Small Business Coaching - 3 Questions You Must Ask When Hiring a Business Coach
So you've decided to hire a small business coach to help you stay focused, accountable and learn the skills you need to be successful.
Congratulations! The decision to hire a coach is one of the best business decisions you can make, provided you get the right person to help you.
Since hiring a coach should be a long term commitment to your business you want to make sure you get a coach that you can work with, learn from and trust with the intimate details of your business.
There are 3 questions you absolutely must ask any potential small business coach prior to signing any coaching agreement or long-term commitments.
Can You Tell Me About Your Personal Experience Growing a Business? You want a coach who has actually done what they are professing to be able to help you do.
If they have, they should be able to share specific examples of the results they achieved in past situations.
They don't necessarily have to have grown a business just like yours or even a business of their own.
They might have been a sales, marketing or business development manager at a company.
The key here is to make sure that they actually have some real-world experience with marketing and sales, which is the primary activity a business coach should be able to help you with.
Can You Tell Me About Past Client Results? While there may be some confidentiality issues here, your potential coach should be able to demonstrate that his or her clients have been able to improve the profitability of their businesses with the assistance of the coach.
The ability to get results for themselves in a sales or marketing role does not necessarily mean that the coach is able to transfer their knowledge in such a way that their clients are able to absorb and act on the information provided.
Something else you'll want to watch out for is whether or not the coach talks primarily about helping people get "unstuck" or overcome specific mental barriers or whether they talk about tangible business results.
Having someone in your corner to help coach you through your own blocks and bad habits is definitely important, but your business coach should bring more to the table than that.
Can I Contact Two or Three of Your Past or Current Clients? Of course, they'll have testimonials on their website in written and video formats.
But any coach worth their salt should be able to provide you with a few referrals that you can contact by email or for a quick telephone chat to hear in their own words about their experience.
If they refuse, they probably have something to hide.
This could be a good indicator that you'll want to keep searching for a small business coach that will happily let you talk to their past or current clients.
You can probably think of many other questions that you'll want to ask your potential coach, but these three are definitely in the "must answer" list before you even consider signing a coaching agreement.
Remember that you'll need to commit to at least 3 months with any coach to really start seeing tangible results and changes in your business, so spend time up front doing the proper due diligence and you'll make a wise investment.
Congratulations! The decision to hire a coach is one of the best business decisions you can make, provided you get the right person to help you.
Since hiring a coach should be a long term commitment to your business you want to make sure you get a coach that you can work with, learn from and trust with the intimate details of your business.
There are 3 questions you absolutely must ask any potential small business coach prior to signing any coaching agreement or long-term commitments.
Can You Tell Me About Your Personal Experience Growing a Business? You want a coach who has actually done what they are professing to be able to help you do.
If they have, they should be able to share specific examples of the results they achieved in past situations.
They don't necessarily have to have grown a business just like yours or even a business of their own.
They might have been a sales, marketing or business development manager at a company.
The key here is to make sure that they actually have some real-world experience with marketing and sales, which is the primary activity a business coach should be able to help you with.
Can You Tell Me About Past Client Results? While there may be some confidentiality issues here, your potential coach should be able to demonstrate that his or her clients have been able to improve the profitability of their businesses with the assistance of the coach.
The ability to get results for themselves in a sales or marketing role does not necessarily mean that the coach is able to transfer their knowledge in such a way that their clients are able to absorb and act on the information provided.
Something else you'll want to watch out for is whether or not the coach talks primarily about helping people get "unstuck" or overcome specific mental barriers or whether they talk about tangible business results.
Having someone in your corner to help coach you through your own blocks and bad habits is definitely important, but your business coach should bring more to the table than that.
Can I Contact Two or Three of Your Past or Current Clients? Of course, they'll have testimonials on their website in written and video formats.
But any coach worth their salt should be able to provide you with a few referrals that you can contact by email or for a quick telephone chat to hear in their own words about their experience.
If they refuse, they probably have something to hide.
This could be a good indicator that you'll want to keep searching for a small business coach that will happily let you talk to their past or current clients.
You can probably think of many other questions that you'll want to ask your potential coach, but these three are definitely in the "must answer" list before you even consider signing a coaching agreement.
Remember that you'll need to commit to at least 3 months with any coach to really start seeing tangible results and changes in your business, so spend time up front doing the proper due diligence and you'll make a wise investment.
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