Yesterday's email about salesy coaches generated a lot of debate (if you haven't read it yet, it was the one titled "Nobody Likes A Selly McSellALot").
That's ok, debate is good.
The coaching world (and whole world) would be pretty boring if we all agreed with each other 100% of the time.
Anyways, the types of messages that I got back in my inbox and on
social media about yesterday's email can be split into two groups:
-> "Thank you for saying this Marc, I HATE people who sell!"
or
-> "What are you talking about Marc - I follow your stuff and you sell to your Facebook group/community/etc?!?"
I'll elaborate on some things when it comes to coaches selling:
1) Don't HATE (capitalized) sales! If you hate sales so much, then how can you
expect to sell your services to anybody?
Selling is good.
You have to sell to
help.
To make it in this world you have to sell, whether you realize it or not. Have you ever tried to talk yourself out of going to a movie that your significant other wanted you to see, but you absolutely had no desire to see?
(I'm looking at all the guys who got dragged by their wives to see "50 Shades of Grey" or "Magic Mike")
I had a call with an aspiring coach last week, and he admitted to me that he hates being bombarded with
ads: online, on television, on radio etc. He just doesn't like the whole sales thing, it drives him nuts ...
I quickly told him that he better get past that block if he hopes to make it as a coach.
No sales = no clients = no business!
2) The people who called me out for
selling are 100% right. I do sell, and I don't deny that!
Maybe it's the fact that I was in real estate for over a decade and I had to sell or I wouldn't eat. That probably made the transition into a coaching business a lot easier.
Why am I comfortable selling to my Facebook group, to followers on other social media, to my email list?
Because I know that I deliver value. I do it day in and day
out.
Right now I'm working on a free PDF that I'm uploading into the group that will help a lot of members in The Coaching Jungle. It's going to take about five hours to put the thing together, and I have other things I could be doing, but I want to get it into their hands (yes, it'll
be free).
I've earned the right to sell - I'm running a business, and if I don't sell, this business doesn't continue. I'm not doing this out of just charity or the goodness of my heart, although I do enjoy helping people.
You help people, you should get rewarded for that ... don't forget that when you're out in the marketplace pitching your services!
When I built my Facebook group, I didn't do what a lot of people do - they start a group by dumping people into it
without their permission (big no-no) and then they vomit promotional stuff all over the wall, 10 times a day.
Or they join another group, they don't give anything of value and just start spamming the heck out of it ...
And then they wonder: "Gee, why am I not getting any clients? This social media thing doesn't work!"
You have to earn the right to sell to your marketplace.
I shot a video that shows why the words "Coaching" and "Business" should be paired together as much as possible. Check it out here (I also got to take my new selfie stick for awhirl!),
Marc