The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
1) Their challenges get more uniform as you go narrower. Therefore, you can become an expert in their specific issues, instead of a generalist in everything.
2) You can research this particular group to learn more about what they need. And, you can test-market your wares to see what they are buying.
3) In your literature, you can appeal specifically to this group instead of to everyone. So your target market will be attracted to you instead of passing you by.
4) Your material (e.g. newsletter), can be targeted and of value to your target market, instead of a little bit useful to everyone (e.g. newsletter articles).
5) You can work out where they ‘hang out’, (e.g. health magazines), and focus your marketing campaigns.
6) When you want to get paid advertising in YOUR newsletter and on your web site, advertisers will actually be interested because you have a targeted, qualified audience for their product.
7) You achieve more credibility than someone who appears to handle everything.
You can create specific products and services that appeal to this group; e.g., Find your Career Direction form.
The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.
Coach: The other way I see it is an enrollment session. It’s a chance for you as the coach to create a gap for them. To really help them see the gap between what they want and what they have, so they are pulled forward and they’re excited. They are lit up. They see, ‘Yes, that’s what I want.’ and ‘Yes, I see it’s possible.’
Client: I don’t know that you’re actually creating the gap, because the gap is always there.
Coach: Well, yes and no. Sometimes they come to you and they’re not even sure what they want or they might want something, but it’s really not lining them up. They think, ‘Oh, this would be good. I want a relationship where we aren’t fighting all the time.’ and you say, ‘Well what would it be like to have a relationship where you are lit up all the time, and you are telling everyone how great your relationship is?’ You’ve just created a gap and that’s your job.
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
Who would benefit from your talk and ideally would pay for it (associations, clubs, charities, corporations)? Some will pay; some are just a training ground, testimonial builder, and a place to get individual clients! Source them from friends, yellow pages, people in the speaking industry, Chambers of Commerce, Libraries, a local chapter of The National Speaker’s Association (NSA). All will have a list of service groups, associations, etc… that want and need speakers. Joining a Toastmaster group is also a great idea, and they have a speaker’s bureau which supports their members in getting speaking engagements.
Call or email your friends and colleagues and ask them which clubs they belong to which might need a speaker.
You might provide ‘lunch and learns’ at companies and organizations. These are for free or fee, and are provided during the employees’ lunch hour. It is a way for the company to provide self-development/educational programs and for you to get in front of decision-makers and show them what you can do. Your friends within corporations might be able to put you in touch with the right person who organises or approves these within the company.
The following is an excerpt from the book Get Paid For Who You Are.
Now it’s time to refine your offer and target market into an “elevator pitch”. an elevator pitch is you telling someone what you do in the time it takes to ride an elevator. Sometimes 10- 30 seconds is all you’ll have to state who you are and what you can do.
The beauty of an elevator pitch is that, in addition to helping you say with ease and confidence what you do and for whom, it also allows others to spread the word about you. So, the next time someone asks your friend, “What does Mollie do?” Your friend replies, “She helps small business owners get free publicity” or, “She teaches families of cancer patients how to support their loved one and cope”.
Here are more samples of “sizzling” elevator pitches:
- I help start-up biotech companies bring life-saving drugs to market faster.
- I show you how to make pottery at home in 5 easy steps.
- I help women 45 and older recover from divorce.
- I help people who need to buy or sell used heavy machinery.
- I show people how to save thousands of dollars on their plumbing expenses, by doing it themselves.
- I connect hikers with the trails just made for them.
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
The most obvious point to remember is that coaching is not therapy, counseling, or psychology. In addition, coaching should not be confused with consulting or mentoring — there are subtle differences between each of these interventions. Whilst the coaching process may have originated in the field of psychology and intervention often follows some psychological models, the actual coaching process should not be mistaken for a therapeutic intervention. Some of the differences include:
- Mentoring:
The passing on of knowledge, experiences, and skills usually by someone within the company who is older and wiser. Usually more specifically career-oriented information. A mentor has normally achieved the goal themselves, while a coach may not have any experience in the given coaching area.
- Consulting:
Often using your own skills to improve a given situation, as opposed to developing the client’s skills to a level that can cope effectively with the situation.
- Therapy and counseling:
Tends to focus on feelings related to past events and processing such feelings. Coaching is oriented towards goal setting and encouraging the client to actively move forward. Tony Grant from Sydney University has said: “Therapy is like helping someone with a broken leg to walk again. Coaching is helping them to run the four minute mile”.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Jim Earley in 10 Super Coaches.
What training, experience and qualifications did you have when you started coaching?
Well, firstly I had some solid academic qualifications. Aside from those – although I had no specific coaching training – by the time I came to coaching professionally, I had:
- Taken one college class and one honors program on interviewing.
- Taken classes on interpersonal communication and non-verbal communication.
- Read every book David McClelland had written on motivation as well as others.
- Taken one year-long program devoted to the nature of listening.
- Spent five years developing an internal style of coaching as a swimming coach.
- Developed an approach to problem solving.
