Discover Your Coaching Niche

Archive for November, 2007

In the first two parts of this article we examined the three marketing communications coaches need to undertake.  Read on for the benefits of this approach…

Clear marketing communications – the benefits

The coach who can clearly communicate who their target market is, the needs of that market, and how their services meet those needs is likely to be successful.

The coach that can encapsulate that information in a succinct ‘elevator pitch’ is likely to convert a much higher percentage of prospects into clients.

Taking Action

In this article, I’ve laid out the three critical elements that a coach must communicate with their target market.  These are who their target market is, what services they offer and under what circumstances they will coach.

Having read the article, what elements of your marketing communications can you begin to improve today?

Alun Richards helps coaches find and reach their coaching niche.  Discover yours with Alun’s free mini-course, “Discover Your Coaching Niche”, available from
http://www.nichecourse.co.uk

© Copyright Alun Richards 2007. All Rights Reserved.  You may freely distribute this article providing you do so in its entirety; ensuring the copyright and contact details above are included.

For those coaches who would like to develop a clear elevator pitch based on a detailed understanding of both their target market and the services they offer, I now offer The BrandingYou! Workbook.

 

In the first part of this article we examined the three marketing communications coaches need to undertake.  We have already examined the importance of deciding on your target market.  Read on for communictions two and three.

2.  What services we offer them

What do we offer, really?  It’s not coaching – it really isn’t.  Clients don’t buy coaching.  They buy solutions to their problems. 
 
So what are the services that we offer to our target market?  We need to be able to communicate what these are, clearly and unambiguously.  And ensure they’re clearly linked to the resolution of our clients’ problems.

We need to be sure that these offerings are actually wanted by our chosen market.  
We really want to have a ravenous crowd, desperate for these services.  If there is not a strong demand, we should not be offering those services.

It’s important to match the services we offer with our target market.  That’s one of the fundamentals of marketing.  But have we communicated effectively with our market?  Have we asked them what they really want?  Or have we assumed that all coaching clients have the same needs, and get the same generic coaching services?

3.  Under what circumstances

The third thing we need to communicate is under what circumstances we offer our services.  This includes our fees, frequency of coaching sessions, whether it’s face to face or via the phone. 

This communication is usually dealt with in the ‘contracting’ phase of negotiations.  But coaches will not get to this stage unless they’ve already clearly communicated who they serve, and with what services.

This article continues in the next post.

During our coaching sessions, we coaches take pains to ensure that our client communication is clear and unambiguous.  We accept responsibility for our communication – many of us taking the NLP line that the ‘meaning of our communication is the response we get’.

We encourage our coaching clients to do the same.  We ask them to be precise in what it is that they want.  Of course, we do this partly to help ourselves to help them.  But it’s also vital that our coaching clients themselves have clarity about what it is they are aiming for.

But how many coaches take as much care with their communication in their marketing?  In fact, what is clear communication in our marketing?

As coaches, there are three critical things we need to communicate clearly in terms of our marketing:

1.  For whom we supply our services
2.  What services we offer them and
3.  Under what circumstances.

Let’s take a look at each of these three.

1.  For whom – our target market

The majority of coaches still do not have a clearly defined target market.  Many believe they are generalists and that they can coach anyone.  But in attempting to appeal to everyone, they often find they’re attracting no-one.

The biggest problem for coaches is getting new clients.  And this is unsurprising given the lack of clarity many coaches have about their target market.
 
We need to be absolutely clear on who our target market are.  Who are they specifically, and what are their characteristics?  Communicate this unambiguously, and we may find we’re converting more prospects to clients.

This article continues in the next post.

In the first parts of this article, we looked at clients who refuse to take action, those who insist on telling you their “story” and your tolerating bad client behaviour.  We outlined what to do about each of these situations. 

Let’s continue with problem no. 4… 

Problem 4 – Poor Quality Clients

“But I have loads of poor quality clients” I hear you wail.  How do you get a better class of client?  You simply increase your fees. 

Yes, you say, “but then I won’t get any clients.”  Well, that is almost certainly not true.  What you will not get is clients like the ones you have now.  The ones that procrastinate about taking action.  The ones that turn up to coaching sessions part way through.  The ones that, yet again, have not taken action.

So increase your fees.  The ones who whinge currently will leave. 

