Your Turn to Sound Off | Comments, Questions, Criticisms & Witticisms, please…

• Coaching certification – are you for it? vehemently against it? or somewhere in between? (Bored by the is an acceptable answer too!)
• How do you feel about the IAC Coaching Masteries™ – do they represent coaching to you
• What do you think of the IAC – International Association of Coaching – how well is it serving you (or not?)
• All of the above, including anything covered in the Q&A.

As Andrea continues to shine a light on the certification journey, she’s excited that Mentor Coach and Lead Certifier at the IAC Nina East has agreed to answer your biggest questions. Stay tuned for future calls and recordings on this topic. 

Send your questions, comments or critique here. Your thoughts are important to us!

Desire Lines – The Shortest Path to More Money

In her second book called Money, Meaning and Beyond, Andrea writes about Desire Lines. Urban planners use desire lines when they use the natural paths that spring up in parks as sensible places for sidewalks. Desire lines show a yearning on the part of the walkers as they are walking where they want to walk.

Our clients show us desire lines as well. They yearn for us to offer them more—more classes, products, services, or information. However, if we are not listening closely, we may miss the signals, passing up the opportunity to do more for our existing client base.

One of the easiest ways to grow your income is to sell more to your current customer base. Desire lines are subtle neon signs pointing out additional products or services needed by your clients.

How to discover desire lines? Pay attention to the email requests you say decline. Are you often asked for things that you don’t currently provide? What questions do you repeatedly answer?

When you get several questions on the same topic, your clients need more education. Consider creating a teleclass, ebook, or group coaching program to provide that information. If you do a teleclass or group coaching program, record it and create an audio product.

Notice the blocks that your clients consistently face. Can you create a product, service, or program to help them past that block?

Ask. Simply ask by sending a short survey to your clients. Andrea suggests keeping it short so that it is easy for everyone to respond quickly. One quick question, “What is your biggest challenge about xzy?” can give you a wealth of good information.

In fact, a quick question by email generally produces much better responses than a formal survey. Bear in mind Andrea’s teaching point – that people answer survey’s using their logic, whereas they buy with their emotion. So if you want to ask a question and generate the best responses, do it without triggering logic by emailing instead of surveying.

Finding new customers is an important task for any business person. The forward thinking coach also pays attention to the desire lines of her current customers, finding ways to serve them more robustly and generate additional streams of revenue.

Brainstorm with these questions:

• What do you know that your clients wish they knew?
• How could you teach them that information?
• What are the biggest obstacles to implementation that plague your clients?
• Could you create a system to remove them?
• What questions did you clients ask you this week?
• Can you find any common themes?
• When could you send an email query to your current customer base?

Post your thoughts and answers…if you so desire!