Kathy Mallary | Coaching Biz Tips

Get rid of marketing overwhelm once and for all

I hear from a lot of coaches that they're overwhelmed by all the advice and information available on marketing. Most coaches actually know quite a bit about the subject of marketing – they just don't know where to begin or how to tell if they're on the right track.

How do you know if you're taking the right steps with your marketing? Answer: It depends on your objective.

There's an endless number of possibilities when it comes to marketing a business, but there are basically only three ways to grow a business:

1. Increase the number of leads

2. Increase the conversion rate of leads to customers

3. Increase the average dollar amount that each customer spends over time

So the question becomes, "Of those three objectives, which one is most critical to focus on right now?" Once you're clear about your objective, the options for marketing activities will seem less overwhelming.

For example:

• Coach Mike has a knack for "closing the deal". He knows his target market inside and out and he's got great people skills – when he has an initial consultation with someone, they usually end up hiring him. If he could get more initial meetings scheduled, he could get more clients. So Mike's key marketing objective is to increase the number of leads by setting up a prospect marketing system and becoming more visible to his target market.

• Coach Debra has worked hard to build a targeted mailing list. She has a loyal following of subscribers who love her newsletters; the problem is that she doesn't have as many customers as she'd like. Studies show that a customer who buys once is far more likely to buy again, so Debra's marketing objective is to improve conversion. She'll want to make sure she's offering enticing introductory products to her subscribers – products that are low in cost but high in value, such as ebooks, ecourses or audio products. She also needs to make sure she's encouraging prospects to take action sooner rather than later, to shorten the conversion cycle as much as possible.

• <Coach Wendy is an experienced coach who has worked with lots of 1-1 clients over the years. She's carved out a nice niche for herself and is really good at helping her clients accomplish their goals in a short amount of time. The problem is that once the goals are accomplished, the clients move on, so Wendy is constantly worried about getting more new clients. What she needs to do is expand her offerings for clients who have completed the initial coaching contract in order to grow the value of each client and create additional revenue streams so that she isn't so dependent upon 1-1 coaching clients each month.

If you've been feeling stuck about what you should be doing with your marketing, take a step back and decide what's most important for your business right now: getting more leads, converting more prospects to customers, or growing the lifetime value of existing customers. And then figure out the most obvious action steps you'll need to take to get that done. Once you're on track with the first objective, you can turn your attention to the next.

10 Tips for a Profitable and Sustainable Business Model

An earlier article explored how to tell if your business model is broken; today I want to share ten tips for building a profitable and sustainable business model.

First, a few words about what I mean by "business model", and why you should care.

Basically, a business model defines the problem your business solves and describes how it does so profitably.

By "problem", I mean the gap between where your customer is now and where they want to go. Every customer wants something that they don't yet have; your business helps them close that gap.

The "profitably" part is the key to why you should care – because if your business doesn't operate profitably, you're not going to be able to help many clients! When your business makes more money than it takes to operate, you can reinvest your profits back into the business in order to grow. But if you're spending more than you're making – for example, needing to use your credit cards to pay your bills -- you're probably going to run out of resources pretty quick.

What does a profitable business look like?

Imagine two coaches who are starting out on the same path: Coach Alison and Coach Brenda.

• They have similar experience and education
• They live in the same city
• They have similar financial situations
• They're both going after the same type of client -- baby boomer women
• After 18 months, one business is healthy and growing, while the other is teetering on the edge of collapse

Coach Alison is following the well-worn path that many coaches follow right out of training. (See "Is Your Business Model Broken?") After working diligently for 18 months, she's got a lovely web site; 157 people on her mailing list; 5 clients (2 are pro bono; another isn't really a baby boomer woman, but she can't afford to be picky); a maxed-out line of credit; and a husband who is starting to wonder what she's doing all day. Alison is starting to wonder that, herself.

Coach Brenda is having a very different experience. She's getting new subscribers every day, and virtually all of them are in her target market; many on her list have already purchased her new ebook, and almost everyone who buys the ebook goes on to buy something else (an audio program, a teleclass or a  coaching package); she has a waitlist of people who want to work with her at her new rate; and her husband is starting to wonder if he should quit his day job to become a coach, too.

Why is one business struggling while the other is succeeding?

