155: Have You Aced Your Coaching Business Benefit Statement?

This episode is for all the coaches out there struggling to tell people what they do in a way that gets a positive response. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/155Many coaches design a statement to tell people what they do. It’s a misunderstanding that your benefit statement is about you or coaching. Those tend to be non-benefit statements.For example: I coach people to live the life of their dreams.How would most people respond to this message? Their eyes would glaze over and they’d disconnect. People do want to live the life of their dreams. But it doesn’t feel believable. It feels like a pie in the sky.Unbelievable messages don’t inspire a strong positive response — such as to hire you!To make messages believable so they inspire a strong positive response, you need SPECIFICITY.Your Core Message for Your Coaching BusinessYour benefit statement is the first and arguably most important message for your business. That’s why I call it a CORE Message. Some people call it a HUB Statement.The point is that message is at the center of all of your messaging. And every other message you create springs from the central ideas in your Core Message.The statement” I coach people to live the life of their dreams” won’t grab attention for two main reasons:1.     It’s missing a critical part of the coach’s niche — the target audience. 2.     And it’s also missing specific outcomes the target audience knows they want. “Live the life of their dreams” is a vague and abstract concept.Why do I say “the target audience KNOWS they want”? Because if they don’t know they want it, they won’t be out there seeking solutions.A beautifully crafted and highly effective benefit statement names your target audience in specific terms then goes on to name specific outcomes the audience knows they want. Not all the outcomes but the top of mind desired outcomes.Let’s break down the NON-benefit statement into components.1. First, there’s the lead in phrase: “I coach”. I recommend “I help …” instead. For one thing it doesn’t immediately raise concerns about what coaching is. But also a coach is not something most people know they want.If you haven’t already, please listen to Episode 7 and then Episode 153, which both explain why coaching is a hard sell so you don’t want to push that language – coach, coaching etc.Why use “help”? Well, for one thing it’s a single syllable word and easy to connect with the rest of a benefit statement. When I wrote curriculum for Coach Training Alliance I suggested “I work with” but I’ve long since realized that makes sentences awkward.Also a coach IS a helper – a thinking partner. You’re not going to solve problems for your clients. You’re going to help them solve problems and reach goals.2. Now let’s look at the word “people”. Uh oh, this is a NON niche — no target audience at all. Someone said: If you try to serve everyone, you’ll serve no one. I agree. Even “people who …”, like “people who want more from life” is arguably not going to be a narrow enough target audience to have a sustainable business.3. How about the phrase “to live the life of their dreams”? This is the big zero. There’s nothing to hook onto here that inspires the response “I want this!” because it’s trying to cover all the bases.So let’s say this coach focuses on careers, how could the message change for the better? To read REAL benefits statements of real coaches go here.