by Eric Dombach | How to Become a Business Coach
If you want to become a business coach, one of the most important things you can do is to start a lifetime love affair with learning. And you don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to do it. You can head over to Amazon or even take a trip to your local library. That’s because one of the first things I tell coaches who are starting out is to ask for book recommendations for beginning business coaches from entrepreneurs and coaches they trust.
You can shortcut months and even years of struggle and heartache by learning from people who have been there, done that–and done it well.
If you want to succeed as a business coach, it’s up to you to invest in your continuing education–and the reprogramming of your thought patterns. This can be difficult, even painful. But since your results are only as good as the thoughts in your head, the more energy you invest to tighten your thinking, the better off you’ll be.
Since your results are only as good as the thoughts in your head, the more energy you invest to tighten your thinking, the better off you'll be.
To this day, I read voraciously on business leadership, management, investing, and economics. And not just business-related information. I know that in order to be the most effective and well-rounded person I can be, I have to learn from the best in all fields. So I study politics, real estate, theology, philosophy, and spirituality, too.
Here are fourteen of the most influential books I’ve read–and where I’d recommend you start on your journey.
14 Book Recommendations for Beginning Business Coaches
- E-Myth Revisted, Michael Gerber
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki
- The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish
- Instant Cash Flow, Brad Sugars
- The War of Art, Steven Pressfield
- Guerilla Marketing 101, Jay Conrad Levinson
- The Flip Side, Flip Flippen
- E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber
- The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason
- Cash Flow Quadrant, Robert Kiyosaki
- Unlimited Wealth, Paul Zane Pilzer
- God Wants You to be Rich, Paul Zane Pilzer
- Test Advertising Methods, John Caples
As a bonus, might I suggest one more for your list? Our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach. The books I’ve listed above will help you get your mind right…and How to Become a Business Coach will help you discover the actionable steps and strategies you can take to begin building your business coaching practice.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Marketing, Business Coach Training
In an economy like ours, business owners want to get aggressive. They want to build their companies and increase profitability. And as part of this, they want to know how you can help your coaching clients crush the competition.
At the heart of this is marketing. But not just marketing for its own sake. At its most effective, marketing is nothing more or less than the art of communicating in a clear and compelling way the most significant promise your client’s company makes to their core audience.
Now don’t worry. This isn’t another tired discussion on how to help your clients articulate a unique selling proposition. There’s a whole lot more to it than that. In many instances, you’ve got to actually help them re-invent their core business.
Otherwise, they’ll still be competing on price because they’re really the same as everyone else–no matter how much you dress it up. And savvy consumers know that.
Case Study: THE “Educational Daycare”
Meet Jenny, a daycare business owner client who wants to dominate her market. How do you help her do it?
First, assess the status quo. At face value, many daycares are more or less the same. They have similar licensing requirements, regulations, and, in most markets, price-points. They make similar claims in the marketing materials. Your first job is to discover where there might be an underserved niche market in the area by carefully researching what already exists.
Second, make a strategic decision. In this case, Jenny decides to target parents who are deeply concerned about their kids being educated while attending daycare. But to make and keep this promise, she can’t just say so. If Jenny wants to become THE educational Daycare in the area, she has to make some operational decisions.
Third, operationalize. Jenny decides to hire teachers with early childhood education degrees. She creates a pre-planned curriculum that includes reading, math, and computer skills training. She equips the daycare with a 22-station computer lab and gives parents a written guarantee that their child will be reading at a second-grade level prior to entering kindergarten.
Fourth, market. It’s not until you have discovered an underserved market segment, strategized a business model around meeting consumer needs, and operationalized that model clearly and effectively that you can finally begin marketing. Because Jenny knows that there is no other daycare in the area with a similar value proposition, she can say so directly and credibly. Best of all, she can now charge double what competing daycares charge, because she is filling an otherwise unmet need.
It's not until you have discovered an underserved market segment, strategized a business model around meeting consumer needs, and operationalized that model clearly and effectively that you can finally begin marketing.
