by Dr. Nathan Baxter
There is no question that to be great at coaching you have to have “coaching passion.” Meaning, you have an internal natural drive to be intentional in investing in others. This is the one thing that all coaches have in common… we are naturally curious and interested in the success of others and we are willing to help them in their journey.
However, your passion for coaching is not enough for you to experience real coaching success. Success being defined as having an on-going stream of referrals because of the level of excellence you brought to your former coaching engagements. True, it does take a while to work with enough people for the referrals to start coming in, but after 1-2 years we usually see our coaches begin to land clients as a result of their working with others.
If you want referrals, you have to get serious about answering “yes” to the following questions:
- Are your coaching resources organized so that they are simple to review and pass along to your clients?
- Do you have a marketing plan that consistently communicates to others about your coaching services?
- Do you use a sales funnel to help you organize your marketing work each day?
- Do you follow up in a timely manner after each coaching session with a summary for your client to review?
- Does your online presence present a clear message as to who you are and what you have to offer?
I will admit, most of the list above is not something I enjoy but I know for a fact that these business building activities are directly responsible for our success in coaching.
I encourage you to take a fresh look at your coaching business and identify areas where you need to improve and then make a plan to spend the time your coaching business deserves.