Ep 22 - AMA
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the business of executive coaching. I'm Ellie Scarfe, an ex lawyer turned executive coach. Over the last 17 years, I've coached in house, I've been an associate coach, and I've run executive coaching businesses with teams of coaches around the world. My clients have ranged from global brand names to boutiques, startups, and more.
and organizations doing good in the world. I now run the Impact Coach Collective, a community of executive coaches who want to level up their business skills and take action in a community of like minded peers. I'm a traveler, a reader, a mum, wife and dog parent, and I know firsthand that our stories have a huge impact on our businesses.
The executive coaching business is tough. And I've learnt all the lessons through plenty of mistakes and also with some great mentors. This podcast is all about growing a thriving executive coaching business. [00:01:00] You can build a coaching business that is profitable, sustainable, and that supports your personal goals, whatever they are.
I'll be sharing tips and ideas translated for your context, as well as stories from the field with brilliant coaches and mentors. If you want to level up your executive coaching business skills, Then this is the place for you.
So today is an ask me anything episode. Now, if you have questions that you would like me to answer in a subsequent episode, please do send me a message. You can email me you can Send me a message on LinkedIn.
You can send me a DM on Instagram, whatever works best for you. I'd love to answer your questions as well. These questions that I'm answering today have been asked on LinkedIn. I've got a couple that are sort of adapted from what's been asked in my group [00:02:00] coaching program. So they should all be relevant to people who are executive coaches, particularly in those first few years.
So I'm not going to do much introduction. Let's dive in. So question one, so many coaching platforms require coaching experience in order to get a role, but I can't get the hours easily. So I'm well trained. I'm good at what I do, but I'm stuck between. Needing the experience in order to get the experience.
How can I handle it? Help. Right? So this is a classic quandary and it's not exclusive to coaching either, right? We need experience in order to get a role, but we need a role in order to get experience. Now, this question sounds like it is particularly targeted at wanting to do work for the coaching platforms.
Now working for the coaching platforms, such as, you know, your coach hub, your Ezra, your BTS. Initially, those [00:03:00] coaching platforms were the place where you would go to get a volume of work when you were in those early years of your coaching business, because you could You could often get volume of work, volume of coaching didn't always pay the best, but it was consistent and you didn't have to do the sales that's involved when you're running your own business.
What we're finding now is that the platforms are requiring more and more experience, and some of them are even requiring a, an ICF PCC as a minimum. So. They are no longer really a reliable route to get your coaching experience. So it's a big question. And in fact, a lot of what we do in my group coaching program the impact coach collective is all about how to build up that experience bank, how to get those first few customers and how to balance your priorities.
So if your priority is getting experience as a coach versus you know, increasing pricing on an, [00:04:00] on, you know, a per session basis. But I do have one tip if you're in this position of really just needing to get more hours of work paid work as a coach while you're trying to just build up your bank of experience.
And this tip is to think of your coaching experience and your professional experience as two weighted ends of a scale. So if you imagine. One of those old fashioned scales and there's weights on either side. And the one that is heavier sort of is lower than the one that is lighter. So just hope you've got that visual in your mind.
So imagine that one end of this is your coaching experience. And the other end of this is your professional experience. And when I say professional experience, I mean, the work that you have done is. In your previous working life, either like in the corporate world or the not for profit world, whatever it is for you.
So that sits at the other end. Now, when you start out, of course, the [00:05:00] coaching side of the scale is really light and the professional experience side is very heavy. So we're weighted much more strongly towards that. What you need to do in those early days, or one way you can go about getting experience is to go with that.
So when you're selling coaching, you sell coaching based on credibility and a lot of your credibility can come from, if you have a lot of experience, you have coaching credibility. And that means you can easily sell your coaching skillset in any context. Alternatively, you might have more professional credibility, which means that you can sell your coaching skills most easily in that context.
Now over the time, over time, the goal is to wait more heavily on the coaching side and selling coaching services into any context. But in the early days, we got to use this advantage that we have in the professional experience to try and use that as the [00:06:00] entry way to selling your coaching skills in that context.
So what this means is that you need to tap into your professional network. So people who trusted you and found you credible in your former professional career are also more likely to advocate for you as a coach. And so, You know, we know as coaches that we are context agnostic, but our clients are not context agnostic context is everything to our clients.
And they often find it easier to engage coaches who have industry and subject matter expertise. So while you might not be the strongest in terms of your coaching experience, when selling into an organization, if you have a lot of that professional credibility. That balances your coaching experience out and makes you still a compelling coach because of that specific industry or subject matter [00:07:00] expertise.
And so start with people who know you, who know your professional credibility and your professional trustworthiness and start by leveraging that into your coaching practice. So, Another way to think of this is that there are two steps or two leaps that you make when you are selling your services as a coach.
One is from being a, not a coach to being a coach. And one is from being in a particular subject matter, you know, or in particular industry. Into, you know, generally all industries. What I suggest is just take one of those steps at a time. And generally the easiest step is to make is to brand yourself as a coach, but do it in the industry in which you already have that professional credibility.
