79 | 7 Powerful Ways to Stand Out from Your Competitors in the Coaching Industry

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Hello and welcome to Women in

the Coaching Arena podcast.

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I'm so glad you are here.

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I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor

and ICF accredited coach

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

and I help coaches to

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build brilliant businesses.

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I know that when you prepare to enter

the arena, there is fear, self doubt,

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comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

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You can tend to armor up and

protect yourself from vulnerability.

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In this podcast, I'll be sharing

honest, not hype, practical and

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emotional tools to support you to make

the difference that you are here for.

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Dare greatly.

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You belong in this arena.

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Hello, welcome to the 79th episode

of women in the coaching arena.

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I am so glad you're here.

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Today I'm covering how to stand

out from your competitors.

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Since COVID many people have gone into the

coaching industry, wanting more meaning.

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Wanting a better work life balance.

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So I'm excited today to share how

to stand out from your competitors

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and what I've noticed about those

who do succeed in this industry.

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So, this is not an optional

topic for any coach in: 2024

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This is base level now.

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You need to really prioritize

building a unique, memorable

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brand to transform your coaching

business into a profitable business.

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You may be thinking.

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I don't think I'm up for

rising above the competition.

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Everyone's doing amazing, but

I promise you, you can do this.

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And you don't have to do it by

being the loudest one in the room.

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You are here listening today because

you are up for the challenge.

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I am here to help you solve this problem.

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By the end of this episode, You

will have a clear roadmap of

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how to differentiate yourself.

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And stands out in this busy marketplace.

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So the first one, which I talk about

often is stand out by being you.

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As much as you can share

your journey, your stories.

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No one else can share those

exact same stories as you.

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This really is your

biggest differentiator.

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It's easily misunderstood.

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People think that no, one's

interested in what they're up to.

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But it's just not true.

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I am so intrigued about

people's backstories.

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About their life today.

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And I always encourage clients to bring

that into everything that they do.

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Usually when they've quit

their job to do this business.

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They want to forget all about

their previous experience

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the ones I've seen succeed.

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Are those who really bring in

everything that they've done to date.

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One of my clients was

a very young director.

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She was suddenly having to manage a large

team and found that really stressful.

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So now that's exactly what

she helps her clients with.

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Handle a large team when

you're a young new manager.

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There will always be clues of the

journey you've been on to date that

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you can take into your business and

do share those personal stories.

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That's what people want.

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Let's cover some quick ways that you

can stand out from the competition.

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Firstly help your ideal

client solve real problems.

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Yes, they will want to know who you are.

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They also want to know

what you can do for them.

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What's in it for them is a great

thing to always have in mind.

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How can you add value?

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If you are sharing story, how can

you make them the star of that

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story or resonate with your journey?

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You can also educate your audience

by really understanding their pain

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points and exactly how your unique

solution can solve that problem.

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I think the problem with training

to become a coach and translating it

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into a business is that we can end up

prioritizing things that are at the

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top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

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Self-actualization.

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Reflection, vision, listening, all of

these amazing things that yes, we all

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ultimately want, but most of us are

down the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy

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of needs just trying to get money,

to pay the bills and time to do the

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most basic essential tasks in our day.

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So, yes whilst, we want to bring in

some of that amazingness into our offer.

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Often, we also need to think about real

world problems that your ideal client

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is struggling with from day to day.

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The more micro your solution the better.

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So instead of leadership,

you might want to be.

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Speak up as an introvert in a meeting.

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Really think about how you can

solve a very specific problem.

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And then people will understand

what you do enough to think.

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Yes, that's my problem right now.

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And I want to pay to solve that problem.

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Next up is build a

memorable personal brand.

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I believe you do this through authenticity

because that fosters loyalty, people

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will want to know you, trust you and

they need to know like, and trust

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you to be able to buy from you.

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So really dive in, which

is easy for you as a coach.

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What you stand for?

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Why are you passionate about.

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What is your mission really think

about these things to bring them into

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everything you do in your business.

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Next up is to provide excellent service.

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Think about how you can gain case studies.

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As you may see on my website, I have a

lot of case studies and I work really

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hard to provide the best customer

service to get those case studies.

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Yes, it's not always perfect,

but I will always be thinking,

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what can I do differently in

order to go above and beyond?

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For example, I've had my busiest two

months ever, which is crazy considering

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I haven't worked for the last six weeks.

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But what I've done to ensure that I

still get to really know my clients

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and provide excellent service is

to provide a really small group

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accelerator for the first four weeks.

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So no more than five people.

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In a small group with me to really

maximize that initial part of the

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journey together to really help them

to get to know people within the group.

