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We coach and mentor helping professionals to apply systemic psychology in their
work.
During our SuperVision and mentorship we can
explore your thoughts, feelings, possibilities,
limitations and personal boundaries. We can focus on goal-setting,
relationship ecology,
emotions and belief change, trauma resolution and dissolving mentor damage.
Our primary aim is to help you get better
results.
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A useful first goal can be to
help people define their desires.
A useful second goal can be to exceed
their expectations.
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Although helping professionals offer a wide variety of
services, few people know what to expect.
Most people hope that professional help will fulfill their poorly defined expectations.
Coaching, counseling and therapy are
services that do not
exist until somebody buys them!
You have training, skills and experience ... how
well do you fulfill your clients' expectations? Do you keep your promises to
them - and to yourself? We can help you apply systemic
strategies appropriate for your clients. We can mentor or supervise you to
fulfill the needs and goals of your clients.
Do you want to help your clients succeed? Do you want save
time and effort? Here are a few tips:
Do you Attract Clients with your own Issues?
If you are an active helping professional in private practice,
you probably attract people who are like you, and you probably attract clients
who have similar challenges to your own. Avoid sympathizing with your clients
and sharing your problems with them.
To help your clients develop, ensure that you continue to develop.
Your experiences are probably more helpful than your theories. If you feel that you
cannot change - what hope can you offer them?
Not only that - have you specialized in
your own issues? Many helping professionals do! (This is so apparent when we ask
professionals about their specialties. Our next question is sometimes, "When
did that happen to you?").
Do you offer Free Sessions?
Many people like freebies, such as free introductory sessions.
Keep your costs down, try various ways to find the right incentives and show off
your services. Some people will abuse you and demand your time without any
interest in your paid service. We can help you define the content of your free sessions and deal
with some predictable problems that often arise in free sessions:
- Are you attracting victims?
- Do free sessions waste your time?
- Do people perceive free sessions as a sign of a beginner?
- Do prospective clients follow through and purchase
your service?
- Do people ask for free sessions with no intention of
paying for your services?
Do you use Referral Letters?
Develop a letter for helping professionals that mentions
that referring clients to you can help their business. You can offer to send
them 'qualified clients' or clients with certain problems or in a defined region. You can also offer
an incentive for referrals, perhaps a discount on your services or a gift.
- Requesting referral letters
- Agreeing to referral letters
- Writing your referral letters
You can offer your services through these referral
sources. For example, if you offer a service that other professionals can
recommend to their clients, show them how they can benefit. We can coach you to create
great referral sources.
Newsletters
Newsletters help keep your services in your clients' minds.
A newsletter may be as simple as a sheet of paper with tips
and news, or an email. Most word processing programs
have built-in templates for newsletters, and you can use their clipart for
illustrations. Do you want coaching in this?
Offer real news and information your clients can use, and
reasons to save the newsletters and eagerly await your next one.
Testimonials and letters would be great additions, and help to promote
your business. Request permission from your clients before
printing their names.
Marketing & Positioning Your Services
Marketing draws attention to your services.
Marketing generates awareness that you are doing what you are doing. Your relationships
with clients can be summarized as courtesy + dignity + common sense. Satisfied
clients often become repeat clients. Some important
questions are:
- What is their buying process?
- What is their experience with
coaching?
- What are the qualities you want to be known by?
- What do you do to live up to
your highest qualities?
- Who are your potential clients? What are their goals and
challenges?
- How does your coaching solve problems,
accelerate goals or add value?
- What differentiates you? What
do you do better, faster or with higher quality?
- How can you sum up your position in a memorable and
meaningful way, with style?
Perhaps you will market your expertise, capabilities,
reliability and commitment to your clients. You are selling a promise.
Focus on communicating and fulfilling your promise.
Constrain your marketing to the number of clients you can
coach well. You can please your clients by focusing only on a select number
of customers to sustain your business. If you try to service too many clients,
the quality of your coaching will probably suffer.
Referrals & Networking
Although recommendations from people who have previously
used your coaching are credible, referrals may come slowly. Why not ask for
them? If a clients seem satisfied with your service, you can request him
or her to refer your coaching to their friends or acquaintances.
Some of our colleagues reward people who refer clients to
them. It need not be money as some people dislike paying for referrals, but
a note or a small act of thoughtfulness can show people that their
efforts are appreciated.
Direct mail
A good way to promote your coaching business is to use
letters or brochures. We can coach you to reach out
to the right people and remind existing clients of how you can help them.
Mailing to previous customers is essential, whether you send them a
quarterly newsletter, announce a new service or offer promotions
or discounts, etc.
Website
Together with your skills and referrals, a web site
can serve as a brochure and a business card that builds your
credibility. To attract visitors to your website, address specific problems
that your potential clients must deal with. People don’t surf the internet to find
you, they surf to find solutions.
Ensure that your site is content-driven
... let your website content indicate your relevance. Use your website to reflect
your beliefs, values,
credibility and quality. Only then should you offer sessions, books, CDs, etc.
Build credibility first!
Your website may not have the latest bells and whistles, but if
you treat your visitors well, it is more likely that they will request your coaching. Provide
excellent customer service every moment that you are
with a potential client - in person or virtually. Your business depends on
this one thing.
Trust
Only people who trust you will purchase your services.
People must feel that they will get the value they expect ... and that you
can and will deliver. Trust is a relationship quality based on what you
say, what you write, referrals and recommendations. Your marketing will
likely be ignored and forgotten unless you follow up with trustworthy
interactions and a quality service.
Online Mentorship
& Supervision
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2010-2012 All rights reserved. |
