To be successful as a coach or consultant (or indeed as a trainer) in today’s competitive market is a tall order; the reality is there is so much competition, and so many ‘me-too’ coaches and consultants out there. The net effect of all the down-sizing, delayering, and simply the ‘I’ve had it with corporate life-itis’, means there are seemingly millions of coaches and consultants everywhere. Organisations that provide training and accreditation in this area have a field day: they are able to accurately state that this is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, and yet ignore the implications of what this means when so many are scrambling to get on board the gravy train.
What it means is that it is difficult to make serious money doing it and only a few will, may be 4%. Most of the rest will be working hard and increasingly billing less to do more. I well remember some 12 years ago when I discovered from a client who declined – on this occasion – to buy into my open time management half-day training course for the modest fee of £99. Why? Because the local Further Education College were running just such a course for £49 and theirs was a whole day! I need hardly explain why this struck me as a no-win competition for me: I had become a commodity, had not properly positioned myself and the value of what I provided, and frankly was about to lose out to a whole bunch of salaried people who were never going to be paid on results.
But that was twelve years ago and since then one has learnt a lot, especially using a wonderful Revenue generation model which is really powerful if you want to become a coach or consultant who has leverage and makes money. I learnt this from my friend, the great Steve Jones. There are seven stages.
First, you need a clear vision of what you want your business to be and to become. Begin with the end in mind in fact. This includes factors like the life style you wish to embrace, as well as the level of revenue you wish to generate, and the kind of quality you want to provide to a defined audience. Have you defined all these things?
Second, you need to be clear about what your ‘product’ is. This means answering the question: what solution am I providing (and to whom)? And if your solution is entirely ‘service’ driven, as many coach and consultancies are, then how do you derive residual income from its delivery? Put another way: are you simply trading your time for money? If you are, then you haven’t really got a business: you are self-employed. That may be what you want – but go back to Vision. Is that what you want? Using a product like Motivational Maps as part of your service offering can make a huge difference to revenue generation using what we call the IMPs process: in other words creating Internal Map Practitioners within organisations who then go on purchasing maps from you. This simple technique led me from an average 4 month tenure working with a client to a 4 year span instead!! How much extra income was that?
Third, you need a strong position in the market place. Another way of putting this is: a brand. What do you stand for, what are your values? Above everything I like Jay Abraham’s take on ‘position’, which is so relevant to coaches and consultants: be pre-eminent in your niche. Here again having a unique product like the Map can make big difference in how the client perceives you; the language and the metrics automatically start positioning you as a deep expert in motivation and performance.
Fourth, you need to have an effective process to generate and manage leads. Of course, without a strong solution-offering and compelling position in the market, lead generation will be wasted. But lead generation is absolutely central. Who are your champions? What databases do you have? What is possible via the web and social media? What networks do you belong to? And what about ‘supermarkets’ – have you found any that can distribute your tin of beans?
But having got the leads, we need to convert them into sales, and immediately we have a problem: many coaches and consultants whilst technically good at what they do find they cannot sell effectively. This then requires study, practice and emulation of others who are best in class. Of course getting leads to complete a Map before seeing you is a brilliant tactic for understanding what the prospect wants at a sub-conscious level and so pitching the service in those terms that most appeal and meet their hot buttons.
Then sixth you need, all being successful in the first five stages, to manage the factory! You have so much work on, the problem of coping with it becomes pressing. Quality issues arise, short-cuts occur. Do we employ others? Have associates? How do we build a sustainable system of capable delivery? One aspect of the Maps that is relevant here is the sub-licensing capacity that enables coaches and consultants to bring on board associates, a team even, and which gets them to ‘stick’ – basically because you have become the primary source of Maps and its expertise.
And finally, how do we exceed client expectations so they buy again, so they provide referrals (back to lead generation), so that they experience the wow factor and we are well beyond the commodity game? This is about quality, the very issue that success and expansion at point six compromises. But this is our challenge. Maps are a premium product that wow virtually any open-minded prospect who does one; this again is a massive competitive advantage in the market place.
If you are a coach or a consultant, then, or even just somebody running your own business, ask yourself these seven questions. Rate yourself, out of ten for each one. How are you doing? What do you need to focus on if you are going to have a thriving business that generates residual income even when you are not working? If you are looking for ‘more’ from your coaching or consultancy business, then you can really benefit from using Motivational Maps in your toolkit.
The Mapping Motivation Series 