How to Answer the Question “What is Coaching?” - International Coaching Federation
New Member-Exclusive Benefit: ICF Engage

How to Answer the Question “What is Coaching?”

Posted by Laurel Staples | June 2, 2017 | Comments (14)

This week, we’re doing marketing Q&A with members of the ICF community. Here’s a question from Laura Reichert in North Carolina.

Q: What is life coaching? Seriously I know, you know and the ICF knows, but potential clients are scratching their heads. I find it difficult to answer this question in 30 seconds.

A:

Listen here and/or read below:

In short, people don’t need to know exactly what life coaching is. I know that sounds counterintuitive—if you’re trying to grow your coaching business and get more clients to invest in coaching, surely, they need to have a full understand of what coaching is, right? Not exactly.

Think about it this way:

Let’s say you’re experiencing back pain, and you’re talking with a chiropractor (for this example, let’s say you have no idea what a chiropractor does). If the chiropractor wants to land you as a client, I guarantee you he’s not going to spend his time explaining to you the details of what he does in his practice.

He’s not going to say, “Chiropractors use hands-on spinal manipulation and other alternative treatments to help patients. It’s a nonsurgical way to properly align the body’s musculoskeletal structure, particularly the spine.”

Sure, that’s exactly what he does in his practice. But if he said this to you, you’d probably be scratching your head and be no closer to understanding what chiropractic medicine is all about.

Instead, he might say something like, “I help people with back pain become completely pain free without surgery or medication.”

Now he’s got your attention. As a person experiencing back pain, you’d automatically be interested in working with him, even without having a complete understanding of the intricacies of what a chiropractor actually does taking up your brain space.

Here’s the critical distinction: in the first example, he’s telling you what he does. In the second example, he’s telling you what he can do for YOU. There’s a big difference here.

In general, potential clients don’t want to know what you do—whether you’re a chiropractor or a coach (or any other similar service provider)—they want to know what you can do for them.

Therefore, there’s no real need to explain what coaching is to people in your marketing material. It’ll just confuse them. On the other hand, you do need to do an excellent job of explaining what coaching can do for your prospects. That is, how coaching will improve their lives, enable them to overcome a problem, or help them reach a goal.

This is the real question you need to answer: What tangible outcome, goal, or result will they achieve by working with a coach?

Coaching is simply the VEHICLE that gets the person from where they are in their life now to where they want to be—the DESTINATION. The vehicle itself is not the exciting part and not what you want to dwell on.

Think about it this way: say you just got back from a tropical island vacation, and you’re telling your friends all about it. Would you be describing the airplane that you took to get there? Absolutely not! Instead, you’d be telling them about the destination—the hotel, beach, food, warm weather, etc.

When you’re marketing your coaching business, focus on telling your prospects about the destination in their life that coaching will help them arrive at—not the coaching itself. This is the only thing they’re really interested in and what will make them want to invest in a coach.

How do you do this? Well, the first step is to choose a specific niche for your business. A niche is an area of coaching that you specialize in. Examples include helping people to find a better career, improve their marriage, lose weight, make more money, de-stress, etc.

Once you choose a niche, then you can tell others what your coaching can do for them. For example:

  • “As a career coach, I help people find the perfect career that matches their talents and passions.”
  • “As a life coach, I work with couples to reignite the flame in their marriage and make them feel like newlyweds again.”
  • “As a health coach, I help women lose weight permanently without dieting or regimented exercise.”

As you can see, when you specialize in something, you’re able to share with your prospects the specific destination or outcome that you can help them achieve in their lives. Now that’s going to get their attention!

Taking this approach to answer the question “What is coaching?” in your marketing material will enable you to land more clients without having anyone looking confused or scratching their heads over the term “life coaching.”

Laurel Staples

Laurel Staples is a marketing coach and the founder of ProCoach--a training program for coaches who want to enjoy true wealth and freedom by consistently landing high-paying clients. She helps coaches take the confusion and overwhelm out of marketing and selling their coaching services so that they can live their prupose with confidence, ease, and ever-increasing bank accounts. Get access to her free mini-course, “How to Get 10 New Coaching Clients in 30 Days,” at ProCoach.com/moreclients.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts featured on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the International Coach Federation (ICF). The publication of a guest post on the ICF Blog does not equate to an ICF endorsement or guarantee of the products or services provided by the author.

Additionally, for the purpose of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of liability, this content was possibly generated using the assistance of an AI program. Its contents, either in whole or in part, have been reviewed and revised by a human. Nevertheless, the reader/user is responsible for verifying the information presented and should not rely upon this article or post as providing any specific professional advice or counsel. Its contents are provided “as is,” and ICF makes no representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law specifically disclaims any and all liability for any damages or injuries resulting from use of or reliance thereupon.

Comments (14)

  1. Excellent write up! I will definitely check out your mini course.

  2. Karlene says:

    Laurel always knows how to hit the nail on the head with her answers! I love her podcasts.

  3. Juliana Lima says:

    Great riding! Helped me a lot. Tks!

  4. Flo says:

    Very insightful and totally useful! Thanks

  5. Buton says:

    Great, Laurel. I think you explain to the client about the benefit of using a coach. But, how is the right answer if the client ask about the mechanism of coaching?
    Please come for sharing. Regards

  6. Luis Arturo Reyes says:

    Excelente artículo y en él la visión de la realidad en el coaching. Voy a participar de su Mini Curso. Gracias.

  7. Lisa McNally says:

    Hi Laurel, Thank you for the helpful article/recording. I tried to sign up for your course but never received your confirmation email that I was supposed to receive. I’ve searched my junk mail/spam and it’s nowhere to be found on my end. I’m wondering if you can check on my enrollment and help me access your course, please. Thank you, in advance, for your assistance with this! Sincerely, Lisa

  8. Sergio Rodrigues says:

    In a nutshell, this is of we call “elevator pitch”. Rather than spending a lot of time explaining of coaching is and what it is not, say what you provide for your prospective clients!

  9. PenMyPaper says:

    Hi, Fantastic article on explaining ‘life coaching’ in layman terms. Far too many people harbour half-baked ideas about this particular line of service, and this makes it easy for untrained, non-qualified quacks to market themselves as ‘life coaches’. This article let people know what exactly they should be looking for when searching a life coach.

  10. Ella Starr says:

    Thank you for talking about how coaching is facilitating growth for someone. I want to take control of my life this summer. I will find a reputable online life coach!

  11. I think it’s so interesting that you talk about how clients care about what a service does for them rather than what the service is. I really like the idea of life coaching, My partner’s oldest brother struggles with motivation and doesn’t have a lot of passion for life and I think getting him a life coach can help him realize his dreams are possible and worth it. I definitely will be thinking about this more though and looking for signs of marketing like you say.

Leave a Reply

Not a member?

Sign up now to become a member and receive all of our wonderful benefits.

Learn more