the benefits, build rapport and get people
thinking about the benefits of taking your paying program. (Many
teleclasses are marketed this way.)
For a coach, teleclasses allow you to meet, develop rapport, and
educate a multitude of prospects. They also allow you to showcase
your expertise in the subject area.
You typically price teleclasses so that the individuals can access your
expertise at a significantly lower price point than one-to-one coaching,
and yet because there are many participants on the call, your hourly
compensation is sufficient to cover the time on the calls and the time
spent in course preparation.
From a business perspective you will want to price the teleclass so that
you leverage your time by achieving a higher hourly rate than you would
in one-to-one coaching. From a service perspective, you will want to
make the teleclass affordable to the largest possible audience. Typically
prices for teleclasses range from $20 – $50 per person per session,
which with 20 participants would gross $400 - $800 per hour. (Some
specialty teleclasses go for over $100 per person per session.)
For marketing your teleclass you have a few choices. In addition to
whatever direct marketing initiatives you might employ, (on coaching
forums or social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn) there are also a
multitude of sites that advertise teleclasses to thousands of subscribers.
(Check out http://www.planetteleclass.com/ or www.coachville.com or
www.247coaching.com.) Typically these sites also offer courses to train
you in the nuances of designing and leading a teleclass. However as some
of these “certification” courses are now quite expensive, I would encourage
you to carefully consider whether you need this.
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Teleclasses are delivered over bridge lines. A bridge line is a
conferencing system that allows everyone to phone one central number to
talk. The better bridge lines will also allow you, the moderator, to mute all
other participants should you need to cut off background noise while
delivering the teleclass. Bridge lines can be rented to handle between 20
and 1,000 people. There are now many free bridge line services. You can
find out more about bridge lines at http://www.freeconferencecall.com or
http://www.freeconference.com/
If you are considering adding teleclasses to your list of coaching services,
I would encourage you to make a point of taking a number of free or
inexpensive teleclasses to get a feel for how they work. At any time,
http://www.planetteleclass.com has dozens of free teleclasses you can
participate in.
For more information on teleclasses, here is a good Article.
Group Coaching
A very small number of participants on a teleclass (or in person) bring you
into the realm of group coaching. Typically, for group coaching you would
want between four and eight people in the group. (Some coaches feel five
is an ideal number for a group call.) This size of class allows you to split
your time between the participants and deal in more depth with each
individual’s situation.
“The only place you’ll
find success before
work is in the
dictionary.”
- May B. Smith
It also allows you to lower the cost of participation to far below your oneto-one rates. For example, if you charge $350 per month per client for a
total of two hours of one-to-one work; a group call would allow you to
charge five people $50 dollars for a one-hour group session twice a
month. This would allow you to leverage your time, (five people x $50 x
twice a month = $500 per month.)
You would be making more money on an hourly basis; and equally
important you would be offering another way for people to work with you
at a much lower price point. (The cost of the group work is $100 a month
per person versus the $350 per month for your one-to-one coaching.)
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This lower priced service would translate into allowing a larger number of
people to experience your coaching. (This is great for them and great for
your business.) And once you offer a group-coaching program, you now
have a place to steer prospects that want to work with you, but simply
can’t afford your one-to-one rates.
Typically, any group coaching program would have a theme (say making
a great career transition) and involve a series of calls weekly or twice a
month. With a greater degree of individual interaction, you would require
less content in each call.
5) Speaking
Public speaking is a very effective way to build your coaching practice. It
raises your profile, gets you in front of large numbers of prospects at once,
and showcases your expertise. To get the most out of the speaking, you
need to:
•
Choose a target audience rich in qualified prospects (perhaps from
a niche you are targeting).
•
Choose a topic that addresses the interests and/or major challenges
faced by a large number of the target group. (If you need ideas,
contact several members of the group ahead of time and pick their
brains.)
•
Attempt to weave a short coaching demonstration into the speech
(so they really know what it is about).
•
Offer a complimentary coaching session to interested members of
the group.
“Make sure you have
finished speaking
before your audience
has finished
listening.”
•
Always speak from your most authentic self, with as much
genuine passion as you can muster—with the sole aim of adding
value to your audience. (They need to see the real you.)
- Sarnoff
If you are not yet fully comfortable speaking in front of people, don’t
despair. Public speaking is one of the most common fears, but it is easily
managed. You might be amazed at how quickly you can master the
necessary skills and confidence. One of the cheapest and best
resources to build your speaking skills is Toastmasters
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http://www.toastmasters.org/. For under $100 a year, you can get great
experience at a location near you and become a very competent
speaker sooner than you might expect.
As to speaking venues, here are some of the most popular for coaches.
•
Chambers of Commerce: speak to the needs of small business
people.
•
Service Clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.): speak to small business
and/or life coaching topics.
•
Professional Associations: highlight the challenges or interests of
the group. For example, if you are speaking to an association of
HR professionals, you might decide to speak on something like
“Coaching Skills for HR Professionals.” If you were speaking to a
Technical Industries Association, you might talk on “Coaching
Skills for Technical Managers.”
•
Special Interest Groups: there is no end to these groups. One of
my clients identified no less than 50 separate Women’s Groups
in her city. Try to find a group in which you have an interest. For
example, if you like to work with women in leadership positions,
identify all the women’s and leadership groups in your area. Your
PTA or other local community groups also offer great
opportunities for coaches to share their knowledge via speeches.
•
Health and Sports Clubs: your local gym or country club might
provide you with opportunities to speak to an audience interested
in bettering themselves.
Many of these groups have an insatiable appetite for competent
speakers. It is not unusual for some groups to have a different speaker
each week. So once you get rolling and have a few “standard”
speeches, you can often modify them quickly to add more value to the
target audience. If you have any doubt that this method of building your
practice works, be sure to read the following Tips.
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TIPS ON SPEAKING
I decided to 'go public' to get the word out about my coaching services. I added 20 coaching clients
and increased my income from $800 to $3,000 per month in a three-month period in 1996. The
main way I did this was through public speaking.
I got a list of all the local networking associations; participated in their networking events; and
contacted the program coordinators. I asked for an opportunity to be a guest speaker at one of their
meetings. I followed up by faxing a one page promotional piece that outlined my credentials, the
topic I was going to speak on, and why I was the best person to speak on this topic. Due to efficient
follow-up and my willingness to speak for free I was on track for delivering a presentation every two
weeks.
I always offered complimentary sessions at the end of every presentation - verbally from the
platform and on the feedback form I asked participants to complete. A typical presentation would
have an average of 60 participants. Approximately 20% would sign up for a complimentary sessions
and 70% of those would show up for the complimentary session. I continued to fine-tune my
process with the complimentary session and averaged converting 50% of the complimentary
sessions. Speaking and facilitating complimentary sessions continue to be a fun way for me to
attract clients!
Teresia LaRocque
____________________
I've always enjoyed speaking, so I knew that it would benefit me to use it as a marketing strategy,
but the follow-up left me dry. I began offering a package to select audiences who would have many
of my niche prospects attending. The package includes a one-hour customized, interactive talk
(both group and individual coaching occurs), a complimentary session for each attendee and a free
telecourse on a subject that the group as a whole seems to have in common. The package is one
charge to the group leader of $150.00. Dirt cheap, I know, but I’m getting paid to market! I use a
sign up sheet at the talk so I walk away with names, numbers and e-mails.
Each talk yields warm leads, multiple reasons for contact and an introduction to what coaching can
do for them. Even when the sample sessions don't turn into clients immediately, I get business from
them later either through coaching or referrals. I’ve learned that if you’re happy to help your
prospects, they are more than happy to help you back, it just takes time 30 days to a year
sometimes. The key: keep putting yourself out there without expecting immediate payback. Trust.
Julie Ford
BA, CPCC
[email protected]
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6) Writing
Writing letters, articles and books is another effective marketing strategy
for coaches. Again you are getting your name out there, establishing
more credibility, and educating a large number of potential clients on
coaching or coaching-related topics.
If you are just starting out in your practice, consider writing a marketing
letter just to inform all your contacts of your service. Be sure to describe
whom you like to work with and what the benefits or impact of this work
is. As mentioned earlier, the more specific you are in defining your niche
and refining your brand, the greater the response will be.
If the recipient of your letter is a prospect, request the opportunity to give
them a sample session. If you are sending the letter to an Insider or
Rainmaker, also offer them a sample session and let them know you are
looking for referrals. Be as specific as possible. Imagine your referral
source as a matchmaker, you need to give them enough information on
what you do and who you are looking for. Always follow-up letters with a
phone call, a week later.
Coaches that get good results from marketing letters know that it is both
a quality and quantity exercise. You need to send a quality letter to a
qualified contact, AND you have to send out a lot of letters. As this is a
form of direct contact marketing you can use the 6:3:1 formula to help
guide you in regards to how many qualified prospects you need to
contact to end up with a client.
“A writer is a person
for whom writing is
more difficult than it is
for other people.”
- Mann
If you are an experienced or proficient writer, you can explore writing an
article or a book. For articles, you need only pick a topic of interest to
your intended audience and find the right venue to submit it. In addition
to the thousands of printed periodicals, countless online sites require
good content. You can learn a lot about the type and style of articles any
given publication or site favors, simply by reviewing past issues. Many
publications and sites have guidelines to help writers create content of
most interest for their readers.
If you are further along in your practice and routinely work with a specific
niche of clientele, you will have become very familiar with their biggest
challenges. You will have probably become very good at dealing with
these challenges and even have developed a specific set of processes
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that you take your clients through to help them find solutions. Your
unique way of doing this is called your “content”.
For example if you are a small business coach, you may have a set of
steps you take clients through to help them identify their ideal customer
and polish their offer. If you are a life coach you may have a unique set
of steps you take your clients through to help them find their values.
This is all content, and if you have developed a sufficient amount for
your target audience, you may consider writing a book or an e-book.
The “e” in e-book simply means the book exists only in electronic form
for sale over the Internet. An e-book requires less time and expense to
publish than a conventional book. This makes them very useful for short
topics or content you want to publish quickly. If you are considering
writing an e-book, you will need to learn about various formats and how
to set up a shopping cart and merchant account. Most of what you need
to know can be found at www.wilsonweb.com. (Do a search for e-book.)
While e-books still only constitute a small fraction of what is published
conventionally each year, they do provide an effective way for coaches
to better establish and share their expertise, and generate an additional
stream of income. Although unless you are lucky enough to write some
all-time best seller, do not expect to make a lot of money from the book.
If you desire to publish your own conventional soft or hard cover book,
there are many more choices available today. You can now arrange to
have very small runs of books published much more economically than
ever before. One such publisher can be found at
http://www.morrispublishing.com/.
“It is not a bad idea to
get in the habit of
writing down one's
thoughts. It saves one
having to bother
anyone else with
them.”
- Colegate
If you have a great idea for a book that has a big potential market, you may
be considering finding a publisher who will underwrite the production of
your book. This is not an avenue for those who are not committed to put in
a lot of time and effort. Only a small percentage of the tens of thousands of
books published each year become a commercial success. However, if
you are considering this option, you can find an overview of the process at
www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/publishbook/publishbook.html.
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Whether you choose to write articles, a column, or a book, unless you
are already a celebrity, do not expect the writing alone to fill your
practice or make you a fortune. Typically, writing simply raises your
profile and helps position you as an expert on some topic.
Wherever possible in your writing, encourage interested readers to
contact you for something of value, a free report, perhaps a free
assessment on your website or a complimentary coaching session. It is
through the direct contact with you, and exposure to coaching, that you
will generate the most business from your writing.
7) Websites
It seems that most coaches either have a website or are in the process
of getting one. And while this is a very large and detailed topic, within the
spirit of sharing what you need to know—and as someone who has done
a lot of web marketing and who has had productive websites for many
years—I offer the following comments divided into two types of sites:
passive and active.
Passive Sites
A passive website is a site you create as a virtual brochure. Its principal
objective is to give you more credibility and provide more information to
potential clients that you will direct to the site. Most coaches have
passive sites, in that the majority of visitors are directed to the site by
other marketing initiatives such as distributing the URL (Universal
Resource Locator: your www.xyz.com) on business cards, brochures,
written material, etc.
Passive sites are a nice icing to a well-baked cake of marketing material,
but they are usually quite poor investments for coaches in the first year
of their practice. In other words, if you are just starting out, you do not
need a website; in fact it is the rare coach who generates any significant
flow of clients from his website in the first year of practice. For many new
coaches a site can be a big time-sink; people spend weeks and months
writing content, fussing with contractors or code, and spending hundreds
(sometimes thousands) of dollars and hours writing, publishing, and
hosting a web.
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If you are under the impression that all you need do is get a website, and
strangers are going to magically find you online and hire you as a coach,
please let me disillusion you now, before you waste the time and money.
