NOTE: As of 2022 the Center for Executive Coaching is now accredited with the ICF as a Level 2 Coach Training Organization. The ICF has changed their language and replaced ACTP with Level 2. We were among the first group of coach training programs to receive this accreditation, after a rigorous review by the ICF.

Consultants and Coaches: Let The Market Tell You How To Position Your Services

Many business advisors struggle to figure out how to position their solutions in the market. This article suggests that rather than forcing a position on the market it is easier to build on what the market tells you.

For instance, a management consulting firm aspired to be perceived as a top-tier marketing consulting firm for technology companies. However, when the company surveyed its clients, it got surprising feedback: Clients perceived the firm to provide tactical marketing support, not thought leadership or high-level consulting services.

With this feedback in hand, the company had a choice to make. It could either work hard to position its services upstream, or it could embrace the way its clients already saw it – as a tactical marketing support firm. It decided that the latter was a simpler approach, and would still help the company grow rapidly and profitably in its market. As a result of this choice, the company achieved Inc. 500 status.

Similarly, an executive coach aspired to sell his services to leading-edge, venture-backed technology firms. Unfortunately, as he reached out to venture firms, technology CEOs, and investment bankers, he got at best a lukewarm response to his service offerings. “If executives in our companies need coaching, then they are probably the wrong executives for the job,” his prospects explained.

At the same time, as a result of some of his articles and speeches, he started getting calls from universities and non-profit science foundations looking for an organizational development consultant to help improve collaboration among researchers. Rather than fight against the current, he chose to specialize in this niche and has been successful ever since.

Larry Bird, one of the best basketball players of all time, used to say that he let the game come to him rather than chasing the game. Smart consultants and business coaches should do the same thing. Build on the clients who rave about you and the projects where you achieve successful results, not on the clients you wish you had. The market is always right, and it will tell you where you should, and shouldn’t be playing.

The process for listening to the market isn’t hard:

  • Give some thought to former companies and success stories you have and can build on.
  • Develop a marketing message for a specific target market you want to reach.
  • Get visible in that market.
  • You will either achieve traction or not.
  • If you achieve success, keep penetrating that market. If not, test another market.
  • Keep asking clients for feedback about how they perceive your firm, and for their advice about how you should position your services. They know better than anyone about where you will be most likely to succeed.

Aflac

Amazon

Ancestry

Army Corp of Engineers

Ascension Health

AT&T

Bank of America

Bechtel

Best Buy

Booz Allen

Bose

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Brown University

Capital One

Caterpillar

Charles Schwab & Co.

Children’s Hospital Colorado

Cisco

Citrix

Coca-Cola

Deloitte

Dropbox

Duke Energy

Galveston Independent School District

General Atomics

General Electric

Google

Harvard Business School

Home Depot

Inland Steel

International Red Cross

Johnson and Johnson

Kaiser-Permanente

KPMG

Laser Spine Institute

Lexis Nexis

Liberty Mututal

L’Oreal

Macy’s

Mckinsey Consulting

Merck

Microsoft

MIT

NASA

National Basketball Association (NBA)

Nike

Nissan

Nvidia

Partners Healthcare

Philips

Procter & Gamble

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

Ralph Lauren

Regeneron

Rice University

Ross Stores

Russell Reynolds Associates

Schneider Electric

Shell Oil

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Stryker

The Ohio State University

Tom’s Shoes

United Nations

University of Florida

Unum

UPS

US Air Force

US Army

US Army Medical Corps

US Marines

US Navy

USAID

Valassis

VMWare

Xerox

Zappos

Our featured articles