It pays to be different in business.
Take Burger King, for example.
The company is no stranger to thinking outside the box.
(That includes trolling its biggest competitor)
One of my favourite stories is from a few years ago, when they asked McDonald's for a "burger wars ceasefire", and proposed that the two fast food giants combine forces to create a "McWhopper" on the International Day of Peace.
McDonald's didn't bite (no pun intended), but BK won a bunch of advertising awards and got free publicity from it.
This month, they're at it again with a "Whopper Detour" promotion ...
Anyone within 600 feet of a McDonald's can use the Burger King app to get a Whopper for just a penny.
Then the app will shoot the directions to the closest Burger King to the user's phone, and they can go pick up their almost-free burger.
So far it's been working like a charm - it's led to a huge number of downloads for their app, and is driving people away from their main competitor at the same time.
Another example:
I read recently that a restaurant put a sandwich board sign in front of their business, with "Do NOT Read The Other Side Of This Sign!" written on it.
Curiosity got the best of a number of passersby, and the other side of the sign had a special deal that drew a lot of them in to eat.
Coaches can learn something from these restaurant examples.
No, I'm not suggesting that they offer their coaching for a penny (although a creative coach could massage that into a cool promotion?), but it does pay to think outside the box.
If you're looking for a new way to grow your coaching business, check out the live training that I'm doing with Anirudh on Thursday.
You'll get some new ideas from it:
Marc