Successfully marketing your coaching practice through a website takes
some time and money. And unless you really have the desire and
wherewithal to master this media, elect to join the vast majority of
coaches who get their first 25 clients from more direct marketing
initiatives. (Sorry if this sounds pessimistic, but I have seen too many
coaches blow their marketing budgets on websites that produce very
little business for them.)
On the other hand, if you are already generating a healthy flow of new
prospects and see a benefit in further explaining the benefits of your
services or raising your credibility OR you have the web and marketing
wherewithal to really make it pay (or can hire someone who does), a
website may be the next logical addition to your marketing arsenal.
“The aim of life is to
live,
and to live means to
be aware,
joyously, serenely,
divinely aware.”
- Henry Miller
Active Sites
An active site is one that dynamically attracts new clients to your home
page (the first and main page of your site) for your coaching services or
ancillary products.
Active online marketing for coaches is getting to be very competitive. To
succeed in this realm, you will need to have a niche, know the keywords
your ideal client would type into a search engine to find you, and be able
to master either pay per click advertising or natural Search Engine
Optimization (SEO).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The topic of SEO is large and fairly technical. It involves the art and
science of designing your web site so it would come up naturally, (without
paying) on the first page of results when your potential client types a
search phase (or keyword) into one of the major search engines (Google,
Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc.)
To cover this involved topic in detail would require a separate book.
However, for the purpose of helping you decide whether this might be a
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marketing strategy you would like to learn more about, let me outline the
basics.
Have A Focus For Your Web Marketing - You cannot effectively market
to everyone; you will get lost in the crowd. There are currently over 36
million results to a Google search for "life coach". If you do not have a
focus (niche or specialty), you stand a very good chance of never getting
noticed. So it is very important to pick a niche like "ADD Coach", "Small
Business Coach", "Career Transition Coach", "Life Balance Coach", etc.,
where there is much less competition, so you can stand out.
Pick Your Keywords Carefully - Once you have a niche, you need to
find out what "keywords" your ideal clients type into the search engines to
find people like you. If you specialize in career transitions, and you were
successfully optimized for the keyword "career coach" at Yahoo, your site
might have come up for free on the results page for over 2,900 searches
in one month alone. If you were optimized for the keyword "career
transition", you would have come up over 1,200 times during the same
period. Now if you based your keyword decision on these numbers alone,
you might choose career coach because it had more traffic. However,
since there are far fewer coaches competing for the keyword "career
transition", even though it received half the traffic, you might end up with
far more business because you would be seen more easily. (To see the
traffic for your keyword check out Free Keyword Tool. Note – this free
service can be slow at times. You can also use a free trial keyword tool at
http://www.wordtracker.com/)
Choose Your URL Carefully - It is a huge advantage to have your
keyword in your URL. For example, if your keyword is “career coach”, a
URL such as www.johnscareercoaching.com would rank far higher than
www.johndoe.com. (When your keyword is in your URL, many of your
internal hyperlinks have your keyword in them, and that helps your
rankings.)
Prominently Display Your Keyword - In your headings and in your
leading paragraphs throughout the body of your page, ensure you use
your keyword. (The closer to the front of the sentence the better.) For the
average sized page (500 – 700 words) you probably want to mention your
keyword at least 15 times. However you do not want to have your
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keyword repeated one after the other, or otherwise artificially plug in
keywords where they would not naturally arise.
Meta Tags - If you go to a typical web page, put your cursor in the middle
of the page, and right click your mouse, you should see an option titled
“View Source”. If you click on that option a window will open to show you
the HTML source code (computer language) behind that particular web
page. If you scroll up to the top of the page, you will see something like:
<head>
<title>Career Coach Humpty Dumpty CCC, SCC,r</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Career coaching with experienced
certified coach Humpty Dumpty CCC, SCC. Free session." />
<meta name="Keywords" content="career coach, transition, coaching,
life, business, certified, job change, help, resume"/>
These are called “meta” tags, and even though they do not show on the
visible part of the web page, they are very important to your ranking. You
want to make sure you have your keyword in the title tag of each of your
pages, and it’s important to have those keywords towards the front of
each line. The same thing with your description, which is typically about a
20-word long descriptive sentence, that viewers see when your page
comes up on a search engine. The "keywords" tag should also include
your prime words up front, as well as all the variations that your prospects
might typically use to find you. (Unless you know HTML, or use a HTML
editor, these are changes you instruct your web designer to make on your
behalf.)
Acquire Links from Other Sites - By far the single most valuable thing
you can do to build your ranking (and thus visibility) with a search engine
like Google, is to have links pointing to your site from a large number of
other, high ranking, coaching related sites. You used to be able to do this
simply by trading links with other coaching sites. However, in the
constantly evolving world of SEO, this is no longer a successful strategy.
(Some experts speculate that these sorts of reciprocal links may now
actually hurt your rankings.)
These days, you want to focus on acquiring one-way (incoming only) links
from a wide variety of sites including other highly ranked websites (related
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in subject to your site), government or education sites, directories, blogs,
press releases, articles, etc.
This takes a lot of time so it is often delegated to any number of SEO
contractors. (Generally once a year I will go to a site like www.elance.com
and post a job to acquire 100 or more high quality links from related web
sites, directories and social media sites – and insist that this be done in a
“white hat” manner (using search engine approved methodologies.) I can
generally get this done for less than $250.
Pay per click
If you want immediate results with your current web site, you may
consider pay per click advertising.
Currently, there are many search engines where you can pay to have
your site shown whenever someone types in your chosen keywords. The
two biggest are Yahoo and Google.
Yahoo now owns Overture, and so any advertising you do there has
access to Yahoo as well as MSN, Altavista, CNN and Infospace.
Google pay per click ads are also shown a wide network or partner sites.
The best way to get a feel for these programs is to sign up for their free
online demos.
Google’s can be seen at https://adwords.google.com/select/ and Yahoo’s
can be viewed at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/index.php.
The upside of pay per click advertising is that you can get your site listed
and attracting clients within 10 minutes.
The downside of pay per click advertising is:
•
Far fewer people read the sponsored ads. (The natural responses
are viewed as being more credible.)
•
Each time anyone (client, competitor, some other marketer
tracking you down) clicks on your ad, it costs you money. This
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might range from 10 cents per click for an obscure and low traffic
keyword, to over three dollars a click for the very popular one.
•
I have a sneaky (and yet unsubstantiated) suspicion that some
pay per click sites somehow actually penalize the ranking of
advertiser’s sites so that they will have to keep paying to attract
advertisers.
My advice is that if you have a site that by its nature will never do well
through organic or natural search engine optimization, then consider pay
per click.
Go through the free tutorials offered by the sites, draft up some ads, set
up a small budget and watch carefully what returns you get. (Personally I
prefer Google’s program because I find it easier to administer and
budget.)
It may take a week or two of tweaking to get a feel for how it all works. It
may take a month or two to tweak your ad title and offer so you start to
get some traffic.
Once you have an ad that works, and you know how much it costs to
attract a customer, and assuming it makes sense, you can raise your
budget and go for it.
(FYI - A few years ago when I was experimenting with pay per click
advertising on a wide range of coaching keywords, I got to a stage where
I knew that about $100 of advertising would translate into three inquiries
and one new client. Since the client would stay with me for many months,
the cost of advertising was well worth the investment.)
Your Home Page - Write Copy That Engages
The first page of your web site is called your “Home Page”. It is the single
most important part of your web site, because it is the one that 100% of
your visitors see (only a small percentage of your visitors actually venture
beyond your home page.)
It is on your home page that you will have the opportunity to capture a
viewer’s attention, engage them, educate them about the benefits of
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working with you, qualify yourself as the best choice, and encourage them
to take a next step.
To help you craft an effective home page, here are some key points:
•
Prior to designing and writing your home page, check out the
competition a potential viewer might compare you with. You want
to make sure you have a site that appears to be more
professional and appealing than your top competitors. (To check
out your competition, simply type your keyword into a few search
engines.)
•
Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer and think of what
they would be looking for online. A solution to a specific
problem? General information? Try to get a feel for what they
want, so you can better design your page to speak directly to
their needs.
•
Write headings that capture your viewer’s attention and speak to
the specific problem or issue your ideal clients are looking to
resolve.
•
Once you have caught a visitor’s attention, through headings that
speak to the reasons he might be looking for a coach, introduce
your solution to their problem. (For example, if you are a life
coach, you might ask, ”Are you looking for clarity?” ” Wanting to
find your best path forward?” “Looking to get better results?” “Life
Coaching can help you find the direction and results you are
looking for.”)
“To see a world in a
grain of sand and a
heaven in a
wildflower,
hold infinity in the
palm of your hand
and eternity in an
hour.”
- William Blake
•
Establish your credibility as a coach and reveal enough about
yourself so that the viewer can distinguish you favorably from the
other dozen coach sites they have visited. If you have
established a brand for yourself, make sure it is reflected in the
site, and in particular how you describe yourself. You want the
reader to clearly understand why you are the best choice. (Note,
don’t talk too much about yourself here. Remember viewers are
primarily focused on, “what’s in it for me?” They should always
be able to click onto a separate page in your site if they want to
learn more about you.)
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•
Speak to the benefits of coaching in terms of what your clients’
value. You can accomplish this through a list of typical outcomes,
success stories, or through testimonials from your happy clients.
•
Encourage the viewer to take the next step: call for a
complimentary coaching session, e-mail for a free report, or
subscribe to your newsletter. (This is important. Very few people
will buy coaching from a site visit alone. You want to talk with
them and give them an experience of coaching, or at least get
the opportunity to send them your newsletter.)
Useful Web Site Resources
Here are some resources and additional information that may be of use.
How To Create Your First Web Site
http://www.ehow.com/how_42_create-first-web.html - This is a good article
to get you oriented.
Looking For A Designer
Here are some designers that have been recommended by other coaches.
(I have not worked with all of them, so I cannot make a personal
recommendation on all.)
•
•
•
http://www.fiddleface.com/ - Theresa Leonard (She has done
great work for me.)
http://www.coachingsitesthatwork.com/
http://www.elance.com – Here you can describe what you want and
get quotes from dozens of designers.
Hosting And Domain Name Options
There are dozens of good, very inexpensive places to secure a domain
name and get hosting. Here are two I use, that have received very good
ratings.
www.godaddy.com - Domain names, hosting, web packages, etc.
http://www.ipowerweb.com/ - Hosting.
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TIP
Creating a website has not only brought be more business than I thought it would, it has given me the
International exposure I could not have afforded otherwise. I am thrilled to have clients around the
world. I find in conversations I am able to say a little about coaching and then simply direct them to
my website where they can learn about coaching and me at their leisure with no pressure.
I have been able to say EXACTLY what I want to say about me, and coaching, on the website and list
my prices without them ever feeling like I am a desperate coach looking for clients. One third of my
st
business comes from web marketing. In the 21 century a website is a must.
Laura North, CPCC
When to get a Website
As a rule of thumb, when you are at a stage in your marketing where you
are beginning to understand the main benefits your target audience
wants to achieve through coaching - and you have figured out a unique
way to provide those benefits that differentiates yourself from every
other coach – you are ready for a website.
In contrast, if you are just starting out, and all you have is a general
offering for life, business or executive coaching - that does not speak to
the benefits any particular audience wants nor distinguishes you from
the thousands of other general coaching sites - your money will not be
well spent on an active website.
Permission Marketing
Whether your website is passive or active, you will benefit from learning
a little about Permission Marketing. This refers to the process whereby
you gain your prospect’s permission to send him ongoing messages.
Permission Marketing is very effective on the web; you will want to
benefit from its power.
“One must still have
chaos in oneself to be
able to give birth to a
dancing star.”
- Nietzsche
Essentially Permission Marketing is based on two main observations.
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1. Many of your prospects will take multiple exposures from you
and your offer to get to a point where they know you, like you,
trust you, and understand the benefits of your service well
enough to buy it.
2. Through the Internet and the magic of e-mail and databases, you
can target your prospects with friendly, educational, rapportbuilding information for next to nothing, as long as you have their
permission and e-mail addresses.
So one goal in all your marketing efforts is to capture your prospect’s email address and gain his permission to send periodic messages that
are of interest to him and move him closer to becoming your client. It
may take five or six messages to move a sceptical stranger into an
enthusiastic customer, but since the cost of repetitive messages is
minimal, this is a very effective marketing strategy.
To begin to build your database, you simply need an attractive offer that
gains the permission and e-mail addresses of a large number of visitors
to your site. (Of course you can add your other, non-web-generated
prospects to your database, too, as long as you gain permission.)
In coaching websites, this is most often accomplished by offering a
newsletter and/or a free report.
Most web marketers feel a free report, revealing some important
information your ideal clients are interested in, is the best way to have
visitors to your site submit their e-mail address, and give you permission
to send them information.
