This Common Advice Can Tank Your Coaching Business

... and why you must ignore it if you want to create a profitable coaching business

I’m writing this week’s article from the village of Dinan in Brittany, off the northern coast of France. It’s early morning. The doves are cooing. And the smell of freshly baked is wafting into my window from the boulangerie below my Airbnb.

So yeah… life is good when you have a business you can do from anywhere!

When I turned in my commuter pass to create that kind of business, I knew I wanted to focus on natural health and wellness. But I needed client experience. So I said yes to anyone and everyone who would pay me to write for them.

One particular experience I had with a software company is a great example of why you should not follow some of the common advice I often hear. That advice is you shouldn’t pay attention to your competitors. You should keep your head down and focus on your own thing.

As an experienced marketer, it pains me when I hear that. Especially in the saturated health and wellness space. Any coach who follows that advice can run into trouble building their business.

Case in point… my social media platform client is no longer in business. Here’s what happened…

When they hired me to write their website copy, I asked them for a list of their top competitors. They gave me 22 company names. And I researched all of them because I wanted to see how they were positioned.

I had to know what their potential customers would see so I could position my client in a way that would make them stand out.

When I researched the websites of my clients' 22 competitors, all except one of them used a headline that was a variation of this same message: “Manage all of your social media marketing in one place.”

In fact, 2 companies had the EXACT same headline on their websites. (Whoopsies.)

The Kiss of Death for Your Coaching Business

If your offer sounds like other offers, it’s the kiss of death for your business. And the only way to avoid that is to know how your competition is positioning their business.

This is especially true if you ever do any kind of online advertising. Because once your potential clients click on your ad, the algorithms make sure they see all the offers out there that are like yours.

Now this comes with a word of caution.

You shouldn’t obsess over your competition. And if it’s going to make you feel insecure, then it’s probably better to have someone else do it for you.

But it is important to have some intel into what your direct competitors are saying. That way you can make sure your positioning is different.

How to Position Yourself

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a coach say, “But I can help people with any kind of problem,” I’d be sitting in a cafe in Paris with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Oh wait… I’ll be doing that next week. (Just a friendly reminder that you can create a coaching business that gives you the lifestyle you want. 😉)

That brings me to some common marketing advice that I DO agree with…

If you try to market to everyone, you market to no one.

That’s the problem I ran into with my software client.

When I first interviewed them, they told me the best thing about their software was that it gives anyone and everyone who does social media a way to manage it all from one place.

Just like all but 1 of their 22 top competitors.

The 1 company that stood out said their software was only for social media marketing agencies.

If I had a social media marketing agency, that’s the platform I would pick. Because I’d know it was for people just like me, with my unique set of agency challenges.

So I worked on a bunch of positioning ideas for my client. I wanted them to see that having a product for “everyone” made them sound like all of their competitors.

Instead, I wanted them to become the perfect option for a specific group of people.

But when I presented my ideas, they weren’t interested.

Don’t Make This Same Mistake with Your Coaching Business

My client didn’t like that idea at all. They told me, “but our product can help all kinds of companies … big and small! Public and private! Everything from single bloggers to agencies!”

They said if they followed my advice, they’d miss out on attracting a much larger pool of potential customers. They’d be leaving money on the table.

At least they’d have plenty of company because the 21 other companies would be in the same boat.

And with a bunch of options available to people shopping for a social media management platform, their potential customers would focus on price.

It’s a race to the bottom.

Something Magical Happens When You Put a Stake in The Ground

When I decided I only wanted to work with people in health and wellness, my business went from inching along to taking off!

Of course it wasn’t overnight. And truth be told, it felt strange to turn down writing projects that I knew I could do well. But something shifted.

I felt more empowered because I was in the driver’s seat. I was choosing who I wanted to work with. I knew who I wanted to serve … and I wanted to super-serve them! I wanted to become the best option for health and wellness coaches.

So now, when I work with clients to help them create an Irresistible Breakthrough Offer™, the first thing we do is figure out what problem the offer will focus on.

If you’re interested in finding out which kind of problem will bring you the most clients, here’s a link to an article that shows you how.

HERE’S WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD READ THAT ARTICLE…

It’s usually a paid article. But I’ve opened it up for the next 48 hours so anyone can access it. The reason why is because I know how much people struggle with this.

I’ve also updated the article from when it was originally posted.

But before you go, if you got some value from this article, please give it one of those adorable little hearts.