The key to understanding how to attract coaching clients is to look at the issue from the client’s point of view. Why do people choose one coach over another? What are they really looking for and what makes the difference to their choice?
I asked a group of people how they chose their coaches and then matched the responses to create the following diagram.
The first thing people look for when hiring a coach is specific knowledge and experience. Clients want a coach who has achieved goals or had experiences that give them special insight into their issues. This knowledge and experience, which I call the coach’s niche, is one of the easiest ways for the client to assess the coach’s value to them. For coaches this means that how we define our niches and how we describe our accomplishments is key to our success in attracting clients.
The second set of criteria that people mentioned was what I call presence. When people are interviewing prospective coaches they want to feel fully understood and comfortable with the style of the coach. People will assess this criteria based on their gut feeling when they interact with the coach. When it comes to longer term coaching results (the key to keeping clients), the coach’s presence is the most powerful factor and it acts like a catalyst for the effectiveness of all other aspects of what the coach delivers.
Coaching skills is another criteria prospective clients use when comparing coaches. Coaches with highly developed skills and an effective tool kit will be able to impress prospective clients by helping them make concrete progress in their trial coaching session. But for coaching skills and tools to be effective, the coach’s presence is still the foremost requirement.
Sometimes a coach’s outlook is the key attraction for a client. I’ve had clients hire me simply because they notice that my can-do attitude and positive focus will have an immediate impact on their results. Also, clients may be looking for someone with new ideas or a completely different perspective to stimulate or inspire them.
The baseline requirement for clients is that they trust and respect the coach. Clients are concerned about the integrity, honesty, supportiveness, trustworthiness and confidentiality of the coach. They want a coach that they respect and are proud of. Usually they will assess these criteria based on their intuition, but they will also pay attention to others’ opinions and will sometimes ask for references. If they do not trust and respect the coach, any amount of value in other areas will not convince them to hire that coach.
In summary, coaches wishing to attract clients should clearly describe their niche, narrow or broad, so that prospective clients understand what special knowledge and experience they have to offer. The coach’s presence will be assessed intuitively by the client and is critical to the clients choice to hire and to keep the coach. The coach’s skills and outlook influence clients’ choices through the impact they make during a trial coaching session. Coach’s must have a high level of integrity to ensure they are worthy of the trust and respect of their clients.