Previous work – old business related post – When your clients don’t understand how coaching works…

When I first started putting myself out there, I was very eager to explain how coaching works. I was so passionate about it, I wanted everyone to get it!

After working through the fear of public speaking I put some videos out there, the first one, of course, explaining what coaching actually is.

That wasn’t the most effective marketing strategy. It’s a bit like trying to explain to my dad what the computer is made of when all he cares about is how to send an email with an attachment.

Do we actually need to explain to anyone how coaching works? Do they need to understand it, for it to be successful?

Do you remember how much harder it was to coach coaches during your practice hours? Feeling a bit like being judged or at least scored by the client-coach on your coaching skills… I definitely felt more pressure coaching coaches when I was just starting. And the same the other way. I remember analysing questions that my coach asked me and wondering what would I do better instead…

It would be so much easier to just relax into the process.

Do I need to know how coaching works to get the benefits of it? No, I don’t. My clients don’t need to know either.

You might be wondering now: “So How do I sell coaching to those that don’t know what it is?”.

People don’t buy the process.

They don’t buy coaching.

They buy the results it brings.

There you go again. I know what you’re thinking now: “But how can I promise the results?”. I can’t promise anything really. No, you don’t need to promise. But you can show what’s possible.

Let me give you an example. When I talk to parents about the possibility of working with their child, I don’t say “I promise you, your son will be a lot calmer and will have improved his grades and your relationship together will be awesome too”. But I can say “I’m confident that I can help you. We can work on his motivation for school and his anger. I’ve had more complicated cases and they improved their grades and the relationship with their parents after a few sessions together.”

Am I guaranteeing anything? No. But I’m giving hope and that’s very important to our clients. The more confident you are that you can help, the more likely they are to buy from you.

Our high belief that the client will get what they want always adds to their own confidence. Rosenthal-Jacobson study showed that, if teachers were told their students are above average performers, they were expecting that and the children’s performance was enhanced.

So, the more you show the confidence that you can help your clients, the more likely they actually are to get the desired result. Confidence like all the skills needs to be practised. During this free workshop for coaches, you’ll have a chance to grow your confidence and recognise the value you can provide for your clients.

When you learn to say with confidence “Of course, I can help you” is when your clients will believe in you and buy from you.

There’s another thing you might be thinking now: “But I don’t have a niche. I just want to do coaching. How I go about the niche thing?”. The niche thing isn’t a fancy marketing strategy. The niche thing is about speaking your clients’ language.

As we established, not all of your potential clients know what coaching is, they will not buy coaching but the results it may give them. So just choose the result/ the topic that sparks the joy when you hear about it and find a few people who need help in that area.

And make it more specific than “achieving their goals”.

If they want to get promoted at work or change their job or increase the performance of their staff, sell them exactly that.

Sell them what they want and give them what they need. Your amazing coaching.