Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

7 Quick Truths of Business Coaching

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1. Most business coaching isn’t really “coaching” - it’s much more 1-on-1 consulting or training or mentoring. The traditional coaching model assumes that the client has the answers  - the coach shows up only with questions. In most business situations in which you as a speaker, author, consultant, or independent professional would be asked for “coaching” - what the prospect is really asking for is 1-on-1 access to you for both questions AND answers

2. Setting up a coaching or 1-on-1 mentoring profit center can be fast, easy and lucrative - When I started adding 1-on-1 marketing coaching services to my offerings back in 2003, I was working hourly (huge mistake). Even then, I would make between $500-$1500 per month per client. And it took me zero prep because clients were paying to tap into knowledge and expertise that I already had! Today I sell three sessions for $2,500 and 90 days for $8,500. Crazy, right?

3. Coaching is a commodity and most coaches are broke - While this is true (sadly), that doesn’t mean that you can’t break the mold. And also remember that this fact is about traditional life coaching or success coaching - NOT business coaching. According to surveys by the International Coach Federation (ICF), the median annual income for coaches is $29,100. That means that HALF of all coaches make even LESS than that! So obviously, this is NOT the private coaching model that I am recommending to you. Instead…   

4. Adding “private coaching” (really 1-on-1 consulting/mentoring) to your business model can vastly increase your earning potential as a speaker, consultant, author, and high-fee expert. Before I started my marketing coaching practice, my sole source of revenue was speaking and training. Clients and audiences would ask me, “What’s next?” and my answer was limited to “What’s the next seminar or training class you need?” Today, the answer is a scalable, high-profit series of private coaching programs. For each of the past 6 years, I’ve generated over $200,000 in private coaching income. That’s over a million dollars during that time - and that’s in addition to my other revenue streams.  

5. You do NOT need to be a certified coach and work through hundreds of hours of training to offer 1-on-1 private coaching programs - All you need is a well-packaged program, a systematic and repeatable process, and some structure for how you want to deliver value in a highly-personalized 1-on-1 relationship with your very best clients who will happily pay premium fees for direct access to you and the expertise you already have.  

6. People WANT to take you home. If you’re a successful speaker, consultant, author, or high-fee expert, buying private coaching from you can be a huge ego-boost for high-achieving executives and entrepreneurs. If your private coaching program is systematized, well-marketed, and well-documented - it will be extremely well-received by clients. Yet so many folks can't quite crack the code of how to add private 1-on-1 coaching to their professional practice…

7. It’s both easier - and harder - than it looks. Read this post for a cautionary tale about a completely unethical and incompetent way to offer private coaching programs. That is NOT the path I recommend. Rather, you need to sit back and strategically decide how to create, promote and profit from private coaching programs you can build around the expertise you ALREADY have. If you want some fast-track help to make the planning, implementation, and monetization way easier, faster, and more profitable, book a free strategy call with one of our coaches.

p.s. Want to apply for your Speaker Strategy Call to see how you can USE some of these ideas right away? Apply for your call here.

 

Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing for coaches, thought leadership marketing, marketing professional services, trusted advisor marketing, marketing for trainers, marketing coaching, selling professional services, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, doit marketing, do it marketing