Market-dominating results like these are readily attainable when you help your coaching clients niche themselves into a market-dominating position.
This isn’t just clever marketing. This is a total business reinvention.
And this is just one of many fast-cash-flow strategies that you can learn to deliver as a business coach IF you give yourself to studying the subject with the right business coach training. To learn more, download our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star, and enjoy!
by Eric Dombach | Business Coach Training
One of the best and most leveraged ways to generate leads is through referrals. Everyone knows that. After all, people are much more likely to do business with someone who has been recommended to them by a trusted source. But most business coaches struggle to get referrals on an ongoing basis. So how do you get more referrals, more consistently?
Over the years, I developed a super-simple process for getting loads of warm leads from people who know me, without a stitch of begging or pleading on my part–even if you don’t have any clients yet. Ready? Here it is:
Start by identifying everyone you know: this includes close friends, close and distant family members, co-workers, friends, church members, and people you deal with for personal business––such as bankers, attorneys, other professionals, the owners of your favorite restaurant, and so forth.
Once you’ve made your comprehensive list of contacts, call a friend or business colleague that you believe knows, likes, and trusts you enough to answer “YES” to the following question: “I’m expanding my coaching business and I need your help. Could you meet me for breakfast or lunch on Wednesday to discuss how you can help?”
When you sit down with them, show them your “hot bio” and your “ideal client profile.” Ask them to think of people they know who match your ideal client profile. Emphasize that this is a brainstorming session, that’s it. As they list names, write them down. Encourage them to keep going. Don’t stop until there are 15-20 names on the list. Then ask them to identify their “top ten.”
Starting with the last name on the list, ask, “What’s wrong with John? Why is he not in your top 10?” Whatever they say, you reply, “That’s okay. We’ll get rid of him.” And cross him off the list. Then do the same thing with the rest until they say, “STOP! The rest are good!”
Why do you ask this way? Because suddenly they become an advocate of those names! And they’re willing to introduce you to them. Give your friend an email template to introduce you to each other (we have one you can use). Then make the phone call using our Silver Bullet script and follow the sales process from there!
Boom! Now you’ve got 10 leads you can reach out to.
Suddenly they become an advocate of those names! And they’re willing to introduce you to them.
Finally, be sure to thank anyone who sends business your way. At the very least, send a handwritten thank you note. If appropriate, include a gift. Frequent referrers might deserve something even more personal, such as an appreciation dinner on you.
People love to feel appreciated. By thanking contacts who refer, you’re teaching them that their kindness doesn’t go unnoticed.
The result will be more referrals, more consistently.
Looking for more great business-building tips like these? Check out our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star!
by Eric Dombach | How to Become a Business Coach
In my 15+ years of recruiting and training business coaches, I’ve discovered there are three critical attributes every business coach needs.
They are:
- The right psychometric profile
- Sales and marketing chops
- Real-world business leadership experience
If you’re feeling concerned because you’re not sure you have these critical attributes, a word of encouragement. Most people aren’t born with “the total package.” Success in business coaching comes just like success in anything else–through good old-fashioned practice and experience.
The purpose of this post is to help you understand the attributes you need to acquire as you pursue a career in business coaching.
The Right Psychometric Profile
First, you need to develop the right psychometric profile. I’ve gone into this in greater detail elsewhere, but in a nutshell, a successful coach displays the following behavioral characteristics:
- High Urgency and Intensity – the drive to achieve and accomplish things.
- High Dominance – the need to lead, influence the outcome, and make decisions.
- High Competitiveness – the drive to win and excel in competitive environments.
- Low Self-Critical – the tendency to resist beating yourself up, blaming yourself, or finding fault with yourself.
- Low Willingness to Defer – the tendency to resist the opinions and preferences of others in favor of your own.
- High Self-Confidence – the tendency to think highly of your own capabilities, decisions, and views.
- High Criticality – the tendency to critique the performance and behavior of others.
- High Energetic and Expressiveness – the drive to have lots of fun!
