7 Key Mistakes of Coaches

8/17/2019 7 Key Mistakes of Coaches

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7 Positioning Mistakes

Coaches MakeThat Make Them Loose Clients

and Money

FREE COACHING BUSINESS STRATEGY REPORT

BY UGIS STRAUSS


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My story…..

My name is Ugis Strauss; I am coach, entrepreneur andleadership/management trainer. I set up my first business when I was18 – I was teaching foreign languages and had 50 teachers workingfor me. When I was 24, I set up my second business - internationalmanagement training company Nordic Training International thatnow in Europe specializes in delivery and design of business gamesand simulations to corporations.

I came to coaching back in 2000 after taking trainings at Erickson

Coaching International in Vancouver, Canada.

I was very much like you – I loved coaching. I had occasional clients. Iwas so effective working with them…. they got great results and…never came back. I did free coaching intro sessions to get new clients,they also didn’t work that well…. I was educating people on what iscoaching….. that didn’t bring much clients either …. And I wasashamed to take money for my coaching as well; I thought it was…too much.

I almost decided coaching … wasn’t for me. I was earning muchmore delivering leadership trainings and I just didn’t see that potentialin coaching.

Once, on a sleepless night, a thought came to me – what…if to takethe model how I sell high ticket consulting and training and apply it tocoaching… – setting value-based fees and going for long-termcontracts. I tried and you know what - it really worked!!!!!!

I learned to sell on one-to-one meeting. I signed up my third “serious”coaching client at 18.000 euros per year immediately followed by thefourth at 30.000 euros per year. And by time I got better at this – Icreated such a sequence of coaching questions at intro session thatreally created client’s desire to work with me.

But it worked only when I had meetings with potential clients, rightpotential clients. But there were not a lot of those meetings; it was anoccasional process I couldn’t control.

I continued to search…… It took me a lot of time – several years until Ifinally learned marketing. Marketing that worked. Learned to attractclients using a process I can initiate and control. And it WORKED!!!!!

What is funny, economic crisis came immediately after. Profits of mymain training business soured to zero. And on one lovely Januaryevening, I had a fire at my house.


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It burned down. Completely. With a kid on my arms, I had to jump through asecond floor window. I landed on concrete, broke my back and both feet.For 4 days I did not know whether I would ever be able to walk again,doctors just avoided answering that…

But I took my decision. 20 minutes after the jump. That I will NOT be a victim.Irrespective of what will happen to me, I will NOT be a victim. I cannotcontrol what has happened to me, but I CAN control how I feel and whatmeaning I assign to what happened.

I started to put my attention to look for positive intentions of this situation. Andmore positive intentions. And more… And what to do….. I thought about theworst case scenario – how to earn my living, pay mortgages, cater for family,if I will stay in bed, if not being able to walk, if my business goes bankrupt,especially without me present.

The answer came rather fast – coaching. Yes, lying on the bed. Yes – worstcase scenario. Yes – I WILL SURVIVE! You know what a difference it makeswhen you accept your worst-case scenario and find out ways to survive eventhere…

I did my first group coaching session from hospital bed straight on the nextday after the fire. It was already scheduled and I didn’t see any reason tocancel. After that, I used all my marketing and selling skills to attract clientsand build coaching practice. I spend my first month just lying, two moremonths I could move around just by crawling. But you know how calm it feelson the inside when even under such circumstances you are confident aboutyour finances…

Life is grateful. I started to walk two times faster than I was supposed to. I amfine, getting even better; I will even be able to ski soon! And I am continuingto coach a lot. And business also survived. Usually it turns out better than your worst-case scenario!

When meeting other coaches many of them were asking what I do to attractclients and build my business. At a certain point, I moved from just answeringthose questions to actually coaching other coaches to build their business.

That is why I wrote this report about seven positioning mistakes coachesmake and I am giving it away. I want you to be successful too! Enjoy!

Ugis Strauss


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Mistake Nr.1 Undercharging

We are actually creating much more value than we are charging for.Much much more. Moreover, we are not just undercharging. We areseverely undercharging.

Most dreadful coaching client experience….

