Eight fatal marketing mistakes that coaches and consultants make
Eight fatal marketing mistakes that coaches and consultants make
The responses from general subscribers demonstrated, once again, that executive coaches have lots of room to improve the way they present and market themselves.
Because the Institute for Business Growth focuses on helping people learn best practices in business development (along with how to be a fine executive advisor, of course!), this article presents the eight most common marketing mistakes the executive coaches make.
Mistake One: Me, me, me. Many coaches turn prospects off by talking about what they do and their credentials before considering the potential client’s situation and needs: “I am an executive coach…I am certified with XYZ.” Prospects are more interested in your understanding of their problems and proof that you can help them get results. Check your marketing collateral and the way you present yourself to clients and prospects. Do you use the word “you” at least 3X more than you use the word “I”? You should. A good marketing message is essential and needs to describe the problem you solve, the results you get (and how you get them), the benefits of your results, why you are unique and better, and proof that your claims are true.
Mistake Two: Lack of focus. Too many coaches think they can help any executive in any company. This may be true, but your potential clients perceive things differently. In most cases, they prefer an executive coach who knows their language and can help solve their industry-specific problems. If you focus on a targeted market (like an industry, demographic group, specific geography, specific job function, specific situation), you are more likely to set yourself apart.
Mistake Three: Marketing is not a top priority. It’s not fair, but the best executive coach does not always get the job. You can’t wait for the phone to ring or assume that, because of your credentials, prospects will automatically see your value and hire you. To succeed in this competitive business, you must make business development your top priority. Most executive coaches are not willing to dedicate a set amount of time each week, or every day, to marketing — and their pipeline suffers.
Mistake Four: Relying on word of mouth. If you get referrals through word of mouth, good for you; you are doing something right. But you are also losing out on many potential clients and opportunities. Word of mouth is a passive strategy relying on luck and the good will of busy strangers/colleagues. It is not sufficient. You should instead develop proactive systems to have a stream of referrals come your way. To do this, you need to know the right time, conversations, and tactics for systematically generating referrals, and put them into place.
Mistake Five: Using the wrong strategies to get visible (or not using the right strategies enough). You don’t have to spend lots of money on advertising as an executive coach. The way to get visible in your market is through educational marketing. This means writing, speaking, issuing press releases, and conducting simple research/surveys that educate people about their most pressing problems while also establishing your credibility and value. Too many coaches don’t do enough educational marketing.
Mistake Six: A lousy web presence. Most savvy prospects will check out your website before they hire you. Your web presence should be the hub of your business development efforts. It should provide plenty of articles (or a blog), free reports, offers to join a free tele-conference, offers to subscribe to a newsletter or receive a mini-course via email autoresponders. That way, you can collect email addresses from prospects and follow up with them — both personally and automatically via autoresponders. You should also drive traffic to your website by publicizing it and through search engine optimization, which can result in a stream of inquiries from qualified prospects.
Mistake Seven: Poor follow up. Coaching is a relationship-driven business. Just as almost no one gets married after a first meeting at a bar, clients generally don’t hire coaches on the spot. You have to nurture relationships and follow up — both with people who find your website and give you their email address and with more personal relationships. At the same time, many coaches do a poor job following up with existing clients and colleagues to generate referrals and additional projects.
Mistake Eight: Fuzzy results. Ultimately executives hire us in order to get results that they consider to be significant (e.g., increase revenues, decrease costs, increase entity value, increase retention of key employees). You need to be able to articulate the kinds of results you get, how you get them, how you track them over time, and then prove that you really do get results via testimonials, glowing references, and case studies. Many coaches can’t articulate the results they get, and so they don’t get as many clients as they otherwise could.
Are you making any of these mistakes?
Eight fatal marketing mistakes that coaches and consultants make - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Neitlich's Website.
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Recently we sent a note to our mailing list — students, alumni, and general subscribers — asking for any interested executive coaches to reply to an opportunity presented to us by a large coaching firm. Priority for these types of opportunities usually goes to our students and alumni, but this time we needed more coaches than we had on hand.
The responses from general subscribers demonstrated, once again, that executive coaches have lots of room to improve the way they present and market themselves.
Because the Institute for Business Growth focuses on helping people learn best practices in business development (along with how to be a fine executive advisor, of course!), this article presents the eight most common marketing mistakes the executive coaches make.
Mistake One: Me, me, me. Many coaches turn prospects off by talking about what they do and their credentials before considering the potential client’s situation and needs: “I am an executive coach…I am certified with XYZ.” Prospects are more interested in your understanding of their problems and proof that you can help them get results. Check your marketing collateral and the way you present yourself to clients and prospects. Do you use the word “you” at least 3X more than you use the word “I”? You should. A good marketing message is essential and needs to describe the problem you solve, the results you get (and how you get them), the benefits of your results, why you are unique and better, and proof that your claims are true.
Mistake Two: Lack of focus. Too many coaches think they can help any executive in any company. This may be true, but your potential clients perceive things differently. In most cases, they prefer an executive coach who knows their language and can help solve their industry-specific problems. If you focus on a targeted market (like an industry, demographic group, specific geography, specific job function, specific situation), you are more likely to set yourself apart.
Mistake Three: Marketing is not a top priority. It’s not fair, but the best executive coach does not always get the job. You can’t wait for the phone to ring or assume that, because of your credentials, prospects will automatically see your value and hire you. To succeed in this competitive business, you must make business development your top priority. Most executive coaches are not willing to dedicate a set amount of time each week, or every day, to marketing — and their pipeline suffers.
Mistake Four: Relying on word of mouth. If you get referrals through word of mouth, good for you; you are doing something right. But you are also losing out on many potential clients and opportunities. Word of mouth is a passive strategy relying on luck and the good will of busy strangers/colleagues. It is not sufficient. You should instead develop proactive systems to have a stream of referrals come your way. To do this, you need to know the right time, conversations, and tactics for systematically generating referrals, and put them into place.
Mistake Five: Using the wrong strategies to get visible (or not using the right strategies enough). You don’t have to spend lots of money on advertising as an executive coach. The way to get visible in your market is through educational marketing. This means writing, speaking, issuing press releases, and conducting simple research/surveys that educate people about their most pressing problems while also establishing your credibility and value. Too many coaches don’t do enough educational marketing.
Mistake Six: A lousy web presence. Most savvy prospects will check out your website before they hire you. Your web presence should be the hub of your business development efforts. It should provide plenty of articles (or a blog), free reports, offers to join a free tele-conference, offers to subscribe to a newsletter or receive a mini-course via email autoresponders. That way, you can collect email addresses from prospects and follow up with them — both personally and automatically via autoresponders. You should also drive traffic to your website by publicizing it and through search engine optimization, which can result in a stream of inquiries from qualified prospects.
Mistake Seven: Poor follow up. Coaching is a relationship-driven business. Just as almost no one gets married after a first meeting at a bar, clients generally don’t hire coaches on the spot. You have to nurture relationships and follow up — both with people who find your website and give you their email address and with more personal relationships. At the same time, many coaches do a poor job following up with existing clients and colleagues to generate referrals and additional projects.
Mistake Eight: Fuzzy results. Ultimately executives hire us in order to get results that they consider to be significant (e.g., increase revenues, decrease costs, increase entity value, increase retention of key employees). You need to be able to articulate the kinds of results you get, how you get them, how you track them over time, and then prove that you really do get results via testimonials, glowing references, and case studies. Many coaches can’t articulate the results they get, and so they don’t get as many clients as they otherwise could.
Are you making any of these mistakes?
Eight fatal marketing mistakes that coaches and consultants make - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Neitlich's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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