Here are five steps to monetize your expertise as an Executive & Leadership Coach, and earn a six-figure income
Many executives, consultants, speakers, authors, returning military leaders, and elite athletes have the opportunity to take their expertise and monetize it as executive and leadership coaches. The opportunity can be lucrative and fulfilling. Here are five steps to take to make this happen for you:
Step One: Choose to capitalize on the value of your expertise and achievements. Don’t leave money on the table. Coaching gives you the opportunity to take your expertise, wisdom, and achievements and convert them into valuable solutions. Organizations pay top dollar for solutions that help leaders and their teams improve performance. Once you learn coaching conversations and methods, you can deliver those solutions and enjoy the rewards.
Step Two: Pick a target market. As with any business, it helps to focus on a target market. That way, you can hone your messaging and reach decision makers with less effort. Many coaches in the market today are generalists and so they come across as superficial. By focusing your efforts on a target market, you have the opportunity to be recognized as the go-to professional in a niche.
Step Three: Develop coaching solutions to pressing problems. People hire coaches to solve pressing problems. You have unique expertise and talents, and you can turn these into solutions to problems that the people in your target market face. Leaders, business owners, and managers struggle with how to engage employees, handle overwhelm, grow their organizations, create strong teams, communicate with impact, juggle competing priorities, advance their careers, influence people, resolve conflict, shape their organization with the habits of success, and remain resilient during setbacks and volatility. By turning your expertise into coaching solutions, you will develop a lucrative practice. Once you do, you can also you can also add other offerings, including: training, writing books, speaking, leading seminars, and creating exclusive membership programs. The sky is the limit and you decide how far you want to go as a coach.
Step Four: Attract clients using low-cost, high-impact business development tactics. Another advantage of coaching is that the most effective business development strategies don’t cost much, if anything. People hire you based on your credibility – which you already have because of your expertise and track record. What is required are savvy ways to educate people about the value you can bring them. Examples include: having effective referral conversations, forming alliances with complementary professionals, using educational marketing (e.g., speaking and writing) to establish yourself as a go-to expert, connecting with prospects online via social media and your website, and getting active as a leader in places visible to decision makers.
Step Five: Back it up with substantive coaching methods, processes, and toolkits. Executive and leadership coaching is now an established profession, with clear competencies and a path to recognized certification in the industry. You need to back up your business development with substance and certification. The best coach training programs bring you proven methodologies that show you efficient pathways to have impact with your clients. For instance, the Center for Executive Coaching provides 27 coaching methodologies for the most pressing challenges that leaders face, including: influencing without formal power, resolving conflicts, building effective teams, engaging employees, leading change, creating a high-performance culture, setting strategic direction, communicating with impact, building one’s power base, and fostering collaboration.
The bottom line is clear: If you have expertise and a track record of success, you can earn a great income as an executive and leadership coach – and enjoy a fulfilling, flexible career on your terms. Why wouldn’t you? Contact us anytime to discuss your goals and whether our program can help you get there faster and more effectively.
