From $80,000 to $1.2 million per year as a coach

I’ve been working with a coach for 6 years now and he has finally hit the stratosphere.

While I’ve promised not to reveal any confidential information, this individual was a private high school teacher 10 years ago and gradually made a transition into coaching top executives. Each year he saw his income double and this past year he tells me he earned $1.2 million!

Here are some keys to his success:

1. He took the skills he learned teaching drama and theater to his students and found a way to apply those skills to fill a need that many top executives have.

2. He talked about his coaching NOT in terms of what he did, but in terms of the results he gets.

3. He developed some truly innovative programs for executives that nobody else was, or is, doing.

4. He gave workshops at leading insitutions, like Esalen, which increased his network of contacts and put him in touch with executives. Over time, he networked his way into the offices of some C-level executives.
5. He kept “talking his way” into meeting with top executives, showing them value, and getting more and more referrals. He is fearless at walking up to a C-level executive at a billion dollar company and starting a conversation.

6. He has no qualms about charging $30,000 or more for a weekend seminar/workshop or $10,000 minimum for a couple of months of coaching. Perhaps he came into coaching a bit naive, and so asking for amounts that many coaches consider to be unreasonable was not an issue for him.

As they say on diet commercials, “results not typical.” Still — it is so inspiring to have worked with him over these six years and see these remarkable results.

What are we working on now? Well, not marketing, that’s for sure! Now we are working on helping him scale his firm so that it can grow and still deliver top service.

The limits of “Certification”

At the Center for Executive Coaching, we are lucky that our students are almost uniformly people with an outstanding track record. Seasoned executives, entrepreneurs, psychologists, and degreed professionals complete our program.

They already have the credentials required to build credibility with a C-level executive.

But every once in a while a prospective students calls and says, “Tell me about how powerful your Certification is in the marketplace…” When they do, I roll my eyes, because this person does not quite understand how CEOs go about hiring a coach.

First, CEOs don’t wake up one morning and say, “Gee, I need a coach.” And, if they do, they don’t say, “Gee I better find one who has a Certificate.”

We show you the effective way to communicate what you do and position your coaching services.

In brief, it comes down to a few keys:

1. Choose a target market.

2. Show the executives in that market how you can solve their most pressing problems and bring immediate, compelling value.

3. Get visible in your target market.

4. Be credible, trustworthy, and somebody that an executive can relate to.

A piece of paper doesn’t achieve any of those goals. It doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t anything near the determining factor(s).

Furthermore, many certifications focus on the hours you have spent coaching clients. That’s wrong, because the focus should be on results, not how long you spend getting the results. Suppose you spend 2,000 hours with clients getting no results? Should you be “Certified”? I know a financial coach who can increase the enterprise value of a company by a factor of 10 or 100 with his advice to CEOs — and it takes him about 3 phone calls to give that advice and start getting results. He would have to coach 700 CEOs to be Certified by some organizations, and yet his results on a dollar basis (and the fees he earn) exceed 99.9% of Certified coaches.

Now, if your goal is to coach middle managers via the HR department of a large company, certification can be useful. However, I believe that it is much better if you start at the top (and C-level executives usually don’t turn to their HR administrator for recommendations for coaches), and then have the top send you around the organization. That way, you command much higher fees and have access to people who can make required organizational changes when needed.

Be careful of hiding behind Certification. Being “certified” as a coach might help your own confidence and self-esteem, but it won’t get you many clients or top fees.

Which is better: stated commitment or honesty?

Have you noticed that many senior executives aren’t really committed to their companies or employees? They say they are. They talk about passion, vision, mission, and commitment. They talk about how important their employees are.
But once you get to know them (or read about their actions in the business press), you see that their goals are mostly about their own success and fulfillment.

I was a bit naive when I first started out in coaching and consulting, and thought that top executives got that way through self-sacrifice and a focus on the team. Then I had lunch with renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith and he set me straight: “Most executives could care less,” he shared. “They are thinking about themselves first, always.”

I chewed on his assertion for a while, thought about my clients, and it hit me that he is right. In general, executives are out to get rich, get famous, or stay secure/safe.

For this reason, I put more stock now in honesty than in commitment. I’m much more interested in having honest conversations with executives about what really matters to them, and that match their actions. Then we can get some results.

Here is an example: I worked with the executive team of a national consulting team that claimed that they valued their people and wanted to create a collegial and fun place to work.

But when I interviewed the “people” in question, the findings told a different story. The consultants in the firm painted a picture of a consulting “sweat shop,” paying good but not top wages in exchange for 5 days of travel per week, long days and nights, and little loyalty in return. People felt used up and rapidly burned out. Women saw no path to having a family and rising to the top of the firm. To rise up in the firm, you had to develop business and “eat what you kill.” And partners tolerated other partners who used abusive language or didn’t develop their people. No wonder turnover exceeded turnover at average consulting firms by more than 50%!

So I gave them a choice, to either stop claiming that they valued their people and wanted to create a collegial and fun working environment, or to start matching their actions with their words.

It turns out that, when they were really honest, the weren’t committed to their people. They were committed to growing their company as quickly as possible and then selling it. They wanted to have their employees stick around long enough for a company to buy them out. And what they valued most were employees who were aggressive and could quickly develop business.

Once they were honest, we could craft a strategy to find and groom people who didn’t mind working in tough conditions, and who liked the “eat what you kill” environment. The firm targeted a different type of new hire, and focused on training people to develop business. They also adjusted their compensation system to pay people for growing the firm, and — once they found a buyer — a retention bonus just for staying around.

Honesty is much more important than one’s stated commitment. Honesty discloses one’s real commitment, even if it is politically incorrect, and let’s a person craft a strategy to achieve what really matters to them.

The above details are not necessarily romantic or noble, but they get results! Don’t force people to adopt your own views about mission, vision, passion, etc.  Listen to where people are really at, and craft a strategy that supports what is true for them.

Two models for offering traditional coaching services online

Please see two sites for models of selling traditional coaching services online. Both are similar, and work.

The first is http://www.centerforexecutivecoaching.com . See “The Coach’s Coach” link. Coaching clients can easily come online and click the link for automated billing.

The second is http://www.market-based-on-trust.com. See the “Get New Clients Now” link. Same thing.

Of course, clients only order if they like the content on each site, maybe receive a few well-written enewsletters, and call me to see if there is a good fit. But the model works.