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To get my support on that initial

phase, which you really need to

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build into the longer term journey.

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So how can you think

about customer service?

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Another thing I did early

on was unlimited coaching.

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So it was something, what did I call it?

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Oh, I called it laser coaching

and it was unlimited 15 minute

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coaching sessions, which I never

managed to stick to 15 minutes.

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I think I always overran to 30.

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But anyway, it was unlimited

15 minute sessions.

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It was £997 for three months.

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And the person could only book

a session if they had done the

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actions from the last session.

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So this person got amazing results because

they want to get their money's worth.

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So they're like, I can only talk to

her if I do whatever I was meant to do.

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And then they could book another session.

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So really think about how you can be

innovative and offer things like voice

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note coaching, or laser coaching.

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Think about how people

can fit it in their day.

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So it doesn't feel like a challenge and

they can get the answers right away.

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I remember when I did my

first business training course

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with a guy called Alan Wick.

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He used to work at the Savoy

hotel and he told me that they

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often used to deliberately leave

something small out of a room.

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Maybe.

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A bottle of water or a

hairdryer or something.

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And why they did it was so

they could over deliver.

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So then they would come up with the

hairdryer and they would say, I'm so

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sorry this has been missed from your room.

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In order to make it up for you.

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I am going to gift you a free meal

in our restaurant tonight, or I'm

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going to book a car for you wherever

you want to go for the evening.

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So it enabled them to really go

above and beyond in what they did.

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So really think about

delighting your ideal client.

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Next up, which I also covered last

week is to really showcase your

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customer case studies and testimonials.

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Their words will carry far more weight

than yours in terms of your marketing.

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So don't obsess about your marketing.

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Obsess about client results

and client testimonials.

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Make sure you are leveraging everything

like this, as much as possible to

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let them do the talking for you.

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If you want to go deeper on that,

listen to last week's episode,

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which is on proof over promise.

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Next up is building a

tight knit community.

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I've managed to make this

the heart of my brand.

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I know it may feel different if you are

doing one-to-one coaching but I have

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genuinely seen people build a movement.

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Even if they are only

offering one-to-one coaching.

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Think about how you can make, a live

show that people show up at there's

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this guy I know he has, I think it's

like the 5:00 AM club type thing.

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So he basically goes live on his

Facebook group at five in the morning.

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And honestly, 70 plus people

will actually join him live.

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And loads more like me would watch

the replay because clearly I am not

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as avid as he is at the five AM club.

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But he managed to build a community of

people because it was worth showing up

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for, so really think about how you can

make connection, the heart of your brand.

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how you can make people

want to support you.

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Lots of people do things like a private

Facebook group to build a community.

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There's a new app at the

moment called Skool which lots

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of people are raving about.

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There are lots more ways like

email marketing that you can

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bring people into your world and

invite them into your community.

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Even if they are not particularly

engaging with others in the community.

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What works really well is something that

LinkedIn creators do a lot, which is

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join 1032 people in my email community.

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So you feel like, oh wow, there's

already loads of people interested.

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This must be good.

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And you join their email list, but

they have positioned as a community.

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So you feel like you're

part of their world.

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And I will leave you

with show up and be seen.

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That may be online.

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It may be on podcasts, some

way of being discoverable.

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That is what you need to build an amazing

business and to stay ahead of the curve.

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what you're aiming for eventually

is to become omnipresent.

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So that is someone saying

to you everywhere I look

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there, you are, showing up.

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In that email box in their podcast,

on YouTube, on their Instagram.

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And yes, that sounds really hard

when you're starting but eventually

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you will learn how to leverage

the assets you are creating.

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And repurpose them into real big

discoverability online and offline.

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So, let me summarize today's episode.

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Say first, we talked about

how to stand out by being you.

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Next we talked about standing out by

helping your audience solve real problems.

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Next was building an

amazing personal brand.

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Finally providing amazing client service.

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Next up was showcasing case

studies and testimonials.

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We talked about building

a brilliant community, and

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finally I left you with be seen.

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So whether that's on or offline, what

we're aiming for is for you to be as

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visible as possible, and that will help

you stay ahead of your competition.

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I hope today's episode was helpful.

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If you want to work on that visibility,

I'm starting a 30 day offer to market

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sprint on the 16th of September.

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It will help you to create an

amazing offer and then show up and

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be seen with the aim of booking

sales calls within those 30 days.

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If it sounds like what you need

right now, you will find the link to

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offer to market in the show notes.

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And like I say, at the end of every

episode, trust yourself, believe

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in yourself and be the wise Gardner

who keeps on watering the seed.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

Thank you so much for listening to this

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episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.