One of the most common issues that I encounter as I work with coaches to build their coaching businesses is that many of them start from the position of being a ‘special case’.
It’s different for me, because…..they tell me. The truth is however, that it’s not different for them. Neither they, nor their ideal client, is a special case.
What they really are, is beset by limiting beliefs and mental barriers.
What they do is what I call ‘insert themselves into the process’.
Let me give you an idea of some of the reasons that coaches think they are somehow different from everyone else and just how they insert themselves into the process
It’s different for me because…..
- I work full-time
- I work part-time
- I don’t work
- My potential client is special/different
- I’m special
- I’m different
- I’m an introvert
- I’m an extrovert
- I’m neurodivergent
- I’m not neurodivergent
- My coaching qualification is different because [insert reason]
- I don’t like how I look/sound on video/audio
- I can’t write well
- I get overwhelmed if I do XXXX
- I get overwhelmed if I don’t do XXXX
- I’m married to an idea I had/learned/paid for before I joined TCR and I can’t let it go – even though I’ve been advised to do so
- I need all my ducks to be in a row before I can XXXX
- Someone said this, which is different from what you’re saying (and what they said means that I don’t have to do XXXX)
- It’s easy for Sarah Short or XXXX [insert Coaching Revolution mentor of your choice] because XXXX [insert reason why they’re successful and you’re not]
- I don’t like marketing because I get bored/it takes too long
I could go on for ages, because this list is pretty much endless.
Truth Bomb
Marketing is marketing is marketing and coaches are coaches are coaches.
What I mean is that since its inception, good, effective marketing has never been about the person creating it and has always been about the audience it’s intended for.
Good, effective marketing is always focused on a target audience.
Audiences for any product or service need to know, like and trust the provider before they will part with their money and buy said product or service – this is a fact.
Coaches are resistant to the idea of focused marketing because they’re stuck in the delivery side of their businesses, the side where coaching qualifications sit.
Many (most?) coaches aren’t even aware that their delivery skills are only 50% of the skillsets they need to build a financially viable coaching business, but that doesn’t stop it from being true.
Delivery Side Of The Scales
On the delivery side of your financially viable coaching business scales sit your coaching qualification(s) – all of them.
Coaching qualifications, practitioner certificates, facilitator certificates, accreditation to deliver personality profiling tools, qualifications in transactional analysis, NLP, Gestalt theory – I could go on (and on and on!) – they are ALL delivery tools.
This side of the scale is concerned with the tools you use when you’re working with a client. You can have endless tools here and the hard truth is that none of them is a marketing tool. They are all delivery tools.
It makes no difference how much money, time and energy you devoted to getting these credentials, they are all delivery tools. If I could have a penny for every coach who, when struggling to find clients who pay a professional rate has thought I know, I’ll take an additional qualification so that I have even more value to offer to my clients! I could retire! The hard truth is that it’s very difficult to add value to clients you don’t have.
Creating The Opportunities To DO The Delivery Side Of The Scales
On this side of the scales sit the skills you need to find those clients. Specifically to create the opportunities to actually do that delivery that we all love so much.
In fact, the reward for marketing effectively is that you do get to do that coaching delivery work.
The skills that sit here are marketing and sales skills. I know that so many coaches will shudder at the very thought of sales and marketing. I also know that’s because what they believe sales and marketing to be is wrong. They believe that sales and marketing is grubby/grabby, pushy/boasty and tasteless in the extreme. But they’re wrong.
- Good, effective marketing is comfortable – poor, ineffective marketing is uncomfortable.
- Good, effective marketing is creative – poor ineffective marketing is being crass and blowing your own trumpet.
- Good, effective marketing is almost invisible to other coaches – poor, ineffective marketing is all over coaches’ LinkedIn feeds.
- Good, effective marketing creates opportunities to coach – poor, ineffective marketing doesn’t.
Are You A Special Case?
If you want to remain a special case and to have umpteen reasons why it’s different for you, good luck and I wish you well.
If you want to be one of the coaches for whom a financially viable coaching business is entirely possible, let’s talk? Feel free to schedule a call.
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