I went out onto Linkedin to find out what challenges and solutions that business coaches are finding today. To my surprise, I found that “business coach” is too general of a term for business coaching these days. Coaches specialize in helping more defined markets and serving different topics than just business! They are providing a unique solution for a unique audience or a unique solution for a unique challenge or they are challenged to provlde all the marketing promotion, systems etc. for a specific business.
It is true that you have to nicheify your audience to deal with their unique challenges.
Challenges for Coaches in 2020 in getting clients and valuing their business.
I spoke to Manuj Aggarwal of tetranoodle.com with his experience of helping tech startup business, what were some of the challenges he found in coaching today.
The biggest challenge I think is …., getting the clients and actually making them understand the value that you can bring to the table because as in any profession, … there are a lot of people who know what they’re doing but most of the people are experts in one thing.
So..coaches .. they were good at webinars, so they said “okay if you do webinars and everything will be okay.” All of a sudden they find success in one thing then they think okay, you know, this is the best thing ever and then they start teaching that but the key thing is that the next person, the mentee, may not be as good at all those skills. Right? So some people who are good at webinar. They may be really good at copywriting or building the slides, but the other person may not be as good at that. So. it’s also you need to understand the person and give them the tools that suits them best.
I think the challenge is that most people have been burnt out by coaches who teach them one skill and if it doesn’t work, they have a hard time trusting somebody else. On the coach’s side, it’s hard for us to come out of our technical minds and then you know present something with a nicely written copy that is best for their desires because you know, since I’m a technical guy, I’m not a copywriter. So we need to figure out all these different skills that we need and to either hire for or master it, in order to get the client’s success.
Dan Swanson of exitrich.com mentioned in our discussion that
When I look at the hundreds of mentoring for free, when I looked at my success rate of guys who paid versus guys for free all but one of the guys that paid me did really ,really well. All the guys who got the free mentoring didn’t implement.
Sandy Lawrence of PerceptivePublicRelations.com had a different perspective on the years from coaching authors about publicity, marketing and promotion.
I struggle with my value because of caring about others. I know what it is like when they can’t hire you. “No way I have $47 for it.” My heart goes out to authors. They do it like it’s a hobby and they can’t see it is an investment. So, I haven’t been able to charge as much as other publicists.
Deb Peretz of debperetz.com made note of the
Saturation of coaches in the market and similarity of offerings. She has solved it!
Solved it for my clients — many believe in the Law of Attraction and I show them what is missing. For me — once I started emphasizing astrology in my marketing, I got more and better fit clients.
Milana Leshinsky of Milana.com finds that coaches she coaches have challenges …
Transitioning from 1 on 1 coaching to more scalable ways to leveraging their expertise (coaching programs, group coaching etc. ) Her recent solution is designing a coaching platform unique to her experience and knowledge of coaching called www.groupcoachinggenie.com . She has a solution of creating coaching programs that sell to coaches that answer their challenges.
Suzanne Daniels of suzannedaniels.co.za finds that
getting clients on a consistent basis is a challenge in her business. So her solution was I engaged a coach to assist with this skill as it is a skill I do not have.
Alain Gardner of org-coaching.com/en who coaches executives finds that
few coaches understand the dynamic of teams and bring their client to be able to lead cross-functional teams to success in successfully implementing the necessary changes. It impacts career, self esteem personal and family life.
I have added an offer for training for teams for my executive clients.
Virginia Parson of MediaSpotlightMarketing finds that visibility is a challenge for coaches.
Visibility is a challenge because coaches can have a great skill set but if people don’t know about the solutions they provide and not enough exposure. That’s a real challenge for sharing their gifts to the world. I have a simple solution, my visibility laser coaching program to take them through a process step-by-step in order to increase their exposure and increase their recognition as an expert.
Implementation
Having been in courses myself where I got too busy or lost focus and didn’t implement the way I should have to develop the skill, I asked Manuj if even with tech startup business was there a problem with implementation?
When I work with our clients before and they did not Implement I was like, why are they not Implementing it and then when I realized what I’m telling them may not really align well with what they already think. So, that is where the mindset piece came in where you know before I give them any advice. I really need to, you know, remove those blocks so that they can actually move faster.
As a mentor , Dan Swanson found that the
difference between a coach and a mentor is one has a methodology of asking questions to get that person to think about it themselves, which is fine. But you know, the reason I got to my mentors and the thing I liked about the them is they had they all had 30 plus years of experience and doing stuff and they’re all extremely successful. So I wanted the shortcut!
A coach would ask questions “how do you get clients,”” how to rejuvenate your client base” while as a mentor I have a hundred stories and they get so excited about them that people say “can you do that for me” and I ‘ll help them hire someone or sketch it out for them to implement and they get great success.
Easier Now than before the Internet
I asked the coaches what was easier or harder now that we have the internet in our lives.
Sandy Lawrence
I have no trouble saying what I charge now that I am on the internet.
What is easier with the internet — I have international clients. I can do one on one on Zoom. Zoom gives a closer relationship than phone.
Deb Peretz says that it is
Easier to get good looking material out quickly and it is harder to compete with so many coaches targeting the same clients.
Suzanne Daniels thought that
content creation and Copy for the internet has to be very specific and this has been a challenge to get the content mix right.
Alain Gardner,
with all the noise and social media It makes getting client’s attention more difficult for sales
It is harder to maintain a presence and keep attention on a message; there is much noise and false claims about our practices.
According to Milana that being
On the internet, competing is harder- lots of look-alike coaches out there.
Virginia Parsons
Well the playing field has been leveled and we now have the capacity to livestream, be on podcast and to be on WebTV shows even expanding onto platforms such as Roku and AmazonFire and AppleTV. Its is a really great time to be willing to step out and as I call it Shine Online with your message.
Advice for new Coaches
I asked for wisdom from the coaches on advice for new coaches starting out in their business and there are many good points.
Sandy Lawrence
Define who you are going to work with , as I only work with authors. Get out to conferences and connect; network in relevant groups; volunteer for relevant organizations. I’ve been going to networking sometimes three times a day and then three years later, I can get a client who saw me at an event. “I love networking.”
Deb Peretz
Find what makes you special. Let your potential audience see that.
Milana Leshinsky
Create a signature program with a new branding based on your personal experiences/success.
Suzanne Daniels
Be clear on who you serve. It evolves as you go along the business spectrum but this clarity is needed.
Alain Gardner
Find your niche market and keep track of how your coaching impacted your client’s life/family/business.
Virginia Parsons
By far, the fastest way to get them visibility is to get comfortable with live streaming platform and format; the first step is getting comfortable being in front of the camera and deciding their message is important enough and powerful enough and solution driven enough that it’s worth overcoming their fears and getting comfortable using the camera and therefore comfortable using livestream and love your camera.
The Story continues
This has been a real eye-opener project for me as I learned about just how diverse coaching as a business can be on the internet today. I think I will continue this discussion over the year and maybe include it in a chapter of my book “Is your Personality destroying your Business.” 🙂
If you would like to be interviewed about the current state of the coaching business, please email me at jgardner@jane-gardner-109764.ingress-erytho.ewp.live.