Why Did My Coaching Programme Launch Fail?

Have you discovered Clubhouse yet? It's the new social media app that's audio only. In reality, it's like LOTS of chat show radio programmes all hosted in one place.

Discussions that are happening on Clubhouse right now as I write:

• For musicians and producers; COOP House
• How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Wealth
• Entrepreneur Mindset -v- Employee Mindset
• PTSD Is Real
• Crushing Limiting Beliefs, Ask A Coach

There are tonnes more too, I just picked a selection for illustrative purposes.

Show Time!

Last Sunday, and again last night, I had the pleasure of co-hosting a Clubhouse 'room' (which is how these individual chat shows are referred to).

On Sunday we talked about building a coaching business in general and had an hour of Q&A from coaches.

Last night, we had a 2-hour show called How To Identify Your Ideal Coaching Client and this is what I want to talk about in this article.

Coaches Are Not Usually Marketers

It was very clear that the coaches who joined the show are not marketers. One by one they asked questions and they were all very similar. The basic question was this

I'm a great coach, I know this because my (non-paying) clients get tremendous results from working with me. Why then, will no one sign up to my coaching programme?

When I asked individual coaches about the outcomes that their programmes gave, they talked about the removal of limiting beliefs, the client journey, the transformation, the 'aha!' moments. In short, they talked about the coaching process in 'coach-speak'.

People Don't Buy Processes!

Here's the problem. No one buys a process. People buy outcomes.

Let me repeat that. People buy outcomes. They will not get excited about a process, no matter how exciting we coaches think that outcome may be.

So people won't buy your coaching programme if you talk about the process that your programme will take them through. It's boring to people who are not coaches.

That last sentence is the rub. Coaches get very excited about the coaching process because not only have we seen it transform people, we have been transformed by it ourselves.

The kind of language that the coaches on the show last night were talking about demonstrated, without exception, that they have only been talking about the coaching process in their marketing, not the outcome for the individual who might buy.

But It DEPENDS!

I can almost hear that most of you are thinking that you simply cannot define an outcome, because coaching is by its very nature personal and individual. It follows therefore that the answer to the question ‘what outcome can people expect from working with you?’ has to be ‘it depends’.

I’m about to drop another truth-bomb. Nobody buys processes and (sadly) they don’t buy ‘it depends' either.

Marketing -v- Coaching

Remember, your coaching business has two distinct halves:

1.     The Delivery Half. This half of the scale – as it were - is where your coaching qualification sits. It’s where your other practitioner and facilitation qualifications sit. It’s the side upon which every cent you’ve spend on your personal development to make you into the fabulous coach that you are sits.

2.     The Business Development Half. This half of the scale is where all the skills you need to create the opportunities to actually do the delivery half sit. The marketing, the sales, brutally; the stuff that coaches would rather not do. Without these skills – which are utterly different from delivery skills – you will not find clients who want to buy your coaching programmes.

Talk About Outcomes, Not Processes!

The secret to finding clients who want to work with you is to clearly, and simply define the outcome that they can reasonably expect from working with you.

To do this, you have to pick one kind of client in order to talk about the outcome. Otherwise you’ll be listing dozens of outcomes and your potential client won’t be bothered to wade through what you’ve written.

The one kind of client that you choose (and let’s be clear, pick one that you love working with) is called your Ideal Client Avatar (ICA). That ICA is the focus of your marketing.

Want Some Help?

If you’re scratching your head and wondering how on earth you’re supposed to turn what I’ve said into your marketing, may I suggest that you join Coaching Republic? It’s our free community for coaches who want to understand how to build their businesses. It has lots of resources and training videos for you to dig deeper into the other side of the scales of your business.

I look forward to seeing you there.