While the Internet is filled with reports of Life Coaches earning
six figure incomes, the annual Sherpa Survey of coaches reports the opposite.
Here are the results of the most recent earnings report of coaches: Executive
Coaches: $ 97,245, a slight increase from 2013. Business Coaches: $ 59,410,
down from $70-75K, Life
Coaches: $ 45,260, down from $ 50,005 .
As coaches, we can delude ourselves into
believing what the marketing coaches and training institutes are telling us or
we can accept reality and address the need for drastic changes in the coaching
industry. I am a successful coach with a six-figure income for many years. I
certainly cannot speak for all practitioners, but rather from my own personal
experience and what I have done, in hopes that one or two ideas may help a
colleague develop his/her coaching practice.
In my opinion, actual success is far
more credible than speculations on the part of marketing coaches whose
motivation is to sell their services. I would like to share some of the
strategies that have worked well for me and some of my major failures.
There is absolutely no substitute for
competency
Demonstrated competency is by far the
single most effective marketing strategy. While being competent is key, your
public relation efforts must be designed to let potential clients know of your
expertise.
You must select a coaching niche that is
needed and wanted by clients with the ability to pay. The opposite of
specializing in a specific niche is to claim expertise in a wide range of
coaching practices. Rarely will potential clients trust a “jack of all trades”.
I came to coaching after 35 years of
successful private practice as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. I
practiced in an exclusive section of Los Angeles (Brentwood). My niche was
treating children and adolescents. My competency in this niche coupled with my
office location and marketing resulted in my six- figure income and
professional recognition.
Evidence based intervention is being
actively sought by business and industry
Making claims that cannot be supported
objectively is not working in Life Coaching. It is not realistic to claim that
any coach can ask powerful questions that will lead to a client accomplishing
his or her “dreams”.
One of the most successful coaching
models currently in use is Emotional Intelligence Coaching For Impulse
Control. This model is used by most Health Care organizations for
“disruptive physicians”. Disruptive physicians are essentially physicians whose
behavior at work suggests a need for coaching in anger management/impulse
control.
All coaching clients who select this
model are provided with a comprehensive EQ-I-Emotional Intelligence Assessment
along with two client workbooks and other ancillary coaching material. After
completing six months of coaching, each client completes the Post Assessment
that demonstrates the degree of change during the coaching.
Emotional Intelligence as a core
practice strategy can actually be used for Life Coaching, Executive Coaching as
well as Business Coaching. There is a need for assessments by all coaches.
Marketing is continuous and includes much more than paid advertising
Coaching is not well understood by most Americans including trained
coaches. It is important to remember that you are selling a service and that
service is defined as some form of coaching. You are also selling
yourself. As uncomfortable as the last
sentence may be, it is reality.
It is important to write articles, books, blogs, and participate on
as many social media sites as possible. Teaching community college courses on
your niche and providing free lectures to interested audiences are also useful.
In the late 1980’s, Anderson & Anderson, APC hired a Public
Relations firm to advise us how to market our psychotherapy practice in Los
Angeles. We paid $10,000 for one full-page ad in The Los Angeles Magazine.
From this one ad we received three calls, one from the California State
Psychological Association, one from a psychotic man who did not have insurance
and one from a psychologist calling to congratulate us on such an impressive
ad. I am not convinced that paid advertisement works for coaching or
psychotherapy.
Below are some of the free Public Relation opportunities that have
come our way based on our perceived competency:
The Anderson
& Anderson Curriculum has been reviewed locally, nationally and
internationally, and has been featured on KCET Sessions, NBC’s Starting Over,
NPR, and KCAL’s 9 on The Town, Chicago Tribune, London Sunday Times, The Voice
TV Danmark, New York Times, Baltimore Sun News, Toronto Star News, ESPN, San
Jose Mercury News, Cover, Los Angeles Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle,
Brentwood News, REEL TV, Entertainment Weekly, Patient/Doctor Journal, Los
Angeles Magazine, Long Beach Daily Breeze, Casino News, NASW News, Business
Week, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Washington Post, Scrubs Magazine as
well as an hour documentary on the BBC.
Office location determines your client demographics
As is the case of many other businesses, location is extremely
important for coaches. Since coaching is not yet well received by the general
population, post office addresses or home offices do not lend legitimacy to
your practice. Even if most of your practice is provided via Skype or phone, a
Beverly Hills address is more likely to encourage the reader to continue on
your website as opposed to a Watts or Compton location.
Middle class clients will support an upscale location while wealthy clients
will not consider services provided in a low- income area.
Finally, an active website with a blog along with a long and short
term marketing plan are also needed for practice success in coaching.
Anderson & Anderson, APC is the major provider of Emotional
Intelligence Coaching for physicians and other professionals.
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