Coaching Biz Tips

Should you call yourself an expert?

This very interesting question was posted recently on the New Coach Connection discussion board. I think there's a sort of underlying bias within the profession against coaches marketing themselves as experts, but it seems to me that most coaches ARE experts, whether they market themselves as such or not.

I think of an expert coach as someone who knows enough about a specific issue or problem to ask the right questions—the questions that help the client accomplish their goals.

Many coach training schools focus on training coaches to facilitate personal growth. Schools such as CTI, Newfield Network and CoachU have created some amazing curriculum that breaks down personal growth into a process that can be expertly facilitated—and by that, I mean a process that consistently produces desired results.

I don't think it would be wrong to say that many graduates of those programs qualify as experts in facilitating personal growth.

But personal growth is not the only possible agenda. Sometimes clients want other types of results; for example, executive clients may want specific bottom-line business results, like increased profits, reduced turnover, or a more efficient work team. That takes expertise of a different kind, and if you don't have it (or are afraid to market yourself as having it), you're going to have a very hard time building trust and credibility within that market.

If you don't believe me, just try selling personal growth to a busy executive who's rear is on the line unless he or she meets their quarterly projections. Personal growth may in fact be the key to their success, but if all you can say is that you'll help them find their own answers, I doubt you'll even get a meeting.

We live in the age of information and access. Clients have access to an overwhelming amount of information; when they start looking for someone to help them solve a problem, there are more options than they can possibly sort through. So they tend to look for concentrations of expertise—networks of information that form around a topic. And then they look for who's at the center of the network—who's recognized by others as being a credible resource. Whoever is at the center of the hub stands a much better chance of getting their business.

Many coaches have been taught to stay out of the client's way and make themselves invisible. That may be appropriate during the coaching process, but it's the worst possible thing you can do in the marketing process.

To me, "expert coach" is about positioning yourself to stand out in the marketplace. I think this makes good sense from a marketing standpoint, and I encourage my clients to get established as an expert coach in their niche.

How about you--do you call yourself an expert coach, or do you feel uncomfortable with the idea?

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

Success Circle Wins

We just passed the half-way mark for the current Success Circle, and the group is really rocking! Everybody is charging ahead full steam on their business development, while enjoying various trips, excursions and typical summer 'fun' time, too.

A few of us were able to get together a couple of weeks ago for drinks and dinner when one of the out-of-towners was here, and then last night a couple of the gals (Sandra and Melody) hosted a casual gathering for friends to update everybody on what they're working on in their business these days. It was a lovely summer evening by the beach, with great food and lots of laughter. We toasted marshmallows, had a group sing-along and even a guided meditation. What a fun time!

It was also a great way for Sandra and Melody to get the word out in their social network--everybody was excited to hear what they're doing with their businesses and asked some great questions (ever the inspired market-her, I made sure to write down the questions people were asking so that Sandra and Melody could include them in their marketing--great stuff for their FAQ pages!)

Melody had a terrific insight about her niche after our group call last week. Here's what she said after her niche 'clicked' into place:

This niche has really gone "ka-ching" in my heart. I'm bursting with passion, enthusiasm and ideas about where to go/what to do to start bringing it together!

Her clarity about her target market and what she wants to do with them came through loud and clear last night. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! When a coach's heart goes "ka-ching" for their niche, I know we're on the right track!

Can you tell I love my biz?

Market Research Made Easy

Imagine for a moment that you're planning a trip to an exotic destination. You've never been there before; all you know is that it takes a long time to get there by plane.

How would you prepare for your trip? Where would you go for information about how to get there, where to stay or what to pack?

It's the same kind of thing with your business. You need to pick a destination (your niche), figure out how to find your customers and learn as much as possible about the terrain and climate (i.e., other marketers competing for the customers' business).

And the key to both planning a vacation and planning a business? Research.

If you skip the research step, you run the risk of ending up somewhere you'd rather not be, like knee deep in a snow drift with a suitcase full of summer clothes.

Fortunately for tourists and self-employed coaches, this is the Age of Information, and getting the scoop on just about any topic is easier than ever. Thanks to the Internet, you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home to do the research.

Here are ten tips for doing market research:

1) Gather information on three types of competitors:

   
• Head-to-head competitors: Other coaches who are serving the same market as you and helping them with the same types of issues.
   
• One-off competitors: Other businesses (which may or may not be coaches) who are serving the same market, but helping with a different issue OR who are helping with the same issue, but serving a different market segment.
   
• Networks, communities & resource sites: Professional organizations, discussion forums, membership sites, and social and professional networking communities that generally support your chosen target market.