What's Brenda's secret? It's not a secret so much as a winning strategy. Alison is using a one-size-fits-all business model, while Brenda's is custom-designed for success and sustainability. Here are ten tips for creating your own profitable and sustainable business model:

1. Start with a relationship-building mindset. Customers tend to buy from people that they know, like and trust; the best way to do that is to show them that you understand what they're struggling with and that you have a proven track record of success with their issue. (Hint: they're not struggling with coaching, so stop talking about coaching and start listening for the real problem.)
2. Define the problem that your business solves so that you can talk about your clients' coachable goals with clarity and credibility. To see some examples of coachable goals, see this article.
3. Identify a viable market segment that is already spending money on the problem that your business solves. The segment should be specific enough to share certain buying behaviors, yet large enough to support your business.
4. Aim your marketing promotions directly at the target market. Don't try to be all things to all people; you'll only frustrate yourself and confuse your prospects. For example, while Coach Brenda is narrowly targeting (and attracting) female baby boomer executives who are facing a major career transition such as retirement, Coach Alison is having less luck finding and connecting with a broader, less exclusive market (baby boomers who want to thrive.)
5. Create a sales funnel so your customers have a natural, easy path to follow, from joining your mailing list to making their first purchase to hiring you as their coach. Click here to see an example of a sales funnel for coaches.
6. Differentiate yourself from other coaching businesses so that your brand stands out in a memorable way. There are many ways to differentiate yourself other than pricing, by the way -- for example, packaging, service, expertise, positioning, etc.
7. Don't trade time for money. Switch to a monthly retainer or package rate, rather than quoting an hourly or monthly rate. Stop selling your time and start promoting the value of your services.
8. Expand your revenue base by creating multiple channels of income – info products, audio products, group coaching programs, paid membership programs, etc. When you spread your profits over a range of income streams, your cash flow tends to be much more consistent and stable (and LARGER).
9. Automate your marketing system to free yourself up to do what you truly love (coaching!). At the very least, use a reputable list management system with auto responders  -- Aweber, iContact and 1Shoppingcart are three popular choices.
10. Take a stand for the value you provide; offer options instead of discounts. If a prospect balks at your premium coaching package, point them towards a less-comprehensive coaching package, a group coaching program or a coach-yourself homestudy kit.

With the right business model, you'll get more business, more easily and be able to make a bigger difference with more people. And isn't making a difference with more people the whole point?

©2008 by Kathleen L. Mallary. All Rights Reserved.

Don't fantasize yourself out of business (Part 3 of 3)

Part 1 explored a common but misguided approach to growing a coaching business, and Part 2  explained why that approach doesn't work. In Part 3, we'll explore a more realistic (and ultimately more  successful) approach to growing your business.

OK, the fantasy has evaporated like morning dew on a hot summer day, and the inconvenient truths have been faced with courage. Now what?

Now it's time to explore what really works. First of all, there are three things that every successful business does well:

1. Get customers
2. Keep customers
3. Grow the lifetime value of customers

No matter what kind of industry you're in or who your customers are, and regardless of whether you sell widgets, roller coaster rides or a personal service like coaching, you must consistently accomplish all three in order to have a successful business.

Don't fantasize yourself out of business (Part 2 of 3)

Part 1 explored a common approach to growing a coaching business. Part 2  explains why that approach doesn't work.

3 Inconvenient Truths About Growing a Successful Coaching Business

Truth #1: Customers don't care who you are, what you're passionate about or how much you want to help them.

Well, they might care at some point, but trust me, they don't care about any of that yet. They mostly care about who THEY are and what THEY'RE passionate about, and they care about being, doing or having _________________ (fill in the blank with whatever your target market's common agenda is).

Don't fantasize yourself out of business (Part 1 of 3)

One of the happy benefits of focusing on the same target market over time is that you start to see certain patterns and biases. Close scrutiny affords a much more intimate, richly textured view of your customers and their issues -- issues that are actually inconvenient truths that must be confronted if your customer has any hope of success.

For instance, I've noticed that my own customers sometimes have a rather fantastic vision for how they're going to grow their business. And by fantastic, I don't just mean wonderful; I mean as in, "based in fantasy."

It goes something like this:

If you can't define your market, it doesn't exist

POP QUIZ: Define your target market in 10 words or less.

I WORK WITH...

3 down, 7 words to go. Take your time, I'll wait while you sort things out...

(Patiently humming the theme song from Jeopardy under my breath.)

What's that? You hate this exercise?! You'd rather walk barefoot over broken glass with a gorilla on your back???

Well, the good news is, you're not alone. I wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard a coach bemoan the need to pin down a target market. It's a pretty sore topic for most people.

The bad news is, you can't NOT define your target market and expect to have a successful business.

Because if you can't define your market, it doesn't exist. And without a market, your business has no reason to exist--in fact, by definition, it CANNOT be a business.

