Four Reasons To AVOID Marketing Coaches
By Andre Bell
Word count: 662
There is an increasing fad towards hiring marketing coaches to
educate business owners and decision makers about building their
businesses.
The argument for working with a marketing coach is to allow business
owners to grow in their knowledge of marketing concepts and
principles.
This is a mistake.
What entrepreneurs really need is less self-education and more
direct assistance.
Education is fine and all, but it is always better to see immediate
sales increases than having to work ten months to two years through
some `self help' marketing package to hopefully see results at the
end.
I've yet to find a marketing coach who guarantees the client will
make money following the advice. And those that offer guarantees
expire before the program can be completed.
Coaching is a risk.
After entrepreneurs pay coaching fees and fail to follow through
because of lack of time or from being presented with pre-packaged
solutions that fall way short, their situation becomes worse than
before they began the coaching program.
Aside from the direct financial loss of buying the coaching bundle,
the lost opportunity costs from trying to figure out how to apply
someone else's pre-packaged coaching program to your business can
never be recovered.
Worse, change comes so rapidly that entrepreneurs need immediately
implementable tactics and strategies to defend against competitors.
The risk of watching smart competitors immediately implement new
marketing approaches while you are stuck for 10 months to two years
struggling and distracted with a paint-by-numbers coaching system
that prevents you from taking immediate action makes working with a
marketing coach a bad idea.
Here are the top three reasons to avoid Marketing Coaches:
Accountability
Coaching focuses getting you to fill out questionnaires and surveys
and do `home work' assignments between telephone sessions which may
last only ten or 15 minutes. Hardly enough time to achieve real
marketing success. When results aren't achieved the problem falls on
your own shoulders. You pay for `self help' directed activities, not
for results.
Consulting focuses on results. An increase in sales, more referrals,
improved response rates, etc. The consultant is directly responsible
for helping you achieve results.
Flexibility
Two year commitment to what amounts to nothing more than a high- priced self-help program is foolish. A coaches pre-printed forms may
or may not apply to you and your business. Pre-packaged coaching is
not customizable; it's a one-size-fits-all attempt to standardize
the marketing of businesses that may have nothing in common.
Availability
Coaching carries limited, scheduled time with a coach.
What happens when you need assistance between sessions? For most
prepackaged coaching no such extra sessions are available since
coaching is activity based, i.e. assignments that must be completed
by the entrepreneur himself/herself instead of actual question and
answer consulting.
This is bad because when your competitors start to attack you are
stuck having to wait until your next monthly session to ask for
help. Consulting often is available without restrictions or with
limited restrictions on ongoing contact.
And the worst reason of all to avoid marketing coaches:
Coaching is a one-sided relationship.
The coach can have several clients working through pre-packaged
materials without his assistance and personally continue to earn
income -- regardless of whether or not the client makes money or
even completes the assignments or not.
Industry peers have tried to talk me into giving up consulting for
the more lucrative career of becoming a marketing coach.
For me that's not an option. I'd rather make less money and see
clients actually increase sales than to get filthy rich from making
empty promises.
The disadvantages of this coaching fad make it clear that
entrepreneurs need less self-education and more immediate direct
assistance. If you want a prepackaged solution grab a book or two.
You can read most marketing books in just a few days, instead of
being strung along for months or years with a coach whose only
promise is to tie up your time with prepackaged materials that were
originally designed for some other business.
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Andre Bell is a copywriter, direct response marketing strategist,
and principle of marketing consulting firm Andre Bell Consulting
Group. Andre is committed to helping entrepreneurs like himself
discover what it takes to maximize profits from every marketing
communication and effort. Visit www.AndreBell.com for fresh
marketing tips and resources.