2) Use a market research form to capture the same info for each competitor (you'll find a market research form in the Get With the Program JumpStart Workbook). Use this information to assess who your strongest competitors are and to find gaps that you might be able to leverage. For example, if most of your competitors are focusing on one particular market segment, look for a group of customers who might be on the fringes of that segment who aren't being served.

3) Sign up for newsletters and freebies such as ecourses or special reports. Consider using a generic email address (get a free account through Yahoo, GoogleMail or MSN) so that you don't end up with a flood of email in your regular inbox and so that you can gather information anonymously.

4) Pay attention to the market-specific words and phrases that show up consistently on your competitors' web site pages, especially in headlines. These are often great sources for keywords.

5) A good way to find online forums and communities is to search for your target market with "vBulletin" or "PhpBB" as part of the search phrase, because those are two of the most common forum platforms. For example, when I Googled "Coaching PhpBB", I got over 500K listings of sites that mentioned both "coaching" and "PhpBB" including a number of useful coaching forums.

6) Don't forget to search Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups.

7) When searching for info about your topic using keywords, add phrases like "how to", "basics", "resources", "FAQs", etc. For example, if want to target work-at-home moms, you might try searching "work-at-home mom resources",  work-at-home mom FAQs".

8) When you find a good forum or discussion group, don't forget to search within the site (most sites have a site search tool these days). Use the same keywords and phrases that you would use in a search engine--you'll probably dig up a couple of strong competitors that way, because they'll be posting on the same topics in the forum.

9) Set up Google Alerts for your keywords and phrases and for the names of your competitors. Google Alerts will search the Web as often as you like and alert you by email any time something new is posted about your chosen topics or by your competitors.

10) Set up a Google Alert on your own name, business name, tagline and URL so you can keep tabs on who's talking about and linking to you.

A little bit of research up front can save you considerable time, money and headaches, whether you're planning the vacation of a lifetime or a business to support your lifestyle. Either way, it's an investment that pays off, big time!

What's your secret ingredient?

McDonald's has their special sauce.

The Colonel uses a special recipe.

Your mother slipped a secret ingredient into her chocolate chip cookies.

What about you? What's the special ingredient that makes your signature coaching program uniquely yours?

Creating a signature coaching program is a lot like baking cookies. You have to know what kind of cookie you're baking, and you have to go to the market to get the right ingredients, measure out the right amounts and then combine them in just the right way if you want the cookies to come out right.

You need flour and eggs and sugar, but you don't necessarily need to grow your own wheat, raise chickens or own a sugar cane farm. You don't even need to come up with an original recipe.

When your mom makes her cookies, she just uses a special technique or a secret ingredient, right?

(I still haven't figured out my mom's trick for making the world's best Toll House cookies; I've followed her recipe to a "T", but mine never taste as good.)

It's the same with your signature coaching process; you don't have to create a process from scratch. You just need some basic ingredients, plus a "twist" to make it yours. Here are the basics:

   1. A specific target market. (You wouldn't go to a fish market for cookie ingredients, would you?!)

   2. The #1 coachable issue/problem for your target market. (What kind of cookie are you baking?)

   3. The solution to the problem. 99.99999% of the time, it’s already been figured out by someone else! (Find a good recipe.)

Here comes the twist:

   4.  A customized, step-by-step process that facilitates the solution. What makes it ‘yours’? Things like your approach; your knowledge, skills and expertise; your track record with other clients; your materials; your guarantee; your packaging; your quality of service, etc.

One more thing about my mom's cookies: Whenever I begged her to tell me the special ingredient, she always said, "Must be the Love!"

Now that I think about it, maybe that's all it ever is -- the Love.

Happy baking,
Kathy M.

3 Hot Markets for Coaching

If you're looking for a lucrative niche, consider these three hot coaching markets:

1. Baby boomers
Who they are: Baby boomers are people born between the mid-1940's and the mid-1960's; the first wave is just now coming up on retirement age. There are 76 million baby boomers in America; in the UK, baby boomers hold
approximately 80% of the wealth.

What they're interested in: Health and fitness; simplifying their lifestyle; elder-care issues; social and environmental issues; managing time and money; traveling; working from home; starting a second career; volunteering.

For example: Coach Gesine Schaffer

More links:
http://boomertowne.com/
http://www.boomernet.com/pn/index.php
http://www.boomerwomenspeak.com/index.php

2. Private practice professionals

Who they are: Doctors, dentists, chiropractors, therapists, financial planners, massage therapists, holistic healers, Real Estate agents, lawyers, nutritionists.