I hope that helps. I think it's a really good way to think about starting out and how to get those initial runs on the board. The second question that I wanted to answer [00:08:00] today is how can I increase my prices when my new clients might know what other clients are paying? This is such a good question. And coaches really spend a lot of time thinking about pricing.
And particularly if you aren't talking about it with other coaches, You can tend to go around in circles and I know a lot of people as coaches and business owners are really sensitive to wanting to make sure that everyone feels not just that you're adding value, but also that you're being fair with your pricing.
And I think that's a really, you know, a really important thing to do. But what I want to say first and foremost is that you can increase your prices. You should be increasing your prices. And if you don't increase your prices over time, you are going backwards. You should also know that your clients expect rates to go up.
They do not expect you to keep your prices the [00:09:00] same forever. So in my opinion, you can increase your general price pricing rates, either your pricing bracket or your fixed prices any time you like, and this is for existing clients or renewing clients, but I think for renewing clients, generally an annual price increase is a better way to approach it because you get them used to it.
It feels like a more you know, a regular thing that is done. So increase your pricing anytime you like, but for existing clients, for renewing clients, maybe do it once a year in a systematic way, because we also want to reward the people who have stuck with us and worked with us over time. So, how should you approach it then if you are pitching a new client and you do have a higher rate, but they know or are, you know, they might be friends with someone or they might have been referred by someone and they know what that existing client is paying.
So there are a few options that you [00:10:00] have. Firstly, just pitch your new price. Don't mention the existing client or existing. Price and just revisit or negotiate if they bring it up. You know, that's pretty simple. That's not making any assumptions. That's one option. Another option is sort of at the other end of the spectrum, which is to pitch exactly what you charged the previous client.
So don't raise your prices at all. Give them what they may be expecting and don't try and push the envelope. But my favorite is actually an alternative and it sort of sits somewhere between the two, of course. And that is that you offer them two options. Firstly, you offer them a higher rate for a shorter term engagement.
And then you also offer them a lower rate Closer to the your new, sorry, the existing clients, right? But you do so for a longer commitment. So for example, and these are not real numbers. This is not me suggesting that these are [00:11:00] the numbers, but I just tried to find round numbers. For example, let's say you charged the first client, the initial client you had in this scenario, 200 per session.
Now We don't charge on a session rate. We charge on a package rate, of course, but if we were to break it down into a session rate, let's just say that session rate was 200 per session. And let's hypothetically say that you want your prices or you have increased your prices to 300 per session. In this context, what you might do is offer two options to this new client.
You might offer six sessions at your higher rate of 300 per session, which would be 1, 800 all up. Or as an alternative, you might offer them a 12 session package, but at a lower rate that is only slightly above that initial rate, something like 220 a session, which for the 12 session package would be [00:12:00] 2, 640.
What this allows the prospective client to do is make a choice about what is best for them. So if they are most focused on having a lower rate or a rate that is very similar to what the person that was receiving who they knew, then they can go for a longer package at that rate. And you also benefit because you're going to have a greater opportunity to work with them for longer, more sessions in the bank.
for example, or they might say, no, I would rather have a lower overall financial commitment. And so you then win also because you are getting a higher rate for each session. So you know, it's up to them then to choose what would be work or what would work for them, or to come back to you with an alternative.
Now this works for individual or for corporate clients. But honestly with corporate clients, I would simply apply your current rate. [00:13:00] And be consistently raising those rates because in my experience a company is more likely to come back to you to negotiate if they think the price is, is higher than they were expecting.
Whereas an individual might be more likely to disappear. And so, you know, at this point, when someone wants to negotiate, you can then make a call based on your priorities. Is your priority getting more hours of coaching and winning the work, or is it having a great return financially on your coaching hours?
So you get to make the call and then ultimately make the decision about how and when you're willing to negotiate. And look, I'm very practical and, you know, for a long time in my coaching career, I would always prioritize, get the work because I think getting the work Doing great work and getting more referrals is a really good way to, to grow your client pool and ultimately increase your prices overall.
Okay. So question three is how should I deal with clients or coaching companies who are [00:14:00] ghosting me? Now, this is much more common than, you know, and not for the reasons that you think. Firstly, what do I mean by getting ghosting ghosted? I mean, you have a meeting. It all goes really well. They ask you for pricing or for a proposal.
You send it through and then you get nothing back, right? So you hear nothing. There's no replies. The question is, what can you do in this situation? So I have a, an approach and the acronym for my approach is WFF which is my approach for dealing with professional ghosting. I might patent that because I think it sounds funny, but really it's probably not that helpful and really it is just three points.
But before I share my WFF acronym you need to think about why someone might ghost you. And one of the, you know, really there are a few reasons. So firstly, they might just be busy. Right. There's no doubt about it. People are swamped. People are overwhelmed. [00:15:00] The other reason that they might be ghosting you is that they have a perception of the risk of making this decision that you have not managed to you know, convince them otherwise, or sell the value of the coaching.
