2012 - Inner Firewalking

Value Your Services

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

I said earlier in this book that you should not let fee stand in the way of a client when you are starting a practice. However, I did not say you should give coaching away for free.

If I approached you and said: “I really want you to be my client. Please be my client, I won’t charge you anything, and you need to spend 30 minutes per week with me”, how attractive would that sound to you? There is no sense of value in this for you; it’s all for me.

However, if I said: “My regular coaching fee is $300 per month, but my coach has told me to take five people on at a big discount for my own training and development. How would you feel if I charge you only 50% of my fee for the first two months?”

Another thing: the act of paying money is a great way to demonstrate commitment or that the client is willing to take the coaching seriously. If you offer the coaching for free — aside from it not sounding attractive — you may have problems with the client sticking to the coaching sessions, doing his or her fieldwork etc. Basically, it’s an issue of respect.

Andrea Molloy on Building A Practice

The following is taken from David’s interview with Andrea Molloy in 10 Super Coaches.

What were the biggest doubts you had in your early months?

My biggest fear was not getting enough clients to make a living – I focused on my business plan and kept positive! Sure, it was a process, I didn’t launch my practice and then immediately get inundated with clients on day one, it was a process of carefully building up public awareness and trust.

What was most disheartening for you while building your practice?

Often I met people who were cynical and disinterested in coaching, dismissing it as a new-age warm fuzzies fad. I had to consciously hold my head high and be confident abou the power of coaching and remind myself that these people were not my ideal clients, while not judging them in return.

What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?

The success stories! It’s an incredibly rewarding career (especially when you partner with a client on their road to success), and it also allows you a flexible, autonomous work environment. This has enabled me to write my first book, whereas if I had been in a regular full time ‘day job’ I doubt I would have progressed so quickly in my own creative goals.

Changing Careers

The following is an excerpt of David’s interview in Top Coaching Techniques.

Ingrid: So that is the case for some people – it does require a great deal of study or skill development before they can move into their actual career – so it’s not as simple as just switching from one to the other. What do you say to those people?

David: That’s a good point. What I would say is, see if you can stick your big toe in the water. So, if for example, with medicine, it takes a long time to become a qualified doctor, instead of going and studying to be a doctor for many years to see if you like it, see if you can get a job as an assistant somewhere in a hospital or around a doctor’s surgery. That way you can start getting involved with it. Get videos out, start kind of immersing yourself in that area to see if it feels good for you. Then maybe there’s an interim step.

Develop Your Plan for Approaching Your Targets

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

Will you e-mail the groups? Followed by a call? Cold call? Letter plus call? Note: You might score a speech/lunch time talk, particularly if you mention a solid fee and let them know you would discount if they provide a testimonial and couple of referrals if they are pleased with the talk.

But likely — if they are willing to put your information on file — you will get a call down the track or be considered for their conference. See if you can find out when they will be thinking about a speaker for their conference or event, and make a note in your diary to call then.

Write out your action plan, and include ‘by when’ you will complete each item.

Philip Cohen on Building Your Practice

The following is taken from David’s interview with Philip Cohen in 10 Super Coaches.

What was most disheartening for you while building your practice?

Going through the training and having a coach of my own let me see the power of coaching. I expected everyone would see what I saw and would immediately want to be coached.

I needed to learn two important lessons: some people will take longer to see the benefits of coaching and some people never will. Once I understood this, I learned to be more patient with prospects. I also learned to spend my time with qualified prospects instead of everyone I met.

What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?

As a CPA, I worked closely with clients. But there were certain parts of their lives that weren’t part of our conversations. As a coach, I began working more holistically with clients and the results were great to see.

Ernest F. Oriente on Success

The following is taken from David’s interview with Ernest F. Oriente in 10 Super Coaches.

What do you feel is the biggest key to your success?

Far and away, getting so very clear that I wanted to identify my perfect clients and live in their world. The clarity I had on that has been unwavering. It just got better and I got better at doing it, and building better alliances.

I never have lost that focus, I’ve never changed that which is to say ‘here’s who I want to serve, how deep can I live in their world’, and the deeper I did, the more business that came and the more services we provided for them. And the more referrals that came from that. That success has been a formula.

Archive

Yearly Archive for 2012