What they're interested in: Growing a successful practice; managing & leading people; improving customer service; time management; getting organized; marketing; getting referrals; selling their practice; quality of life/life balance; communication/interpersonal skills; business systems; team-building.

For example: Coach Lucy MacDonald

More links:
http://www.ppamember.com/index.asp
http://www.privatepracticesuccess.com/thenewpp.html
http://ahha.org/

3. Parents

Who they are: Mothers; fathers; single parents; divorced parents; step parents; foster parents; expectant parents; first-time parents; teen-aged parents; parents of teens; parents of gifted children; parents of children with special needs; custodial grandparents; parents of blended families; parents with an empty nest; working parents; stay-at-home parents.

What they're interested in: Healthy, happy families; parenting skills; time/money management; child behavior issues; communication/interpersonal skills; ADD/ADHD; quality of life/life balance; co-parenting; parenting when you're divorced; parenting styles; family values.

For example: Coach Terry Levine

More links:
http://www.parentcoachplan.com/index.php
http://www.familycoachtraining.com/
http://parenthood.com/

As I was putting this article together, it suddenly occurred to me that it might be interesting to combine some of these groups -- for example, you could target baby boomers who waited until they were in their 40's to start a family.

For more info about finding a lucrative coaching niche, read Q&A: Top 3 questions about coaching niches.

Q&A: Top 3 questions about coaching niches

Judging from the number of people who showed up for the last two monthly roundtables to discuss coaching niches, it's certainly a hot topic!

I asked each person to share their #1 question about niches; three questions came up more than any others:

1. What is a niche?

A niche is a position, activity or area of the market that particularly suits your talents and personality or that you can make your own. Ideally, your niche is where your passion and expertise intersect with the needs and wants of a viable target market.

To help my clients define their niche, I show them how to use a three-part niche formula: the Who, the What and the How.

    1. The Who describes the target market:

I help/coach/work with <insert 1 or 2 significant characteristics that distinguish your target market>...

    2. The What describes what the target market's most urgent agenda is:

...who are/or want to <insert the primary interest, problem or agenda shared by your target market>...

    3. The How describes the coach's special expertise* - the thing that differentiates them from other coaches:

...by/through/with <insert your particular area of passion/expertise>.

---

Examples:

• I coach doctors who are seeking balance between work and life through effective communication strategies.
  
  
• I work with single women who want to find a life partner with the universal Law of Attraction.
  
  
• I help highly sensitive people who want to live a less stressful life by leveraging their sensitivity instead of fighting it.

---

*Tip: DON'T use 'coaching' as your How. You'll need to be more specific than that if you want to differentiate yourself from other coaches.

2. Why is it so hard to choose a niche?

Many coaches don't yet have a niche because:

• They're afraid that focusing on a niche will be too limiting.
  Reality check: Focusing on anything generally concentrates your energy and attention so you can be more effective. This is definitely true of specializing in a niche (see below for 10 reasons why).
  
• They have doubts about whether they have enough knowledge or expertise to succeed in a specific niche area.
  Reality check: A quick inventory of your passions, interests, knowledge, skills and experience typically reveals more than one potential niche area. Once you choose a potential area, you can begin to gather more information and expand your expertise.
• They don't understand what a niche is or how it can benefit them.
  Reality check: The concept of specializing or working in a niche is a well-documented, effective marketing strategy. More information on what a niche is and how it can add value to your business. 

3. Do I HAVE to choose a niche?

In over 10 years of training, mentoring and working with coaches, I have yet to see a truly successful coach who doesn't have a niche. Consider the benefits:

• It helps you position your business so that your ideal clients can find you more easily.
• Your marketing is more targeted, which saves time and money.
• It's easier to develop solution-based products and services for a target market that share a common agenda.
• Positioning yourself as an expert gives you pricing leverage.
• A niche differentiates you from other service providers.
• Your business is more profitable when you focus on the products and services that your niche most wants and needs.
  
• Quality referrals are easier to get when you tap into the natural professional and social networks in your niche.
• Clients in a niche market are more likely to invest money to resolve their issue.
• It significantly reduces the competition when you focus on a niche, because you're not trying to compete in the larger market.
• Niching attracts pre-qualified clients so that you don't have to spend time cold prospecting or pitching your services to people who aren't interested or motivated.

Got a question about choosing a coaching niche? Leave a comment below and I'll answer it on the blog.

Time Magazine article on niches

I've only got time for a quickie post this morning -- a link to a recent article on niches from Time Magazine -- "Meet the Nicheperts".

More on niches soon, though.

Enjoy!

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?