Question

Topic: Strategy

Ceo's/business Owners: Are You Playing Enough Golf

Posted by Anonymous on 11/2/2004 at 1:49 PM ET 250 Points
Small and midsize businesses are struggling to get to the next level. Many business owners and CEO's find themselves so involved in day-to-day issues that they are not able to grow the business. Many folks are making most of the decisions and find themselves working 60, 70 maybe even 80 hours a week. Still it is not enough.

For such business owners and CEO's it is necessary that work with a Business Coach. A coach will help them identify the barriers of growth, build strong and aligned leadership teams, create alignment between long-term goals and short-term actions, improve corporate health, etc.

The issue is that many business owners and CEO's do not realize or are willing to accept the fact that a coach can do wonders for their organizations. They struggle year after year and are unable to break out and get to the next level.

Running a business is a team sport. You need a team and a coach. Many businesses owners do not see that.

My questions are 1) how do you find such businesses, 2) how do you convince them that they need help?

Praf
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/2/2004 at 1:58 PM Accepted
    As someone who is probably in your target market, I think you're going to have a very tough time convincing me that I'm going to get my money's worth from you. I view your service as an expense, and one that's hard to justify. That's not to say that what you do does not have value; for many companies, it probably does. However, your service falls into the "consultant" category, and most small businesses don't think they need consulting (or they think that they can't afford it, when in reality it should pay for itself).

    Having said that, traditional direct marketing is unlikely to work. You can send all the snail-mail and make all the phone calls you want, but that's going to be slow going.

    If I were you, I would do two things:

    I'd hold regular summits, workshops, seminars, etc., and I'd invite a group of people in your target market to attend. There has to be some real value in the content that you're offering during the event, though. I'm thinking something along the lines of 50-60 people at one event.

    Maybe it's a half-day, maybe it's a day. Maybe it's free (if you have the money), or maybe you charge $99 or some nominal number to cover costs.

    Now you have a prospect list, and hopefully your content will move one or two of your attendees towards becoming a client.

    Another thing that I would do is write articles. In the right publications, these can be tremendous business builders.

    With both approaches, I believe that your goal is to establish yourself as a subject matter expert. Once you do that, and once you enter the "sphere of influence," you have a better chance at selling your service.

    And of course, once you have a client or two, get referrals. Business owners tend to know other business owners, and if you are able to help, they should be happy to pass your contact information along.

    Hope this helps.

    Paul
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/2/2004 at 3:04 PM Member
    (Not to mention, in many cases the CEO *is* the owner...)
  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 11/2/2004 at 3:37 PM Member
    So, how much do you charge? Please click on my name and send me an email with all the info.

    Approach me like you would approach anyone who contacts you for more info...and we can go from there.

    Thanks!
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/2/2004 at 4:25 PM Member
    I see a large challenge for an executive coach to overcome - Business owners, particularly entrepreneurs, are not likely the ones to admit that they would need a coach. Most are very self-assured. They know they have areas of weaknesses, and hopefully address those, but likely wouldn't see the need for someone to be an overall coach.
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/2/2004 at 4:43 PM Member
    Agreed that none of the emperors want to be told that they're naked, but this is very similar to the same challenge that consultants face every day. And yet, small and mid-sized businesses hire consultants all the time.

    Granted, consultants usually specialize and are tasked with solving specific problems, whereas "coach" has a certain intangible quality about it that makes it hard to quantify "What am I getting for my money here?"

    That's why I think you have to position yourself as an SME and make the prospects come to you as opposed to you going to them and trying to convince them that they need you.

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/8/2004 at 11:17 AM Member
    Praf,

    I think you've gotten some very good advice here, and while there were many replies that questioned your potential for success, there *were* others that thought you had a chance. Also, perhaps the most helpful responses you're going to get here *are* the negative ones, because it's from these that you can learn the most as to how to position yourself so that there's less negativity.

    I read this paragraph that you just wrote, however, and I have to tell you, it's not sitting well with me:

    "How do you find businessess that are run by people with open minds who will listen? I am willing to concede that a population is of businesses is closed minded. And that is why 99.5% of all businesses in the US are less than $10 million in sales."

    If you are suggesting that it's a closed-minded nature that keeps business from growing beyond $10 million, you really have no idea how large a $10 million company is. That is a very significant business, probably employing about 200 people (on average). I venture to say you can't reach the million-dollar mark or the $5 million mark by being closed-minded.

    The bottom line here is that what you're offering sounds and smells a lot like consulting: you claim to have the answers to unasked questions, you claim to be able to make businesses better, and you expect to be paid for it. To me, that's consulting, and I can't think of anything that is harder to sell to small and mid-size businesses. For these companies, any dollars out almost always need to return more dollars back in, and soon. Consulting does not fit that criteria.

    That is precisely why I suggested that, if this is to work, you have to do something that will make people come to you as opposed to you trying to sell yourself to them. Your service needs to be bought, not sold, and there is a huge world of difference.

    As to how to reach open minds, it's part of your job to open them. That's called marketing, and that's presumably why you're here. As I said, if you re-read some of the replies that you've received, I think you'll find a few nuggets that you can use to move your business forward.

    Good luck.

    Paul
  • Posted by telemoxie on 11/9/2004 at 9:23 PM Member
    Praf - My suggestion is that you need to stop insulting people. Apparently you do not even realize you are doing it.

    Your comments above as well as your web site has a very strong negative focus. You might contrast this with the positive coaching approach described by DavidAtHaley.

    Dave Krehbiel
    aka TeleMoxe
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