Should You Promise Results As A Coach?

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. Unfortunately, transferring this

way of thinking into your marketing is a huge mistake I see so many new(ish) coaches making.

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 not “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. Their wishy-washy messaging about the outcomes of their coaching inevitably leads to wishy-washy results (this is what makes all that money invested in becoming a coach start to feel like a waste).

This is the one that most new clients fight me on haha.

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.

But here’s the other thing: your clients need you to take charge and be confident in what you are offering.

 

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” can be the difference between a coaching business that’s full, to one that’s more like a hobby (fun but costs more money than it makes).

How do you confidently talk about results in your marketing?

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

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”.

I know you feel nervous talking about specific outcomes.

I know what your coaching school told you.

And I know that if you’re hearing crickets won all your attempts at marketing — this is why.

Give your clients the opportunity to opt into the results they desire by clearly articulating the problem 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 from waaaay before you’ve even had your first session.

Of course, whether they get there or not is determined by the coaching process, but there’s no reason you can’t have star clients who show up and do the work, and 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).

 

“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 (that turns out to be way better).

Guarantees aside, we absolutely can and should tell clients where they can expect to end up as a result of the coaching process.

 

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 get proof that I am awesome when I haven’t worked with anyone?”

Totally legit question.

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, 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”.

Practicing with REAL clients is SO important!

 

Need help with all this? Great — this is literally what we do with our students in Uncage Your Business. Click here to learn more.