Discover Your Coaching Niche

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2. They answer the phone with: “WAAAaaaasssssuuuuuupppp?”.

3. When you phone them up they ask you what colour panties you’re wearing.

4. Their call waiting message says “Your call is important to us, but not so important that I actually need answer your phone call, so just leave your name and number, your problem and your bank account details…” 

5. When you say you don’t think you can do something, they ask if you need a conversation with Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson.

6. In your first session you ask how long they’ve been a coach, they say “Coach?  Smoach!  Here, have a puff on this…”

7. Their website says “Three months ago I couldn’t spell “coach” and now I are one.”

8. They unzip their fly and ask you if you want some coaching from Mr. Winky.

coaching, humor, humour

I’ve been invited to present at Dan Bradbury’s upcoming Internet Marketing Masterclass on 28th February-1st March.  I’ll be joining a stellar line up of internet marketers and together we’ll be presenting more successful IM strategies than you can shake a stick at.

I aim to show that internet marketing can be straightforward for coaches when approached in the right way.

It doesn’t have to involve learning html, fighting with html editors and generally being frustrated with the length of time it takes to do anything.

I’ll show you how to do it more quickly and more easily than you’ve experienced it before.

The tickets go on sale shortly, but for now, check out this audio postcard!

http://is.gd/eqDI

I’m grateful to Mark Forster, founder of the Euro Coach List and the Time Freedom Coach for permission to cross-post this entry.   Mark sent it to the Euro Coach List, and I thought it so well summed up my philosophy about coaching and business, I wanted you to see it.

Mark said:

“I think the events of the few weeks since the Eurocoach Conference have only gone to emphasize even more the points which I made in my opening remarks to the conference. I’ll repeat them, slightly updated, as a reminder to those who were there and for the benefit of those who weren’t.

“However good our ability as coaches is, it isn’t that ability that will make the difference between having a successful coaching business or an unsuccessful one.  As Chris Barrow once said “The difference between a dentist earning £40,000 a year and one earning £400,000 a year has nothing to do with how well they fill teeth.” I might say that the difference between a coach whose business will survive the current crisis and one whose business will go under doesn’t have much to do with how good a coach they are.

“I’m not saying that our coaching skills aren’t important  – just that our business demands some additional skills and it’s on these we need to focus in order to survive as coaches.

“The three skills I identified at the conference were:

1. Marketing. My message was if you don’t like marketing, get over it. Your business can’t survive without it. You must have this skill. If you don’t have it already, learn it.
2. Public speaking. You’re not really going to go anywhere without the ability to speak in public.  Some people would die rather than stand up in public.  Well, we’ve all got to die sometime – might as well get it over with!
3. Writing. The ability to write is not an optional extra.  It’s an essential.  You have got to establish credibility as a coach and as an expert in your field.  Writing is the best way to do this.

“In addition to these skills you also need to be able to trust your own ability to get things done. If your personal organisation isn’t up to scratch, then you are not going to be able to trust yourself to carry out your ideas.

“This will have the result of either stopping you from launching projects in the first place or preventing you from following through on them properly. The one essential resource we need to survive the recession is our own ability to deal with whatever life throws at us.”

Mark Forster
The Time Freedom Coach
www.markforster.net

And if you don’t already have Mark’s book “How to Make Your Dreams Come True”, can I suggest you buy it?  The Goal Achievement Method described in the book has the power to transform your life.  If you use it.  And do you think it might work for your coaching clients too?  Hmmmm…..?

Mistake 5. Not Taking Action

Finally, there are a number of coaches who have come this far only to be paralysed in not taking action. You must, you must take action. It’s the one thing that differentiates the successful from the also-rans.

As you’ve read thorough this report, you’ll have begun to identify what actions you need to take next. Write these down and set a deadline for their completion.

Identify whether your next step is to gather the information you need to complete the action, whether you need access to someone or something to proceed, or whether it’s simply about blocking out the time to do it.

But make sure you plan and are committed to do it. Then just do it.

Summary of the Five Fatal Marketing Mistakes

This report has examined the five fatal marketing mistakes made by 80% of all coaches.

In summary, they are:

Mistake 1. Not Having a Niche

Mistake 2. Not Knowing Their Biggest Problem

Mistake 3. Not Having a Solution to Their Problem

Mistake 4. Not Knowing How to Reach Your Niche

Mistake 5. Not Taking Action

It is very likely that one of these mistakes is seriously impeding your ability to dramatically grow your coaching practice.

Just by identifying this and committing to taking action, you will be ahead of the vast majority of coaches, and on your way to having a successful coaching practice.

Taking Action

We said earlier that one of the biggest problems for coaches with their marketing is not taking action. Commit to take action now as a result of reading this report.

What are the three actions you can take this week that will begin to resolve the marketing problems you face? Write these down.

For each of these, what is the very next step you must take? Write these down. Yes, write them down even if they are very straightforward.

Now commit to doing these this week.

© Copyright Alun Richards 2008. 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.

Technorati Tags: coaching marketing, five fatal marketing mistakes

In the first part of this article, we examined the first two fatal marketing mistakes coaches make.