Some time ago, I met a coach – fine nice woman from Edinburgh in acoaching conference in London. She was sitting next to me and wewere talking business. She said that she recently had had her mostsuccessful ever coaching experience with a client. The person was a

construction company owner and due only to her coaching he got a1 billion construction contract. She said it was her most successful andmost unsuccessful coaching experience ever. Why most successful?Because it took only 10 coaching sessions for him to do his internalwork, belief change and other preparations to be able to go to bidfor a 1,000,000,000 pound contract and actually win it. Why mostunsuccessful? The guy because of her earned at least 50 million to hisbottom line and she was charging 150 pounds an hour. Yes – just 1500pounds. You cry as a coach about yourself after those experiences.

Being afraid to raise our fees

Though even we create great results valued ten and sometimeshundred times more than what clients pay we are afraid to raise our fees. We look at the market, see many people charging even lessthan we do and get discouraged. In addition, since we are not fullybooked, we are afraid to raise fees. We are afraid to scare off existingcustomers and not to be able to attract the new ones.

What to do? Value based fees

It all starts with you and your psychology. Fees need to be based onvalue not on market or your time spent. Like trial lawyers do. When youmake your customer compare the value you will be creating to the

investment in coaching (yes - investment, not fees), you can chargemuch more. When you go to a heart surgeon, you do not want thecheapest! You want the person who you trust delivers results – you stayalive! If you position yourself like that, solve problems that create realvalue (usually in the outside world not internal world), clients will notgo to shop around for a cheaper coach. Because, if they trust youcan really do that, value based fees are just fair. In addition, themagic of coaching lies in fact that we set our fees based on value butthe client is the one to do the work .


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Mistake Nr.2. Selling Process

not ResultsWe are too focused on our methodology….

Mistake number two is selling process and not results the client will begetting. Moreover, this quite often comes from working using singlemethodology. Coaching is a methodology, hypnotherapy is amethodology, and energy work is a methodology. We even identifyourselves – who we are – by this one methodology. I am nutritionist, Iam coach, and I am hypnotherapist.

When speaking to a potential client we can bore him to death bytelling everything about coaching, we call it educating. Whatcoaching is what coaching isn’t, how coaching works etc….

Clients do not care about methodology

The truth is clients do not really care about our methodology. No, theydo not. They care only about themselves, their problems and their results. Even more. I think clients do not need coaching! Yes! If youwould offer your potential client a choice between a)6 monthcoaching with appointments once a week that would get him his

desired result or b)a magic wand methodology – you wave it you getit (and pay by credit card ), guess, which choice will he make????

Our website does not speak to clients

The same happens on our website. We write a lot about coachingand your credentials, certifications and courses taken, little or nothingabout client results. Quite often, we do not even measure them….

What to do? Sell results not process!

When selling travel do not sell the plane, sell destination. Speak aboutresults the client will be getting. Ask your client, what results he wants

to get. He is smart enough, it is his world, he will know what what toanswer . Go for external results. Yes, clients will appreciate beliefchange and getting past limitations but they will pay on average 3times more for results in external world rather than internal. And theywill be much happier with the coaching relationship too.


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Mistake Nr.3. Selling

Coaching Session bySession

Selling session by session generates a lot of stress for the client

Next mistake is selling session by session. The first thing we should know is that

selling session by session creates a lot of stress for the client. He actually

needs to take purchasing decisions repeatedly. Do I really need to go for the

next session? Maybe cope on my own? If he sees you once a week, it means

52 buying decisions per year! Buying the exact same stuff (coaching

session), it is boring, at least…. What is worse, since your session usually is

time limited, there is also a ticking clock in customers head! If I have a

question at the end of the session, should I speak about it? And, if I do, will my

coach charge extra for that? Or, should I wait until the next time? It definitely

diminishes the quality of work, thus results, and tightens the whole

relationship.

Selling session by session also puts a lot of tension to you

Yes, it is a lot of stress put on you as well. There is a lot of pressure on you to do

better each session than the previous one, in order to sell the next. You are

not allowing yourself to make mistakes in the coaching process, and

because of that doing even more of them. Financial insecurity – what if this

client will stop? Emotional downtime, when clients postpone their sessions,

get ill or go on holiday. Thus, you do not perform at your best, clients do not

get your best, they feel your insecurity and the whole coaching process

creates less value than it could.

What to do? Sell long-term contracts!

I do not speak to my clients about much else than yearly contracts. I help

coaches build their coaching business and raise their income substantially.