If you were a career coach, a report such as, “The 5 Keys To A
Successful Career Transition”, might be of interest to many of your
visitors.
Newsletters
Whether you produce a newsletter (or an e-zine) as part of a permission
marketing program on your website or as part of a more conventional
marketing approach, the objectives are these:
•
Deliver content of interest to your prospects.
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•
•
•
•
•
Establish yourself as an expert.
Build rapport.
Educate your prospect so he can better understand your offer.
Build the demand for your services.
Inform your prospects about some of your offers that might
interest them and encourage them to take action.
A good newsletter need not be lengthy. Some of the most productive are
less than 500 words. You can produce a newsletter in a high-quality
HTML, graphic-rich page, if you believe most of your viewers are now on
fast, broadband Internet access. Or you can compose and deliver
newsletters in standard e-mail “rich text” format (RTF). One of the most
popular newsletter management sites for coaches is
www.constantcontact.com (It has a great “Learning Center” with live
demos.)
As to frequency, every marketer can decide what is best for his or her subscribers.
My opinion is that once a week is too much and less than once a month is too
infrequent. If you are considering writing a newsletter, take the time to observe
how others do it. (Please feel free to subscribe to my free marketing and coaching
skills newsletter. You can view some past editions at Newsletter Archives. To sign
up just click here Steve's Newsletter.)
Additional Products
A website is a store. Most coaches only have one product in their store.
If a prospect does not want or cannot afford that product, there is no
sale. This doesn’t make sense. And it certainly doesn’t allow coaching to
move out quickly into the larger world.
If you have a website, in addition to offering your coaching services for
sale, consider offering teleclasses or group coaching, e-books, and
articles for sale. You can also consider establishing an affiliate program
with a qualified supplier (like Amazon for books that might be of interest
to your visitors). The way affiliate programs work is that you typically
have a link on your website that both advertises and redirects your
visitor to the product’s home page, where he can learn more. If the
visitor buys the product, you get a commission.
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Ideally, for your website, you want to have product or service offerings at
a variety of price points so every interested buyer can purchase
something from you.
8) Online Social Networking (LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Blogs)
We live in the era of the Internet. Currently we are seeing an explosion
of online sites and technologies (Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, LinkedIn,
Twitter, Wordpress, Blogger.com, etc.) that provide coaches with new
opportunities to network, establish relationships, raise their profile and
attract business.
The amount of information required to master many of these
technologies is quite daunting and worthy of a separate book. However,
it is possible for new coaches to quickly get their feet wet, learn a few of
the basics, and assess whether this marketing format is a good fit for
them.
It should be kept in mind that most of these sites are opportunities to
network. Thus the business purpose of most of your online networking is
to both attract and connect to as many people as possible who might
benefit from your services. You are building relationships and raising
awareness of who you are and how you can help people. You are
establishing credibility, and ultimately directing them back to your
newsletter or your website where they can learn more about, or
purchase your products and services. (Note- Few successful online
networkers attempt to directly sell from their presence in any social
media. That would be like walking into a big auditorium of strangers,
climbing onto a chair and beginning to shout about you and what you
want to sell. No one will care, or worse you might offend everyone.)
So, assuming you have found your niche, and you know who you want
to connect with. And assuming you have a good sense of what you can
help them with and why you are the best person to work with on these
issues, and assuming that you have some place like a website or a blog
to direct people to so they can learn more about you and become a
customer, you are ready to make your first productive forays into the
world of social media networking.
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For purposes of this book on Marketing Essentials, I am going to restrict
my comments to the 4 most common and productive social networking
vehicles for coaches.
LinkedIn
If you are a coach that has a focus on professionals, executives,
business owners, leaders, etc., I would recommend you start your online
networking activities with LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com. Linkedin can
quite quickly permit you to create a network with your ideal clients.
Start by signing up for an account (free) and establishing your profile. It
will help you to view other people’s profiles to get a feel for what is
typical within your network. Generally, you want to include a lot of
information and keywords to make it easy for other people to find you.
(Here is a link to a good blog outlining the basics of setting up your
profile at LinkedIn.
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/getting_started_with_linkedin.html )
Once you have a good profile that describes who you are and what you
do, you can then move on to invite others to connect with you. Start with
everyone you already know; friends, colleagues, industry contacts,
people you went to school with, etc., and then you can move on to
others you want to connect with. You can find a great deal of potential
contacts by using LinkedIn’s search engine at the top center of your
home page. Notice that as a default setting it searches for “Search
People”. However, if you click on the drop down menu to the right of
“Search People” you will also see that you can search for “Jobs”,
“Answers”, “Companies” and “Groups”. (I.E. - If you wanted to get some
contacts within a particular company, say IBM, a quick company search
would show thousands of possible contacts.)
For coaches who want to connect with more ideal clients, a particularly
valuable place to start on LinkedIn is in exploring potential “groups”. So
once you have a basic profile, click on the drop down search menu
(again, the search box near the top center of your LinkedIn page) to
search for “Groups”. Then type in any keyword that you think would be
of interest to you or any of your ideal clients. For example, if I was a
leadership coach and wanted to begin to get known in those circles I
might to do a group search for “Leadership”. This returns information of
thousands of different groups related to the topic of Leadership.
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I would then start scanning through the various groups to find a few
where the topics are most relevant and the group size indicates that this
is a group I might want to make a contribution to. In this example I might
decide to participate in a group labeled “Leadership Think Tank” with
over 50,000 participants. I would then join the group and monitor its
communications for a while to get a feel for the nature of the
conversation. Once I concluded this was a good group to participate in,
because it provided me an opportunity to make a contribution sharing
my experience, etc., I would begin to answer questions or share
information (books, resources, videos, new articles, etc.) that would be
of use to the group.
Like any networking venue, your goal is to create relationships, build
your network, raise your profile, add value, and ultimately find good
ways to invite people back to your website, newsletter or blog where
they could become a customer. If you do that well, you will get noticed
by other participants and it will help your business. In fact, if you do a
really great job, you could contemplate starting your own group.
Like any of these sites, you will gain a lot of knowledge by simply
observing how other people use them. Once you get a feel for how it
works, and where you can best connect with your ideal clients, you will
be off and running.
Facebook (Regarding specific instructions – Please note that Facebook changes it
actual pages and navigation features frequently.)
With a worldwide audience now estimated to be over 500 million users
and climbing, Facebook is a huge networking site. And while many
members use it for private purposes of connecting with friends and
family, there are many opportunities to draw on Facebook’s technology
and audience size to create professional networks that generate
business.
It’s easy to get started with Facebook. Go to www.facebook.com and sign
up for free. Then you can proceed to set up your profile. Facebook has a
comprehensive guide to setting up your profile in their “Help” section. Once
you are signed into Facebook, simply move your cursor over the down
arrow “▼” link on the left hand side of the blue menu bar at the top of your
Facebook home page. This will highlight a drop down menu that includes
“Help Center”. Click on “Help Center” and then choose the “Facebook
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Basics” option. This option will guide you to create a profile, find people you
know and explore Facebook. (Should you need any additional guidance,
simply Google “getting started on Facebook” and you will find many online
articles that will be of assistance such as
http://www.ehow.com/how_4581117_started-facebook.html.)
Once you have created a basic profile on Facebook, you can immediately
begin to search and connect to other people you know, that you want to
invite into your network. Facebook facilitates this easily as explained in the
“Friends” section of the “Facebook Basics” area we accessed from the
“Help Center” link.
However, one of the most productive places for you to being to explore is
other Facebook groups that are already formed on the topics or issues you
– and your ideal clients - are interested in. Just like LinkedIn, anybody can
form a Facebook group, and these are natural places to explore to see
where you can get known and make a contribution to potential clients.
Let’s say I am a coach that is focusing on helping small businesses hire
great employees. Then the first thing I would want to do is search to see
what existing Facebook small business groups might be appropriate places
for me to participate in.
To search for existing groups, simply log onto your Facebook account. At
the top of your home page will be the Facebook “Search” box. Type in
“small business”. Right away, even before you hit enter, you will be shown
some results in the dropdown menu that appears below the search box.
Click on the “See more results for small business” option at the bottom of
the dropdown menu.
From this results page, click on the “Groups” icon - logo of 2 heads - from
the navigation bar on the left side of the page. This will deliver more results,
because now the search engine knows you are specifically interested in
groups related to your topic. It will also open up a new search box at the top
of your results page that will allow you to refine your search by group type.
In this example, of searching for small business groups, you will quickly find
hundreds of existing groups. Some have over 5,000 members. It will not
take you long to check out a few of these groups and decide which might
be useful to join. Look for groups where your ideal clients are talking about
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their challenges, sharing information or asking for help. Stay away from the
groups where everyone is just advertising their own services or one person
is doing all the sharing.
In any group that you join, seek to get known by helping people, posting
comments, answering questions, solving problems and generally sharing
your knowledge. And every time you post something people will be
reminded that you are an expert in the area. Once you have established
a credible presence, look for opportunities to invite people back to your
website or blog for more information. (I.E. – Hey Joe, I see you are
struggling to hire the right manager. I just wrote an article on this on my
website at www.me.com/article.) As people visit your site or blog to get
more information, you will want to have some good offers there (of
valuable information, free tips, recordings, programs, etc.) that will entice
them into buying something or joining your newsletter list.
Once you have really figured out how the groups section of Facebook
works, and established a reasonable network, you can consider creating
your own group that is focused on some of the specific issues facing your
niche. And if you get really well known you can explore the possibilities of
creating your own fan page. However, that is generally more advanced
marketing which is outside the scope of this book.
YouTube
With billions of videos viewed each day, YouTube is a cultural
phenomena. It is a search engine in its own right. And now that it is owned
by Google, YouTube videos are frequently integrated into mainstream
search results. As a result, YouTube is one of most powerful new
avenues for online business promotion. So if you have some information
to share with your market, YouTube can offer tremendous and cheap,
visibility.
Even 5 years ago, producing your own video would be a daunting task.
Now it is simpler than ever. The average person with a laptop and access
to a digital video camera can produce videos that reach thousands, and
sometimes millions, of viewers, in just a few hours of work. And if a
picture is worth a thousand words, a good video is worth 100 thousand
words, as it gives your potential clients a very easy way to get a feel for
you and your service.
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To give you a feel for what is involved, I recently shot two videos. (Here is
one on Making Important Changes and another on Becoming a
Successful Coach.) The camcorder cost me $200. Reading a few online
articles on shooting simple videos and lighting basics took 30 minutes.
Putting my thoughts together took a couple of hours. It took a few dry runs
to get the lighting right and arrive at a decent take. Editing, inserting
graphics and exporting the videos took about an hour on the Window’s
Live Movie Maker that came with my laptop.
And one of the great things about YouTube is that it has a simple
process to upload your video, designate your content and identify your
keywords. That makes it easier for you make sure your message gets
noticed by your ideal clients
For those wanting more specific guidance, here is a good introductory
article from eHow. Also, YouTube itself has many helpful videos on the
topic. Just go to Youtube.com and type in “How to make a movie with a
PC, (or Mac)”.
Blogs
A blog is like a simple website where you continually update the
information. It is a place from which you can share your thoughts with
the world. Blogs are everywhere these days, but they are definitely not
for everyone. Unless you are very clear on who your ideal clients are
and the topics they are interested in, and unless you have a point of
view and a particular voice you feel compelled to share with your
audience, and would have no problem writing 2 or 3 postings to your
blog each week - blogging may not be the best use of your time.
“How does one
become a butterfly?
You must want to fly
so much that you are
willing to give up
being a caterpillar.”
- Trina Paulus
Few coaches fit this profile. The usual scenario is that a coach starts a
blog because they think it is a good idea or some other coach has one.
They go through all the effort of finding the right blog provider, setting it
all up and figuring out how to add content and pictures. They then write
a few posts that nobody sees or cares about, and the blog is quickly
forgotten. (So unless you have a lot of information and views you want to
share with your target audience, and you love to write, I would not
suggest you spend much time on a blog.)
However, if you do feel a deep urge to share your thoughts with the world,
and are willing to put in the time to build your audience, you can get
started in blogging quite quickly as there are many sites that will guide you
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through the process. One of the biggest and more popular sites used by
coaches is WordPress, at www.wordpress.org. Another really popular site
is www.blogger.com. At either of these sites you will be guided through
the process of setting up an account, choosing templates and then
creating your blog.
Once you have your blog set up, you can begin to make posts. I suggest
you resist this temptation until you are very clear on a range of topics you
want to talk about, your view or voice (the style with which you will share
your opinions) and what you want to get known for. If you are unsure
about this, take some time to search any blog directory (simply Google
“blog directory”) to find a few other bloggers in your field and get a feel for
their style. Once you see the competition, it will be easier for you to find
your own voice.
Your first few posts are important because they set the tone and style for
the blog and communicate the core expertise you want to get known for.
