Last week I got an email from a client; a client I’m incredibly fond of, who is brilliant and luminous and has a whole hell of a lot to offer the world.
It started with the words “I’m a wee bit disappointed” and got worse.
Despite having worked with me for several months, she went on, and despite spending several hundred dollars, she hadn’t signed a single new client.
Oh shit, right? That’s my tangible outcome:
Work with me, get new clients.
Only she wasn’t.
So I slept on it, or rather, I didn’t sleep on it. I looked at everything we’d gone over together, and got back in touch the next day.
“Are you having regular sales conversations? What’s happening after our appointments? How many people are you touching base with? Are you doing the Five Things?” I asked.
And the answer was, let’s say, heavily qualified.
And this is pretty common. (One of the reasons I love working with her is her brutal honesty, a lot of folk will stick their head firmly in the sand.)
But it got me thinking:
- When you buy a dishwasher, you get a dishwasher.
- When you buy a car, you get a car.
- When you buy a massage, you get a massage.
When you invest your time with a coach, the tangibles are still there:
Run faster, eat healthier, be more attractive to the opposite sex, become a better public speaker, get more clients …
… but they involve an investment of more than money and time. They involve an investment of effort and application.
YOUR effort and application.
In an ideal world, a “coach” shouldn’t exist, at least for the role of showing you how to do shit.
Information is free and plentiful. You know how to do a pushup, so why get a personal trainer? You know how to eat healthy, so why bother with a nutritionist?
SO, in a coaching relationship:
The coach’s role:
- Clarify
- Teach
- Personalize
- Guide
- Suggest
- Inspire
- Propose
- Share
- Cajole
You role:
- EXECUTE (with consistency)
If you want to lose weight, but don’t want to work at it, hire a surgeon.
If you want to eat healthy, but don’t want to cook, hire a chef.
If you want new clients, but don’t want to talk to prospects, hire a salesperson.
All of these are valid solutions.
But if you want to work with a coach – for knowledge transfer and self-improvement – you have to crack your own whip.
Ouch!
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