Or, or whatever, whatever service you're selling in a compelling enough way. But most of the time when people just go silent, it's because they have concerns or they have a perception of risk that you haven't had a chance to counter, right? You haven't had a chance to reassure them and they may or may not even be accurate about that, but it doesn't matter because their perception is that there is a risk.
And so, you know, for example, they might have a perception that. Well, you know, what if this, this person might bail out on coaching after one session and then we're out of pocket for, you know, six session package. Whereas if they [00:16:00] spoke to you or if you identified that early, you might be able to say, Oh, look, if that happens, I'd be very happy to credit the rest of that engagement to another engagement with another coachee in your organization. So that's an example. And I think it's really important to avoid being ghosted that you, you identify explicitly by asking them what their concerns are, what they think might get in the way of success of this coaching engagement. What are their perception of the risks? What is a plan B if the.
Outcomes aren't what they hope, right? And so it might feel uncomfortable talking about this with a client, but we do know that talking about it actually adds to your credibility rather than detracting from it. And is much likely to help them move around the buying cycle because they will have reassured themselves that.
That their concerns are either understood by you have been managed by you, or that you've got a [00:17:00] plan B if things don't work out. So talk about their concerns in your sales conversations, but let's say you're being ghosted. You've done all that. What can you do? Well, W F F the first thing is white. And that is, again, I said, people are busy.
We are thinking about nothing else, but this proposal as coaches, right. We're always so. Excited by what we want to do. We've got it out there. We are waiting. We are watching our inbox. We're watching our phones, but don't forget that to them, we are a tiny drop in the ocean of their commitments and their priorities.
So give them time. You get extra bonus points. If in your sales meeting, you have set an expectation of when you will follow up. So for example, that you'll follow up in a week. So wait is the first thing, just relax, wait, don't be the person following up after a day, but the first F is follow up after a week or two weeks, you should definitely follow up.
And it may be that they have missed your [00:18:00] email. They may have just forgotten. It may have, if they're anything like me, inbox to, to the, The, the deep depths where they may in fact, never see it again. So do follow up with them and check in, see if they have any questions. The second F is follow up again.
And what I suggest is waiting for, if you don't get a response to that, follow up after a week or two, follow up again after a month and check in, you can say, Hey, haven't heard from you about this. Just wondering if this is still a priority for you. Let's say you don't get any response again, should you give up?
And my answer is absolutely not scheduled a check in six months later. So I have regularly had clients come back a year after hearing nothing from them. For example, I had a client in the maritime industry who wanted coaching for a couple of [00:19:00] leaders during a transition. And they went completely dead, right?
Totally ghosted. I assumed it was nothing was going to happen. No worries. But 18 months later, I got an email in relation to that proposal. The company had been through a merger and they came back wanting six coaching engagements, a full leadership team coaching program, and then a leadership development program.
So. The waiting and the gentle following up, not being overly pushy paid off. And they ended up being one of, one of my favorite clients. There's another option and this is something you would use, you know, maybe six months down the track as your six month check in and it's called the nine word email, and this is something you can Google the nine word email.
It's really a very simple strategy where you send an email, which has really just got nine or sometimes 10 words. In the subject is just, Hey, and whatever the name is, and in the text, it just says, are you still interested in, [00:20:00] and you just put in whatever their biggest priority is. So it might be, are you still interested in building a high performing team?
Are you still interested in supporting your new leaders? Question mark, and then you just send it like that. And what it requires is them to actively say no. Right. No, not interested in supporting my new leaders. And that is likely out of alignment with where they're, what they believe. And so it might just restart the conversation and they might come back to you and say, Oh, Hey, sorry.
You know, our priorities changed. Our budget was challenged. Thanks for following up. And then they'll give you some more information and you can use that to re engage. So that is an interesting tool. So look, ultimately, I also think we should just expect that a number of clients are going to fall away at every point in the sales process.
So we should expect a degree of ghosting. It's really normal. And it is part of your funnel. [00:21:00] When we come down to finally, who are the people who will work with us? Those are the ones that will not drop off through the funnel. So expect some attrition. Definitely do what you can to, you know, to follow up to reinvigorate it, but just be aware that it's normal to get ghosted by clients.
It will happen and you will be fine anyway. And some of them will come back to you. So I hope those answers for those questions have been helpful as always drop me a note, DM me on LinkedIn or Instagram, and let's have a chat. I'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of the business of executive coaching. If you found it helpful, please share it with a colleague or friend on LinkedIn. And don't forget to tag me so I can say thanks. I would be tremendously grateful also if you would leave a review on Apple podcasts. More reviews means more people can find us.
This episode was brought to you by the Impact Coach Collective, [00:22:00] where executive coaches grow their businesses in a community of peers with business education, mentoring, deal clinics, and more. If you'd like to contact me or work with me further, all my free resources, courses, and more info on the Impact Coach Collective can be found at ellyscarfe.
com. Have a brilliant week, and I look forward to talking to you again soon.
