In a recent presentation I shared the slide below depicting Marketing as the biggest swear word in the coaching industry. People just don’t want to embrace it. I actually think I made a mistake, it’s actually the second biggest swear word after sales.
Why is it that sales and marketing is so demonised in our profession?
If you’re anything like me you wanted to become a coach so that you could help people. If you’re a fitness or strength and conditioning coach perhaps you enjoyed training for your own health and performance, and wanted to help others achieve the benefits you yourself experienced.
If you’re a business or life coach perhaps you had a breakthrough of some kind and felt that you wanted to help others experience this. Or you realised that you have a ability to coach and help people get the results the are looking for.
Whatever you’re reasons, more often than not you didn’t get into the industry thinking you had to become a sales person, and a master of sales at that. In fact, very often when I talk to coaches about working on their sales process I’m often looked at like I’m the devil incarnate or something similar.
But the truth is you do, and before you get mad at me let me give you 4 big reasons why…
- People don’t always know what they need. If you want to help people you have to show them why and convince them of your worth.
- Based on reason 1 above, if you want to make the biggest possible impact you are capable of then you need to become a master at persuading people to work with you.
- You have a civic duty to persuade people to join your programme if you truly believe it is better than anyone else’s out there and you don’t want them to buy sub-standard services or products.
- If you don’t show your worth and persuade people who actually need your help there is an element of negligence on your behalf here. They might not get better, thats what we got into the industry for right?
It’s not enough to be a great coach, we must also become great marketers of that technical skillset so that people see what we can do for them.
So now that you are sold (excuse the pun) on why you need to get to grips with stuff where do you begin?
Go on a course?
Read some books?
Both good options. SPIN selling, Sell or be sold, Influence are all good books to take a look at.
It would be remiss of me to not promote my own product the ‘6 Figure Coach‘ which has a ton of detailed information on both sales and marketing to help you build your business.
But essentially you need to get in front of people, get on the phone and make it happen.
Here’s some steps help you bring your sales process together.
Your market- Who are your target customers? What are their pain points? What problems are you solving for them?
Your message- Get your compelling message in front of those people who need to hear it.
Your Consultation process- If you are on point with your market and your message then the people who raise their hands will at least be marginally interested in what you have to offer. All you have to do now is convert them from prospects into customers.
Set the Scene: When you meet with the person either in person or on the phone tell them what it is going to involve and what will happen at the end. Guide people through the process.
Pain: Talk about their issues and the pain they are experiencing. How it makes them feel and how they don’t want to be there for too much longer.
Explore: Take time to go through the options they are looked into, suggest alternatives and why they might a better option for them.
Empower: Once you have explored the options it’s time to empower them with the solution that is the best fit.
Decision: Get the person to make a decision on what you have offered them.
This process is the SPEED selling system. It gives you a framework and model to use with your prospects. You should see some serious improvements in your ability to bring people into your business with this sales system.
Don’t shy away from it, take ownership of your success. Remember you are here to help people and make their lives better. With that in mind it’s your duty to persuade them to come on the journey with you.
Need more help? Give me a shout on social media @brendanchaplin. I’ll be opening some new consultation slots in a few months time. If you want one contact me HERE.
I’ll leave you with one of the very best quotes out there. When times are hard this is the reality check we all need in my opinion.
As always I wish you absolute success with your business and careers. Make it happen.
My best as always,
