Coaching: Communicating What Service You Provide

Coaching is unique because it makes a special promise:
transformation. At the root of any desire for personal
development is the expectation that, every time they have an
encounter with their coach, they have some how changed from
the person they were into the person they more prefer to be.

Instead of focusing your communications, this includes all
marketing materials as well, on subject areas or benefits,
concentrate on lives -- the kind of person you help create.
This isn't merely an issue of who they can become; it
includes values, ethics, the sense of personal mission, and
what people want to accomplish within their life times. In
this way, you can reach beyond the practical considerations
within the decision making process to speak to the
individual underlying core: a person’s dreams.

Here are a few ways to make your communications more
personal, and directed towards their dreams, thus, making it
more appealing and attractive:

1. Speak and Write to Their Values

In any coaching communications, two of the most important
words you can use are "we believe." Even the most practical
personal development desiring person believes in something.
Tell prospective clients what your coaching stands for so
that they can evaluate whether they share your coaching
values, which is the same as your personal values if you are
solo.

This step helps filter that would most likely not be a match
anyway.

After all, in a country crowded with coaches, your values
can be your greatest distinction. Maybe your coaching
encourages an entrepreneurial spirit through projects or
creative approaches to familiar problems or challenges.
Some people prefer the word challenge, so I included both.
Put your coaching values front and center.

2. Connect Benefits to Ambitions

Describing what people are going to learn, such as living
their lives by their values or building a strong personal
foundation isn't enough; you want to show how coaching helps
them reach their goals. Instead of writing mere
descriptions, write stories with the prospective coachee as
the potential hero.

Tell readers how your fieldwork prepares them for real-world
experiences, how your group coaching hosts relationship
opportunities, how your teleclass sharpens them, changes
their critical-thinking, or decision-making skills.

3. Use Endorsements and Case Studies

Selecting a coach can be intimidating and overwhelming even
for the most courageous people. An endorsement, in an ad or
printed material created for sales, shows how your coaching
welcomes and works with people just like them.

Case studies is a step up from endorsements by actually
describing in some detail the transformation story -- how a
person from one kind of background acted on her ambition and
was able to move forward through your program or by working
with you.

Conclusion

These techniques also work well for service or products
communications if you also offer teleclasses, workshops, or
group coaching programs. Actually, not that I think of it,
it works in all personal development communications.

© Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.