Life and Business Coach

SEPTEMBER 2003

IN THIS ISSUE.

1) WELCOME

2) COACHING TIP - DON'T COACH THE GREMLIN

3) PRACTICE BUILDING TIP - TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR PRACTICE

4) COACHING IS IMPORTANT - RESPECT YOUR WORK

1) WELCOME FALL

Hello everyone. I hope you have had a wonderful summer. Out here in the Pacific Northwest we have had one of best runs of weather in recent memory. And I am happy to say the Mitten family has been making the best of it, getting our fair share of water sports, relaxing and generally just charging our batteries.  

I hope you enjoy this first newsletter of Fall. The Coaching Tip addresses a common challenge new coaches face in dealing with their clients. And the Practice Building tip comes from a draft of a book I am writing, MARKETING BASICS FOR NEW COACHES. It addresses the most common problems I see in practice building.

If you have any ideas or requests for articles, please just drop me an email.

2) COACHING TIP - DON'T COACH THE GREMLIN

Let's face it, we humans are complex.  There is part of us that is incredibly generous, compassionate, creative, resourceful, patient and optimistic.  

And there is another part of us - which typically comes out when we are stressed, tired, or scared - that is less sanguine.  In coaching we call this small, fear-based part of us the Gremlin.

As a coach, (or a manager coaching your staff), be on the lookout for the Gremlin.  If you are struggling with a client, or if they show up lacking energy, angry, fearful, skeptical, unfocussed or impatient, chances are their Gremlin is rearing its ugly head.  And if this is the case any coaching you do will be falling on deaf ears.  You may be pitching, but they will simply not be catching. YOU SIMPLY CANNOT COACH A GREMLIN.

If you are an experienced coach, any of these indicators are simply reminders to evoke your Gremlin coaching skills (name the Gremlin, coach around it, appeal to your client's values or call forth the "real" client).  

If you haven't yet learned how to work with a Gremlin, explore ways to help the client get back to a centered, more levelheaded, place before you attempt to proceed with their agenda.  And to build your Gremlin managing skills, be sure to read Richard Carlson's book Taming Your Gremlin .

3) TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR PRACTICE

Are you struggling in your practice?  Not getting the number of clients you want?  Here are a few points to help you troubleshoot your marketing efforts:

• Are you accurately qualifying prospects?  Perhaps you should check your demographic assumptions. Are your clients in the prime age range for coaching (30-60)? Do they have a combined family income of at least $50K? Are at least one-third of your prospects open to the idea of coaching? If not, perhaps you want to investigate other niches.  
  

• Are you running out of prospects? Only 6% of the population would make a good coaching prospect. However by my calculation this translates into 1000 - 2000 clients for each and every coach. If you are running out of prospects review your list of contacts to identify new people you can give a complementary coaching session to. (Each person knows approximately 200 people on a first name basis.) Also, consider other contact strategies that raise your profile to multitudes of prospects. Workshops? Writing an article? Giving a speech?
  

• Are you giving prospects a powerful sample session?  At least 1 in 3 qualified prospects should be saying yes to your offer of coaching after a good sample session.  If not, consider tweaking your sample session by doing some role-playing with your coach. Or you can take some more training or do a few supervisions with a coach you respect.  We are all blind to our greatest weaknesses, and we are resistant to the changes we would most benefit from making. 
  

• Are you delivering maximum value? Consider asking your clients and prospects for feedback.  What did they benefit most from?  What would they have liked to see more of?  
  

• Are you reasonably organized in your prospecting and contacting?  In 5 hours of marketing you should be able to; identify 6 qualified prospects, contact them with an offer of a sample session, deliver the sample sessions to the approximately 3 prospects out of 6 who will accept your offer and ask for the business or a referral. If your productivity is lagging, perhaps you can discuss your system with your coach, or consider using some other client contact strategy.  
  

• Is your pricing on target for the particular group of prospects you are targeting?  (Remember the 20% rule. If more than 20% of your prospects object to your pricing, you are priced too high.  If less than 20% complain, you are priced too low.)  
  

• Are you putting in enough time?  Most coaches require between 2 and 5 hours of focused marketing to get one new client.  This assumes the time is spent actively engaged in productive marketing activities, not just daydreaming or redesigning your business cards for the 10^th time.  (Many new coaches lament their lack of clients only to admit they average less than 30 minutes of marketing a week.)  
  

• Is your Gremlin your marketing manager? Are you telling yourself; marketing is too hard, I am not ready yet, there aren't enough prospects out there, I can't do this, this will never work or I am not good enough?  Whatever you are thinking will greatly influence your ability to sustain the kind of effort, (and unattached, focused and positive approach) you will need to fill your practice. It is natural to have doubts, but as soon as you notice repetitive, unproductive, negative thoughts attend to them.  Center yourself, reconnect to your reasons for being a coach, and develop your own empowering mantra. (My Mother used to tell me; slow and steady wins the race.).    

The bottom line of troubleshooting your marketing efforts is that if what you are doing is not getting results, try something else. There are only so many minutes in a day, and if you are not filling your allotted workday with paying clients, it is costing you big time. (Let's say you're an average coach who charges $300 per client a month.  If you would like a 25 client practice and are currently stuck at 10 clients, you are missing out on $4500 in extra revenue a month - an extra $54K a year.) 

And if that isn't a big enough incentive to take your marketing seriously, think of all the people who are struggling, not living their dream or otherwise not benefiting from being coached - because they can't find you. Most coaches are called to this profession because they like to make a difference.  You can't do that if you're not coaching.

4) COACHING IS IMPORTANT 

Shaquille O'Neal may get paid more for putting a round ball through a hoop, but the work you do changes people's lives and helps realize dreams.  Coaching is important work. 

Nobody else in your life may understand what coaching does, but you do.  And if you respect yourself, and give coaching the respect your life's work deserves, others will begin to take it more seriously too.

Happy and productive coaching,

Steve

Life Coach Steve Mitten B.ApSc, CPCC, MCC helps individuals and independent professionals evolve and make profoundly satisfying and successful changes.

Visit Steve at www.acoach4u.com