Tips from the Edge Part II
More insights from The Coaches Edge Extravaganza last week where I was one of the expert presenters on the topic of choosing and championing a viable coaching market.
There were 80 professional coaches gathered at this event with a wealth of experience and business savvy to share, yet there were 3 giant elephants in the room that stood out as obstacles to building a thriving practice. One of those obstacles was never even addressed and it happens to be the exact topic for the next “Attract the Perfect Client Through the Way of the Horse” tele-call!
Whether you are a coach, a consultant, a yoga teacher, photographer, butcher, baker or candle stick maker these basic principles apply to any and all solo entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The Three Big Elephants that may be preventing you from achieving and/or sustaining your Six Figure Business is very likely one or more of these:
1. Choosing a Viable Market! (This was the topic I was invited to speak about)
2. Cash Flow (feast or famine syndrome)
3. Charging by the hour or per product (This topic was never mentioned by any of the experts!)
One of those actions is choosing a viable market. Another is to create value rich packages and programs that create a loyal, vibrant tribe of clients. (The topic of the next Attract the Perfect Client tele-call!)
When those two are in place, the cash will flow effortlessly on a sustainable basis.
Today I want to speak in a bit more detail about choosing a viable market for your services.
Niche vs. Market
One of the co-presenters on this topic, Rhonda Hess gave the best description of niche vs. market that I’ve ever heard; a niche is the “what” whereas the market is the “who”.
For example; my niche is Entrepreneurial Business Coaching, my viable market (I prefer to use the phrase “perfect client”) is the soulful service provider or soul-o-preneur.
We can take that one step further and add the “How” to the “What” and the “Who”.
How I service those clients is through equine assisted money, marketing and soul coaching!
Now let’s define “viable market”.
A viable market is a group of people who have a need or problem that they want to solve and who are willing to invest in having that need or problem solved! “Willing to invest” is the key phrase here.
My partner Lisa’s niche is ICF/Equine Assisted Coaching, her perfect clients (viable market) are present and future coaches who want to incorporate the partnerships of horses into their coaching practice based on the ICF core competencies.
How she delivers her service is through structured live and virtual learning modules that support an ICF certification process for the coach interested in that professional credential.
Lisa and I are both coaches, we both coach with horses and although our perfect clients have similar traits and core values, the need that they are looking to have solved is different.
The symbiotic partnership that emerged between the two of us is that as Lisa began integrating the Money, Marketing and Soul™ coaching I brought to the relationship into her existing business she realized that the graduates of her programs needed this very same structure and information to launch their own successful practices. Hence the birth of
“Attract the Perfect Clients Through the Way of the Horse!”
A vehicle that serves both her clients and mine!
I want to offer one more example of niche vs. market based on a business other than coaching.
Let’s have a conversation with a yoga instructor (YI) and a marathon runner (MR) at a sports and fitness conference.
First scenario: yoga instructor without a target market.
MR: What do you do for a living?
YI: I’m a yoga instructor.
MR: Oh, yea – I tried yoga a couple of times but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s too slow for me. I’m a runner and blah, blah, blah…
Second scenario: yoga instructor with a target market.
MR: What do you do for a living?
YI: I teach performance athletes how beat their own records by incorporating anusara yoga into their training practice.
MR: Really? How do you do that? I’m a marathon runner and have a goal to slice 16 minutes off my next race!
Niche – anusara yoga instructor (a particular form of yoga practice)
Market or Perfect Client – performance athletes (willing to invest in having a problem solved!)
How – combines a specific style of yoga (anusara) with the athletes training to achieve a measurable result
I can just hear you saying “Ya, but I can also teach, massage, photograph, design for, coach, bake, clean, consult – WHATEVER for anybody else who will pay me to do that thing!”
Let me ask you this, “How’s that going for you so far?”
Take some time today to think about your own professional service and see if you can identify your own niche and perfect client. The Branding with Archetypes™ portion of our program is a brilliant, powerful exercise in helping you to identify and connect to a tribe of clients that are just waiting to hear from you!