This is not a task to be done in a single session or even in a month. SometimesI may go for a 6-month contract, then to be renewed, if it is easier for the

client to commit. But not much more. The key benefit is that your client needs

to take his buying decision just once! That is it - once. He relaxes on that, you

have your financial stability. Actually, a lot of marketing stress of getting new

and new again clients goes away this way. If this is a big stretch for you, you

do not know, how to retain customers for even a half year, you can start with

3-month packages and work your way up from there.

How many clients do you need for absolute happiness?

In many cases, you need as little as 10-15 clients PER YEAR to be absolutely

happy and fulfilled as a coach! You may still charge monthly. I offer myclients a choice whether they want to be charged monthly or yearly (with a

discount). That is not a buying decision any more, that is paying the bills!


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Mistake Nr.4. Solving Small

ProblemsSmall problems have much less value for client

Next mistake is working with small issues or solving small problems.Small problem means less value for your client. Less value for your client means less income for you. Small problems also mean shorter engagements. Usually it is hard to devote 6 month to solving a singleconflict. In addition, people who solve small problems quite oftenare not happy with your fees. Any fee is is too expensive for them. Andalways will be, because there is much less value in small problems

than big problems!!!!!

What to do? Don’t solve small problems!

It is simple. Do not solve small problems! What to do if customers youhave come to you to solve small problems? First, try to convert theminto solving bigger problems, going for bigger changes in their lives.And it is not that hard, it is just asking the client to chunk up. Ifsomebody has come to you for dating advice on how to meet aman, you can offer to work the whole process: how to meet, how toprepare yourself, how to date, how to build relationship that lasts…..

What to do if you cannot chunk up? Do not change your act -

change your audience! Start attracting new customers who have bigproblems!!!

What to do? Solve BIIIIIG problems!

Actually we want to solve your client’s the top-of-the mind problem.That problem, why she cannot get asleep at 2am in the morning.Ultimate pain. Why? Because those clients are much more committedto solving their problem and getting results. They will work hard. Whenthey will get results, they will be very happy customers. And gladly payyour check and refer you to their friends.

Attraction marketing

Traditional coaching is about having your customer flow and solvingwhatever problem they have. In order to be successful with sellingcoaching you do the exact opposite. You define a very specific BIGproblem you want to solve and attract only those customers, whohave that problem and want it to be solved.


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Mistake Nr.5. Spending Your

Energy on Marketing thatDoesn’t Work

How clients buy coaching?

The way clients buy coaching is actually very simple: They somehowhear about you, they go through a free consultation and then theyhire you. The first process is called marketing, second sales. Thepurpose of marketing is to get potential clients in to your free

consultation. Do you have this process in place? Let us start withsimplest: Do you offer a free consultation at all at the end of your blogposts, articles, public speaking engagements? Do you proactivelysearch for opportunities to speak or to write that could be ended withan offer? Have you built a value funnel in the internet that drivespotential customers to your free consultation? No? Too bad….

Hope marketing – waiting to be referred to…..

Quite often, we just wait to be referred to. Nevertheless, we need toremember that even if our customers wanted to refer us to somebodyit is difficult for them. Why? Well - what exactly should they say to their friends about you? Tell the same long vague story about coaching

methodology that you were telling them (they will be much worsethan you will)? Have you created something (a referability kit) thatcould be passed on to your happy clients that would make referringyou to their friends for them easy? Are you proactively disseminatingthis kit?

Energy spent on inefficient writing

For many coaches a lot of (marketing) energy goes to writing articleseither for publishing them on their website or social media. And theyabsolutely neglect the key issue here – if somebody reads our (great)stuff, he forgets us immediately 99 times out of a hundred. But insteadof thinking, on how to capture email addresses that pass through our website, we invest our energy in writing another article…… Instead ofwriting to our subscribers (who want our stuff) we just waste energy inthe air ….

What to do?

Start doing marketing that actually works. And there is just onemeasurement for that: if your marketing brings in leads for a freeconsultation, it works. If it does not – forget about it. Speak, write, andteach! Do free consultation offers. Measure you efficiency! Improve!Create something of value, that could be passed on by your clientsand a follow up process. And get at least a subscription form, thatwould try to capture email addresses of people passing through your website!!! Last but not least – be PROACTIVE in this. You will not get

booked solid jus by waiting to be referred to!


