Four Reasons To AVOID Marketing Coaches

Four Reasons To AVOID Marketing Coaches

By Andre Bell

Word count: 662

There is an increasing fad towards hiring marketing coaches to

educate business owners and decision makers about building their

businesses.

The argument for working with a marketing coach is to allow business

owners to grow in their knowledge of marketing concepts and

principles.

This is a mistake.

What entrepreneurs really need is less self-education and more

direct assistance.

Education is fine and all, but it is always better to see immediate

sales increases than having to work ten months to two years through

some `self help' marketing package to hopefully see results at the

end.

I've yet to find a marketing coach who guarantees the client will

make money following the advice. And those that offer guarantees

expire before the program can be completed.

Coaching is a risk.

After entrepreneurs pay coaching fees and fail to follow through

because of lack of time or from being presented with pre-packaged

solutions that fall way short, their situation becomes worse than

before they began the coaching program.

Aside from the direct financial loss of buying the coaching bundle,

the lost opportunity costs from trying to figure out how to apply

someone else's pre-packaged coaching program to your business can

never be recovered.

Worse, change comes so rapidly that entrepreneurs need immediately

implementable tactics and strategies to defend against competitors.

The risk of watching smart competitors immediately implement new

marketing approaches while you are stuck for 10 months to two years

struggling and distracted with a paint-by-numbers coaching system

that prevents you from taking immediate action makes working with a

marketing coach a bad idea.

Here are the top three reasons to avoid Marketing Coaches:

Accountability

Coaching focuses getting you to fill out questionnaires and surveys

and do `home work' assignments between telephone sessions which may

last only ten or 15 minutes. Hardly enough time to achieve real

marketing success. When results aren't achieved the problem falls on

your own shoulders. You pay for `self help' directed activities, not

for results.

Consulting focuses on results. An increase in sales, more referrals,

improved response rates, etc. The consultant is directly responsible

for helping you achieve results.

Flexibility

Two year commitment to what amounts to nothing more than a high- priced self-help program is foolish. A coaches pre-printed forms may

or may not apply to you and your business. Pre-packaged coaching is

not customizable; it's a one-size-fits-all attempt to standardize

the marketing of businesses that may have nothing in common.

Availability

Coaching carries limited, scheduled time with a coach.

What happens when you need assistance between sessions? For most

prepackaged coaching no such extra sessions are available since

coaching is activity based, i.e. assignments that must be completed

by the entrepreneur himself/herself instead of actual question and

answer consulting.

This is bad because when your competitors start to attack you are

stuck having to wait until your next monthly session to ask for

help. Consulting often is available without restrictions or with

limited restrictions on ongoing contact.

And the worst reason of all to avoid marketing coaches:

Coaching is a one-sided relationship.

The coach can have several clients working through pre-packaged

materials without his assistance and personally continue to earn

income -- regardless of whether or not the client makes money or

even completes the assignments or not.

Industry peers have tried to talk me into giving up consulting for

the more lucrative career of becoming a marketing coach.

For me that's not an option. I'd rather make less money and see

clients actually increase sales than to get filthy rich from making

empty promises.

The disadvantages of this coaching fad make it clear that

entrepreneurs need less self-education and more immediate direct

assistance. If you want a prepackaged solution grab a book or two.

You can read most marketing books in just a few days, instead of

being strung along for months or years with a coach whose only

promise is to tie up your time with prepackaged materials that were

originally designed for some other business.

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Andre Bell is a copywriter, direct response marketing strategist,

and principle of marketing consulting firm Andre Bell Consulting

Group. Andre is committed to helping entrepreneurs like himself

discover what it takes to maximize profits from every marketing

communication and effort. Visit www.AndreBell.com for fresh

marketing tips and resources.This article is free for republishing
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