IQ: The eZine for Intelligent Coaches.
...contact us

Editor: Sandra Poletto
ezine@coachingclub.com.au
www.coachingclub.com.au

Coaching Club appreciates your feedback. Please email ezine@coachingclub.com.au with any comments, suggestions or editorial input for future editions of IQ.

If you no longer wish to receive IQ, please unsubscribe here.

Great Resources...

The LCIA Blog

Coach Radio

Coaching Club

Find A Coach

Copyright: 2007 Coaching Club

Welcome to IQ, the official CoachIQ Coaching Club member eZine. Each week you receive the latest CoachIQ news, resources, professional development tips and industry information. IQ is your ally in developing your flourishing coaching business.

This edition's highlights:

Highlights in this edition include Podcasts and Favourites; how not having a sales funnel can undermine your business success; using email marketing to get repeat visitors to your website; this week's IQ book selection; and a short article about making positive choices.

We welcome IQ readers to forward this publication to friends, colleagues, family and anyone you think will benefit from the eZine’s content. Make YOUR community part of OUR community.

Not Yet A Member? Don't fall behind.

Take at a look at some of the resources hundreds

of your peers already have access to...

• The industry leading 104-week eCourse (UCBBP) that steps you in detail through every process required to build a flourishing coaching business.
• Dozens of 'fill-in-your-business-name' marketing and operational templates.
• Audios and Podcasts by some of Australia's leading Business Leaders and Master Coaches, discussing their most intimate business and coaching secrets.
• Access to the country's most exclusive coaching networks, previously only open to the coaching elite.
• A Bookclub with over 75 world-renowned publications.
• Videos, life tips and strategies, interviews, plus much more.

CoachIQ Coaching Club is a resource rich community for practising and aspiring coaches. It contains ALL the necessary information, resources, templates, networks and intellectual property you need to avoid costly pitfalls and implement powerfully effective strategies to build a flourishing coaching business.

Latest Additions

A Bunch of Pods

IQ's PodCasts section finishes this year packed with excellent shows! Currently there are 20 Podcast shows available, amounting to hours of audio content to inspire and motivate YOU on a regular basis. The interviews include some of Australia's top coaches and business professionals who have a great deal of insights to share with you.

And on top of that, you can add the content into your iPod or other MP3 player to listen from anywhere, anyway, anytime. How is that for convenience? Keep an eye out for more Podcasts in 2008 as we're releasing more and more great and unique content (and don't forget that you could be one of our show hosts; for more information, refer to the opportunities at the end of this eZine).

Coming Soon

'Favourite' Resources

CoachIQ's resources have more than tripled since earlier this year, and this trend will continue in 2008. We're very aware that such a wealth of content can create its own problems. Valuable resources can become increasingly difficult to find. It's the old needle in a haystack story.

With that in mind, we're developing a new tool to enhance navigation so you're never lost in the plethora of content. This tool is called 'Favourites' and it allows you to flag your favourite resources and add them to a special folder (it will be an actual category) with a single click.

Mistake 6: Don't Have a Sales Funnel

Learn the "10 Crucial Mistakes Coaches Make" and how you can avoid them to create the lifestyle you desire in the 3rd fastest growth industry in the world!

There are numerous coaches in the market earning over $100,000.00 per annum. And yet, there are also coaches struggling to etch out a living. Why is that? That's the purpose of this Special Series. In this edition, we tackle poor pricing as one of the crucial mistakes coaches make. 

Note: Parts 1-5 of this series are available in the eZine Archive page.

The majority of coaches have an upside down sales process!

Most coaches try to sell their high value one-to-one coaching services upfront. You have to understand that coaching is a relatively young industry and is a high barrier to entry service. That means that it's difficult to cold-sell someone into a one-to-one coaching service. To a prospect, coaching and coaching outcomes are intangible.

And let's face it, it's quite difficult to convince someone in verbal terms how coaching will be of benefit to them...

Coach: "Well, I'll help you identify your goals, and then we'll develop a strategy to assist you achieve those goals."

Prospect: "OK. Great. Where do I sign? Here's my cheque for $1,500 for a 6-month coaching contract."

This scenario just doesn't happen!

But coaching prospects - people with problems - love to get information on how their problems can be solved. And as an expert in their niche, you should have educational products and services to solve their problems. You need to find out what is the biggest problem/challenge/concern people in your niche have and develop products and services based on solving these problems.

Create educational products and services that have a low barrier to entry, such as coaching clubs, reports, tools, assessments, seminars, workshops, newsletters, ezines, teleclasses, cd's, eCourses and mini-courses.

These products are low barrier choices that assist your prospects overcome their Niche Problems. And they form the entrance point to your sales funnel. Once you've converted prospects to your low barrier entry product, you've started to build trust and position yourself as an expert. You can then continue to communicate with these prospects at a higher level and offer them incrementally more expensive value-added services.

There are usually 3 or 4 incremental stages in a highly effective sales funnel. They are:

Stage 1: $0 - $30.

-         Autoresponders;

-         Reports;

-         Tools;

-         Assessments;

-         Surveys;

-         Seminars;

-         Workshops;

-         Newsletters;

-         Ezines;

-         Teleclasses;

-         CD products;

-         eCourses and mini-courses.

Stage 2: $50 - $200.

-         Coaching clubs;

-         Membership programs;

-         Newsletters;

-         Seminars & Workshops;

-         Courses;

-         Group coaching.

Stage 3: $200+

-         One-to-one coaching contracts;

-         Bootcamps.

Stage 4: Passive revenue.

-         One-to-many services;

-         Affiliate products;

-         Repetitive services.