Some blogging experts suggest you begin by writing a core set of 5 or 6
key posts that you know will be of great value to your target audience and
establish your expertise.
Generally, people who attract a lot of followers to the blog might average
3 or more posts a week. Not all these posts need to be earth shattering,
however if you want to keep people coming back, you want to ensure you
are routinely sharing information that they find high value in.
Once you have a blog that you want to share with the world, you then
need to shift attention to building your following. This is another topic that
is worthy of a separate book. However if you Google “How to promote a
blog” you are going to find lots of free advice from serious bloggers.
For coaches, one of the easiest ways to build a following for your blog is
to post comments and suggestions on other people’s blogs, or in the
various groups you participate in on LinkedIn or Facebook. Every time
you post a comment, you want to include a “link” back to your blog. (For
example, I might end a comment with a signature block of “Steve Mitten,
Master Life and Business Coach, www.stevesblog.com)
In all your online networking, take it a step at time. You can learn a lot by
simply observing how other online networkers market to their ideal clients.
And remember, pretty much everything you need to know can be found by
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getting good at using the “Help” service at whatever site you are working
on, or by simply Googling for an answer to your problem.
9) PR
For coaches, the basics of PR are mainly about learning how to get free
publicity. To do that, you need to learn a little about how the media
works, how to approach them, what is newsworthy, how to pitch story
ideas, how to write, and how to follow-up on articles and press releases.
This, too, is a subject worthy of its own book, but here are a few basic
points that should help you gain a little free publicity.
1. The media is an insatiable information monster. Each day, every
media outlet needs fresh news. Learn which reporters or editors
in your local papers, radio, and TV deal with topics relevant to
your practice. For example, if you are a business coach, find out
the name of your local paper’s business editor. Get to know him
or her and what he writes about. Figure out how your expertise
can assist the editor in his work.
“Happiness is like a
butterfly: the more
you chase it, the more
it will elude you,
but if you turn your
attention to other
things, it will come
and sit softly on your
shoulder.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Once you have a sense for what is newsworthy, you can target
your contact with story ideas or make yourself available for
expert comment on breaking news. For example, if there is a
news article about the high turnover of staff in technology
companies, you can pitch your contact on doing an expert
opinion piece on how businesses can retain key personnel.
2. Learn how to write a good news release and how to get editors
and reporters to read it. There’s a lot of free information around
to guide you. One of the best online PR sites is Joan Stewart’s
www.publicityhound.com. Joan’s site is chock-full of great PR
information and articles; be sure to sign up for her free
newsletter.
3. Write articles on topics within your expertise that will interest and
inform your potential clients. Submit them to journals,
newspapers, magazines, or the countless online specialty sites.
There are literally hundreds of publications that would be
interested in well-written and relevant articles from a coach. Start
looking for opportunities in the publications you routinely read.
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4. Look for opportunities to volunteer your services in high profile
and worthy causes where your expertise will be recognized.
(Charities? ICF? Business associations? Community groups?)
5. Prepare a media kit with your bio, a good photo, and any other
supporting documentation that establishes your credibility as an
expert commentator.
6. With the proliferation of “talk radio” stations, and internet radio
there are great opportunities for coaches to get their own radio
show. Check out the stations in your area. Investigate the other
coaches who have their own radio show. (Check-out The
Coaching Show at http://www.wsradio.com/. Simply type “the
coaching show” into their search engine. )
10) General Advertising
I am writing about advertising here just to save most of you a lot of
money. When I first came into coaching, I spent several thousand dollars
in a variety of highly targeted periodicals, trying to get people to hire me
as their coach. I got a few calls, mainly from people who could not afford
to hire a coach. And over the years, I have seen this same experience
repeated with dozens of other coaches.
“I am still learning.”
- Michelangelo
While there are a few coaches who have made conventional advertising
work for them, for most of us, it’s an utter waste of time. Since less than
.1% of humanity has ever tried coaching, and the other 99.9% don’t
know what it is—and are not likely to be galvanized into a buying frenzy
by your impassioned pitch—leave (expensive) paid advertising to those
few stubborn souls who have the patience to invest months in
developing a local profile. For the rest of us, use your time and money
on more productive marketing approaches.
If you are among those who feel lucky, just make sure you carefully
choose your advertising media. Remember only a small percentage of
the general population would be a reasonable prospect for coaching. Try
to find periodicals that target audiences where a higher percentage of
the readers might fit your ideal demographics.
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Once you have chosen the media, study the competitive ads to make
sure yours will stand out favourably. Write a powerful title that speaks to
the needs of your target audience; make sure you have clearly identified
what you want the interested reader to do. Call for a sample session?
Visit your website to take a free quiz? Remember, less than one in 1,000
know enough about coaching to buy it outright. In your advertising you
are simply trying to get some qualified prospects to take the next step to
learn more about you and coaching, so they can say yes to a sample
session.
Finally, know that most ads are very ineffective unless they are run in a
series. Many experts suggest that you need to run five or six ads before
you see your true response rate.
“I warn you. Look at
every path closely and
deliberately. Try it as
many times as you
think necessary. Then
ask yourself, and
yourself alone, one
Selecting the Best Strategies for You
In the preceding pages we have covered a number of contact strategies
and various details related to them. Some of these strategies involve you
proactively identifying and targeting people (direct contact). Other
strategies (web marketing for example) involve putting yourself out there
in a prospect-rich environment and waiting for people to be attracted to
you. Depending on whether you are an introvert or extrovert, where you
live, and with whom you most want to work, you will need to select the
best combination of contact strategies for you.
question. This
question is one that
only a very old man
asks. My benefactor
told me about it once
when I was young, and
my blood was too
vigorous for me to
understand it. Now I
do understand it.
If you are an introvert living in Nome, Alaska – or any other small and
remote community - you will probably have to favor contact strategies
that attract clients from a distance.
I will tell you what it
is… Does this path
have heart?”
If you are an extrovert living in London or New York, you have more
options from which to choose.
- Carlos Castaneda
Generally speaking, the more direct the marketing effort, the quicker you
will see results. Also I believe it is prudent to explore several different
contact strategies until you find the approach that works for you. Even
then you will benefit from having some diversity in your marketing
efforts.
Until you establish the best strategies for you, I recommend you use a
combination of Direct Contact and one other lead generating strategy
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(pick from Networking, Workshops, Teleclasses, Writing, Speaking, etc.)
Direct Contact is the single most proactive marketing strategy. In other
words it is the strategy that is less dependent on other external
variables. If you put the time in, you should see the results.
The other strategies, which are great for lead generation as you attract
or meet so many new people, are more dependent on the schedules of
others - like when a magazine is published or when a group has a
meeting. By using a combination of Direct Contact and another good
lead generating strategy, you will be covered in the short and mid-term
and have a nice mix of lead generation and proactive contact.
In my practice, new clients come from a variety of ongoing marketing
initiatives. When I was just starting out, I did a lot of Direct Contact,
Workshops and Networking. Now I have an active referral incentive
program with existing clients in which they receive a free coaching
session for every new client they send to me. (And the longer you are in
business the more referrals you will get.) I also write articles and
newsletters that raise my profile, and educate and attract prospects. And
I maintain a web presence that I can increase or decrease depending on
whether or not I am taking on new clients.
In all of your efforts to select the best marketing strategy, do not
underestimate the power of your intuition. As a coach you are trained to
access your intuition. Don’t forget, in a quiet moment, to simply ask for
clarity on the best path forward. When you ask a clear question, or sit
with a good inquiry, you might be surprised by the direction you receive
from your deepest place of intuitive wisdom. Just make sure the
answers you receive are not colored by your fear or personal desire.
Evolving Your Practice
Wherever you are in your journey into marketing your coaching practice,
routinely give thought about how you might accomplish more, with less
effort.
Be looking at how you might better define the type of clients you enjoy
working with most. What do they have in common? Where do they
congregate? What do they want to know about? What are their biggest
challenges and dreams? How might you add more value to their lives?
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Also be looking for other ways to raise your profile with the people you
most enjoy working with. How might you be better seen as an expert in
the areas they are interested in? Are there articles you could write that
would be of use? Could you speak at a function well attended by your
target audience?
And as you get clearer and clearer on who your target audience is and
what they are most interested in, explore other ways in which you can
provide value to them. If you offered a teleclass, would it allow you to
reach more of your target audience including those that might not be
able to pay for one-to-one coaching? Could you write a book, e-book or
some other info product (tapes, CDs, videos?) addressing some large
common challenge your target audience faces? Is there an opportunity
to do a workshop for many members of your target audience?
Common Stages of Marketing A Practice
Over the years I have noticed that many coaches follow a predictable
pattern in terms of growing their practice. At the earlier stages of their
practice coaches are often Rookie Generalists. They offer generic
coaching to a wide audience. They simply haven’t learned how to
qualify a prospect or identify the most effective contact strategies. Nor
have they reached a stage of full competence with their coaching skills,
and this often is reflected in a lack of confidence, that is picked up by
prospects.
Coaches, at this stage of their practice, spend a great deal of time
describing coaching, giving sample sessions to unqualified prospects,
underpricing themselves and generally suffering. There is a tangible
sense of struggle at this stage of their journey.
As a coach progresses to unconscious competence in their coaching,
confidence builds. They also learn what contact strategies work best for
them and begin to master the marketing approaches that are the best fit
for who they are. At this point the coach also has a great deal more
clarity as to the type of clients they most enjoy working with, which is
why I call this stage the Confident Nicher.
With clarity on the niche they most enjoy working with, and knowledge
as to what their ideal clients want from a coach, marketing efforts
become more focused and effective. The coach establishes a brand that
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clearly sets him apart from other coaches and makes him the logical
choice within that niche. He begins to be seen as an expert within his
target market. He has truly entered the promised land of a full practice.
Clients come with far less effort, and the coach begins to think about
how he can further expand his business beyond the full practice.
Typically the coach will begin to explore other ways he can leverage
himself and generate additional passive revenue (generated by the sale
of info products). He begins to see himself not just as an expert coach,
but also as an expert solution provider. He develops a series of
programs to address the most common challenges of his niche. In other
words he becomes a Leveraged Solution Provider addressing existing
problems his target clients are already prepared to pay for, through a
diverse set of products and services.
Some coaches develop teleclasses. Some write books. Some do
workshops. Some develop schools. Some do all of these. All this work
further solidifies their expertise and provides a greater passive stream of
income in addition to, or in some case instead of, their coaching
revenues.
“You can complain
because roses have
thorns,
or you can rejoice
because thorns have
roses.”
- ZIGGY
Ultimately, if the coach continues to grow as an individual, and his basic
financial needs are met, he tends to direct more of his energy to
leverage the positive impact he makes in the world. Less of his energy is
focused on providing for his needs and desires, and more is directed
towards being of service or making a positive impact. I like to think of
this group as Applied Human Ecologists. They strive to master the art
and science of aligning and optimizing the human body, mind and spirit
within its natural environment, to make the world a better place.
Not everybody evolves his or her practice this way. And many coaches
have a sincere desire to make a difference in the world at an early stage
in their practice. It’s just that if you are not paying the bills you cannot
sustain a coaching practice that will make a difference in the world.
Wherever you see yourself in your journey into coaching, if what you are
doing works for you, by all means keep doing it. I simply shared these
stages to illustrate how many coaches evolve to more efficiently market
their coaching practice and make a greater impact in the world.
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As long as you keep thinking, experimenting and working on your
marketing, you will get better, and it will get easier and more cost
effective to attract all the clients you can handle. Then you will have
greater choices regarding how you spend your time.
In your efforts to build your practice, please remember your marketing is
not something separate from who you are as a coach and person. Good
marketing is simply a natural extension of who you are; applied to the
people you most enjoy working with, in a way that allows them to
recognize the value of your offering.
Packaging Yourself (An Example on Developing your Content)
Once you really know your niche you can begin to “package” yourself.
By this I mean that rather than simply offering coaching, you really offer
yourself as a specific solution provider that has a series of programs to
address the most common challenges of your niche. In other words you
package yourself as a solution to existing problems your target
clients are already prepared to pay to have solved. At this stage
marketing becomes easier and coaching is simply one methodology for
delivering your solutions.
For example, if your niche is working with retired dictators, you might
have a book on “How To Retire Alive”. This solidifies your expertise on
the subject and provides a product for a passive stream of income.
You could write magazine articles for Dictators’ Quarterly.
You might also offer tapes, videos, articles, workshops and CDs on
various topics of interest to dictators: “How To Control The Riff-Raff.”
“Hiding Money Off-Shore.” “Preventing A Counter-Coup.”
For those dictators who fled the country without having time to loot, you
might have a teleclass on “Retirement on a Shoestring.” This teleclass
would feature, say, a 7-step program. (Clients love the structure of a
program. It conveys a greater sense of value and allows you to list
specific benefits or outcomes.)