If you can't (or won't!) define your market, what you have there is an expensive hobby.

8 Tips for Defining Your Market

Is your business model broken?

A business model is the framework that shapes your business and, to a very large extent, determines whether it's successful. Your business needs a sustainable business model in order to fulfill it's purpose, which at the most basic level is to find, keep and grow customers profitably.

OK, I know that last sentence might stir up a debate, especially among coaches who have a much loftier purpose in mind for their business, like making a difference in the world, etc.

But unless you're independently wealthy and can afford to run your coaching business as a hobby, your business MUST find, keep and grow customers. Profitably.

Because if it doesn't, it will eventually stop being a business, and then you're going to have to find some other way to make a difference, most likely by working for somebody who's figured out how to find, keep and grow customers profitably.

Which brings me back to my point, which is that if you want YOUR business to succeed, you'd best pay attention to the business model that's shaping it. Because not all business models are created equal.

In fact, the business model that coaches typically start out with has a built-in bottleneck that limits the number of clients you can work with, puts a kink your profits and takes all the oomph out of your marketing.

Doesn't sound too healthy,does it?

How can you tell if your business model is broken?

See if any of this sounds familiar:

1. Your marketing strategy is persuasion-based. Your objective is to get people to give coaching a try so they can experience the benefits first-hand. Giving away free sessions is a primary tactic, and your marketing materials are centered around explaining what coaching is and how it works.

2. You're trying to create a market for your coaching, rather than finding a viable market first and tailoring your products and services for them. You don't know much about your competition or why a customer might choose you over them or vice verse.

3. You're careful not to be too specific or too targeted in your marketing because you don't want to exclude anyone who might be a potential customer.

4. Your client base is diverse; the only thing they seem to have in common (other than working with you) is that they have nothing in common. They don't all share a single interest or a specific struggle, which makes it difficult to create a common solution or approach. You're not in a good position to promise specific results.

5. You'd like to generate some passive income through products, but it's difficult to come up with something that appeals to everyone.  Your product funnel is pretty simple; basically, there's free stuff at one end and a high-ticket coaching package at the other.

6. You offer the standard coaching package, which looks like a clone of every other coach's standard coaching package. There's very little to distinguish your approach and packaging, aside from your logo.

7. You get paid for your time, rather than for your expertise, and the only time that brings in revenue is the time you spend coaching.

8. Your profits are driven by how many clients you can work with at once. To increase profits, you must either increase your client load or raise your rates.

9. When your client load goes up, your productivity in other areas goes down. And when you shift focus to other areas, such as research and development, administration or marketing, you feel like there's not enough time to take on new clients.

10. You have a hard time justifying your rates to yourself, much less your clients.

If some of this sounds familiar, don't worry -- you've got plenty of company. This is exactly the type of business model that many coaches start their business with; unfortunately, a good number of them go out of business with it, too. At best, you'll have to work exceptionally hard to produce even moderate results; at worst, you'll burn yourself out  trying.

And that's no way to get the best of yourself in business!

You need to shift to a business model that increases your cash flow and profits, expands your capacity to take on new business with ease and attracts better-qualified clients.

More about THAT next time! Until then, I leave you to ponder this question:

What's your business model done for you lately?

P.S. Read the follow-up article to this post here.

Kathy's Sushi Theory of Marketing

I'm not sure exactly when or how it happened, but somewhere along the way, I acquired a taste for sushi.

I'm not a connoisseur, by any means -- I'll eat supermarket sushi with just as much gusto as the fancy stuff in a restaurant -- but I have moved past the "OK, try not to think about the raw part, just swallow..." phase into the "Oh, mmmmmm, WOW! Pass the pickled ginger..." phase.

10 Great Articles

I put together a collection of articles on marketing tips, techniques and strategies, written by some of my favorite marketing mentors: Robert Middleton, Mark Silver, Alexandria Brown, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero and Tessa Stowe.

Click here to download a free copy of the digest (PDF).

Plant yourself in the path of your customer

Looking out my kitchen window the other day, I watched my cat, Sebastian, gingerly pick his way along a faint path from the back gate to a hole in the fence to the neighbor's yard.

My other cat, Phoebe, tends to use that path, too, as do other cats in the neighborhood; it's the Cat Path. As I watched Sebastian make his morning commute, I couldn't help but wonder whether squirrels made paths, too. The corner of Squirrel and Cat would have to be the most exciting intersection in the yard!

Hmmmm...that made me wonder: What if you could plunk yourself down right there in the middle of a customer's path? After all, finding the intersection of Customer and You is really the whole point, right?