Biz Tip: Develop products and services and a low barrier sales process. Nurture your prospects and clients through your sales funnel to allow them to experience coaching and its tangible benefits.

Use e-Mail Marketing to Attract Repeat Visitors

This is step 8 of the IQ series "8 Steps to Generate Prospects". In the previous edition we discussed how to get 1,000s of websites to promote your business at no cost. Now we discuss our final strategy – using email marking to attract repeat visitors. Let's roll to the final step #8.

Note: Steps 1-7 of this article are available in the eZine Archive page.

Getting lots of traffic to your site is great, but if you aren't collecting the contact information (i.e. names and e-mail addresses) of visitors, you're wasting every single click.

If visitors leave your site without buying your product, there's a good chance they won't ever be back and you'll have absolutely no way of following up with them.

Remember: It can take up to seven points of contact to make a single sale, so you'll want to begin collecting visitors' contact information from day one using an opt-in form on your home page.

Here are some ideas for e-mails you could send in case you need an excuse to follow up with your opt-in subscribers:

-         Monthly or bi-weekly newsletters with tons of tips and info.

-         Free reports on a variety of topics that your market would appreciate.

-         Answers to common questions people ask about your product.

-         Offers for products similar or complementary to ones you may have already offered them.

-         Free product trials that give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer.

-         A "downgrade" offer for a product that is less expensive or robust than your featured offer.

Following up with the addresses you gather is quick, easy, and simple with e-mail management and automation software. You can create e-mails called "auto-responders" that potential customers receive automatically, as soon as they opt- in on your site - within seconds - no matter what time of day it is, or whether you're even at your desk.

Editor's Note: Did you enjoy this IQ series "8 Steps to Generate Prospects"? Send your feedback to our team or start a discussion at the Forum. We will be have further series at this section - keep an eye for it, it is non-stop valuable reading!

The Fifth Discipline

This revised edition of Peter Senge's bestselling classic, The Fifth Discipline, is based on fifteen years of experience in putting the book's ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization's ability to learn faster than the competition.

The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas in The Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published in 1990, have become deeply integrated into people's ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices.

In The Fifth Discipline, Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning "disabilities" that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations - ones in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create results they truly desire.

Title: The Fifth Discipline

Author: Peter M. Senge

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.

Most people have heard of Wikipedia already, but not everyone has explored the parallel projects that run along with the main site, including specialised pages such as Wikiquote, Wikispecies and Meta-Wiki. It's a good idea to explore Wikipedia's sites and resources to find out information about nearly anything.  

Making Positive Choices

The following short article is a message from all the CoachIQ team to assist you achieve more in the upcoming year. We'd like to wish a great period of festivities and an excellent start of 2008. May the onset of this new period bring with it opportunities and possibilities for unremitting growth! 

Most people believe their attitudes are a result of external pressures such as people or negative experiences. But whilst external pressures often trigger your attitudes, you are the one that ultimately decides your resultant attitude (or allows yourself to have an inappropriate attitude in the absence of a decision).

You can either acquiesce to external pressures, which you have little or no control over, or you can control your response by choosing what attitude you'll take. From the moment you wake to the moment you sleep, you have the power to choose your attitude.

Choosing your attitude starts with a mental intervention. Initially you'll need to think about your attitude and choose appropriate attitudes throughout the day. As your mind becomes more aware of the attitudes you deem congruent, attitude selection will become second nature.

Greater efficacy in attitude selection starts by becoming more aware of your attitudes and the affect they have on your effectiveness and wellbeing. This is usually most apparent in stressful situations.

When you're feeling 'negative', frustrated or anxious, make the cognitive decision to vary your attitude. NEXT time you are in a stressful situation and you FEEL yourself becoming more anxious, take a brief moment, and a deep breath or two, and then make the conscious decision to select a more appropriate attitude. An attitude that will place you in a positive state of mind and assist you better deal with the situation and environment.

You can start with a few small things that may usually annoy you such as a car cutting you off; or someone saying something to you. Instead of regressing into your long term learned response, allow yourself a cognitive intervention.

Say to yourself "usually my natural reaction would be too... but I know I don't have to react that way. I have the power to determine my attitude. I decide to be in control of the situation and to react in a positive manner, by..."

You'll be amazed at how this simple principal can change your perception of events, and ultimately your view of, and efficacy in life. You'll slowly but surely start feeling empowered by how much control you actually have over yourself and your environment (and others). AND you'll immediately start seeing more positive results in your life.

You'll stop feeling those sensations that the world is working against you and recognise that ALL change stems from within. Your emotional comfort is a result of internal processes, not external stimuli. Think about it!

Be Found With Find A Coach

Marketing is the thorn in the side of most coaches. Particularly coaches just starting off. Getting clients is a skill in its own right. It's time consuming, difficult, and expensive! But does it have to be? Not with Find A Coach - the leading search engine specifically for life coaches.

Find A Coach offers a range of tools for coaches wanting to market their services, or simply who would like to see more return for their marketing investment. If you haven't checked it out yet, don't miss the opportunity to be a step ahead of the rest of the pack.

Your clients are searching for you right now. Make it easy for them to find you.

URL: www.findacoach.net.au

Broadcast Your Brand to the World

Coach Radio is an online broadcaster of Life Coaching specific content. Delivered online via the Coach Radio website (www.coachradio.com.au) and Podcast, Coach Radio content is extremely convenient.

Coach Radio is currently accepting applications from CoachIQ members who would like to become broadcasters of this growing community. If you are interested in finding out more information, email info@coachradio.com.au to request a Coach Radio Prospectus.