“Appreciation is a
wonderful thing;
it makes what is
excellent in others
belong to us as well.”
- Voltaire
And for those well-heeled Dictators you might offer them a Platinum
Program of an autographed copy of your book, an intensive in situ
workshop and one hour a week of one-to-one coaching, and unlimited emails, all packaged in a yearly retainer.
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The more you package yourself for your niche, the more systematic and
effective your marketing and sales efforts become. For a given
expenditure of marketing you get much better results.
YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO
TROUBLESHOOT YOUR PRACTICE
The Practice Troubleshooting Guide
If you are struggling in your practice and are not converting at least one
client out of six prospects within five hours of marketing, here are a few
things to check:
•
Are you accurately qualifying prospects? Perhaps you should
check your demographic assumptions. Are your clients the prime
age for coaching (25 - 65)? Do they have a combined family
income of at least $45K? Are your prospects open to the idea of
coaching? If not, perhaps you want to refine your definition of a
qualified prospect or investigate other niches.
•
Are you running out of prospects? Only 5% of the population
would make a good coaching prospect. However this translates
into at least 800 – 1,600 clients for each and every coach. If you
are running out of prospects review your list of contacts to
identify new people you can give a complimentary coaching
session to. (Each person knows approximately 200 people on a
first name basis.) Also, consider other contact strategies that
raise your profile to multitudes of prospects. Conducting
workshops? Networking? Article writing? Speaking?
•
Are you giving prospects a powerful sample session? At least
one in three qualified prospects should be saying yes to your
offer of coaching after a good sample session. If not, consider
tweaking your sample session by doing some role-playing with
your coach. Or you can take some more training or do a few
supervisions with an experienced coach. We are all blind to our
greatest weaknesses and resistant to the changes we would
most benefit from making.
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•
Are you delivering maximum value? Consider asking your clients
and prospects for feedback. What did they benefit most from?
What would they have liked to see more of?
•
Are you reasonably organized in your prospecting and
contacting? In five hours of marketing you should be able to;
identify six qualified prospects, contact them with an offer of a
sample session, deliver those sample sessions to the
approximately three out of six prospects that will accept your
offer and ask for the business or a referral. If your productivity is
lagging, perhaps you can discuss your system with your coach,
or consider using some other client contact strategy.
•
Is your pricing on target for the particular group of prospects you
are targeting? (Remember the 20% rule. If more than 20% of
your prospects object to your pricing, you are priced too high. If
less than 20% complain you are priced too low.)
•
Are you putting in enough time? Most new coaches require
between three and five hours of focused marketing to get one
new client. This assumes the time is spent actively engaged in
productive marketing activities, not just daydreaming or
redesigning your business cards for the tenth time. (Many new
coaches lament their lack of clients, only to admit they average
less than 30 minutes of marketing a week.)
•
Are your doubts and fears clouding your marketing efforts? Are
you telling yourself, “Marketing is too hard, I am not ready yet,
there aren't enough prospects out there, I can't do this, this
will never work or I am not good enough?” Whatever you are
thinking will greatly influence your ability to sustain the kind of
effort - and unattached, focused and positive approach - you will
need to fill your practice. It is natural to have doubts, but as soon
as you notice repetitive, unproductive, negative thoughts attend
to them. Center yourself, reconnect to your vision and your
passion for being a coach and go out there focused on genuinely
adding value to people’s lives. And always be on the lookout for
how fear of success or doing something new will keep you
distracted or showing up too small in your life.
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The bottom line on troubleshooting your practice is, if what you are doing
is not getting you the results you want, try something else. There are
only so many minutes in a day, and if you are not filling your allotted
workday with paying clients, it is costing you a fortune. (Let's say you're
an average coach who charges $300 per client a month. If you would
like a 25-client practice and are currently stuck at ten clients, you are
missing out on $4,500 in extra revenue a month - an extra $54K a year.)
“Begin somewhere.
You cannot build a
reputation on what you
intend to do.”
- Liz Smith
And if that isn't a big enough incentive to take your marketing seriously,
think of all the people who are struggling, not living their dream or
otherwise not benefiting from being coached - because they can't find
you. Most coaches are called to this vocation because they like to make
a difference. You can't do that if you're not coaching.
Final Comments On Contact Strategies
Your goal in all your contact strategies is simply to give your prospects a
great experience of you and coaching. When they have that, many will
see and value the benefits. Do not waste your time describing
coaching. It is the recognition of the value of the benefits experienced
during the coaching that motivates clients.
Also, give preference to those strategies that come easier to you, excite
you, or that you do very well. Ultimately, you want who you are as a
coach and person to be in complete alignment with how you market
yourself.
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REFLECTIONS / ACTIONS /COMMITMENTS
► On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my current level of coaching mastery at ___
► On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my current level of business mastery at ___
► Am I currently identifying and contacting enough qualified prospects? _______
If not, how can I identify more? (Give more complimentary sessions to Insiders?
Cultivate more Rainmakers? Give a speech? Write an article? Go to a networking
event? Conduct a workshop? Ask my current clients for referrals?)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► Am I currently converting at least half of my prospects into sample sessions?___
If not, what can I do to better qualify my prospects or better choose my niche?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► Am I currently converting at least one of every three complimentary sessions into a
client? ___
If not, what can I do to improve my conversion rate? (Take more training to improve
my coaching skills? Better qualify prospects? Review my choice of niche or pricing?)
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
► Of the knowledge and strategies I have learned in this chapter, the new action I
most want to implement is…(what, how, by when?)
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
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PART 4
ACCELERATING FORCE #2 - ACTION
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE
Once you can identify qualified prospects, and understand the various
contact strategies, there are a few things you actually need to do to have
a successful practice. One of them is to create a basic marketing plan,
so you know where you are going, and how you are going to get there.
A Basic Marketing Plan
You don’t have to spend months writing a lengthy marketing treatise, but
you will benefit from having a basic marketing plan that focuses and
prioritizes your marketing activities. It need only be a page or two but
make sure you know the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Why you want to coach and what sort of impact you want to have
with your clients. (Connecting to your reason for coaching will be
an important factor in overcoming the challenges ahead.)
A description of the type of clients to whom you are most
attracted, which includes the most common and pressing
challenges/problems/reasons they might have for seeking a
coach. (The existing problems they are already prepared to pay
for resolution.)
The contact strategy or strategies you want to employ.
The income you want to earn per month.
The time frame you are allowing yourself to ramp up to this level.
The number of days/hours you want to work each week - that
will allow you to live a balanced, fulfilling life.
The number of clients you want to work with each week.
The average fee you need to charge to reach your income target.
A description of your weekly routine, for example, X hours
prospecting, Y hours doing sample sessions, Z hours writing
articles or arranging speeches. (Remember, three to five hours of
marketing for each new client.)
A description of the support structure that will help you keep
focused, (a partner, a coaching circle, your coach, etc.).
A schedule of periodic reviews to monitor your progress and the
success of your strategies.
“We make a living by
what we get,
but we make a life by
what we give.”
- Sir Winston Churchill
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From this work you will be able to come up with a clear vision of action
along the lines of "I want to coach 25 individuals* at an average fee
of $350 per month, so I gross $8,750 a month. To achieve this level
within six months (from where I am today), I need to acquire three
new clients a month (net). Assuming I am completing with one
client per month, this means I need to average four new clients
every 20 working days (month). Therefore I need to average at least
20 hours of marketing a month. I will shoot for five hours of
marketing a week – three hours of direct contact, one hour of
writing, and one hour preparing for one workshop a month."
You can find some free resources to help you write a marketing plan (or
entire Business Plan, for that matter) at http://www.sba.gov/ or
http://www.score.org/.
Once you have a sense of where you are going, and how you are going
to get there, you can create your weekly routine.
Set Up and Work Your Weekly Routine
Coaches that set up an efficient weekly routine that allows them to take
consistent, focused action do far better than those who wing it. If you just
wing it, you are more susceptible to distractions or to giving up too early.
Here is a brief example of a weekly routine for a coach - using a direct
contact strategy and the 6:3:1 formula - who has a goal of attracting one
new client in a five-day workweek. (In Part 8 we will spend more time
moving into action on a more detailed schedule.)
1. Take time to get centered, and connect to your reason for
coaching, and the vision you have for your practice: 25 minutes.
(Five minutes each of the five work days.)
2. Identify six Warm Prospects. Estimated Time: 35 minutes.
3. Contact the six prospects (by most effective method); offer them
a sample coaching session. Estimated time: 75 minutes.
4. Give a sample coaching session to the three prospects who will
agree to the sample session. Estimated time: 105 minutes.
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5. Ask for referrals from everyone.
Estimated Time: 15 minutes.
6. Review progress, follow-up, refine approach, plan other
marketing activities and connect with your support team. Check
out your level of balance at the week’s end to ensure your
activities are sustainable. Estimated Time: 45 minutes.
If you are combining direct contact with networking or delivering
workshops, simply schedule the appropriate time commitment several
weeks in advance. (Activities like workshops have a greater lead-time.)
As long as you are routinely reviewing your results and meeting regularly
with your coach or the support system you have set up, you cannot get
too far off track.
“You must learn to be
still in the midst of
activity,
and to be vibrantly alive
in repose.”
- Indira Ghandi
For a new coach this routine will take you about five hours. As you get
better at generating or attracting qualified prospects, contacting them
and coaching, this will reduce to three hours - or less. Whatever the
time requirement, and it will vary depending on your approach and how
many clients you are seeking to acquire each week, schedule the time
into your calendar, and do the work.
It’s in the day-to-day activities that your success is made or lost. Remain
flexible – that is one of the joys of self-employment - but be determined
to achieve your goals for the day or week. If you regularly take care of
the day, the weeks and months will take care of themselves.
If you find yourself stuck, don’t just sit there. Contact a member of your
support team, get a second opinion or the help you need.
Keep Learning More About Marketing Your Business
Over the years I have observed the journey of countless coaches. I have
seen over and over again that it is one thing to gain some marketing
knowledge, and it is an entirely different thing to change your beliefs and
develop the confidence so you can actually apply it.) So twice a year I
reserve time to run an affordable program for coaches that focuses on self
transformation and the mastery of certain key coaching and marketing
skills. If you know you will need some more support, you can check out the
6-Figure Practice Mentor Program at;
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http://www.acoach4u.com/lifecoachmentoringprogram.htm.
Other Marketing Resources To Support You
There are a growing number of marketing programs and resources
designed to assist coaches. Here are a few:

Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen’s book, The Business And Practice
Of Coaching. You can get it at www.amazon.com.

Coach C.J. Hayden’s book Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing
Program for Professionals and Consultants can be found at
Amazon.

Marketing Guru David Frey offers his Coaches and Consultants
Marketing Bootcamp at http://www.market-your-services.com/.
Follow-Up
In all your marketing activities you will need to keep track of the people
you have contacted and the people who you are still trying to contact for
the purposes of following up at an appropriate time.
Whether it’s a prospect who was not at home, or someone to whom you
gave a complimentary session who is thinking about coaching, make an
entry into your calendar to follow-up at an appropriate time. (I simply
use Outlook. Others use contact management software like ACT –
http://www.act.com/.)
For most coaches five out of six prospects will not be able to proceed
with coaching at the time you contact them. You simply want to keep
track of the people who you think might be open to your offer at a later
time. (Ideally, get as many as possible to subscribe to your newsletter so
you can automate your follow-up procedure and further cultivate them as
prospects.)
Set Up Your Support Team
Elsewhere in this book I have made reference to the importance of
having a support team, people you can turn to when needed. Even
though it may seem you are always talking to people, coaching is quite a
solitary vocation. There will be many times, particularly in the first few
years, where you run out of ideas and inspiration. A good support team
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can provide a sympathetic ear, good feedback, brainstorming, and a
valuable independent perspective.
Candidates for your support team include your friends, your coach, other
coaching colleagues, your accountant, consultants and your family. For
coaching and marketing related issues try to assemble a good cross
section of experience so you benefit from different points of view.
It is a huge benefit to have people you can call when you need some
help or inspiration. Some coaches formalize this process by setting up a
Mastermind Group, which meets on a regular basis to benefit from the
collective group wisdom. If you plan to set up a Mastermind Group, pick
a committed group of people with diverse strengths and experiences to
aid the “cross-pollinization” effect.
“A happy person is not a
person in a certain
set of circumstances,
but rather a person
with a certain set of
attitudes.”
- Hugh Downs
Generally whenever you feel like you are struggling with something, or
not making the progress you expect, talk it over with the right member of
your support team. There may be something you simply don’t see.
Conduct Periodic Reviews
It is important to periodically set time aside to check on your progress. Is
what you are doing working? Where do you need to focus more
energy? Is your contact strategy giving the results you expected? Are
they at least on par with what other coaches achieve?