It’s just one of those things that coaches learn, sooner or later.  Clients who pay more for your services tend to follow through with action.  They tend to value the time with their coach, so they turn up, pay attention and contribute.  And they are the type of client who will readily provide testimonials and refer other clients to you.

So the solution to your poor quality clients is increase your fees!

Solution 4 – Increase your fees.

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve outlined four of the most common problems associated with difficult clients, together with their solutions.  Which of the solutions can you put in place this week to rid yourself of difficult clients?

Alun Richards helps coaches find and reach their coaching niche.  Discover yours with the free mini-course, “Discover Your Coaching Niche”, available from http://www.nichecourse.co.uk 

© Copyright Alun Richards 2007 All Rights Reserved

In the first part of this article, we looked at clients who refuse to take action, and outlined what to do about that.  Let’s continue with problem no. 2… 

Problem 2 – Listening to their story

Then there are the “Yes, but…” clients.  Many have rehearsed their stories of “I want, but I can’t get” so often, that coaches get sucked in.  The story is how much they want this change, but because of their circumstances/their age/occupation/immediate family/their education/pets they can’t.  These clients always have a ready answer as to why they can’t change their situation.  They are fond of pointing out “…it’s just that…” this particular set of circumstances stops them progressing.

Don’t get suckered.  Don’t listen to the story!  It’s well rehearsed!!  I’m not being cruel – I genuinely care for people.  But I can’t help a client if I listen to the story they’ve told friends, relatives, spouses and colleagues over and over again.  These stories outline the problem but then lay out all the excuses why their desired outcome cannot be achieved.

If you’re going to help a client, don’t listen to the story.  Get their desired end state in clear, sensory-specific terms.  Ensure they are the ones in control of getting it.  Then explore a route to getting there that is feasible.  And ensure they’re committed to it.

Solution 2: Refuse to listen to the “story”.

Problem 3 – Tolerating bad client behaviour

You may have clients who are sapping your life-force.  You know the ones.  They pay late and you spend inordinate amounts of time chasing them.  After they’ve asked for special rates.  They miss sessions.  And then they don’t take action.

And to add insult to injury, they are exactly the clients who suck their teeth and grimace when you tell them your fees.

But there’s a simple solution.  And in your heart of hearts, you know it already.  Fire them. You’re not under any obligation to coach everyone, under all circumstances.  Some clients can be helped, others refuse to help themselves, even when it’s brought to them on a silver platter.  So do youself a favour – dump them.  You’ll feel better for it.

Solution 3 – Fire your worst clients.

This article will continue in the next post.

It’s a common topic amongst coaches – difficult clients.  Ask any coach – “Got any difficult clients?”  and watch the reaction.  A wry smile.  A rolling of the eyes.  We’ve all seen it. 

Of course, when coaches talk about difficult clients we’re not talking about constantly rude or intolerant clients – most coaches will not tolerate that unprofessionalism.  No, the type of actions we’re referring to are not turning up to a coaching session, or cancelling at the last minute, not following up on actions and inconsistency – throwing their previous plans away at each new session, and heaven forbid, not paying on time.

We’ve all seen this as coaches – and it can be incredibly frustrating.  So what can coaches do when faced with these difficult behaviours? 

Well, the first thing to realise is that you’re not alone.  Practically every coach has seen the problems above.  But are these problems just inevitable, or is there something you can do about them? 

You’re not going to like my answer.  Firstly, this is a marketing problem.  You have chosen these clients – and you’ve chosen the wrong ones.  Secondly, your tolerating the problem IS the problem. 

Told you that you wouldn’t like it.  But the good news is you will like the results of taking action.

Read on to discover the problems associated with difficult clients and what you action you can take to be rid of them.

Problem 1 – They Don’t Take Action

Your client turns up – in person, or on the phone – week after week.  But they don’t take any action.  Yes, they have every excuse bar “the dog ate my homework”.  And sometimes we get suckered by their “reasons” for not acting.

Face it – the client is simply not committed to coaching, and to taking action to improve their situation.  There is no motivation there.  The client says they want change.  But what they actually want is things to change around them, while not actually doing anything themselves to make a change.  We know that without a client taking action, there will be no change.

So it’s time to put your foot down – you see some action, or they quit.

Solution 1: Tell them to demonstrate commitment or go elsewhere.

This article continues with more types of difficult clients in the next two postings.