When coaches grab a Nail Your Niche Session with me and then ask: “Is this a good coaching niche?” What they really want to know but don’t know to ask is:
Will focusing my energy this way repay me
with a consistent flow of clients who are willing to invest?
That’s the 6-figure question.
A strategically determined coaching niche is the linch pin for your financial success as a coach. Without that direction and focus your messages and offers will be vague and won’t capture attention. Which means you won’t have that consistent flow of paying clients.
A profitable coaching niche helps you to:
- Quickly become a coach in high demand through momentum.
- Leverage your efforts and contextualize your messages and offers, instead of being all over the place.
- Command higher fees.
Test the financial viability of your current coaching niche with these 5 powerful questions
POWERFUL QUESTION #1:
Does Your Coaching Service One Specific and Viable Audience?
If not, consider narrowing your audience to a specific group before you go much further in your biz.
A target audience is a specific audience that’s small enough to help you stand out in the crowd. It is not a coaching track or a coaching topic.
So, for instance, your target audience isn’t relationship coaching. That’s a track, a general topic.
Your target audience isn’t even a specific topic, such as dating.
An audience is a group of PEOPLE with unique goals and big problems in the way of that.
Since coaching is all about people, shouldn’t your marketing and services be tailor made to one group? You cannot tailor make something that’s for everyone or even for a big amorphous group. Don’t try that.
The narrow audience I used in episode 140 called What is Missing In Your Coaching Niche was single parents who want to date successfully. Single parents have specific dating problems and specific dating goals that a relationship coach could specialize in.
Go for a group that’s that narrow and you’ll magnify profitability. That may seem contrary to you. But take the advice of every marketing guru I’ve ever known – target a specific narrow audience. Your life will be easier.
POWERFUL QUESTION #2:
What is the Big Outcome Your Coaching Audience Wants?
People want. It’s palpable. And when they want they are driven to get.
I know it sounds basic, maybe even base, and it kind of is. For people that have their basic needs regularly met, the drive to get what they WANT is even stronger than the drive to get what they need.
Episode 99 was about this. It’s called What Coaching Clients Want Vs. What You Think They Need.
I remember being oriented around people’s needs after coach training. I tried to market to needs. But then I realized that focusing on needs wasn’t going to result in clients who invest well over the long term.
In other words, I couldn’t make a decent income focusing my coaching on needs.
It is said … “offer what they want and then help them get what they need.”
If you don’t know specifically what your audience wants that lack of understanding will keep you from having a profitable coaching business.
POWERFUL QUESTION #3:
What is the Big Problem Your Audience Faces That Inspires Them to Seek Help?
If you can’t answer this, stop and discover that acute big problem, then build your program and marketing around it.
If your audience isn’t actively seeking solutions, they won’t be accessible. You won’t be able to attract them because they won’t pay attention to your messaging.
That’s why I say don’t sell coaching because it’s not something most people seek.
These days, because of the abundance of marketing, people scroll and they scroll fast until they see what interests them. If your website, your social posts and content are general, over-arching and for no one in particular no one will pause on your message. That means no client attraction is happening!
Study your chosen narrow audience and find out exactly what’s in the way of what they most want then build your program and marketing around that. That’s how you’ll quickly grab and keep their attention.
You will inspire your audience to engage with you and then hire you.
You, just like everyone else, are out there seeking SPECIFIC information. Let’s say you see messages about coaching niches right at the time when you are struggling with that challenge.
BOOM! Your attention magnifies and you are reading, engaging, possibly even clicking through to take action such as sign up for a guide, listen to a podcast episode or enroll!
That’s exactly how YOU need to grab attention … by solving your audience’s top challenges on the way to their big goal. Not a minor problem, not a typical coaching problem but a real, acute, painful problem they’ve been trying to solve on their own but haven’t been able to!
POWERFUL QUESTION #4:
Does Your Signature Program Solve Your Audience’s BIG Problems?
If not and you’re just offering coaching packages you will have to work very hard to earn much.
It took me years to figure this out. Coaching is an amazing tool. It’s a critical skillset for working with people. But if you’re not targeting corporations it’s not easy to earn well selling coaching packages.
I shifted to offering a Signature Program tailor made for my unique audience for their top goals that solves their big problems related to that goal. Episode 108 is all about how to develop a Signature Program.
What does this have to do with your niche? Well, absolutely everything.
Everything in your business should be connected, congruent, consistent, leveraged to your narrow audience, their big problems and goals.
It makes no sense to target a unique audience, discover what they want so much they’ll invest in your help to get it and then sell coaching packages! Your audience can’t easily connect the dots between the value of coaching and what they want.
But if you have a signature program that connects the dots for them, they will invest in your services.
POWERFUL QUESTION #5:
Is Your Signature Program Priced High Enough to Attract Ideal Coaching Clients?
No? Then raise your prices with each new client until you’re at the right level to earn well.
Look, even if you do target a narrow audience, find out what they really want, speak to their BIG problems and develop a signature program that solves them … if you do not charge high ticket prices for that program, you CANNOT expect to earn well.
Episode 57 is about giving yourself a raise. You are the CEO of your business. You and only you are fiscally responsible for it. You may shy from that language and concept but don’t. Own it! Own your business.
Responsibility grows with opportunity. Please don’t treat your business like a hobby or charity. You can absolutely give away some services for good but most of the time earn well.
And you need to thrive financially to be able to give time away.
So give yourself a raise. And keep raising your fees as demand grows or as you feel you deserve more. You’ll be surprised how much easier it will be to enroll ideal clients if your fees pay you well. How did your coaching niche test out for profitability potential? Want help with this. Book a Strategy Session and we’ll get you on the road to higher profitability.