If you are just starting out you will benefit from a short review every ten
hours of marketing. Once you have established an approach and system
that works for you, monthly or even semi-annual reviews are sufficient.
And if you ever find yourself stuck or falling below reasonable
expectations, go through the troubleshooting guide in the previous
chapter and talk to your support team.
The Most Important Thing
Talk to people, every working day. Don’t let your resistance divert your
marketing efforts solely into wonderful plans, beautiful support literature
and a stunning website, without ever talking to a single prospect!
Coaching is a person-to-person business. You have the training and
skills to be really good at it. If you’re not talking to people, you’re not
finding out their challenges, and you are not giving them the opportunity
to experience coaching and see it as a solution, so they will not hire you.
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Work your weekly routine efficiently, from a happy, authentic, unattached,
value-added place. Addressing this “being” side is where we are going next.
TIPS ON SUPPORT STRUCTURES
I believe one of the most powerful resources in helping me build my practice is my partnership
with a skilled coach. One I could count on to be my personal ally, confidant, coach, mentor
and consultant. One who could model great coaching for me, had the business knowledge to
support me to build my practice my way, and could hold my focus and vision in the face of my
own self doubt. Not only that, to successfully enroll clients I have to believe in what I’m
offering. What better testimonial for coaching than to be a client myself? People are often
pleasantly surprised when I tell them I have a coach. It seems to establish immediate
credibility so they can let their guard down and really listen to what I have to say about
coaching. Now they believe me when I say that coaching is about realizing a person’s
potential, not about fixing them.
Design For Living
www.jonimar.com
_________________
The best support structure I use is my coaching network. Coaching can be very isolating and
the first thing I figured out was how badly I needed people around me. I became part of my
local ICF Board and this opened up many things for me.
First, I had regular contact with other coaches on a monthly basis, and some on a weekly or
daily basis, which gave me an on-going opportunity to find out what others were doing, what
worked, what didn't, etc. Second, I became a visible spokesperson for coaching in my
community and this opened up countless coaching opportunities that I feel confident would not
have come my way if I had not been so visible.
Finally, what I find with my few close friends who are also coaches, is that we inevitably coach
each other back and forth on an almost daily basis with the different things we're struggling
with. They keep me grounded and moving forward and help me when I'm struggling the most. I
could not be doing the work I'm doing without the help and support of other coaches around
me.
Katie Bennett HBA, CPCC
Professional Coach, Speaker and Seminar Leader
[email protected]
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►If you don’t already have one, create a brief marketing plan that addresses the
principal points outlined in this chapter.
► Ensure you have a weekly work routine that specifies and schedules the hours you
will spend prospecting, contacting, coaching, etc. (You can use the example calendar
in Part 8 of this book.)
► The bottom line of my weekly marketing routine is that I will deliver ___
complimentary coaching sessions to qualified prospects.
► Every day that I work my plan well, regardless of whether I get a new client or not, I
will reward myself by….
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► I will schedule a review of my marketing efforts every…
________________________________________________________________
► The key people in the support team I will set up are…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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PART 5
ACCELERATING FORCE #3 - Attitude
WHO YOU NEED TO BE TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL COACHING PRACTICE
The Being Side
I suspect many of you will discount this section because you already
have too many things to do. Please don’t. Plain and simple, the being
side factor is critical for your success. If you get the being side right, you
will find the process of building your practice quicker and far easier. If
you don't, all your best-laid plans will come to naught.
It’s a simple fact: who you are will always speak louder than anything
you say. So you might have all the right coaching and marketing
techniques but if you show up in your practice full of fear or self-interest,
you will not be successful.
Yes, it is normal to feel a little apprehensive as you begin something
new, but if your prospects see you as the coaching equivalent of a selfabsorbed, perspiring, used car salesman, you will not get the job.
“You're braver than you
believe, and stronger
than you seem, and
smarter than you think.”
It is important to find your way to becoming centered in the best part of
you that knows this is your chosen career. You want to find the way to
tap into the passion you have to make a difference with your client. The
more you can actually embody your deepest desires to make a
difference the easier it will be to overcome all the obstacles in your way.
- Christopher Robin to
Pooh.
It may take weeks or months, but if you believe this is your calling, and
you get trained well—and you put in the time marketing—you will
succeed. A part of you knows that, and that is the part with which you
need to connect with before you begin talking with any prospects.
Your Best Qualities
Coaches who appear to effortlessly navigate through their lives and
professional practices exhibit a high degree of the following qualities.
They are:
•
Open: welcoming and flexible to change, new people, and
circumstance.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Authentic: being exactly who they are, a unique individual with
great strengths and other areas under renovation or construction.
Enthusiastic: passionate about what they do.
Focused on Adding Value: focused on improving things and
making a contribution.
Present: fully here, not lost in thoughts about the future or past.
Compassionate: kind and gentle, but strong when needed.
Courageous: willing to feel the fear, walk past limitations, and do
what is necessary.
Optimistic: embodying a faith that things will work out the way
they are meant to.
Full of Integrity: doing what is right and best for all.
Confident: embodying the assuredness that comes with clarity
of purpose.
Joyful: sparkling with the joy of life.
Unattached: able to accept and fully play with what comes,
letting go of expectations.
Disciplined: the ability to do what needs to be done to get the
outcome you desire.
These are some of all of our best qualities. And many of these qualities
only come out when our mind is quiet and present. A noisy mind scares
them away.
A noisy mind generates a lot of inner dialogue and takes your thoughts
out into the future or back into the past. It shuts out creativity, intuition,
and closes the heart.
What gives you a quiet mind? For most, it involves living a relatively
balanced life and routinely practicing some reflective or centering activity
that quiets down the inner dialogue. The goal is to find the best way for
you to develop more mindfulness.
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TIPS ON THE BEING SIDE OF COACHING
How to stay authentic and bring yourself into the coaching session is crucial in having great
coach/client relationships. Before each call or meeting, I like to take the time to go over the
information from the last session with my client. I spend a few moments in quietness before each
call. I like to bring to the forefront of my thoughts anything that my client may have brought forth as
a concern in our last session…for example; a sick child, a work situation, a trip or special event. It
may only be a passing comment, but I have found that inquiries about these events will connect
me in invaluable ways; my client knows that I remember who they are!
Most important to me is: Be myself; honest, open, caring. Speak from the truth that I know….and
give my clients the respect of my presence. Be authentic!
Lindsay Colitses
Windridge Consulting LLC
www.windridgeconsulting.com
_____________________
When I first started coaching I was taught all about how to be enrolling. I also took some marketing
courses, which taught technique and sales skills on how to land the client, claim the client and
‘close the sale’. After a very short period of time I was frustrated with all the striving and trying and
the feelings that came from using techniques, so I threw it all out.
I realized that even after a good sample session a client doesn’t really know what kind of coach
you are. But they do know how they feel when they are with you.
I believe a prospective client is looking for a feeling, a connection, a sense of motivation or
inspiration. When I stopped trying to get clients and just started being me again -someone who
genuinely cares and is interested in people - I started creating those connections and feelings of
inspiration.
When I asked people about their businesses, their families, their lives with genuine curiosity and
care ….. my practice flourished.
Laura North, CPCC
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Centering Practice: The Way to a Quiet Mind
We live in a culture that teaches us how to do things. We learn very little
about how to be. Few of us have discovered a reflective or spiritual
practice that brings out our very best on a daily basis.
If you are in the majority that have never properly investigated this area,
you can profoundly benefit from developing your own centering process,
practice, or ritual to help get you into your most powerful and present
state, routinely.
Have you ever had one of those experiences when you felt you were at
your absolute best? You were confident and focused; things just seemed
to go smoothly with less effort. This is often referred to as being in flow.
It is a wonderful but fleeting experience.
While a full flow experience is very difficult to maintain, you can directly
and routinely draw on your most influential emotional state. And you will
really benefit from finding your own way to reconnect to the most
passionate, optimistic, and powerful part of yourself on a daily basis. From
that place all is possible. From that place you will find a way past the
various manifestations of your doubts and fears that will try to convince
you this is hopeless, you can’t do it, coaching isn’t real, etc. It’s a classic
battle; you will need to find the way to feed the positive, expansive,
purpose driven side of yourself and starve the negative, contracting, and
fearful part. (I will elaborate on this later challenge in Part 6.)
For most people, feeding this best part of us involves some regular
reflective practice or centering routine. The reflective practice that works
well for one person may not work for another. All reflective practices
involve a journey inward and the cultivation of more presence. Presence
leads to peace and the ability to be more at choice in your life. So here,
in no apparent order, are a few of the most common reflective practices.
• Meditation
• Prayer and contemplation
• Walks, runs, hikes, swims, or other solitary exercise
• Yoga
• Visualization of a compelling, hopeful future
• Journaling
• Listening to reflective music or relaxation tapes
“For fast acting relief,
try slowing down.”
- Lilly Tomlin
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It's not important which reflective practice you choose. What is important
is that you find something you enjoy and can do everyday that gives you
the results you want. And what you want is something that leaves you
feeling more centered, relaxed, loving, open, and refreshed. As to the
amount of time to devote to this, 25 minutes a day is great, ten minutes
is good, and five minutes is better than nothing. If you are approaching
this for the first time, don't expect some earth-shattering outcome. The
benefits are subtle but accumulate quickly under steady reinforcement.
If you want to explore this further, check out Jon Kabat-Zinn's book,
Wherever You Go, There You Are. It's a National Bestseller widely
available. (You can also see a good free video of Jon presenting on
mindfulness at Google.) Alternatively, there is a lot of good information
to help you explore some simple meditations online. Check out
www.how-to-meditate.org. As another resource, The Monroe Institute at
www.monroeinstitute.org/ sells hundreds of different Hemi-Sync CD’s
that are deeply relaxing. Various titles there address everything from
catnaps to meditation.
Finally, developing and maintaining your own unique, personal reflective
practice is often a 2-steps-forward-1-step-back exercise. It may take a
while for you to settle on something that works and there will be days
when you will want to walk away from it all. Be kind to yourself. This is
soul work. It takes time. But if you are looking for a richer experience in
everyday life, just keep working at it.
Developing Your Own Personal Affirmation
For those dozens of times a week when an unexpected event stirs up a
flurry of disturbing thoughts, it helps to have an affirming phrase to
remind you of who you are - at your best - and bring your attention back
to where you want it. If you can change your thoughts, you can change
your feelings. And if you have positive thoughts and feelings, you will
find it easier to move forward in building your practice.
“Most of us spend our
lives as if we have
another one in the
bank.”
- Ben Irwin
Finding the right personal affirmation (I call it your own PA) is something
that deserves a little coaching and introspection. Generally you want to
think back to times when you felt very empowered, and discern the
qualities that were present in you.
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For example, if you remember a time where you gave a great sample
session - and confidently asked for and received the business - ask
yourself what qualities did I display? Courage? Confidence? Intuition?
Trust that it would all work out as it was meant to? If these are some of
the qualities that were present when you felt most powerful or are
unusually successful, then your affirmation might be. “I am a
courageous, intuitive, man/woman that trusts things are unfolding
as they should.”
If you have a good PA, that reminds you of who you are at your very
best, and you let it sink in deep enough to actually feel the affects, it can
act as a powerful internal compass to guide you through the darkest
moments.
A Word on Balance
If you keep working on your marketing, you will reach a point in time
when you have to decide how many clients you can coach, and still
enjoy your life. This is an important decision. It will have a great affect on
the quality of your life. Guard against a habitual response to take on
more and more clients in search of greater and greater revenues. It will
serve you well to have some boundaries that will guide you when it is
time to close your practice. I typically coach in 30 – 35 minute sessions,
an hour apart. I find at 35 clients a week I am tired by Friday afternoon.
So when I am working a full week, I aim for 30. At that level I can enjoy
the week, get all my quiet and exercise time in, generate sufficient
income to run my family and arrive at Friday afternoon with a sense of
balance and accomplishment.
It took me several years to work up to feeling balanced at this level. You
will have to experiment to find what is right for you. Be guided by your
overall level of enjoyment. If you feel too stressed, back off a bit. Create
more time for relaxation and creative do-nothingness. There is an
ecology and simplicity in coaching systems that work for the long-term.
And it’s in the simple that we connect to the sacred and important in
each and every day.
“The whole worth of a
kind deed is in the love
that inspires it.”
- The Talmud
Being Mastery - The Story of Nachiketa
The following story teaches us much about how to “be” in the world. It is
very old. It comes from India and informs us on what is involved in
attempting to master ourselves, and life. A current, and expanded
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rendition can be seen in Jack Kornfield’s excellent book, After the
Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path.
The hero of our story is a young Indian boy named Nachiketa.
Nachiketa was the son of a rich merchant. His father, encouraged by
the local Hindu priests, tried to buy a good rebirth through a large
donation to the local temple. Nachiketa was horrified by the idea that
virtue could be purchased.
