The Sales Letter is the New Brochure
Back when I was a coaching student, trying to learn everything I could about coaching as fast as I could, I remember spending hour after hour with a phone stapled to my head, taking teleclasses on coaching skills, personal development, business and marketing. It was overwhelming - and fun! I was growing at a super-fast rate and morphing into a good coach, thrilled with the possibilities of my new profession.
And at my school, in marketing classes, the thing they warned us about over and over was a common mistake that unsuccessful coaches made when they tried to market their businesses.
They said too many coaches hide out in their offices creating beautiful brochures about their coaching businesses instead of getting out and meeting people and telling them that they are a coach. In other words, they created time-consuming tasks for themselves, that they could excuse as an important practice-building activities, that allowed them to stay safely within their comfort zones - and hidden away in their offices. Meanwhile, they “didn’t have time” for more effective activities, like simply going to social events and saying “I’m a Coach”, whenever someone asked, “What do you do?”
What does this have to do with you? Well fast forward several years. You probably don’t hear much about brochures anymore, but most coaches I talk to have plans for products, membership sites, books, etc. Sometimes it seems like they’re doing everything but coaching. And when they launch those products, they send out their sales letters. The good ones make you want to buy their stuff. The bad ones make you want to block their emails.
I’ve written some sales letters. (Yes, I know you’ve received some - my apologies!) They are incredibly time consuming and frequently ineffective. Many just seem slick and full of hype. Most people are highly sensitized to marketing hype and throw up their guard whenever they see it. Not a great way to build relationships with potential clients.
So it occurred to me recently that sales letters (and products, memberships, websites) may have become the new brochures for some coaches. They can be a great excuse to hide out in your office and not coach. And they can come between you and success.
Flashback to my days as a coaching student: The brochure lesson really hit home for me one day at a social function at my church, when an obnoxious man who seemed to insult everyone he spoke to, handed me a beautifully designed coaching brochure and proudly announced, “I’ve been coaching all my life!” “No kidding!” I thought! Nobody was interested in him or his brochure.
People buy you, not your brochure, your sales letter, your website, or your marketing funnel. If you’re doing those things and they aren’t delivering for you, then you may be traveling down the wrong road. (I’m not saying those things are bad. I’m suggesting they might not be for every coach.)
If coaching is truly your calling, you’ll be naturally attractive to potential coaching clients whenever you show up like a coach: open, empowering, interested in others. And you’ll be at your best, which is also very attractive. On the other had, if you’re not a talented marketer or salesperson, you’ll do a mediocre job at those things. Not attractive. Stick to what you’re good at.
There are as many paths to coaching success as there are coaches. Most of them involve some discomfort. None of them involve hiding. You need to be making contact with lots of people in a sincere, authentic way. And nothing is more powerful than face to face.
So be honest with yourself: Is what you’re doing working for you? Are you building mutually beneficial relationships that connect you with potential clients, everyday, and are you inviting those people to work with you? Are you trying a variety of methods to attract clients - or just the ones that are comfortable?
Building a coaching business isn’t hard. However, we can make it hard if we try to use tools that work for somebody else, but not for us.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2006
Link: Seth's Blog: What consumers want.
Seth Godin poses a question---What do consumers want? He thinks they want:
interaction
expectations exceeded
respect
I am inclined to agree with him, and add
experiences
to be heard
What do you think?