When you read this list, you should get a pretty clear picture of the iconic coach. You’ll see a hard-charging, focused individual with an insatiable drive to come out on top by challenging and confronting failure and mediocrity in business, yet having loads of fun and inspiring others along the way.
Sales and Marketing Chops
Next on the list of critical skills every business coach needs is sales and marketing chops.
That’s because, as a business coach, you never stop selling.
In fact, there are six kinds of sales that every business coach must make in order to be successful. They are:
- Selling the prospect into talking with you on the phone.
- Selling the prospect into meeting with you.
- Selling the prospect into buying business coaching from you.
- Selling your client into changing their ways so their business improves.
- Selling your client into paying your fee for next month based on what you’ve helped
them achieve over the past few months.
- Selling the client on how it will benefit them to give you a list of their friends who also
need your help.
Many people think that they’re either “good” or “bad” at sales. That simply isn’t the case. Sales is NOT a talent; it’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be acquired.
Many people think that they’re either “good” or “bad” at sales. That simply isn’t the case. Sales is NOT a talent; it’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be acquired.
That doesn’t mean some people aren’t naturally more comfortable in sales situations than others. But like the personality traits, if you want to be successful in any business, sales and marketing skills are just something you have to develop. Period.
Real-World Business Leadership Experience
The third skill is pretty intuitive. The more business knowledge and real-world experience you have, the better you’ll be able to coach your clients.
Fortunately, this is the easiest of all to address. Even if you have NO experience now, any good business coaching system will offer extensive training materials to help you augment your education in marketing, sales, operations, finance, or what have you. I’m admittedly biased, but my own system has excellent information along these lines. But even if you choose another system, it should come equipped with the knowledge you need.
Plus, as you run your own business coaching firm, you’ll quickly gain real-world experience managing a profit center–your own! So this requirement is handled by virtue of the fact that you’re a business coach, which makes you a business owner.
For a detailed breakdown of everything you need to know as a beginning coach, check out our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach.
by Eric Dombach | Business Coaching Tools
You won’t find much business coach training on the subject of rest. Many business coaches live as if the only path to success is through sustained, tireless effort. Hard work is undeniably essential, but so is rest. So if you aren’t finding time to relax, refuel, and rest up, you’re putting your business–and your all-around well-being–at risk.
None of us is superhuman. The more balanced you are in your work, rest, and play, the more successful you’ll be. If you deal with stress by pushing yourself, you’ll experience burnout, low productivity, reduced creativity, failed relationships, stress, and stress-related physical ailments. So go on vacation, take some time off, unwind, relax, and have some fun.
Here are some principles to remember when you find your motivation to rest up wavering:
- Everybody needs to recharge. Your ability to think and analyze deteriorates as your stress level increases. You have to remember that, as a business coach, your mind is your powerhouse. Give it the chance to recharge!
- Boost your physical and mental health. Studies show that stress and too much work can cause depression, heart disease, and stomach ulcers. Your money is better spent on good investments, not on medication or hospitalization.
- Improve your mood and attitude. Your main job as a business coach is to inspire and motivate. That’s almost impossible if you’re in a bad mood. Taking intentional rest helps you stay positive.
- Improve the quality of your relationships. Think about why you started your business in the first place. Odds are that it had something to do with improving the central relationships in your life. Time off from work is vital to healthy marriages, families, and business partnerships.
Finally, a word to the wise: when you take time to rest up, disconnect yourself. Email can wait. Social media will always be there when you return. Turn off your devices, unplug, and spend meaningful time with the people you love and the activities that refresh you.
When you take time to rest up, disconnect yourself. Email can wait. Social media will always be there when you return. Turn off your devices, unplug, and spend meaningful time with the people you love and the activities that refresh you.
Remember, you’re not only improving your productivity but your quality of life. Don’t just live to work. Work to live!
When you know you’re doing the right things, it’s easier to take the time you need to rest and recharge. If you feel overstressed and overworked, consider a FREE 30-day trial of our comprehensive business coaching system–and see if it can help you get a handle on improved work-life balance.
