Discover Your Coaching Niche

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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

So far in this article we’ve discussed motivation, and that as coaches we want to motivate our prospects to buy our coaching services.  Now we’re going to deal with the presentational style associated with motivational speaking.

If we’re going to motivate our prospects to buy from us, we should adopt a style (or form) appropriate to that aim.  Now, let’s read on… 

Form follows Function

Many people confuse the presentation style often associated with “motivational speaking” with the act of motivating someone to do something useful – such as to buy your coaching services.

Your presentation style is a decision you make based on your audience, their needs, the environment, your aim and what you’re comfortable with.  You can learn different styles appropriate to different audiences and environments, of course.  And it’s good to gain that flexibility.  But motivational speaking is not the presentation style.

The architect Louis Henri Sullivan is credited as saying, “Form ever follows function.”
That is, the form – in our case presentation style – must follow, or support, the function it will perform, in our case motivating our audience to buy.  Form and function are inseparable.  Form, or style, is meaningless without its underlying and driving function.

Don’t put the cart in front of the horse

If you try to remove “motivational speaking” from the context of who is being motivated, and to what end, you are putting the cart in front of the horse.  Motivation, as we said, is not a free-standing thing that exists in isolation.

So what do you do?

First decide on your target audience - your coaching niche, if you like. Ask them what they want most – what are they starving for?  Then offer to supply it in the form of a presentation.  If you are genuinely supplying what they want, they will be motivated to turn up and listen.

If they value your offering, and the price is less than the perceived value to them, they will be motivated to hear you out.  And if you pitch your offering appropriately, they may well be moved to buy your services.

Did you notice that last sentence?  They may be moved to buy your services.  Ah, perhaps I didn’t mention in our definitions above that motivation comes from the Middle French noun Motif “a move” and Middle/Late Latin motivus – serving to move.  So when you motivate people, you move them. 

And if you’re moving people enough to buy your offerings, then you’re a motivational speaker.

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.

In the last posting we discovered that “motivation” is not a thing, so we can’t just give it to people.  We found we need to know who we are motivating, and to do what.

In our case as coaches, I suggested it should be to motivate our prospects to buy our coaching services from us. 

But “How do you know?”

How do you know?

And so onto the next NLP question: How do you know?  How do you know that your audience – hopefully your target market (or at least individual members of it) are being motivated to buy your coaching services?

This comes down to knowing your audience.  They will buy from you if you demonstrate a compelling reason to do so.  You’ll have a compelling reason if your offer is of more value to them than what you are charging.  And it will be of value if you can demonstrate you understand what they want.

So you need to supply what they want.  “But how?”  I hear you wail – “How do I know what they want?”   The answer is both simple and profound. 

Ask ‘em! 

Yes, just ask ‘em. 

Deliver what they want

Then deliver exactly what they ask for.  If you do that, and supply what is going to attract them – such as how to solve a common problem they face – your target market will flock to hear you.

“But that’s not motivational speaking”, I hear you say.  “What about style, flash presentation, loud music, punching the air?  Isn’t that what motivational speaking is all about?”

I could be cheeky and ask whether you would prefer to pump people up, or motivate them to buy your services.

But there’s a more fundamental distinction to draw.

And that is that Form follows Function – and we’ll discuss it in the next posting.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar, Salesman & Motivational Speaker.

What is a Motivational Speaker?

A glance at a dictionary tells us “Motivational speakers are persons engaged in public speaking who help motivate others with their knowledge and real-life stories in public setting such as sales seminars and corporate meetings.”

But why should we care as coaches?  What benefit is there to us in motivational speaking? 

Three facts

Fact 1:  According to my research, the biggest challenge to coaches – by a long way – is getting new clients. 
Fact 2:  For coaches, giving presentations is a highly effective way to reach potential new clients. 
Fact 3:  A coach who is a motivational speaker can expect to attract many people to listen to them. 

Got your attention yet?  Want to know how to become a motivational speaker?  Good, then read on…

Firstly, let’s define our terms

According to the dictionary, motivation, an noun, is:
• the act, or an instance, of motivating.
• the state or condition of being motivated.
• something that motivates; an inducement; an incentive.

Problem: Motivation does not exist

But we have a problem.  Motivation, in NLP terms, is a nominalization – a verb or complex action which has been frozen into a noun.  Despite its linguistic appearances, it is not a thing.  We can’t touch it or hold it.  We can’t give it to anyone. 

To really understand it, we need to get back to the verb, and the associated verb is – to motivate. 

To motivate whom?

But “to motivate” does not exist on its own as a free entity, either. There must be a subject – a person – who will be motivated.  So, the question is, “Motivating for whom?”  Different people are motivated by different things.  So who are we talking about motivating? 

For coaches, the obvious people to motivate are our target market, as they’re the people who will potentially buy our services.

So let’s assume for the moment you’ll want to motivate your target market.

Motivate to do what?

Now, the next linguistic question arises, as “to motivate” is a multi-part predicate.  You must motivate someone to do something.  So the next question is “Motivate to do what, exactly?”

If you’re in the coaching business, this should be a no-brainer.  You want to motivate your target market to buy your coaching services.

The next parts of this Motivational Speaking article follow in subsequent postings.

This is the third and final part of the Research Your Market article.

8. Coverage in the Press

What press coverage does your market niche get? 

Investigate the specialist press relating to your niche.  What are the online and offline newsletters and magazines relating to your niche?  What topics are they featuring?  What problems are they addressing?

9. Your own Experience

It’s likely that you’ve had personal experience of your market niche, and may have been a past (or even current) member of that niche. 

So your experience is valuable.  List the problems you’ve had as a member of the group you’re targeting.  What have been your frustrations, blockers – where have you not been able to move forward? 

