Wednesday, December 21, 2005

SPECIAL REPORT: Mistake #3

Mistake #3: No Niche

They try to be everything to everybody. They believe that by offering general coaching services to everybody and anybody that their market will be larger and their potential for making money will be enhanced. Unfortunately this is simply not true! Think about it for a second. Why do people employ the services of a coach?

To have their problems solved. Whether the problem is work encroaching on family life, business not making enough money, difficulties transitioning into later life; wanting to develop a full relationship with a partner; becoming a better parent or a more effective manager and leader at work; people employ the services of coaches to have their problems solved. If you have a very specific and personal problem, would you prefer the assistance of a generalist, or a specialist – someone that has specific knowledge, skills and experience in assisting people that have experienced the same problem you have? Of course you want to deal with the specialist. Coaches need to focus on niche markets.

A niche market is a group of people that share a common problem, are willing to invest to have that problem solved, and are already talking to each other about it. Focusing your business (and brand) on a niche:

*Allows you to construct a powerful, one or two sentence, Unique Selling Proposition (USP) about your business for prospects to clearly identify with.
*Assists you position yourself, your business and brand in the marketplace.
*Allows you to become an Expert that prospects seek out to have their problems solved.
*You become recognisable in the market, and don’t have to ‘chase’ prospects.
*Means you can totally dominate a market.
*Allows you to target your market much more effectively.
*Means you can develop niche specific marketing processes built around an education-based marketing methodology.
*Allows you to reduce your marketing spend and target your prospects more effectively.
*Dramatically increases your chances of getting referrals. Doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from coaching outside your niche or restrict you from having several niches.

posted by LCI @ 2:53 PM 2 comments

SPECIAL REPORT: Mistake #2

Mistake #2: Using Sales-based marketing.

Coaches using Sales-based marketing as their primary marketing strategy are practically doomed to failure before they begin. Nearly all coaches use a marketing methodology that's a sales-based marketing methodology. This is understandable as most traditional marketing methods are sales-based. We're all impacted by sales-based marketing at every turn - on TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio - everywhere. And when coaches research marketing methods, they are most likely to learn about traditional sales-based marketing methodologies - print ads (in newspapers, yellow pages, journals, magazines etc), direct telephone calls, radio, flyers, direct mail letters, etc.

But there are several extremely powerful forces at play against coaches employing a sales-based marketing methodology. Most coaches invariably feel uncomfortable delivering a 'sales pitch.' Coaches generally have better technical skills than marketing skills. They're therefore uncomfortable talking about themselves and endorsing the quality of their product. This means they don't close, and comes across to prospects as a general lack of confidence in themselves, and their product and service.Sales marketing is extremely expensive - narrowing your net margin on your service. The more you spend to get a client the less net profit you'll retain at the end.Generally people are very sceptical and defensive against sales approaches. This exponentially increases the barrier of making a sale.

When you employ a sales-based marketing method, most prospects have already closed themselves off to learning about your services due to their natural tendency to put up a defence against sales-based marketing.There is no trust and rapport built through a sales-based marketing approach. For a prospect to buy from you, there needs to be an element of trust. Your prospect needs to trust that you can deliver on your promises and that they'll gain a positive return on their investment. This level of trust is extremely difficult to build through a sales-based marketing approach. You build no reciprocal obligation on the prospect to investigate your offer or purchase from you. It's a natural human tendency to reciprocate in kind what's been given to you. You can not build reciprocal obligation through sales-based marketing.
You attract price sensitive shoppers and 'tyre kickers' that take up a lot of your time and result in extremely low conversion.

It's difficult to maintain contact with prospects for long enough to build rapport and trust - it generally takes 4 to 6 contacts before a prospect will buy from you.Instead of Sales-based marketing, you should be using Education-based Marketing. Education-based marketing is simply the process by which you attract and convert highly-qualified clients by giving them what they want - valuable information and advice that solves their problems - and removing what they don't want, a sales pitch. Education-based marketing is generally undertaken by delivering Credibility Marketing techniques such as public speaking, information based teleclasses, publications, networking, hotlines, free educational give aways (such as reports, assessments, tools, ecourses), etc. As opposed to sales-based marketing, education-based marketing means you give your prospect what they really want - highly valuable information. And you take away what they don't want - a sales pitch. You maintain your dignity and feel good about yourself as you never make an effort to sell. Your brand recognition and respect will skyrocket!

Education-based marketing is the ultimate brand builder. By positioning yourself as the 'expert' or 'specialist' by solving, through your education products, the most pressing issues your niche confronts. You become the only logical choice in your market. You can establish yourself as a credible authority as prospects depend on you as a reliable source of valuable advice.You significantly reduce your marketing costs - and can in fact get paid to market yourself. This vastly compounds the net worth of every client you attract - you can actually earn double the net profit with only half the clients!You don't have to seek out new prospects - prospects come to you (to have their problems solved). You can maintain (mutually beneficial) contact with your prospects through the sales process because they don't feel pressured by a sales pitch and value your information and advice. You reach prospects early during the first stages of their decision making process. You attract 'moderately interested' prospects that may otherwise be afraid to call you but are not afraid to request your information. Due to the high level of trust and rapport built early on you'll be perceived as an adviser, not a salesperson, making added-value sales dramatically easier. You dramatically increase your referrals from prospects as they feel loyal to you - due to a relationship built on trust and reciprocal obligation and your efforts to help them - even if they don't hire you! And your referrals will come much earlier in your relationship. You gain compounded advantage as your information is passed freely between prospects within your niche.

You gain a competitive advantage because not many competitors are using education-based marketing. You achieve a highly leveraged advantage as you can put forward your marketing even when you are not present. You save valuable time as you often are delivering your message directly to your most highly qualified target audience. As you can see, education-based marketing is the exact opposite to sales-based marketing, and can make an extraordinary difference to your business, and your enjoyment of 'doing' business. So, ask yourself, "How much education-based marketing am I currently doing?" and "How can I develop a marketing plan significantly comprised of education-based marketing methodologies?"

TIP: Employ education-based marketing principals and build a low barrier sales process around your education products and services.

posted by LCI @ 2:47 PM 0 comments

SPECIAL REPORT: Mistake #1

The 20 biggest mistakes coaches make...
...and how you can avoid them to create the lifestyle you desire in the 2nd fastest growth industry.

Don’t do anything else until you read and fully comprehend this report… it’ll help you avoid common pitfalls and assist you develop a highly successful coaching business. There are numerous coaches in the market earning over $100,000.00 per annum. And yet, there are also coaches struggling to etch out a living. Why is that? That’s the purpose of this Special Report.

Mistake #1: Lack a plan. It’s true what they say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” As seemingly obvious as it seems to create a plan to develop your coaching business, so many coaches starting out fail to do so. You should have a Business Plan, Marketing Plan, Financial Plan and Operational Plan (often a thorough Business Plan will cover all these elements). Your plans should be well thought out. And you should have a professional, preferably someone that’s travelled the road you’re embarking on (such as a Mentor), review your plan to give you constructive feedback.

posted by LCI @ 2:46 PM 0 comments