If you’re a first class coach or consultant AND great at pitching for work, you really do have it all – congratulations! Read no further. For those of us who need a little support with marketing and BD, here are a few tips for contacting clients as we emerge, blinking into the ‘next normal’.
1. Don’t sell, help. As a coach or consultant, you will already have bundles of empathy and now is the time to use it. Think carefully about the clients you want to work with and put yourself in their shoes. Given the circumstances, what are the exact challenges they are facing right now and how do they feel about them? What is it that you offer that can help them with this situation? Use this information too…
2. Get the message right. Remember, clarity is key. Keep your message simple, crisp and focussed. ‘This is the problem you are currently facing and this is how I can help you solve it’.
3. Be generous. We’re all reeling from an unprecedented few months and coming from a place of genuine care and helpfulness will go a long way to building relationships with clients. This isn’t about giving your time for free, but it is about adding value. Is there something that you can offer clients that will help them transition back to the ‘new normal’? A slide deck of useful team coaching tips, an article that they might find useful? Get creative!
4. Create a roadmap. Clients are looking for answers and solid ground. We’ve noticed a trend for mentoring over coaching at the moment. If you’re clear on the challenges your client is facing (see point 1), create a roadmap of how you’ll help them get to a solution. E.g. ‘we’ll benchmark team performance when the team transition back to the office, put in a 6 week coaching/mentoring intervention to achieve X objective, we’ll re-measure to make sure we’re on track’.
5. Be confident in your value. It’s human nature to look for guidance at times of transition or change. Arguably, never was there a time when coaching and mentoring was more needed! Yes, budgets are tight and in some cases non-existent, but that doesn’t mean your unique gifts aren’t needed. Be confident in your pitch, the value that you can add to organisations and go for it! If the right case is made to the right person at the right time, budgets can be found.
In the coming months, we’ll be running online workshops for our PCS Practitioners on how to pitch PCS tools to clients.
If this is something you’d find useful, let us know by emailing Chris.Milliner@performanceclimatesystem.com and we’ll keep you in the loop.
Rebecca Scarrott, June 2020