I’ve said it before, and no doubt I’ll say it again – no matter how much we want it to be, wish it was true, or feel angry that it’s not – our coaching skills are not client acquisition tools, they’re delivery tools.
It makes no difference how many qualifications (tools) you have that sit on the delivery side of your business, they are not the same as the tools that sit on the creating the opportunities to do the delivery side of your business!
Delivery Skills
Coaching qualifications (all of them), practitioner certifications, facilitation accreditations, NLP, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, personality profiling – and all the other skills you may have spent time, energy and money developing sit firmly on the delivery side of your business.
Even if the school you trained at told you that ‘this particular qualification is the one clients want’, that still doesn’t make them client acquisition skills. What ‘this is the one clients want’ really is, is part of the client acquisition process of the school you trained at. I don’t mean that disrespectfully, all businesses have to have a client acquisition process because without one, there is no business.
The issue with thinking that coaching qualifications etc are client acquisition skills is that coaches try to use them as such, and struggle to understand why they don’t work. They were never going to work, because they are not the right tools. The problem is of course, that if you only have a collection of hammers (delivery skills) every problem looks like a nail. Coaches don’t know what we don’t know and the myth of delivery skills as client acquisition tools runs deep amongst our profession.
What Outcomes?
An easy way to understand what I mean is to consider the following question: What outcome can your client(s) reasonably expect from working with you? If your answer is ‘it depends’ and then list all the things it depends on (who they are, what they want, how committed they are to the coaching process etc) then you’re thinking about the question from the delivery skills side of your business.
If you speak to any of our mentors, who are all coaches with successful coaching businesses and ask them What outcome can your client(s) reasonably expect from working with you? they can answer you clearly and specifically. This is because they have learned and understood that delivery skills are not client acquisition skills – they are utterly different yet equally important.
‘Creating The Opportunities To Do The Delivery’ Skills
These skills are not ones you use when sitting with a client. These are the skills you use to create the opportunities for you to actually sit with that client and more importantly have them be a client that’s paying you a professional rate.
These client acquisition skills are marketing and sales skills.
Now, I know that coaches do not like the idea of marketing or sales, because they give us the ‘ick’ to put it mildly. Some of us become outraged at the very idea of having to market, because they believe it’s unethical, or inauthentic. They’re wrong.
I’ve already written an article explaining why this view is wrong, which you can find here.
Let me share something I saw this week in one of the coaching Facebook groups I belong to. This group is large and it’s an ICF focused group. It has all levels of ICF credentialed coach in it. A new coach asked for help building her business and the answers made me groan. Let me give you some examples of the advice offered…
Examples:
“I would start by offering free coaching sessions at first. Make sure you overdeliver and ask for testimonials on whatever social media platform you are. It takes time to build any clientele. I would also recommend a business coach to help you with your niche and concrete steps.”
“Like many people have said this all take a little time and suddenly one day it all clicks. Trust yourself. Try in person networking more frequently to perfect your pitch. I hate that term but it helps. Don’t go in expecting anything but to make connections in person. Many people told me that those you think would help like friends actually don’t – not because they’re mean but they won’t know how to! Trust yourself and trust the process. Seek out local free business development services in your area too.”
“In my opinion you can let your niche take shape through your work as you figure out your strengths and who you enjoy working with the most. At the same time what you need to do is talk about these topics because it will help you work that out. For me using video is the best way to connect with the clients who resonate with me. You have to be consistent and post something daily, sharing these core themes that you are focusing on with your clients. In terms of your content you need to consider what they want, what results are they looking for that they can’t accomplish by themselves?”
“Focus on building relationships first with no other agenda than that, be with people, getting in front of groups, being out in the world. Offer complimentary sessions. Make a huge difference for people when you have them. Focus on the specific results clients can achieve working with you in your marketing. No one wants self-connection or emotional regulation. They don’t know what that means. They want the results that will give them. l.e. more money, better communication, etc. And finally. Keep going. People should have no barriers to finding you or knowing what you do. Find a group of other coaches/biz owners to hold each other accountable and get supported.”
“Your niche will evolve. You have to give yourself time and give the market a chance to get to know you. Sharpen up your statement about who you want to help now. And you can’t just write “a LinkedIn post.” You need to be posting at least 3-5 times per week for the algorithms to pick you up. It takes time, patience and failure as l’ve learned over my 6+ year journey. Be kind to yourself. Good luck to you.”
And a few more…
“What I’ve learned is that people will pay for coaching when they have a desperate problem, and they believe you have a solution. We know as coaches that the things you mentioned make all the difference (clarity, emotional stability, etc), but what is their desperate problem? What solution can they expect? For example, they’re on the brink of divorce, or about to get fired, or have a health crisis, or can’t find a job. Those are desperate problems. A happy relationship, All the marketing and messaging in the world won’t bring in clients unless there’s a problem and you offer a concrete solution. Hope this helps.”
“What worked for me: giving away free or VERY low cost sessions. I gave some away, I did some with the agreement the person would do a testimonial, I did some pay what you can. I didn’t charge a full price for at least my first six months of coaching. The truth is – most coaches won’t make money in the first year or two. Yes my niche evolved over time! People don’t buy coaching, they buy results. Emphasize that. Partner with other professionals that may share your niche. Be patient.”
“How about posting here with a request for clients who would like to be part of your training journey? We’ve all been through it and we know how it feels starting out. Let’s do a discovery call and see if we would be a good fit for this part of your training.”
Now, Let Me Be Clear…
These comments were all well intentioned, I’m sure. Some of them even contain nuggets of broadly good advice (but ‘get a business coach’ is not one of them!). What they are not is anywhere near specific enough to be helpful.
If I could speak to the coach who asked the question, I’d say to them – ask yourself these questions before you go a single step further:
👉 How does working for free help me build a commercially viable business?
👉 If my niche emerges by accident, how do I market intentionally in the meantime?
👉 If I’m focusing on building relationships without an offer or target audience, how does that convert to paid work?
👉 If I follow this advice, what will stop me becoming one of the 82% of coaches who fail?
The simple truth is that the well-intentioned advice offered, isn’t good advice.
I’ve created a table that explains why the advice offered isn’t based in commercial reality.
I’m very aware that even the words ‘commercial reality’ make some of us squirm. The thing is that commercial reality is exactly what you need if you want to build a business. Business owners operate commercially – if they don’t their businesses won’t last long.
To return to the coach who asked how to build a business, I offered her a free PDF copy of my book, A Coaching Business In A Book. Not only was it an Amazon #1 best seller in both editions, the second edition has been shortlisted for the British Business Book Awards in the category of Sales and Marketing.
If you’re reading this and thinking you could have been the coach who asked the question, may I offer a copy of my book to you too?