As part of my coaching services, I unpack business models for people.? I help them understand what a business offers their clients and evaluate it.? Once you understand a business model, you can make a wise spending decision.? This post is about eating my own dog-food.? I?m going to do something unheard of in most industries.? Since this is a core value of mine and a core business process, I?m going to do an insiders look at the coaching business.
As of February 1st, we?ve entered into a new agreement with Dave Ramsey?s office as a referral coaching partner.? I?m pretty excited about changes and the benefits it brings to our clients.? Dave?s office completed some extensive research and market reviews on the coaching program.? In short, the advice isn?t changing.? We?re still teaching God?s and Grandma?s ways of handling money.? Old fashioned common sense solutions never go out of style.? The only real requirement was that I start to offer a $175 per hour coaching session.? Simple enough.? However, Dave?s office presented some compelling challenges with the way most coaches ran shop and how his own internal coaching team made some significant changes.? It became apparent there were some pink elephants in the room that had to be addressed.? We?re in the business of self-improvement and change.? We all took a good look at ourselves and our practices.? There were practical reasons why we did what we did.? However, it a lot of felt like we had to do things this way to stay in business.? Like the clients we served, we had our own justifications.? A friend of mine Jim Munchbach taught me to always focus on what matters most.? What matter?s most is serving our clients with truth, honor, integrity and truly acting in their best interest.
Killing the Sacred Cow of ?Free Consultations?? The 30 minute free consultation at my coaching office is dead. I was never a fan of ?free consultations.?? I usually ended up stressing to clients, this was their chance to interview me to see if they wanted to hire me.? ?Free consultation? implies that the coach is going to offer advice and solutions.? In reality, the only solution offered was ?I can help you if you buy my package.?? My time is very limited and extremely valuable.? When I?d pack up after dinner and head up to the coaching office to meet a client, it was taking 2 hours of my time, spending my gas and putting 30 miles on my car to do a free consultation.? ?Free consultations? aren?t ?Free? for myself nor the clients who drove 30-60 minutes to come and to hire a sitter.
New Process:? 15 Minute Scheduled Sales Calls. ? One of the principles I teach career coaching clients is that on a job interview, people make a hiring decision within the first 7-8 seconds of meeting you.? If ?free consultations? are a sales pitch by the coach or a job interview, why do I need to spend hours driving, renting an office space, maintaining all that overhead, offering beverages, etc. when people can make a hiring decision in 7-8 seconds?? The reality is that I don?t.? I owe it to myself and my family to lead the conversation in such a way you can make a wise hiring decision in 10 minutes.? The research was pretty clear for hiring decisions about coaches ? no difference from job interviews.? People are either interested and willing to hire you, or they are not.? High priced packages send away some clients we?re here to help.
New Process:? Online Scheduling Tool.? No more swapping voice mails.? I have set availability and a web site that?s up and running 24?7.? Let?s schedule a call.? I?ve adopted a new tool.? Clients can click a button on the web site and schedule a 15 minute interview.? Get their questions about coaching answered and then make a decision if coaching is right for them.? You Mr. Client can save your gas.? You don?t have to hire a sitter.
Killing the Sacred Cow of Maintaining an Office.? Some of my peers do 100% of their coaching over Skype from their home office.? I can reduce my overhead by 40% by simply not renting an office space that was almost always guaranteed to be ?too far away? to a prospective client.? (Keep in mind, my territory is all of Washenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and half of Monroe and Genesee counties as well.? There was no ?good? spot for an office.)? In person coaching is still an option but it is a premium feature ? I have to charge extra for that to cover travel expenses and I have to find a coffee shop or library to meet at.? Details aren?t easy and simple but I?m open for discussion.
New Process:? Phone, Skype of Apple FaceTime.? A few months ago, I eliminated a phone number and I?m doing it again.? I?ve got an unlimited calling package from Skype that allows me to make and receive calls from normal phones or from other Skype users.? Because we?ve eliminated the travel piece, I can now start a coaching call as late as 9pm at night.? This is after my children are in bed and after my clients children are in bed.? Nobody hires a sitter.? Less gas.? More time with our families. Lower expenses all the way around.? (~70% of my clients have an iPad, iPhone or Mac anyway).
Killing the Sacred Cow of Value Based Package-Only Sales.? This one was the hardest change.? Because of travel, time spend closing a sale, the pure economics were that its better to get a big ticket sale than 3 smaller ones.? However, in doing so we set the bar so high, a lot of clients could not afford to hire us (in their minds).? I?m a financial coach and in talking with folks in one breath you hear, ?we cannot afford you? yet they still spent $250 a month on iPhones, $175 a month on 500 channels of nothing to watch, and spent $700 a month a restaurants.? The reality of it is that we do offer a great value; however, it takes money to get personalized help.? We cannot offer services for free.? Prospective clients don?t know what they don?t know.? I?ll still offer bundles.? 3 hours for $450 or 5 hours for $600 but only after the first session is completed.
