Market Your Coaching Services by Selling to “Invisible Buyers.”

Whether we are offering coaching or consulting services, our clients and prospects are always trying to reduce the risks of using our services.

One way they try to reduce risk is to conform to the attitudes and preferences of others. Family, friends, coworkers, and other groups influence your prospects and their buying behavior. Sometimes called reference groups, I call them “invisible buyers.” Your invisible buyers are a point of comparison for your prospect’s own choices and attitudes. Sometimes the influence of others is subtle; other times it is quite apparent.

For example, as a coach, your invisible buyers can influence prospects by. . .

– Directly recommending a specific coach or training approach they already know about or have used themselves.

– Giving your prospect a frame of reference and an opportunity to compare your coaching service to what is acceptable to group members.

– Influencing the prospect to change his or her attitudes about using a coach so that they are consistent with those of the group.

– Providing reassurance and approval to the prospect’s decision to use your services.

Occupation, memberships, social class, and education are all good indicators of which groups are important to your prospect. The prospect may even mention having had a conversation about using your service with a friend or coworker.

By noting how others in the prospect’s reference groups have used similar services, you can reassure your prospect that working with you is a smart choice.

I would strongly suggest that in your first contact with a prospect that you ask if they or someone they know has used a coach before. Probe a little into that area if they say “yes.” What kind of coach? Was it a positive experience for them? Would they do it again? How much weight does your prospect give to their prior coaching experiences or those of friends and coworkers?

The next step is to adjust your conversation to respond to concerns or experiences that might negatively influence a sale. Similarly, you can reinforce positive experiences and subtly refer to them during your conversation to help establish the value of your service.

As more “boomers” get close to retirement, a new coaching market emerges.

A recent post by Matthew Scott at The Life’s Work Group confirms what most of us already know: many baby boomers, getting close to retirement, have spent a lifetime doing work they don’t like doing.

Among their dreams for retirement? Finally doing something they want to do, and that includes starting their “dream business” or working in a totally different industry. More revealing: some 67% of boomers say they plan to work in some capacity. That’s more the result of poor retirement planning than anything else.

Matthew notes another disturbing statistic. Fifty-three percent of adults 55 – 74 spend the greatest amount of their leisure time watching television. That’s not exactly the dream that most people had in mind when they thought about their retirement.

Matthew’s advice:

1. Find the work that matters and you will never work another day for the rest of your life.

2. Retirement is a myth for overworked people who feel they earned a break from work that seemed like work and begin to take up the passions and hobbies they wished they would have pursued during their working years.

Of course, there’s a silver lining in all this for coaches. Many boomers need help setting retirement goals, defining late-life career paths, putting their plans into action. Coaches looking for a new niche market or a way of expanding their current practices would do well to consider how they can serve this growing and “needy” market.

If there’s a barrier to the sale, it’s the “I can do it all myself” mentality of many boomers. We were raised to be self-reliant and usually are. However, as with many sales objections, the objection itself is the reason for the sale: coaching can help boomers achieve the self-reliance they are seeking.

We just need to show them how.

“Peeling the onion” helps to uncover our true goals.

One of the tools coaches use to help clients uncover their true wishes and goals is sometimes referred to as ”peeling the onion.” Layer by layer of intention are examined and peeled back until the client is left with the “real” goal or goals. At that point, more effective strategies and solutions can be developed to reach the client’s goals.

So says executive coach William R. Murray on his Emotional Intelligence, Resilience and Leadership Blog.

Knowing your answers at a deep level gives you great energy to be resilient—to deal with life’s setbacks. Usually your first answer is not the final word. You need to dig deeper.

Using the example of a company VP who was upset that a subordinate was not turning in a report on time, Murray walked the client through the examination process with a series of probing questions. After looking more closely at his situation and “peeling the onion,” the VP discovered that he had several goals, including keeping a good relationship with his CEO and getting the subordinate to take responsibility for the report. With that clarity of intention at a deeper level, the VP was ready to come up with more useful strategies for working out the problems and getting what he wanted.

Moral: Dig deeper into what you really want so you can craft more resourceful strategies and stay resilient.

You can learn more about William R. Murray and read the complete blog posting here.

Other resources about emotional intelligence include: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, and Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness.