I have my first “pre-school” webinar on Monday, where those who have already signed up for the 2nd cohort of the AJC Coaching Career School get 60 minutes to ask me any questions about their business or coaching practice.
One of the questions I received before the webinar is: Steve Chandler says, “Limitation creates value”. How do I communicate “limitation” if my practice isn’t full?
This is such a great question that I wanted to share some thoughts for the whole group to benefit from. I think many coaches create “false limitations” through scarcity and marketing tactics such as early discounts, which expire. These may be useful in particular circumstances, but people are wise and can smell manipulative sales tactics a mile off.
What I teach in the school is that we want to wake up to the fact that we have a natural limitation given our time. If someone was to coach full-time, they usually would work with 10 – 20 clients at any time. If a coach only wants to work part-time, this number is further reduced. If they run groups or other programs, the space for private clients reduces again.
Yes, when starting out, it may appear challenging to create conversations with people who might want to hire us. However, this very quickly changes when you realise you have too many people you could be speaking with. You can only work with some of the people who might want to hire you. You have to start filtering and be more selective.
My practice is full, but even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be prepared to work with someone simply because they have money. I would want to know that there is a good chance they would be a coachable client who would get a lot of value from our work together. I’d want to feel I could help them tremendously if we continued speaking. Because my time is limited on this earth, I want to ensure I am putting my time, energy and resources to where I can be of the greatest service. This creates a natural limitation.
With love and appreciation,
Ankush Jain
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You