The Father persisted. The Brahman priests arranged a big public
gathering to mark the donation. With the whole village gathered, the
Father stood up in front of the town folk and announced that he was
giving his cattle, his gold, and all he valued to the temple.
Hearing this Nachiketa could not contain his disgust any longer and
cried out, “Hah, all you value Father…. what about me your son?”
Publicly embarrassed the father responded, “I give you too, you rude
boy… I give you to Death.”
Nachiketa was devastated. He returned home immediately, said
goodbye to his mother and headed off to an isolated spot deep in the
forest. And there he sat down, waiting to meet The King of Death also
known as Lord Yama.
“One day in retrospect
For three days and three nights with neither food nor water he sat
motionless, determined to meet The King of Death. Sitting through
hunger, pain and exhaustion Nachiketa finally entered that magical state
halfway between life and death. It was at that point he finally arrived at
the land of Lord Yama.
- Sigmund Freud
the years of struggle
will strike you as the
most beautiful.”
He was greeted there by Death’s three assistants named Pestilence,
Famine and War. They explained that Lord Yama was currently away
but expected back shortly.
“That’s fine”, said Nachiketa, “I will wait for him.”
When Lord Yama returned several days later his assistants told him of
the curious young man, who actually came seeking him. (Most humans
run far away from Death.)
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Lord Yama, The King of Death greeted Nachiketa and apologized for
keeping him waiting. “Welcome to my kingdom. And since I have
kept you waiting, I will offer you three blessings. Choose wisely.”
Now with the clarity of mind that came after three days of sitting and
fasting, Nachiketa knew exactly what to ask for.
The first boon he requested was forgiveness for himself, and everyone
he had known. Nachiketa said, “May my father love me as tenderly as
the day I was born.” (Nachiketa knew that only by releasing the past
could he continue his journey.)
For his second boon Nachiketa asked for the blessing of inner fire.
Nachiketa knew that to succeed on his journey, he would need passion,
courage and commitment to fully give himself to his path.
Lord Yama was very impressed by the choices young Nachiketa was
making.
“Your talent is God's
gift to you.
What you do with it is
your gift back to God.”
- Leo Buscaglia
Now free of past conflicts and pain, and filled with the passion of a
strong inner fire, Nachiketa had found much of what he needed. But
there was one more boon.
Lord Yama asked Nachiketa to name his last blessing.
After careful reflection Nachiketa asked that as his third and last boon,
he would like to know immortality.
Lord Yama reminded him that this was his last boon and evoking images
of riches, dancing maidens and all that the material world could offer
tempted Nachiketa to choose among these.
But Nachiketa was wise and determined. He asked The King of Death,
“Will not all of this you have shown me quickly return to your
kingdom Lord Yama?”
“Yes they will.” replied The King of Death, extremely impressed by the
young man’s wisdom.
133
“Then let me know that which is immortal.” said Nachiketa.
Lord Yama replied, “You are very wise Nachiketa. I will grant your
third boon.” Lord Yama handed Nachiketa an extraordinary gift—a
simple hand mirror. “If you wish to know immortality Nachiketa, I
cannot help you more than this. To find immortality, you must look
directly into yourself and ask the greatest of all questions, ‘Who am
I?’ You must look beyond your body Nachiketa. You must look
beyond your personality, thoughts and history. When you can do
this, you will find what you seek.”
At peace with his past, in touch with his inner fire, and stripped of
concerns of ego, Nachiketa could now continue on his journey with a
peaceful, free and pure heart.
“Follow Your Bliss.”
- Joseph Campbell
The Bottom Line on Being
To succeed in all of our journeys, we have much to learn from
Nachiketa. As a coach we need to be at peace with our past, so we can
focus all our energy on what we are doing today – working with our
clients, working on our marketing, living and loving – so we can create
the future we most want.
We must also connect to our inner fire, the passions and values that call
us to coaching, and give us the courage and commitment to move past
our doubts and fears. And finally we must find the way or practice that
allows us to get past our ego - the fertile home ground of a thousand
distractions - and thus have the greatest impact on the world.
In your coaching practice, your success will be heavily influenced by
how you show up in the world. Be authentic, operate with full integrity,
and seek to add value at all times.
If you plant enough seeds of value, you will reap an abundant harvest.
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ANOTHER TIP ON THE BEING SIDE
As a coach, you have an awesome opportunity to share in another person’s experience of life. It is an
intimate connection. "Who you be" as coach, your personhood, is the most important aspect of the
coaching relationship. More than anything you do, your true gift is in your personhood, not in the
techniques and skills that you’ve learned to use.
Personhood refers to the essential, authentic, and unfettered aspect of each person, the part of you
that can most effectively relate to others, to the world around you, and to life itself. It includes your
values, your way of being in the world. People are attracted to someone who is fully in his/her own
personhood, and who feels at ease in his/her own energy. Personhood is beingness.
‘Being with’ involves being in the present moment, in the now. When you are in the now, your
compassion, your intuition, your curiosity and imagination are more accessible to you. Being in the
now quiets your mind so that you can be fully present to yourself as well as with your clients; it is that
ability to be with all that is happening in the moment… being conscious and aware of what’s going on
inside you, or with your client, and in the surrounding environment. Being in the present moment with
your clients is a sacred gift.
...excerpts from my upcoming book " Body-Centered Coaching."
Marlena Field, BGS, CPCC
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach
[email protected]
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► Go through the list of best qualities in this chapter and rate yourself on a scale of 1
to 10 on each one to reflect how well you currently embody the particular quality into
your coaching.
► The qualities that I most admire in the people that inspire me are…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The qualities I want to bring more fully into my practice are..…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► To fully make peace with the past I need to…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The reflective practice that allows me to connect to my inner fire is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► Challenge – If you do not already have a reflective practice, commit 15 minutes a
day to some activity that quiets down the inner dialogue. View a simple example at
http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm.
► Create your own Personal Affirmation that you can use to remind yourself of who
you are at your best. (Such as - I am a courageous, intuitive, man/woman and I trust
that things are unfolding as they should.)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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PART 6
The Slowing Force – Managing the Bad Dog
The Bad Dog: Managing the Inner Struggle
The final force we need to explore are the doubts and fears that slow us
down, keep us small, close our hearts, criticize us, exaggerate the
challenges ahead, and minimize our ability to move forward. In coaching
this is often called the “Inner Critic” from popular psychology, or the
“Gremlin” as named in Richard Carson’s book, Taming Your Gremlin.
(Richard is a pioneer in this work that has been widely adapted in
professional coaching. His book is an important addition to any coach’s
library.)
In my coaching practice most of the time is spent helping clients build the
forces that accelerate them forward; working on a compelling vision,
tapping into their passion, learning the skills they need, building
commitment and generally fueling the desire to create the outcomes they
most want. However whenever people move out of their comfort zone,
resistance can appear. And anyone who wants to become the person they
are meant to be - and in your case have the coaching practice they deserve
- will need to know how to manage the various normal and natural factors
that work in opposition to any progress. In my work, I refer to the various
accelerating forces as the Good Dog and the slowing forces as the Bad
Dog. These terms come from the following tale.
Good Dog/Bad Dog: The Story
A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles to a friend.
"Inside of me there are two dogs.
The Bad dog is mean and angry.
The Good dog is good and kind.
The Bad dog fights the Good dog all day."
When asked by the friend which dog wins, the elder
reflected for a moment and replied,
"The one I feed the most."
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We share a lot with the Native in the story. A part of us is large-spirited,
compassionate, trusting, open, patient, abundant, optimistic and focused
on possibilities with a sense of purpose (our Good Dog).
We also have a small-minded, fearful, habitual, anxious and pessimistic
part that is generally focused on our limitations and preserving our
current comfort zone (our Bad Dog). And these two parts are in constant
struggle.
When you are at your best—with all your needs met—perhaps relaxing
with friends or family, it is easy to experience your Good Dog. And when
you do, the world looks lighter, life holds more promise; you are more
creative and more able to freely choose the course of action that will
best serve you. You enjoy life more and have a positive impact on those
around you.
In contrast, when you are running late, low on sleep, juggling too many
balls in the air, or just stressed out from unexpected change, chances
are you will be operating out of your Bad Dog. From the grips of the Bad
Dog the world will look a lot more challenging; there will be a sense of
struggle in all you do.
“Go to the truth beyond
the mind.
Love is the bridge.”
- Stephen Levine
Like the Native elder in our story we may not have the ability to end the
struggle between these two conflicting forces in all of us. It is just part of
being human. But you can choose which dog you feed each day. And
whichever one you feed will get bigger and stronger and will exert a
greater influence on your life.
Those who learn how to feed their Good Dog, and nurture it over time,
become more loving, open, positive, creative, peaceful, and purposeful.
(Think about the people who've had the most positive impact in your life.
They’ve all found a way to feed their Good Dog, and over time it grew so
big, that was all you saw in them.)
In Part 5 we talked about strategies for improving our “being” side, or in
other words feeding the Good Dog. In this chapter we will focus on
managing the Bad Dog.
(Note - The theoretical and practical genesis of the Good Dog/Bad Dog comes from the marriage of
Cognitive Therapy and mindfulness training.)
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The Impact of Your Bad Dog on Your Coaching Practice
When you are seeking to establish or grow your coaching practice, look
for the Bad Dog to show up in many unproductive ways. The Bad Dog
will always exaggerate the challenges ahead and minimize your ability to
grow, adapt, and overcome any situation.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
It will never see you as ready or good enough to get more clients.
It will downplay the value of your coaching work.
It will tell you to give up because you are never going to make it.
It will distract you from doing what is necessary each day to build
your business.
It will resist all change and have you clinging to familiar but
ineffective behaviors.
It will try to have you do it all by yourself, and keep you from
asking for or investing in the help you need to succeed.
It will seek to overly control or micro-manage everything.
It will criticize everything you do or don’t do.
It will try to have you “act” in an artificial way as opposed to just
being your authentic self and working on your shortcomings.
It will generally keep you small and anxious in your life, coming
from a place of fear and shortage.
The Impact of the Bad Dog on Your Actual Coaching
The Bad Dog will also affect the coaching you do, in very negative ways:
•
•
•
•
It will harden your heart and make it more difficult for you to
connect with your clients.
It will keep you at Level 1—the focus on you—as opposed to
Levels 2 and 3—the focus outward and on and around your
client.
It will stifle creativity, intuition, and wisdom.
It will drain you of energy.
“At the root of suffering is a small heart, frightened to be here,
afraid to trust the river of change, to let go in this changing world.
This small unopened heart grasps and needs and struggles to
control what is unpredictable and unpossessable. But we can
never know what will happen. With wisdom we allow this not
knowing to become a form of trust.” - Jack Kornfield
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Managing the Bad Dog
Since the Bad Dog will always be with us, our goal is to learn to better
manage it. Let’s talk about some strategies.
Short-Term Bad Dog Strategies
When you feel afraid or otherwise recognize you are in the grips of a
Bad Dog attack . . .
1. Stop. Take time to breathe. Get centered. Bring your attention to
your breath. Focusing your attention on the feeling of your breath
for as little as ten inhalations can short-circuit the Bad Dog from
escalating the attack. (The negative feelings come from negative
thoughts. If you put your attention on your breath, or the
experience of the feelings themself, you will no longer have your
attention on the negative thoughts, and so the negative feelings
will pass.) If you have a personal affirmation, that reminds you of
who you are at your best, take a few moments to say it to
yourself and attempt to embody the positive feelings it generates.
“People are like
stained-glass
windows.
They sparkle and
2. Once you are out of reaction mode pay attention to what your
Bad Dog is telling you to do. Remember that the voice of the Bad
Dog originates in fear and so it is probably not the voice you
want to listen to. Remember you always have the power to
choose what action you take.
shine when the sun is
out,
but when the darkness
sets in,
their true beauty is
revealed only if there
3. Ask yourself the most appropriate of these questions: What
would best serve me? What is the most loving thing to do? What
would I do if I were not afraid?
4. Choose the action that will get you the results you want. Do not,
by default, simply choose the easiest or safest path. To succeed
you will need to grow, and growth can be uncomfortable – if not
agony - at times. Take it a step at a time.
is a light from within.”
- Elizabeth
Kübler-Ross
Example: Let’s say you are going into a networking event. As soon as
you get there, you notice your palms are sweaty, your breath is shallow,
and your Bad Dog is screaming in your ear: Get out of here . . . you don’t
fit in . . . this will be useless!
When you feel the fear simply stop what you are doing and recognize
that this is a Bad Dog attack. Take a few minutes just to breathe and
140
regain your composure. Focus your attention on your breath or your
personal affirmation.