List them all out and analyse them.

10. Your Clients

You may have already had clients who are members of your target market.  Cast your mind back to the problems they raised.  Then list all those problems and look for patterns.  Which are the most common problems?  What are the nature of their problems?

Putting it all together

If you’ve spent some time on a number of the above suggestions, you should now have a clear view of the problems your target market is experiencing. 

So now what do you do? 

Well, that’s a topic for next time…

Summary

This article outlines the strategies you can use today to research your target market.  Whether you choose online or offline research, I’ve given you ten free or nearly free ways to get the results you desire.

So why not plan which suggestions you’ll use to get tangible results in the next 30 days?
 
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.brandingyou.org/ecoursesales.html

© Copyright Alun Richards 2007 All Rights Reserved
You may repost this article as long as it’s used in its entirity, including the author contact details and copyright information. 

 

This is the second part of the Research Your Market article, where I discuss 10 quick and easy ways to research your target market.

4. Do a Google Search

Do a simple Google search – www.google.com – and see how many hits there are for your chosen topic.

Then brainstorm the main keywords associated with your niche and your target market.  Search on these keywords and see how many hits each keyword gets. 

You can also look at how many Google Adword ads exist for your niche.  Several pages of Adwords indicates a high demand for your niche.

5. Talk to Your Market

Talk to three members of your target market on the phone & ask what their biggest problems are.
 
What is it that keeps them awake at night?  What are their biggest problems?  What are their fears, failures and frustrations?  What is costing them time and money?  Make notes and look for common problems.

6. Conduct an Online Research Campaign

There are an increasing number of online resources that allow you to research your market.  Two popular sites are Survey Monkey and Askdatabase.

A Survey Monkey campaign (http://www.surveymonkey.com) is free for up to 100 responses.  It is easy to set up, and you don’t need to have a website.  You can ask one or more tailored questions and can include multiple choice questions.

You can conduct an Askdatabase campaign via http://www.askdatabase.com .  This works via a monthly subscription – but you can have a 21-day trial for $1.

7. Activity on the Net

Sign up for and lurk on the forums associated with your niche and observe frequent problems.  Many forums allow members to post questions to the group.  What questions are being asked?  What problems are the members experiencing? 

See how many teleseminars there are that relate to your niche.  Search for teleseminar and “topic” on Google.  See what teleseminars and courses are being offered on your favourite forum.

You have decided on your target market for coaching and are committed to it.  You know you have to understand what your target market wants – but how?   How on earth do you find this out?  Read on for ten quick and easy ways to research your market.

1. Bookshop and library research

A great deal of information that you’re seeking has already been published.  So take a trip to a nearby large bookshop and go to the specialist section for your market. 

Look at how much shelf space is dedicated to your market niche.  This will indicate the demand in the marketplace.

The section manager or librarian of your specialist section knows which books they are selling the most of.  They may also be aware of new books about to be published.  Ask them to tell you which are the bestselling books in your niche area.

If it’s a narrow topic, look at the bestselling books and see how much of each book is dedicated to that topic.

Then go to a library and again see what takes up shelf space.  Talk to the librarian.  Which are the popular titles?  Pull a few off the shelf and flick through them.  What topics are covered?

2. What is on Amazon?

This is an easy search – go to www.amazon.com and see how many books relate to your target market.   

What are their titles?  What angle are they taking?  Look at the table of contents – what topics do the the books cover?  What do the reviews say?

Where you can, look inside – what problems are they solving?  Is the treatment academic or down to earth?  Make notes on your findings.

3. Do an Overture Search

Type in your topic to http://inventory.overture.com .  This will indicate how many searches were conducted on Overture for that topic last month.

This will also give you the most common keywords searched for relating to your topic, and the number of searches they got last month.  Make notes on the number of searches and the most frequently searched keywords.

Parts 4-10 of this article will continue in the next postings.

3. Prospect considers the benefits to be greater than their cost

Sometimes the prospect may raise a cost objection, resulting in their declining the offered coaching service.  From our experience, with cost objections, a number of things may be true:

• Inappropriate benefits are being offered to your prospect.
• There is an unclear value proposition for the prospect. That is the key benefits of your coaching services are not valued by your target market. Or they cannot see the value of your service is greater than the cost to them.
• You have not been successful in explaining the benefits in your prospect’s language.
• They may be confused about how your coaching offering works.

Here it’s really down to you to explain the benefits to your prospect, and to ensure they are understood.  Whether this is face to face, via a sales page or during a presentation, you must present the benefits clearly to your prospect.

4. Prospect is motivated to buy now

Why, when they’re aware of your services and their benefits, would a prospect not be motivated to buy from you?  It may be that the current pain they experience from their problems is not sufficiently great to warrant gaining the benefits of your services.

It may be that they feel they don’t have sufficient time to dedicate to your services currently.

The only way you’ll know is to ask.

So what can you do?

1. Enter into a dialog with your current and potential clients and ask them what they most value from you.  Ensure that during these conversations you establish what their biggest problems are.

2. When you know what’s important to your market, make sure that your coaching services are oriented to resolving those problems.  There should be a clear link between what your market wants and the services you provide.

3. Communicate this link in your potential clients’ language, covering the resolution of their specific problems.

4. Use communications channels that are appropriate to your target market.

5. Maintain the dialogue and refine your services where appropriate.

Summary

In order to buy your coaching services, your prospect must be aware that your services exist, and must be aware of their benefits.  They must consider the benefits to be greater than their cost, and be motivated to buy now. 

This article has identified actions you can take today to get your prospects to buy.  Which actions will you choose to take?

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 post this article as long as you retain the copyright and author contact details.