Last Thursday I gave a presentation to recent graduates of Coach Training Alliance called Where the Clients Are. I wanted to give new coaches a sure-fire approach to launch a prosperous coaching business, so they can spend less time marketing and more time doing the work they love.
I call this talk “Where the Clients Are” because really, that’s what a coach needs to know the most: where to find the people who will gladly invest in their coaching. Of course the answer is not actually a place, it’s an approach that creates high demand for your coaching. It’s a way of understanding clearly who your most ideal coaching market is and what they want.
Here’s the essence of the message from this preview call:
- There are four tested roads to coaching success, but most coaches miss them and end up on the “rocky road” — working too hard for poor results.
- Few coaches can start out walking one of the first three roads. They require starting with a big rolodex, a saleable skill set, or fame.
- The fourth and EASIEST road to coaching success is to choose one viable target audience to champion, and become that group’s go-to person – their top of mind service for what they most want to achieve.
- This fourth road brings you a big rolodex, saleable skills and, if you want, fame very quickly.
- This is the way to market less, coach more, and earn much more at coaching.
Anyone can learn quickly how to target market, even if you feel you don’t know how to market. It’s not as mysterious as it seems, and choosing a market is simple when you focus on the people you’re serving rather than yourself. It’s a relief, and a very coach-like approach to attracting clients.
The techniques for choosing a viable market, finding out what they care about, and designing programs to fit their needs, are the same simple techniques used by thousands of successful entrepreneurs. These techniques are what I teach in my Ideal Coaching Market workshop.
It is high time for more coaches to use this easier and more effective way to market coaching.
By the way, new coaches are not the only ones who need this solution. No matter how long you’ve been a professional coach, you will find this approach more effective, and it will save you time and heartache. Your coaching business will become more stable, more fun and more lucrative.
If you’re serious about being a top coach, check out my step-by-step system to help you:
- choose a viable niche market,
- create core marketing language that speaks to your market’s key challenges and goals… and
- design coaching programs that your market wants to buy – programs they will perceive as essential to them, rather than as luxuries (the way coaching is usually perceived).