Whether you're a chiropractor, an exterminator, a carpet
cleaner, or a professional organizer, you've amassed a
great deal of information in your field or industry. You
have two primary targets to whom you can market this
information:
--to your client base in the form of in-depth or additional
training or information about your topic area (a 3-hour
health-oriented program for chiropractic clients, a 2-hour
"ABC's of Organization" seminar for professional organizing
clients, etc.), or
--to others in your industry who want to have the in-depth
knowledge that you have (carpet cleaners want to learn how
to clean tile and grout as an additional service offered by
their business) or who want to learn your business secrets
(7 Steps to Attracting Clients into Your Chiropractic
Practice).
A coaching program is perfect for either offering. In a
coaching program, your primary goal is to take your clients
from where they are to where they want to be. So, if
you're a professional organizer, your coaching program,
which teaches professional organizers how to fill their
practices, could easily target new professional organizers
who are currently struggling to find clients. Get the idea
here?
I've watched my clients develop coaching programs over the
years, and I've discovered that there are 7 elements to
creating a successful coaching program. They are:
1. Target Market: Who is your target market for this
program? The ability to target a defined group of
prospects will make it so much simpler to market your
coaching program. Understanding key characteristics of
this market, such as knowing in what professional
associations they hold memberships, the magazines and
newsletters they read, and the discussion groups to which
they belong will help you "reach out and touch" this group
on a regular basis.
2. Your Niche. I define niche a little differently than
others. I use the term niche to refer to the specialization
you will use to reach your target market. For example, if
you're a residential cleaning company who's had a great
deal of success in building your business through referral
marketing, then you'll want to create a coaching program
that teaches other residential cleaning companies how to
build their businesses fast by mastering referral marketing
techniques.
3. Core Message. What is it that you do better than
anyone else in the world? Where have you been successful?
How can you best convey this information to others? The
answers to these questions are your core message. Your
core message combines your target market (residential
cleaning companies) with your niche (referral marketing)
along with the results you'll provide (have a waiting list
of customers). So, in this example, the core message for
this fictional cleaning company coaching program might be,
"Discover how residential cleaning companies create a
waiting list of customers through successful referral
marketing." Sounds compelling, doesn't it?
4. Your System. Now you need to document your system that
helped you get from point A to point B to point C. In a
coaching program, people want to buy a series of steps or a
system and they want to have some idea of what those steps
are or what's in the system. That doesn't mean that you
have to give away all of your program secrets in your
marketing materials, but you do have to disclose enough
information so that they can clearly visualize themselves
going through that system to reach the level of attainment
they desire. If you can give them a realistic number of
steps over a period of time, (your 9-step, 90 day process,
for example), you'll have a much greater chance of
enrolling enthusiastic participants in the program.
5. Coaching Model. How do you want to deliver this
program? Will you conduct group coaching sessions of 10
participants per group over a teleconference bridge line?
How about an email coaching program in which you send out
weekly lessons and offer to meet twice a month with your
participants on a teleconference line to answer questions?
Will you take only 1:1 coaching clients at a premium price?
Or, will you do all three? There are a myriad of ways to
deliver a coaching program. You need to discover the one
that's the best fit for your style and will be most
appealing to your target market.
6. Signature Coaching Program. Your signature coaching
program is the one that emerges from combining your system
with a particular coaching model. In the fictitious
cleaning company coaching program I've been using, the
signature coaching program might be, "Get More Clients
Through Referral Marketing Coaching Program: 90 Days to
Creating a Waiting List for Your Residential Cleaning
Company." In the marketing materials for your program, you
would further explain your 9-step process that is delivered
in 3 group coaching calls per month via a bridgeline over
the next 90 days.
7. Your Marketing Funnel. Once you've created your
program, now you need to determine how it fits into the
market funnel for this segment of your business, what your
longer-term plans are for attracting participants into the
program, and then selling them an advanced version when
they complete your initial program. For example, for the
cleaning company coaching program, you might get
participants into the marketing funnel with a low-cost
ebook or ecourse, with the upsell being the 90-day coaching
program. Once they've completed that coaching program,
then you offer to work with a limited number in a 1:1
setting at a premium price, or offer an advanced version of
the program, which would take them to the next level. Or,
perhaps you turn the 90-day program into a home study audio
course and you offer a live version of the program only
occasionally. You don't have to have all of these pieces
mapped out to get started, but it's helpful to have a plan
in place to help you market this program.
Adding a coaching program to your mix is yet another way to
create multiple streams of income for your business. If
you have found success in implementing a particular system,
more than likely there's an audience willing and eager to
pay you for your learning and experience.
----------------------------------------------------
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
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