I have felt all of the above, I moved into sales shortly after my retail career ended and for the first year I was great at selling, at some point I started to realise that whilst my motivation came from the thrill of getting that sale and earning money from it, it just wasn’t enough anymore, and so I started seeking a new thrill, which was making a difference in people’s lives, this thrill was more than just skin deep, it was DNA deep.

I then started to feel bad for charging clients and found myself coaching pro-bono until one day I attended an event where Gerard O’ Donovan was speaking on financing your business as a coach. In this talk Gerard talked about the importance of valuing yourself and your work, I walked away feeling quite reflective asking ‘why do coaches have an internal struggle to charge their clients?’ over the years I have found this to be a common theme amongst coaches. Why do coaches feel so guilty when it comes to charging clients?

Some of my answers came when I read Marie Claire Carlyle’s book called ‘Money Magnet’ a startling revelation on how one values one’s relationship with money. Over the years when ever I have spoken to fellow coaches and asked why they came into this profession, most of the time, the answer consists of ‘making a difference in people’s lives’, with that in mind, I know for me, my barrier came from a desire to make a difference and not wanting to make money out if it, this is partly because of my upbringing, were, kindness, wisdom and helping others is done without a price, it comes from a place of needing to do good. It was at this point when the key unlocked the door and the door flew open offering opportunities in the form of paying clients.

Finding sales and charging clients does not de-value you as a coach or your work, in-fact it does the opposite, this is a huge mind shift because we live in a society were we have been taught otherwise. Coaching is a profession that is still not understood or respected, and to put a value on that can be difficult to justify, however you spent time and money in qualifying or getting the training to become a coach so why shouldn’t you charge?

As coaches we need to connect with why we became coaches in the first place, what are our values and beliefs are around this, what our barriers are and work on removing these and creating new beliefs, only then will be create the mindset to attract the right sales & find worth in what we do and ourselves.

So what’s your sales strategy?

Written By Christine Charles

Co Founder of Coaches Networking Convention

Founder of Coaches Network

In order to put together the most useful day of activities and networking for you we need your help.  Please take 5 minutes to complete our short survey and we will do our best to put the most exciting and effective programme for you. Details are here:  http://ow.ly/arkn9

• Newly Qualified Coaches / NLP practitioners
• Training to be a Coach/ NLP practitioners
• Existing Coaches / NLP practitioners
• If you are considering becoming a Coach and earn a living from it
• SME’s in the field of Coaching
• Cooperates in the field of Coaching

 WHY YOU should attend the Coaches Networking Convention 2012:

 Business Growth:

• Find out what the current trends are and how you can use them to grow your business
• Best practise: what is it and how can it help my business grow?
• What support is out there for my business?

Inspiration

• Be inspired and inspire others
• Share learn and grow in one space
• How do I coach without losing its value by charging money?

 Contribute to the Coaching Community

• Be a part of the UK’s coaching community, there is no other event that caters for the needs of coaches like this
• Network with each other
• Form partnerships

CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS THIS YEARS COACHES NETWORKING CONVENTION BY COMPLETING OUR QUESTIONNAIRE: CLICK HERE