Get Coaching Clients Now – 5. The need to educate clients about coaching
Although it’s true that there’s a growing awareness amongst clients about coaching, there are still clients who are unsure of what coaching involves. This can be more acute in specific niche markets, especially those where coaching take-up has been delayed.
And if there’s a need to educate some clients about coaching in general, there is more of a need to communicate precisely what your coaching will deliver.
The key here is to spell out to the prospect the relevant benefits of working with you in a concise form.
This is, in effect, your USP - your Unique Selling Proposition. The unique thing that you can offer your clients. The better that you can articulate this, and the more relevant it is to your prospects, the more clients you will get.
Some coaches prepare an elevator speech along the following lines:
“As a coach working in the ___________ market, I work with ________ clients who are having ________ problems and want to _________. In doing this, we typically cover ________ , _________ and _________ .”
This leaves the prospect with little doubt about your offering, and has hopefully established some client credibility, as they’ll recognise the typical problems mentioned.
The prospect is then able to make an informed decision about your services – and if you’ve established real value in their eyes, you stand a chance of being hired.
Does this mean some work on your part? Yes. And quite a bit, if you need to start from scratch with understanding your clients typical problems.
But does it pay off? Yes. Oh, yes…