The ICF Annual International Conference will be held Dec 2-5, 2009 in Orlando, Florida
The theme for the coaching conference is “Global Conversations: Inspiring individuals, Building communities, Impacting the world.” Registration opened in early May.
For more information visit: ICF Coaching Conference.
Before you start figuring out how to become a coach, take some time to reflect on why you want to become a coach. I previously shared, in the Why Become a Coach? post, the main answers I was given by fifteen coaches I contacted.
It’s easy to surf the web and talk to coaches about the profession of coaching in order to find out more about it. Going inward and finding out your ‘why’ is a more reflective process that some may be resistant to. Plus the true answers may not be apparent right away. You may need to understand the profession better and what your skills, expertise and talents are before you can get to the deeper answers.
Now that you know what your prospects want, you’re ready to start creating your products and services right?! Before you start consider the following question:
What are the intended results you want to achieve with each of the products and services in your funnel?
It’s beneficial to determine this before creating or offering the product or service as your answers will influence your marketing strategy.
Before you start creating new products and services, find out what your prospects want. Most people create the product only to find out that their target market isn’t interested in it. It may not address their market’s most pressing challenge or the price point may be off. Then the product creator either has to find a new target market that does want the product or ditch the product.
An ideal target market is hungry for the solution to their challenge and is willing to pay for the solution. It’s much easier to give your market what they want than to guess what they want.
Here are four ways to find out what your target market wants:
If you’ve been on the internet long enough, you know that everyone who visits your website or finds out about your services will not hire you as a coach.
Say only 1% of prospects hire you as a coach, what happens to the other 99%?
Do you have an email newsletter visitors can subscribe to so you can develop a relationship with them? Do you have other products and services they can purchase at a lower price?
Let’s face it. $250+ a month for a coach is a big investment for most people, especially if they’ve never experienced the benefits of coaching before.
While some prospects will intuitively know that you’re the right coach for them. Others will need to get to know you better before spending their hard-earned money. You need to prove you’re credible and can support them to get the results they want.