Should You Promise Results As A Coach?

I want to talk about RESULTS in coaching.

More specifically, talking about the results that you can get for your clients. Being clear about exactly what they are going to walk away with.

If you’re anything like most coaches, you were taught a bunch of rules inside coaching school about how the client sets the agenda (not you!), that it shouldn’t be a prescriptive process, and how you need to let the client lead the way.

These rules made you scared about talking about offering any kind of result in your coaching.

Feeling afraid to talk about specific results is what leads to thousands of coaching websites to use vague language like, “Coaching to help you live your values” or “Create a life you love”.

Sounds nice… but doesn’t really leave people saying “OMG this is exactly what I’ve been looking for, please take my money!”

Trying to market and sell your coaching with the belief that you’re not allowed to talk about the outcomes and results of your work is one of the biggest problems we see when people join Uncage Your Business.

New coaches are often scared to speak clearly and directly about what results they get for their clients, because they are not supposed to be telling people what to do and they are not meant to be guaranteeing anything… and because they usually haven’t actually worked with enough people yet, so they haven’t actually seen the results. They don’t actually know what results they can get for people.

So I am here to correct this. Because it is mega important that you DO talk clearly and directly about the results that you can get your clients.

Here’s the thing: it’s IMPOSSIBLE to PROMISE results, no matter what industry you are in, because there are so many factors that come into play to determine results. Making a guarantee or a promise is NOT what I am talking about here.

But here’s the other thing: Your clients need you to take charge and be confident in what you are offering. They want to know they will walk away in a better place than when they came in. And they want to be able to trust that you can get them there.

 

When you’re marketing your coaching services, you need to be able to sell your clients on a specific result, otherwise why would they pay you?

 

People don’t generally like to hand over money for nebulous things where they don’t know what they’re going to get at the end.

Your clients are vulnerable — they are struggling in some area of their life, and they are probably super nervous reaching out for support (not always, but often!). When they come to you, they need to feel assured that you understand them, and can help them.

Your willingness to put a stake in the ground and say “This is what problem I solve, this is what result I help people create” will be the difference between them hiring you, or not.

How do you confidently talk about results in your marketing?

So how do you put that stake in the ground? How can you speak so clearly about results when it’s so individual for everyone?

One word: Niching. (Don’t have a niche yet? Check out our free niching guide here).

When you have a niche, you will already know what results your clients want to get. They are actually coming to YOU specifically because they want the results that you offer to your niche. They are seeking those results.

Do not click away from this blog post as your eyes are rolling up skywards at the thought of yet another client avatar exercise.

My approach to niching is NOT your usual ideal client/age range/demographic/favorite ice-cream kind of thing.

My take is simple: Forget avatars. Forget ideal client. Forget age ranges and demographics. Focus on PROBLEMS.

Your niche is the PROBLEM you solve.

I love this approach because it lets you work with all kinds of different people, but still with a clear focus.

You being clear on the problem you solve makes it obvious what the results on the other side of working with you look like. When a potential client sees that you work with people to solve a specific problem and achieve a specific outcome, it’s so much easier for them to raise their hand and say, “Oh yes, I want that”.

They are self selecting and telling YOU that they want those results (you are not deciding this for them)! So it’s more than ok to actually talk about those results – you are both on board and working towards those things together. You are not setting an agenda for them that they didn’t already opt in to.

I know you feel nervous talking about specific outcomes.

I know what your coaching school told you.

But I also know that if you’re hearing crickets in all your attempts at marketing — this is probably why. You aren’t being clear enough about what your coaching will give someone.

Give your clients the opportunity to opt-in to the results they desire by clearly articulating the problem you solve, and half the job is done for you!

And if you feel overwhelmed by the mere idea of solving huge problems, that’s a signal you probably haven’t narrowed your scope yet. This is a process I take students through in Uncage Your Business and it is amazing to see how much confidence it gives people (and how much relief, knowing that they don’t have to be everything to everyone, and they don’t have to work outside their areas of genius).

Narrowing your scope involves looking at alllll the things that someone would need to get from problem to result, and then zooming in on which of those areas YOU specifically want to work on.

Ahhh — can’t you feel the weight being taken off your shoulders knowing you don’t have to do it ALL for clients!? Once you have narrowed your scope, your ability to be confident in telling your clients a realistic timeline for results skyrockets!

 

Talking about results makes getting results easier too!

WHHHHHAAAAAAAATTTT?

Yep, being super clear on your niche and results doesn’t only make your marketing way more effective, (hello, lots of new clients ready to solve their specific problem) it also makes the coaching process easier, because you both already have the end result in mind before you’ve even had your first session.

You always want to think about the best case scenario — if you have star clients who show up and do the work, and you bring your A-game to your coaching — you can reasonably expect them to get incredible results (which you can share on socials and with a glowing testimonial to bring in even more star clients).

By articulating what kinds of results your clients get, you get ideal clients who WANT that result, which means you get even better over time at coaching people towards those results, because you get so much practice doing it when you are niched…. that over time you start to learn how to get even better results for people.

 

“This sounds great! So are you saying I SHOULD offer a guarantee?”

In a word: NO.

Talking about niche and results isn’t the same as offering a guarantee. I DO NOT think you should be offering guarantees for your coaching because shit happens; There are always going to be those clients who don’t show up, or who turn out not to be a great fit, or people sometimes end up going in a totally different direction.

Guarantees aside, we absolutely can (and should) tell clients where they can expect to end up as a result of the coaching process. But we are not talking about a money-back guarantee here.

 

But…. how do you talk about results if you’re a new coach and haven’t worked with anyone yet?

You might be shaking your head at me saying “Well, yeah Becca, that all sounds great IF (when) I actually have clients.. but I haven’t had a single one yet? How am I supposed to even be sure I can get people results?”

Totally legit question. And it’s one you SHOULD be asking if you are new.

I am not in the business of telling you to fake it till you make it, and charge premium rates when you don’t even know if you can deliver. Would YOU want to pay a coach who had a shiny website but who had never actually worked with anyone before?? Probably not.

But I totally understand why this is scary for most new business owners. If you haven’t worked with many clients yet, you don’t actually have any idea how long it will take or what kind of results are really possible, because you don’t have those real life case studies in your back pocket to use as a guide. But the more clients you work with, the more confident you will get in what you are offering and how long it takes, which is why I HIGHLY encourage my students in Uncage Your Business to go out and take on clients for free to get started and get practice! It will help build your confidence like crazy!

Go out and find ten people in your niche to work with for free and keep track of how long it takes for clients to typically get results. That way you can say something like “Most of my clients get to this place in this window of time”, and you can say it with certainty instead of just guessing. Your client can FEEL this confidence when you are talking to them about working together. It’s a step you should not skip.

The more you work with people in a specific niche area, the more nuanced and deeper you can get in your coaching, and the better and more transformative results you can get them.

Need help with all getting confident talking about the results that your clients get?  Great — this is literally what we do with our students in Uncage Your Business. Click here to learn more.