Once you are back at a place where you can consciously choose the
most appropriate action, and you recognize the Bad Dog’s advice is not
in your best interest, ask yourself: What would best serve me? Or, what
would I do if I were not afraid?
Once you have determined the best course of action - i.e. what will help
your practice the most - act on it. In this case you might decide I will talk
with three people in this meeting and ask them about their business.
Long-Term Bad Dog Management Strategies
One of the best long-term strategies for managing the Bad Dog is to
develop your own reflective practice (as discussed in Part 5). A good
daily reflective practice will lower your sensitivity to the Bad Dog.
“A quiet minds leads to
an open heart.”
Literally for millennia, deep thinkers, seekers, and religious mystics of all
traditions have written about the value of a reflective practice. It has
shown up in the work of many of our best poets and writers such as
Thoreau, Blake, and Whitman. Even our best corporate and political
leaders have come to understand the importance of regular reflective
time in separating the forest from the trees and gaining a wider
perspective.
The Bad Dog cannot exist when you are truly in the present moment.
The stronger your reflective practice, the greater your ability to observe
your behavior and choose the appropriate response.
Again, the goal is to manage the Bad Dog. It will always be there. Treat
it with respect and compassion. It is a part of each of us. And it can be
our greatest teacher.
“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this,
man's being unable to sit still in a room.”
- Blaise Pascal
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► My Bad Dog is most active when…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The most common criticism from my Bad Dog is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The impact of the Bad Dog on my coaching practice is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The next time my Bad Dog appears I will manage it by…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► If I can better manage my Bad Dog, the positive impact on my career and life
would be…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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PART 7
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
In the preceding pages we have looked at the main forces that
effect how quickly we can build our coaching practice. We started
with all the things you had to know to build your practice. Then we
went on to look at the various actions, or things you had to do.
Next we looked at the attitude or being side of running a
successful coaching practice. And finally we looked at those
forces that slow down the building of a good coaching practice
and learned how to manage The Bad Dog.
In short the formula to remember is:
Your Know-How + Action + Attitude - The Bad Dog = Your Success
To build your coaching practice in the fastest possible time frame, and
maximize the success and impact you will have as a coach, you must
take care of each of the forces on the left hand side of this equation. You
can have all the marketing knowledge in the world, but if you do not
apply it you will not succeed. Similarly, taking random action without the
proper knowledge or attitude – or without the ability to manage your
doubts and fears - will not yield the results you want. They must all be
carefully attended in order to get the results you are seeking.
And what results are possible?
I truly believe a competent and dedicated coach can achieve a six-figure
practice working less than 30 hours a week, enjoy his or her coaching,
and live a balanced, fulfilling life. Others do it. You can do it.
Three Realms of Mastery
I believe higher levels of success as a coach boil down to tweaking the
four forces in our model, which will have you working toward mastery in
three areas:
1. Mastery of the art and science of the coaching skills themselves.
2. Mastery of the marketing and the business side of coaching.
“Let your heart guide
you.
It whispers, so listen
closely.”
- The Land Before Time
143
3. Mastery of self or being-mastery; that continuing journey toward
more presence, more awareness, more compassion, more
intuition, and the ability to add more value to the world.
I emphasize the words working toward mastery because it is a moving
horizon. The more you learn, the more you see there is to learn.
Extraordinary success as a coach is possible if you steadily strive to
advance in these three areas.
This does not mean you will not face tough times. There will be many,
many challenges along the road of building your coaching practice.
There will be weeks, where despite your best efforts, the phone doesn't
ring, nobody is returning your calls and your best client moves on. It can
be very disheartening.
However, ebbs and flows are all part of the journey. And in the
challenging times never forget what brought you to coaching in the first
place. It is your calling, and it is a very noble vocation. One great
coaching session can change someone’s life.
144
► In the formula,
Your Know-How + Action + Attitude - The Bad Dog = Your Success
the area I need to direct the most attention to is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The competency area (mastery of coaching, mastery of marketing or mastery of
self) that I am most resistant to grow in is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► I am most likely to have blind spots in…(My mastery of coaching? My mastery
of marketing? My mastery of my self?)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The single action or activity that will most increase my success is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
145
PART 8
MOVING INTO ACTION
DO NOT READ THIS SECTION
UNTIL YOU ARE COMMITTED TO SUCCEED AND READY TO GO TO WORK.
You Now Know All You Need To Know
If you have read this far, you know all you need to know to build a
successful coaching practice. (Period.) Yes there is more to learn. You
could spend another year reading other marketing approaches,
perfecting your brochure, and finally getting the ultimate website up and
running. Or, you could focus your energy on applying what you
have already learned, and begin to get more clients.
For those of you who are tired of struggling away in the Wilderness with
a partially filled practice, and are ready to walk through your doubts,
fears and old unproductive habits, I would like to provide a simple,
straightforward, uncomplicated, step-by-step process to help you focus
your newly acquired knowledge into actions that generate new business.
We start by expanding on the questions we first visited in Part 4 of this
book.
“Never doubt that a
small group of
thoughtful, committed
citizens can change
the world: indeed it's
the only thing that ever
has."
- Margaret Mead
Questions and Action Steps
1. How many new clients do you want?
____
2. Multiply the number of new clients you want by five to get the approximate
number of focused marketing hours you need to achieve your goal. ____
3. How many hours a week can you market?
____
4. Divide the total marketing hours (from 2) by the number of hours
a week you can market (from 3) to get the number of weeks it will
take you to get these clients. ____
5. Pick at least two marketing strategies. Unless you already have a
successful system and are exceeding the one client per five hours
of marketing threshold, I suggest you use a combination of Direct
Contact activities (which will get clients quickly), and one other
146
strategy that is good at generating prospects and producing clients
over the long-term. I suggest you choose from Networking,
Workshops, Teleclasses, Speaking or Article Writing.
6. Get out your calendar and on a daily basis fill in the appropriate
number of hours specifying the selected activity. (Example below.)
7. Contact your support team, coach, buddy, colleague, etc. and tell
them what you are committing to. For example, “I commit to
market at least X hours a week with an unattached, valueadded attitude with the goal of averaging Y new coaching
clients a week/month. And I want you to hold me accountable.
I will call you once a week to report on my progress and ask for
your support, input and help.”
A Specific Action Plan
For demonstrative purposes let’s work through a concrete example. It will
illustrate how one might allocate time to take in both the being and doing of
marketing a successful practice. It shows a total commitment of less than
seven hours a week to marketing related activities split between Direct
Contact activities (which will get clients quickly), and as a second strategy I
chose networking (which will generate prospects and produce clients over
the long-term). We will start by going through the steps outlined above:
1. I want 10 new clients.
2. This means I need to put in 50 hours of focused marketing.
3. I have 7 hours to market each week.
4. This means it will take about 7 weeks (50 divided by 7) to get my 10
new clients.
5. I have chosen Direct Marketing and Networking.
6. I am filling out the calendar below.
7. I will contact my coach (or coaching buddy) and commit to schedule
7 hours of marketing a week with the goal of obtaining 10 new
clients in 7 weeks.
147
A Week of Events
Once you are clear on where you are going and how you want to get
there, break down the marketing activities and put them on a calendar,
along with all the other regular tasks you do. In our example it might look
like this.
Monday
10 minutes of a centering practice to connect to your authentic,
optimistic, creative, unattached self (Good Dog), and envision the
successful outcome you want for your practice. Focus on trying
to actually embody the feelings associated with the qualities you
need to bring out of yourself to have the impact you desire.
(Courage? Discipline? Optimism?)
40 minutes identifying six qualified prospects.
“One can never
consent to creep when
one feels an impulse to
soar.”
- Helen Keller
Tuesday
10 minutes of centering practice.
Contact the six qualified prospects with an offer of coaching expect three to agree.
Wednesday
Deliver complimentary sessions to two of the three prospects that
accepted your offer.
Thursday
Deliver third sample session.
Connect with support team (your coach, buddy, etc.)
Friday
Attend a networking function.
Follow-up to ensure you get referrals from everyone you talked to
and initiate contact with new prospects from networking function.
Do a review of progress to see if you are on track. Troubleshoot
any shortfalls (use the Troubleshooting guidelines at the end of
Part 3) and make adjustments to your plan.
148
Monday
Time
Centering Practice (10 Min.)
7
Identify 6 Qualified Prospects (40 Min)
8
Tuesday
9
10
11
12
COACHING OR OTHER WORK
1
2
3
Contact Prospects
4
Contact Prospects (75 Min. total)
5
Wednesday
Thursday
7
8
9
10
11
12
1
2
Complimentary Session
3
Complimentary Session (35 Min.)
Complimentary Session (70 Min. total)
4
Contact Support Team (30 Min.)
5
Friday
Saturday/Sunday
7
Network Function
8
Network Function (70 Min.)
9
10
11
12
1
PLAYING, LIVING, LOVING, SERVING
2
Follow-up on Referrals & Contacts (15 Min.)
3
Review, troubleshoot, adjust (15Min.)
4
5
149
► I will create my own weekly action plan within ______days.
► I will support and hold myself accountable each week by...
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The impact on my life of having another 5,10, 15, or 20 clients will be…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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PART 9
WAYS TO KEEP GROWING
Earlier in this book I mentioned that true success in coaching involves
working towards mastery of the coaching skills, mastery of the business
skills, and mastery of self. Here are some suggestions to help you grow.
Self

Deepen your daily reflective practice that connects you to your
best qualities and has you operating more out of purpose and
love rather than fear.
Stay in touch with the compelling vision for your life that fully
expresses all that you are capable of being, and reflects the
impact you want to have on your world.
At least once a year, work with a coach that will call you forth on
your personal growth. (And help you work past those big
changes/challenges/doubts/fears/assumptions that we all
struggle with on our own. In the end, these are our biggest
impediments to success.)
“There is no scarcity
of opportunity to
make a living
at what you love;
there’s only a scarcity
of resolve
to make it happen.”
- Wayne Dyer
Coaching Skills
Obtain an ICF credential and work towards your MCC.
At least once a year, arrange for some supervision sessions with
a masterful coach.
Take additional training that grows you as a coach, once a year.
Attend an ICF conference at least once every two years.
Join and participate in your local ICF Chapter.
Business Skills
Read four books on business, marketing or sales a year.
Subscribe to free marketing newsletters. (You can view some of mine at
Newsletter Archives. To sign up simple click here.
Develop more expertise in areas of interest to your niche or ideal clients.
Set up a mastermind group that keeps you thinking out of the box.
For more formal support check out my affordable MENTORING
PROGRAM. It is specifically designed to help coaches on a budget to move
forward in their practice..
151
► The next step in my personal growth is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The next step to improve the level of my coaching skills is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
► The next step to improve the level of my business skills is…
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
152
PART 10
THE IMPORTANCE OF COACHING
As a Professional Coach you are in service of making things better,
changing people’s lives, realizing potential, raising consciousness and
liberating the human spirit. Always remember that one great coaching
conversation can have a deep impact on somebody’s life. And the
cumulative global impact of millions of coaching conversations is
profound. Professional coaching has the potential of being one of the
most powerful agents of positive change in the world.
“You are here in order
to enable the world to
live more amply, with
greater vision, with a
fine spirit of hope of
achievement. You are
here to enrich the world
and you impoverish
Be proud of this work. Keep an open heart, a clear mind, and a fire
inside for this important work you do. Have the courage to follow your
dreams and take the next step forward on this path you have chosen.
yourself if you forget
the errand.”
- Woodrow Wilson
The world needs you.
Keep the faith.
Steve
"Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us
does render some service or other.
If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for
service will steadily grow stronger and we will make not only our own
happiness, but that of the world at large."
- Gandhi
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ABOUT STEVE
Steve Mitten
B.ApSc, CPCC, MCC
www.acoach4u.com
Steve Mitten discovered professional coaching in 1997 and knew he had found his
calling. Prior to coaching, Steve spent many years in engineering, business and
marketing. He has started five companies and been President and Managing Director
of two public companies that allowed him to travel and work all over the world.
He is a Master Certified Coach and Business Strategist that works with leaders,
executives, independent professionals and coaches, helping them find their passion,
grow their strengths and enjoy far more meaning and success.
Steve is a long time ICF member who is passionate about the power of coaching. He
served as the 2005 President of the ICF and 2007 Canadian Coach of the Year.
Steve continues to volunteer large amounts of his time to promote the profession of
coaching and help more coaches succeed commercially.
Through his work he has seen too many coaches struggling to fill their practices. This
book and his 6-FIGURE PRACTICE MENTOR PROGRAM are part of Steve’s
contribution to provide affordable assistance to other coaches and shorten their path
to a successful practice. (So they can carry more of the power of professional
coaching out into the world.)
Personally, Steve has been married for 30 years, and with his wife, Laurie, are the
proud parents of three young ladies (2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 backyard crows). He and
his family live near the ocean, forest, and mountains of Vancouver.
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