But I’m a Coach
The coaching profession is a helping one. In many ways, it’s like a psychologist or a medical doctor: A client comes to you for help on a particular issue and you "diagnose" the problem and work with them to resolve it.
But there’s a problem with these helping professions that doesn’t get enough attention. The problem is this: They are businesses but it is almost taboo to call them businesses. Businesses generate leads and convert prospects into customers and they earn revenue and try to earn a profit. Helping professions, though, don’t like to be associated with those business / sales / marketing terms because it seems less helpful. In this blog, we refer to these business terms without apology because we believe that helping professions and business are NOT diametrically opposed.
With that in mind, we now turn our attention to an important business topic that is bypassed in the coaching profession: metrics.
Metrics are measurements. In other businesses, there might be a metric measuring inventory turnover or profitability or prospect-to-customer conversion rate. But these are rarely measured in coaching because of the anti-business taboo. Yet, your job could be so much easier if you spend some time thinking about your metrics.
With so little attention focused on metric in coaching, it is hard to determine what to measure. After all, how do you measure a customer’s success at overcoming their fears or dealing with their obstacles?
You may not be able to measure those but you can measure other things:
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You can measure the number of leads you get from your website
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You can measure the number of people who agree to a free initial consultation
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You can measure the number of people who have a free initial consultation who go on to sign up for a series of sessions with you.
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You can measure what is the number of sessions people have with you
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You can measure how much revenue you earn per person over their lifetimeYou can measure your profitability each month
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You can measure your profitability each month
What is your first reaction at reading this? Does the thought of measuring these things repel you? It’s possible that some coaches might even be offended by the thought.
On the other hand, the coaching profession is like every other business – it needs to earn a profit to stay in business and by paying attention to these numbers, you can help more people and increase your likelihood of staying in business. You don’t have to focus on the numbers or obsess about how to earn more per-client profitability, but thinking about the metrics listed above can help to know how your business is running.
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- Putting Stress into the Proper Perspective
- Coaching Success: Time Lags
- Marketing Your Coaching Business
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