Happy 5-Reps Friday!
Last week on The Obvious Choice podcast I covered 8 counterintuitive truths. Many of them oppose prevailing wisdom.
If you’re intrigued, please listen to episode 42.
Episode 41: The 4C’s: Content, Conversations, Calls, and Clients
Episode 42: 8 Non-Obvious Coaching Truths
Moving on, here are 2 coaching concepts, 2 business nuggets, and a quote to consider this week.
2 Coaching Concepts
1.
In fitness, the best course of action is often to change nothing.
Make a plan and follow it. Resist the urge to ‘change things up’ prematurely just because an arbitrary measure of time has passed. Instead, base your process on their progress.
—
2.
Counterintuitively, achieving goals only provides fleeting, superficial, and short-term satisfaction.
The problem with goal-setting is that if it’s all you do, it’ll leave you in a continuous state of failure. You’ll either get there and achieve your goal, or you won’t. If you don’t, you’ve failed. If you do, you won’t appreciate it for long, anyway.
Goals are good for jumpstarting action and providing direction. That said, coaching must be focused on daily habits and systems with increasing focus on the intrinsic benefits of the process as time goes on and not the outcome.
2 Business Nuggets
1.
Most coaches sell their coaching as if it’s a phone bill:
“When you sign up you get:
- 3 calls with me, spread out every two months
- Flexibly programming
- Access to my private community”
Not very compelling, is it?
The worst thing a client can think after you describe your service is ‘so what?’
Just because you do something, it doesn’t mean they know why it’s valuable to them.
In your own head it might be obvious.
Less so for them.
The trick is simple: Add a ‘so that’ statement whenever you describe anything.
“I offer flexible programming so that a busy mom with an unpredictable schedule never has to miss out.”
Here’s your rule:
Replace ‘so what?’ with ‘so that.’
Never describe anything you do unless you include a ‘so that’ statement why a client should care.
If you want to make an impact, you must make the mundane meaningful to your client.
—
2.
Sales meetings include purposeful redundancy.
Asking the same question different ways increases depth.
Contrasting their painful present with their hopeful future is what you need to both get their buy-in for coaching and also understand why they really want to change, allowing you to better serve them from day 1.
Here’s your timeless truth:
The better your questions and the more questions you ask, the better your chances are that you’ll make the sale.
1 Quote to Consider
“It’s addictive to dream about a better future but hard to do the work to make that better future a reality.
So we buy the book, get all gung-ho, begin to do the work, fall off because the initial excitement has worn off, and then buy another book, get the hit of dopamine back, and the cycle repeats itself.
Dreaming can be helpful to start. Getting addicted to the process is needed to actually improve.”
Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:
www.theptdc.com/articles/5-
Please excuse any typos. I blame my taco hangover. I guess it could be worse though: I could not have a taco hangover. Thanks for reading 🙂
-Jon
P.P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you.
1. Listen to the Obvious Choice Podcast (free)
2. For career development, buy my book, Ignite the Fire. (1,000+ 5-star reviews.)
3. For world class support, apply for my premium business mentorship.
Jonathan Goodman
Improving fitness trainers.
—
My IG: @itscoachgoodman
Free Software: QuickCoach
My Book: Ignite the Fire (1,000+ 5-star reviews)
My Course: Online Trainer Academy
My Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship