One of the aspects that is not always covered in coaching training is how to market coaching. This week our guest poster specilises in marketing for start up businesses. Read the advice Sue Sharp gives to coaches looking to build their practice.
Marketing for Coaches
by Sue Sharp
OK – you may be a brilliant coach, I have no doubt that many of you are, but you are only ever going to get the business you deserve if you are also a pretty good marketer, or at least you are prepared to take some good advice from the right places.
As a marketing consultant, working with small to medium sized businesses I have helped a lot of self employed service providers over the years, some of them coaches. I believe there are some core approaches which will help you stand out from the crowd.
Make yourself an expert.
Remember if you are a self employed coach, you are the business. Don’t be afraid portray yourself as an expert; many of my clients are very coy about talking about themselves in glowing terms. Focus on your experience, you successes, your qualifications, articles you have written, presentation you have given – in short, anything which builds your profile and convinces your audience that you have what it takes. But do be concise – keep it to bullet points if you can – no-one wants to read an essay about your life, they just want to be impressed and reassured.
Create a branded product.
This can be very powerful if you get it right! There are lots of coaches out there, all offering more or less the same sort of thing – the service can come across as unfocused and differentiating between them is difficult. You need to make yourself unique.
Think about what you do well and treat it as a product. Give it a name which is unique to you (a brand) which reflects the benefits in some way. Then identify exactly what people will get for their money. Think about extra benefits you can throw in there too – these may well be things you are already doing, but not really promoting or telling people about.
Finally define what sort of people will benefit and what their end result will be.
Once you have created your product, promote it on your website and create concise leaflets about it. Now, whenever you meet people at networking events or people call your office to discuss your services, you have something very precise to discuss with them which they can’t buy elsewhere and the sale will become much easier.
Does it work?
When I first started promoting my marketing consultancy services at networking events many years ago, I found results were patchy, people didn’t really get what marketing consultancy would do for them and they were worried it would be expensive. Then I had a Eureka moment. I created the Sharp New Business Package – specially targeted at new businesses, telling them exactly what they would get and what it would cost. Suddenly my networking results improved immeasurably. Not only that, but other professionals understood my service so well they started selling them on my behalf and I was (almost) inundated with referrals. Have a look at how I did it and see if you can replicate this for yourself. Sharp New Business Plan
Good luck.
Sue Sharp
About the Author/Further Resources
Sue Sharp is founder and director of Sharp Marketing Consultancy based in Chorley, Lancashire.
Sue’s enjoyed a 20 year marketing career with a wealth of experience at marketing director level pioneering the strategic growth of some fantastic consumer brands.
In 2003 she founded the Sharp Marketing Consultancy to work with small and medium sized companies in the North West who require directional assistance with their marketing.
Having identified a gap in the market to provide really solid marketing advice to new businesses, Sue set up Sharp New Business in 2005. Sharp New Business provides cost affective advice and support to new and small businesses making sure their marketing really works for them.
Through Sharp New Business Sue has daily experience of improving the marketing of small businesses. She uses this experience to provide her own style of marketing training, illustrating much of her training with examples of how techniques have worked for real life businesses.
If you want to read more you can view Sue’s 10 essential tips for marketing a small business. www.sharpmarketingconsultancy.co.uk/marketing-tips-2
Let’s Talk About Context
A problem well stated is a problem half solved
Charles Kettering
I thought I’d talk about the importance of context when working with a client, which I have come to understand training as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist at The Quest Institute. One the things I do when I first see a client is a history take. I have noticed over time that often when client’s come back to see me after the history take, they have already begun to move forward with their issue, goal, problem etc.
I think the reason for this is clarity; once they understand specifically what the issue, goal or problem really is, their wisdom, mind or unconscious can set about solving it.
For me, a big part of getting clarity is in understanding the context surrounding what is stopping the client from having what they want. (Along with Structure, Process and Consequence, which I’ll save for another day)
What is Context?
Context is about when the client has their problem and why, which is normally connected to what they have interpreted about a past event.
I have always been fascinated that a lot of the events that shape our beliefs in adult life happened when we are children. This was also true client who I will call Bob (not his real name), Bob was literally gripped with fear about the prospect of giving a best man’s speech to friends and family who only wished him the best.
The reason for this was that during school he had reading difficulties, and he had been made to read in front of the class whereby he was laughed at by all the other kids.
Clearly this event actually happened but what this event has come to mean was made up when he was a child. I think it would be fair to say that getting laughed at by a bunch of kids would not have the same effect now as it did back then.
So when I’m finding out the context I’m not really interested the facts so to speak just what the event meant to the client. And I’ll use a combination of the following questions to get to the “why now?” to establish a pattern between the past and the present.
Do you always have this problem?
Are there times when it’s better or worse?
What is different about those times?
Have you always had this problem?
What was different before you had it?
What was happening in your life when this problem started?
What is happening in your life when you have this problem that is similar to when the problem began?
*If you’re not keen on the word problem, you can use barrier, issue or whatever else you would prefer.
Now I know finding out the ‘why’ is frowned upon in some coaching circles. This is not my experience, I have found when people really get that what they decided a past event meant about them as a person, was through the eyes of a child that on its own can begin to move them forward.
Context Mapping
Context Mapping is about finding the edge of the problem, at what point does it tip and what other contexts does it map across to. Are there other situations that make them feel the same way?
So if we go back to Bob, Bob would only start to get nervous if he had to talk in front of four people or more. At three people he was fine, but in front of four he would get a horrible feeling unless it was close friends and then he was ok again.
As hypnotherapist I was able to use key information to create a suggestion aimed at producing a type of trance phenomena known as negative hallucination, which is really just way of getting the client not to notice something. In the case of Bob not to notice how many people are in the room, by drawing his attention to their ‘friendly faces’.
And as you begin talking, you might be surprised at how calm and relaxed you’ve started to feel as you’re only aware of the friendly faces looking back at you.
Exception Mapping
Bob actually came to see me for “no confidence” as he put it, now I don’t think I have ever met anyone who experiences their problem all of the time.
So Exception Mapping is about discovering the exceptions, when they don’t experience their problem. This is useful because like Bob people will often gerneralise their problem. E.G. I’m not confident is actually I’m not confident talk in front 4 or more people.
The exceptions to the rule lets you know how big or small a problem is and understanding what is different about those times is another key piece of information that you can use.
Ok so next time you’re working with a client take some time to understand the context surrounding whatever you’re working on. If context is a key driver for their issue, it would make sense to use context interventions.
The interventions you can use will depend upon your background, I have found that techniques that get people to see a situation differently work particularly well. If you are familiar with NLP/hypnosis terminology then Meta Mirror, Coaching, Reframing, Metaphor and Timeline Reframing are just a few but there are many others.