I’m a mindset coach, leadership coach, life coach, transformational coach, mental fitness coach, performance coach, development coach, change coach, health and wellness coach, ACC coach, PCC coach, MCC coach, cognitive behavioural coach…….. Does it matter what kind of coach you are?
Yes – to you.
Maybe to other coaches too.
However, it almost certainly doesn’t matter to your potential clients (and yes, I know how confronting that is to read!).
Why It Doesn’t Matter What Kind Of Coach You Are
One of the challenges when marketing a coaching business is that no one knows what coaching is, but they think they do, and they’re wrong.
It’s a nightmare trying to navigate all the misunderstandings about what we do. I’m sure you’ve found yourself on the receiving end of this misunderstanding which usually takes the form of someone thinking you’re going to teach them something. Occasionally it manifests as someone thinking that if you’ve not achieved what they want to achieve then you can’t coach them – which is nonsense of course.
If we belong to a profession whose job title – coach – is so misunderstood, why on earth do we think that adding a prefix to the title will bring clarity to it?
And – while I’m on the topic – mindset, change, transformation, mental fitness, development… isn’t that just what coaching is? Don’t we all do that as part of our daily work (assuming that we actually have that daily work!)?
The truth is that you can come up with any kind of fancy job title you like and it still won’t help people understand what we do. (Yes, I know that a small sector of society knows what coaching is – the upper echelons of ‘corporate’ – but most of us want to work with ordinary people who absolutely don’t know what we do.)
People don’t want to know what you do, they want to know what you can do for them.
My Title Describes What I Do!
Job titles are a hangover from our employed lives. They are designed to demonstrate, at a glance, where we fit in the hierarchy of our employment. When you know someone’s job title, you know how senior and/or important they are. That’s why a fancy (or fancier) job title can be offered as an incentive instead of a pay-rise. Our job title signals to people just how important or not!) we are as employees.
But – and it’s a big but – when you’re self-employed, it doesn’t matter what you call yourself.
When we work for ourselves, we’re all of the job titles, at least in the beginning – so why do we hang on to the word ‘coach’? I believe it’s mostly because we are so used to having a job title that we think it’s important. I recently read a post where a coach was agonising over their job title. They wanted something that encompasses everything they do and can offer. The suggestions ran to more than 10 words!
Here’s the thing – if one knows what a coach does, then why do we think adding lots more words to the word ‘coach’ will help clarify what we do?
How To Succinctly Describe What You Do As A Coach
At The Coaching Revolution, we teach our coaches to use what we call a Golden Sentence – a one-sentence answer to the question ‘what do you do’ that will make sense to the listener.
The structure of a Golden Sentence is this:
I work with X, to help them Y, so that they can Z.
X = the kind of client you work with
Y = the thing that they’re struggling with
Z = the outcome they want
Now I understand that the majority of coaches will look at that sentence and think that it’s different for them. That they can’t possibly use that sentence, because they can coach anyone. That the Y and Z parts depend entirely on the person sitting in front of them being coached. I can also tell you that if this is you, you’re probably stuck when it comes to client acquisition. Yes, you may have some associate work, but that you struggle to explain what coaching is to other potential clients.
If you’re dismissing this Golden Sentence as not applicable to you, may I challenge that thinking? There is no coach who wants to acquire private clients, that a Golden Sentence does not apply to. If you’re struggling to get your head around this, could I invite you to join me next week?
Nail Your Niche
From 22 – 25 April 2024, I’m running a challenge. I wrote it specifically for qualified coaches (and those taking a coaching qualification). It’s just 4 days, and I promise – absolutely promise – that if you engage with it, you’ll understand how important that Golden Sentence is. Better yet, you may even have a good idea what your Golden Sentence might be.
You can register here: https://thecoachingrevolution.com/nailyourniche
For the record, my Golden Sentence is this: “I work with qualified coaches to help them learn comfortable, effective marketing skills so that they can acquire clients who pay a professional rate.”
If you would like to talk to a member of the team directly to hear more about how The Coaching Revolution can support you, please do schedule a call here.