Killing the Sacred Cow of ?No Quoting Over the Phone? because clients can?t buy over the phone.? This is a long standing tradition in the insurance industry and has permeated into coaching.? The argument goes that until a client sees the value of your services, they will only hear the price and say ?I can?t afford that.?? This leads to the preception that we have something to hide or are trying to charge as much as we can.? This simply isn?t true.? (Establishing value before price is a very real principle.)
New Process:? Start Every Client at an Introductory Session of $175.? Going forward, this is the only package I will sell.? I decided to live up to what I teach here, and make an offer that really is in the clients best interest.? Hire me for an hour.? If you like it and want more, we can look at the package model or you can go forward with hourly coaching.? If you choose to go with a package, I?ll apply 100% of that sessions fee to an upgraded package.? This makes my services more readily available to more clients.? I thought about that and and this is what I would want to buy if I were hiring a consultant.? The reality is that this is in your best interest.? You the client have more options.
New Process:? Standardize my favorite package at $1595.? I still keeping my 6 month Game-Changer Coaching Package listed on the website.? It?s listed.? I?ll take an order for it, but I?m not going to actively sell it any more.? I gave it a new name.? However, I?m standardizing the fee at $1595.? It use to be 1% of income.? $1595 is higher for some and lower for others.? Client feedback stated people really wanted to know up front what our fees were.? So I set a fixed price.? I love this package.? I love it because it allows me the freedom to lead you as a coach in a committed program.? I love it because I develop a strong friendship and relationship with my clients.? One so strong that I can push to new levels of success.? I love it because I get to blend my entire financial planner training and background in a coaching package.? I love teaching clients the 20 minute budget process.? I love watching them grow over a 6 month period.? I love the white-gauntlet-slap-across-the-face-challenge of getting ?free coaching.?? That is incredibly motivating to a lot of people.? The package is still there because I have so many fond memories of lives changed.? I can?t bring myself to quit offering that package.? Dave?s office said I didn?t have to quit offering it either.
New Process:? Up Front, Straight Forward, Simple Pricing and PayPal and Square App.? The reality is that we can take a debit card payment by phone.? PayPal and the Square app for iPhone allow me to take payments anywhere.? Some of the better web payment services I?ve seen even has an electronic signature where you can agree to the terms and conditions.
New Process:? I?m not going to commit any more than 15 minutes of my time until I see two commitments from clients.? This one is also a change of business practice.? I?ll give away 15 minutes of my time to schedule a phone/skype/facetime session with a client.? However, I cannot afford to give away more than that.? Laura and I are less than 6 weeks away from bringing our third child into the world.? The opportunity cost of time away from my family is getting greater.? Under the new model of lower cost coaching, I cannot afford no-shows and people who don?t have their information submitted before hand.? Clients need to commit to two things before I commit time away from my family.? #1 they must pay for their coaching session.? This is to ensure whoever pulls me away from my family is serious about me helping their family.? #2? No appointments until I receive the client data sheet back.? I want to review the data before our session so that you get the most out of the session.? I?m really close to having some technology changes on my web site that collect payment and redirect you to an online form you can fill out on my site.? Upon completing the form, you?ll be directed to my open calendar where you can pick a time for your coaching session.It?s pretty rare for an industry or business to do a self examination and realize there is room for improvement and to be so candid about the process and experience.? That process of seeking improvement is my core business.? I?m 100% committed to your success.? My family has successfully worked every step in Dave?s plan.? We paid off $268k in debt and even called in one day.? I don?t do this because I need the money.? I coached my way through an MBA in Financial Planning.? The business model of serving people with private coaching at these rates is fundamentally broken.? You?ll notice.? Nobody out there in financial services helps as many people struggling with money as we do.? Financial coaches aren?t exactly on every corner.? At the end of the day I coach for two reasons.? 1) I love using my God given gifts, passions, talents and abilities to serve you.? Coaching is a slightly cash flow positive passion and hobby.? 2) When I?m coaching, I often feel a supernatural rush and empowerment as I see hope, grace, restoration and wisdom come forward to produce life changing results.? This feeling of God?s power working through you is incredible.? A secular psychologist would call this ?self actualization? or being in a state of ?flow.?? To me, this is my calling.? It?s what I was created to do.Putting the servant in the financial services,Chad
?
Source: http://pennycoach.com/new-hourly-coaching-options/
alternative minimum tax modeselektor gran torino gloria steinem war of the worlds rock and roll hall of fame severe weather
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.