These were:

Mistake 1. Not Having a Niche
Mistake 2. Not Knowing Their Biggest Problem

We continue with fatal marketing mistake no. 3

Mistake 3. Not Having a Solution to Their Problem

The next biggest mistake is not having a solution to the problems experienced by the members of your niche.

Of course, you may already know a solution to their biggest problem. Or you may not know, and may have to work to create a solution.

Whatever situation you are in, identify the next steps to having a solution for your niche.

If you need to create a solution, consider what resources are available to you.

Here are some ideas:

• Import ready-made solutions from other disciplines.
• Use friends, colleagues or family members for ideas.
• Consider what previous business acquaintances could help you.
• What skills and knowledge from other areas of your life are relevant to the problem?

For other sources of ready-made solutions, consider what other people may have ready-made solutions to the problem. These may be within your niche – in which case you might consider a joint venture.

Or they may be from outside your niche, in which case you could consider adapting the solution to make it more specific to your niche.

Mistake 4. Not Knowing How to Reach Your Niche

You must be able to reach your niche effectively, either online or offline, and preferably both.

Reaching them implies knowing where to go to meet them, online and offline. Offline this means special interest groups, associations, networking groups, trade shows and the like.

Online this means forums, online lists, social media sites, membership sites and discussion groups.

If you don’t know where they meet, it’s research time. Ask other members of the niche where they hang out.

If you do know where they meet, it’s action time for you! Get involved with your niche, and get known!

This article will continue in the next posting.

There are five fatal marketing mistakes that are made by at least 80% of all coaches. Are you strangling your coaching practice by making these mistakes? Read on to find out.

Mistake 1. Not Having a Niche

By far the biggest mistake made by coaches is not having a niche. Admit it, you’ve heard this many times, but you may not have taken action on it yet.

According to my research, 67% of all coaches do not have a niche. Many claim to not want one – “they like the variety.” The fact is that the most profitable coaching practices are those that do have a niche. And the coaching practices that have a niche find it the easiest to market to their target market.

So what is a niche?

A niche is a small, distinct part of a larger market. It’s one that has a definable set of members that are distinct from the mass market. The niche will be homogenous but distinct from the mass market in several important ways. These may be geography, psychographics, demographics, buying and other behaviour and will certainly include their preferences.

This means that understanding the makeup and preferences of your niche is likely to be a profitable activity.

Mistake 2. Not Knowing Their Biggest Problem

Members of a niche have specific needs and wants, and they have a small
number of specific problems that are similar within the niche but
different to the mass market.

You must know – or be able to find out – the problems that are commonly experienced by your niche. Whatever niche you have, there will be common problems experienced by most members of the niche.

If you don’t know the biggest problem (or problems) experienced by your niche, you will not know what they are most willing to pay good money to resolve.

If you do know their biggest problems, you’re half way to a solution. You need to be able to define the problem succinctly and specifically.

As well as asking what the biggest problems are, as why this is a problem. This will get you good quality information that you can use in creating a solution to the problem.

Technorati Tags: coaching marketing, coaching niche, five fatal marketing mistakes

Yes, it’s true. I am currently writing a book called ‘The Ultimate Success Secrets For Coaches’.

I’ve co-written it with Dan Bradbury and a number of other successful coaches.

The book is packed full of inspirational stories about coaches taking action and succeeding. It charts how I and others went from where I was to becoming a successful coach. And it has the relevant key hints, tips, solutions and learning points that helped me through.

It’s highly practical, with Dan’s sections having a blueprint on exactly how to succeed in today’s coaching environment.

The book is made up of around 20 short chapters and has a ‘Chicken Soup For The Soul’ style.

Be the First to Get Your Hands On It!

It will be available shortly for £20, and I am taking pre-orders now via alun@brandingyou.org .

Send me your name, postal address and I’ll let you know how to pay!

Technorati Tags: The Ultimate Success Secrets For Coaches, Alun Richards, coaching success book, coaching author

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

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.

Coaching MegaTrend 7: Availability of Web-based Technologies

We are in the midst of an explosion in the availability of affordable, easy to use web-based technologies.  And savvy coaches are beginning to realise what benefits this can have to their coaching practices.

A coach’s website is taken for granted these days, as is a their newsletter.  If you look at several coaches’ websites you’ll see a remarkable consistency.  They no longer differentiate.  The area in which to compete has moved on. 

Audio and even video are creeping into coaches’ websites.  But the coaches who will succeed are those offering something that their market want – their content must be relevant and valuable to their target market. 

Those coaches who utilise teleseminars, autoresponders and increasingly blogs that meet a client need will prosper.  Those that do not will fall by the wayside.

The next big technology trend is likely to be coaches’ podcasts. And the same dynamic will apply – the content must be relevant and valuable to the client.  In the next six months we forecast a flood of coaches’ podcasts – and 90% which will not be around six months after their inception.

We’re seeing far more use of internet automation – for keeping in touch with prospects via autoresponders and newsletters, for online surveys, membership sites… …the list is long and growing.

The winners in the use of the web-based technologies will be those unafraid to experiment, who use technology for the benefits it can bring to them and their clients, rather than for its own sake.

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.brandingyou.org/ecoursesales.html  

© 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.