My Career Coaching Business Almost Failed. Here's Why.

I made a huge mistake when I first started my career coaching business.?

I went after the wrong buyer.?

This was a bit humbling. After all, I had had a whole long career of understanding buyers and creating content to match their needs.?

The worst part was, logically, the buyer I tried to sell to made a lot of sense.?

I wanted to help new professionals, fresh out of college and grad school, find the right career for them based on who they were as a person.?

Since they’d never really worked before, and college career centers didn’t do this deep dive with students, I thought I found the right market to target.?

But they didn’t agree. I couldn’t sell anything to this buyer.?

Wanna know why??

It’s because they didn’t think they needed my service.

College and grad students thought they knew what they wanted. They were confident that they were going to get that first job in their chosen field, and live happily ever after.?

In other words, matching who they were to the job they wanted wasn’t Their Major Pain.?

Their pain was focused solely on getting a job…any job. Considerations for The Right Job just weren’t top of mind.?

And so, after banging my head against the wall trying to get these folks to buy my services, I gave up going after them.?

I switched to a different buyer set: young professionals with 2-3 years experience.?

Their major pain point? They hated their first entry level job, and needed to figure out “what’s next.”?

My services were perfectly matched to what they wanted, and I ended up signing on more clients then I knew what to do with.?

The moral of the story is clear: know your target buyer’s psychological pain points. Spend time talking to them about their hopes and fears. Learn what frustrates them, then offer the right solution to alleviate the pain.?

And do this as early as possible in your start-up business journey, so you don’t waste time going after the wrong audience.?

Good audience research based on sound evidence of buyer pain leads to a higher chance of business success. My story proves just that.?

I offer full service product marketing support, including buyer persona creation, for start-ups and early stage companies. If this is something you need, let's chat.