Choice, The Magazine of Professional Coaching

Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.com
Value = Trust
Strong relationships are the new currency.
People are buying from those
they trust and they are moving away
from solving things on their own.
This means there is still business out
there—decision makers are giving it
to those who deliver value. Deliver
on your promises and consider providing
packages with “loyalty pricing”
when they send you more than
one client. This creates a deposit into
their “trust bank account”. Research
has shown that the best results come
from a combination of internal and
external coaching. Focus on your
most important relationships and
put emphasis on how you can support
their internal mandates.
The corporate environment is
hungry to find someone who will
truly listen! Polish your coaching
competencies and you are on your
way to being their trusted advisor.
Something to remember is that your
coaching skill-set is just one tool in
your toolbox. During the course of
your business you may find yourself
working with clients from numerous
industries and fields, in addition to
specializing in a specific area like
sales, or employee recognition programs.
As you accumulate these
experiences, you gain a collection of
best practices. Turn this knowledge
into tangible resources, coaching
themes, tele-seminar programs, and
downloadable resources. You will
soon become known as the expert.
You will be elevated from coach to
trusted advisor because you have
knowledge, wisdom and resources in
the areas that are most important to
your clients.
Using your core coaching competencies
as a foundation, carve out the
niches in which you have experience
and assets. While I don’t focus on a
specific industry, the blending of
business boost camps, leadership
communication, assessments and
employee engagement practices
“ Clients want access to one
go-to person who will support
them through a variety of
challenges.”
have led to relationships that extend
over many years. It’s to the point
where one of my clients has written
me into their business plan as both
their coach and a member of their
advisory board!
What led to this role was the conscious
choice to develop more tools
than just coaching skills and applying
a coach approach. Coupled with taking
care of important relationships
and being the “source for resources,”
my clients have made me their go-to
person. We’ve built significant trust
and this is especially important in
today’s business environment.
(Special note: although clients may
see you as their trusted advisor, it is
not because you give them advice; it
is because of the comfort you provide
in helping them select and act
on their own ideas).
Value = Variety
Leadership forums are the client’s
new jargon for what is actually group
coaching. Make sure you use your
client’s language and offer variety –
individual and group coaching,
workshop facilitation, speaking,
product development, subject-specific
coaching. Each one can be a
door-opener. And once inside you’ll
be able to educate the client on the
value of using your other services,
especially after documenting results
from the initial activity.
In re-casting your practice like this
you may find that you’ll enjoy this
profession even more. Client relationships
transform into business
friendships. Get clear on the qualities
of your ideal clients and go create
those trusted advisor relationships.
And, by the way, I do all of this
with a coaching business model that
is offered mainly over the phone,
three days per week, three weeks per
month. So, you don’t even need to be
physically present to become a
Trusted Advisor! Isn’t this a great
profession?! Make sure you know
your best business model and align
your offerings with this framework.
You may soon discover that you have
over 95 percent repeat and referral
business.
VOLUME 8 NUMBER 2
Coaching
&Consulting
33
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.com