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Mistake Nr.6. Not doing free

introductory sessions(consultations) or doingthem wrong

Free sessions were right, you did them wrong

Many of you did those sessions but then stopped. You decided theytook toooo much energy and the results (new client sign-ups) werenot that great either. Many bargain hunters came just because thesession was free. Then, to show you best work, you asked the client for a problem to be solved. Well - for something to be solved in onesession it will be a micro-problem, from client’s perspective. Actually,he chose something that cannot really be solved in one session. Andyou did the impossible – your worked longer, harder and actually didsolve it in one session. You even did not make an offer, because therewas so little time… The client was soooooo happy….. Did he ever came back? No. Did he ever referred somebody to you? No. And youstopped…..

Free session structure

Well, free sessions are crucial for your sales funnel, but you did themwrong. First, there is no point solving a micro problem to prove howgood you are. Instead, we need to focus the client to the big pictureof his life. To find his BIIIIIIIG top of the mind problem why he is awakeat 2am at night. Let the client focus as much on goals as on pain andchallenges that stop him from reaching those goals. Because peoplemuch more often make buying decisions to avoid pain rather than toachieve pleasure. And it NEEDS to end with an offer (that promises tosolve client’s big problem), because otherwise there is no point doing

the free session. And in order to do that we need to follow our structure of conversation, not client’s. That’s the price clients pay for having this coaching session free.

Improve!

With the time eventually, you will get better with this. Elicit problemsbetter. Speak results (not methodology) better. Make better offers.Close more clients raise prices. And sometimes you will prequalifyclients better so, that only your ideal clients make it to the freeconsultation.


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Mistake Nr.7. Not Having a

Specific Niche and RightPositioning

The last mistake is not being specific about your positioning. When youposition yourself as life coach it is not nearly specific enough to attractclients – there are thousands of life coaches out there and it is hard tostand out among them. The same goes for business coach or financialcoach (a bit better though). By identifying yourself as a coach, you

are saying you are performing a certain process. Since all coachingfor the client is virtually the same, they are shopping for the best price,and that is where you definitely do not want to be.

How to identify yourself?

What positioning is right? Positioning yourself by results you achievenot processes you do. “Getting your ideal weight and keeping it”coach is much better than “health coach” or “life coach”. “Gettingyour ideal weight and keeping it for business owners coach is evenbetter”. When meeting another coach in person I quite offer wouldintroduce myself as: I am the one that doubles triples or sometimes 10-

x income for coaches. You see, I do not even mention that I am acoach. If I speak to a coach, I get his immediate attention because Ispoke about result he wants. The usual response? This is interesting.How do you do that? And the conversation can start get going….

Being specific is good for you

What is better for a niche – dating or dating for truck drivers? Initiallyyou want to go for dating in order not to leave everybody out. Butthere are thousands of dating coaches and when a potential clientsees you among them, the chances of being picked are really small.On the other hand when you have said dating for truck drivers, your chances to be seen immediately improve. First, when a potential truck driver client sees marketing of many coaches, whom will he refer to?You, because, you have instant authority just by your positioning.

Second, you know immediately , where to advertise to reach truck drivers – what magazines they read, social media etc.

Right niche formula

Specific audience + specific problem= right niche. We are the onesthat choose a specific problem we want to solve for specific clients,and just attract clients who want to have this done……


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About the Author

Ugis Strauss, MA, NLP helps coaches double,triple and sometimes 10-x their income bybuilding successful coaching businesses. He hasover 20 years of coaching, training, simulationsand game design experience. Ugis is alsoFounder and Board Member of Nordic Training

International (NTI) - international businesssimulations, games and training organizationworking in 4 countries and employing over 25consultants and trainers. He holds a Bachelor’sdegree in Mathematics and Master’s Degree inEuropean Affairs from College of Europe, Bruges,Belgium. Ugis’s bright personality, structuredapproach, sense of humor and deepcommitment to people’s success, buildsincredible results for his clients. Some of his

worldwide corporate customers include CocaCola, IKEA, Stockholm School of Economics,SunInbew, Telia and many others. He with hiswife Sveta and two sons lives in Jurmala, Latvia,and coaches&consults worldwide.

You can reach Ugis at [email protected]

7 Key Mistakes of Coaches

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