I've Followed Processes - They Don't Work!

I spoke to an incredibly frustrated coach yesterday. She has spent a considerable amount of money, with 7 different people who told her that they could help her get paying clients but yet she has none. Each of these 'business coaches' said that they had a process that supported her to find paying clients.

This coach maintained that she has followed each process to the letter and they just don't work!

She has had two enquiries since June, she had conversations with both people and neither became a client because they both thought she was too expensive.

'The thing is' she said, 'I know I'm a great coach! My clients (the pro-bono ones she has had) have had such incredible results and their feedback was amazing. I'm just so frustrated with these different business coaches and their processes that don't work!'

Have An Ideal Client

We talked about having an ideal client.

'I have a niche' she said.

We talked about the difference between a niche and an ideal client, one towards whom absolutely everything that you say in your marketing is aimed.

'I've got one' she said.

We talked about the level of detail that you need to have about your ideal client and about how and why knowing this information about them is so vitally important.

'I know them inside out' she said.

Have A Consistent Marketing Message Aimed At This Particular Kind Of Client

We spent some time talking about how, as a coach, your marketing message needs to talk about the thing that keeps your client awake at 3am. That crucial thing that is the problem with which your coaching can help.

'I have that message' she said.

We talked about the importance of placing that message where your ideal client is (on the correct social media platforms in this case) and curating your followers so that you are building your audience.

'I do' she said.

Consistency Is Key

We talked about how important showing up is, even when (especially when) you don't feel like it.

'I am consistent' she said.

Something's Off

Here's the thing. If she was doing everything that she thinks she is, in the way that it needs to be done, she would be generating more enquiries.

Don't get me wrong, I feel for her. I speak to so many coaches and I know how much money you can waste by working with the wrong people. From buying 'proven marketing systems' and materials from overseas companies, to posting 5 times a day on a particular platform for 6 months and being scared to stop in case tomorrow is the day that you get an enquiry, I understand.

However, continuing to do something because you've paid for it, even though it's not working is probably not the best idea, wouldn't you agree?

Sunk Costs

If you've spent money, not got what you expected from it and you have no way to recover that money, it's a sunk cost. Sadly that means it's gone and you won't see it again.

I understand how bitter coaches can become when they have sunk costs. When they have spent money in good faith and not got the outcome that they want from it.

Some become so bitter that they walk away for good, and that's a shame, because their coaching skills are often excellent and they have something valuable to offer the world.

I also understand how hard it is to overcome the impact of sunk costs both emotionally and financially.

Follow Processes With Support

When Paul Hank and I started The Coaching Revolution, we started it from the point of view of having worked alongside a business whose coaches did not succeed. We knew that teaching a process and then standing back to let people go and implement it in their own sweet way didn't work. It's that thing about people moving further and further away from what they should be doing, without realising that they've moved.

We decided from the start that we'd be different.

• The support that our clients was going to be 1:1. It would continue for around 10 months on a 1:1 basis, and forever as part of our community.
• Our online community would be somewhere honest, where it's ok to have a bad day and it's not all rah-rah-rah.
• Our clients would be mentored, not handed a bunch of online videos to watch and have to make their own way.

And 3 years on, we know that it works. Our clients succeed. Their costs are not sunk costs.

And that makes me very proud indeed.

Want to talk? This is my diary.