Troublesome Myths and the New Reality of Professional Coaching: Myth #1
by Dave Buck
Adapted by Carole Lewis from: http://www.cvcommunity.com/utility/showArticle/
Myth: A majority of professional life and business coaches are struggling financially because they don't know how to market themselves.
While many coaches may not be great marketers, this is not the reason they are struggling. There are a few issues here. 1) If you are going to market a service, you have to know what it is. 2) You have to be able to describe what you do in language that the buyer understands. 3) You have to be able to deliver on your promise.
Issue 1: Coaching is helping another person produce a desired result. The way coaching is currently defined and practiced today is simply not working either from a results perspective OR a marketing perspective. Think about it: would you pay $200.00 to $1,000.00 per month to someone who promises to help you produce a result but can't explain how he or she is going to do it? No. Saying that I'll help you set better goals and ask you insightful questions isn't going to cut it either.
Tell the potential client: I will teach you exactly what you need to know, help you understand yourself and the people around you so that you are never blind-sided and help you make changes to your environment so that you are inspired rather than obstructed by the people and things around you.
Issue 2: The potential clients of coaching want results. For this obvious reason the question of whether you have done what they want to do will almost always come up. We'll get to the effectiveness issues in a future myth, but from a pure marketing point of view, it is essential that you coach people in areas where you have achieved results. When you've done it, it is much easier to explain how you can help them do it in language that they understand.
This is no time to listen to the purists who say that with great coaching skills you can coach anyone. Yes, you can. The trouble is: the clients won't buy it.
Issue 3: The original coaching concepts of asking questions, mirroring, accountability, and goal setting are a starting point at best. In order to sign and retain high-paying clients you must be courageous enough to push WAY past the edge of "traditional coaching". You've got to utilize your experience and understanding in order to deliver the personalized teaching component. You've got to be willing to get personal and use your skills of perception in order to expand the clients' awareness. You've got to learn how to redesign environments or else the inner work you do with the client will not be sustainable.
When you can do these three things, you will be able to reliably keep your promise to help them produce a desired result.
New Reality: Learning to market is easy if you are coach-able! Most coaches are struggling because the service they have been taught to provide is almost impossible to market. Learn the re-invented coaching skills and market this service using language based in your experience.
