This episode, which is part of the Coaching Business Checkup series, is going to be short.
You’ve probably noticed that there are overlapping themes in this series episode to episode. That’s because strategy intentionally connects one thing to another.
Here are the repetitive themes:
- Target a viable audience full of seekers
- Find out what they most want and what’s in the way – their BIG PROBLEM
- To stand out and attract attention, focus your messaging and offers entirely around that
- Don’t sell coaching (use that skill once clients hire you but don’t mention it)
Forgive me for the repetition but it’s not possible to talk about one strategic action or decision without mentioning what goes before it. Strategy is about connecting dots. It’s about congruence.
If you can remember these themes in all you do for your coaching business, you’ll experience a dramatic shift in your ability to attract enough clients who pay well.
Strategy – The Many Layered Cake
So I’ve been making a many-layered cake for you.
We started with the strategy of choosing a viable target audience full of seekers and then moved onto the central task of developing a smart niche — centering on a big enough problem your audience faces.
Now, if you are continuously visible out there speaking your audience’s language about their big problem and show that you have a solution without being salesy, they will pay attention.
That’s what will compel them to go to your website where hopefully you’ve got streamlined copy speaking about what’s most important to them there as well. And then you gently point them to a couple of conversion processes you have your site.
A clue … that’s NOT inviting them to a free sample session or Discovery Session.
That comes later when they are more ready for it. You don’t want to push people to next steps. Lead them instead.
You need to have everything ready for them before they arrive.
And when they arrive you want them to know they are in the right place.
That’s why your website should NOT be about the wonders of coaching.
Instead it’s about what’s keeping your specific audience up at night and what’s in the way of the big thing they want.
Okay, I’m getting off track from my goal here. You see how everything is interconnected and strategic?
This episode is not about how to create a client-winning website. It’s about something you create before the website … your signature system.
What’s a Signature System and Why Should You Have One?
Why would I call it a system?
Because when humans perceive that there is a structure — a framework to get what they want — they relax. And trust builds.
Your Signature System is the way you describe what you do so that your audience can see clearly:
- That you understand them.
- That you have a structure they can lean into.
- That you know what you’re doing.
In a non-salesy way, your system is connected directly to their exact situation — what specifically has been in the way of them realizing their most urgent goal.
Do you see now why you need to know the big problem you solve before you can move to this step?
In your system you name the specific milestones that your audience has wanted to achieve but they’ve been stuck for some reason and unable to move forward.
Remember my niche and the big problem I solve for coaches? That smart & profitable coaching niche has been illusive and without that solved they can’t really move forward. It’s painful and frustrating.
Why Doesn’t Your Signature System Mention Coaching?
Because it muddies the water and distracts them from what’s meaningful to them.
Coaching isn’t what’s meaningful to them. It’s the big and small, tangible and intangible ways they’ll grow and benefit from working with you that’s important now.
When you share your system with them in a Discovery Session you want it to be so spot on that they feel like it’s exactly what they’ve been seeking and didn’t even fully know it until just this moment.
You’ve ticked all the boxes. You’ve covered all the most nagging challenges they’ve been facing.
Your Signature Program is based on this system. But that’s getting ahead of myself again.
For now, I hope you take in that you can articulate what you do in a non-coachey and non-salesy way that inspires investment through trust and context.
In the Next Episode: What is Your Coaching Business Model?
