The
Five Biggest Marketing Problems for Coaches
“Realise
that the business you are in IS the
business of marketing your services!”
- Dan Kennedy
According to recent research from BrandingYou!,
coaches say they
have five main problems with marketing. Have a read and see if any of
these are familiar.
1. Marketing is a necessary evil
Some coaches believe that marketing activities are
a necessary evil
or an undesirable add-on to their hours spent coaching in front of
their clients.
These coaches dislike marketing, especially the
promotional
activities like networking and cold-calling that they see as somewhat
invasive.
This may stem in part from the perception that
they shouldn’t boast
about their services. Or that being seen as
’sales-y’ is a bad thing.
These coaches often completely neglect or minimise marketing activities
– with predictable results.
2. Inappropriate marketing tactics
Other coaches have had bad experiences using
promotional tactics
that are inappropriate for coaches. They’ve used
techniques that are
suitable for mass market products, but are not suitable for more
relationship-based professional services.
Knowing which tactics are effective for the
promotion of
professional services is vital to the success of your
practice.
The
kinds of promotion that work well in the mass market, like advertising
in the media do not serve coaches well. So the results for
coaches
have often been costly and disappointing.
3. Belief that marketing=sales or promotion
It is clear that some coaches see marketing as
synonymous with
promotion or with sales alone. Naturally, true marketing is
far wider, and
starts much earlier in the product lifecycle.
And it’s the initial activities of
determining who your target
market are - and their wants - that are the most
valuable.
Those
coaches who do not engage in those high value-add initial activities
will find their marketing is like a ship with no rudder.
4. Lack of knowledge of specific marketing strategies
A significant number of coaches are not clear on
what marketing
strategies they should be adopting. They are not aware which
specific
strategies are the most successful for coaches.
This lack of knowledge
often results in a lack of action – or the expending of
energy and
money on ineffective strategies.
Even those who know successful marketing tactics
often do not use them effectively, or with sufficient persistence.
5. Insufficient time marketing
While no coaches believe that clients will just
fall in their laps,
many coaches starting out do not realise quite how much time they need
to spend on marketing activities.
It’s clear that many coaches simply do
not spend enough time
consistently marketing their practices.
The result of this is the lack
of the cumulative effect of relationship building with
prospects. And
without a relationship, your prospects are unlikely to turn into
clients.
Remember the quote at the beginning of this
article?
“Realise that the business you
are in IS the business of marketing your
services!”
- Dan Kennedy.
If you’re not spending all your time
marketing
when you’re not actually coaching - what are you doing for
your
business?
Conclusions
With such a diverse range of common marketing
problems, it’s not a
wonder that so many coaches have so much trouble in this area.
From the discussion above, the problems are partly
based on coaches’
attitudes to marketing, partly on the lack of specific marketing
knowledge and partly on insufficiently developed marketing
skills.
So which of the following do you have problems
with in your practice?
1. Marketing is a necessary evil
2. Inappropriate marketing tactics
3. Belief that marketing=sales or promotion
4. Lack of knowledge of specific marketing
strategies
5. Insufficient time marketing
If you were to decide to resolve just one
area, which would it be?
Taking action
Knowledge of the issues you face is one thing, and
taking action is another.
So, why not ask yourself the following questions?
1. What insights
have I gained as a result of reading this article?
2. What will I now
do as a result of reading this article?
3. What is the one
thing that you do today
from this article that will help you?
4. What three
things can you put into place this week
as a result of reading this article?
5. What would it
be like for you to have implemented these three things?
6. What specific
problems will they solve?
7. What will you
do, precisely?
8. By
when?
Alun Richards helps coaches find and reach their coaching niche.
Discover yours with Alun's free mini-course, "Discover Your Coaching
Niche", available from: http://www.nichecourse.co.uk
© Copyright Alun Richards 2007. All Rights Reserved. You may
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