Does it make sense that people will pay gobs of money to a coach to learn a strategy for getting clients on social media… yet won’t pay the same amount to a done-for-you provider who’ll just do everything FOR them?
The folks who provide the done-for-you service say that it doesn’t make sense.
I say that it actually makes TOTAL sense. 🙂
Here’s why:
Coaches typically teach a very specific way of getting clients from social media, that they either say is unique or actually is unique.
And they talk about that way in their marketing, and people who resonate with that way sign up because they want to learn it.
Done-for-you (DFY) providers typically DON’T do that.
I’ve been analyzing what coaches and service providers say in their marketing for about 10 years now, and I don’t think I’ve EVER seen a DFY provider going into detail about their method or even mentioning it.
Typically they just talk about benefits like “won’t it be nice to have this handled” and share testimonials about how professional/high-quality their work is… but you’re still left in the dark as to what they actually DO – what their philosophy is, what their method is.
As well as what kinds of results it gets. (Certain types of clients/customers? Certain quantities of clients/customers? Etc… Yes, you can look at testimonials, but results are often all over the map and you can’t figure out WHY some got one result and some got another)
Now, of course, the fact that I haven’t personally seen this detail from service providers doesn’t mean that none of them ever share it. But, since I’ve looked at a lot of marketing and haven’t seen it, it seems reasonable to think that it’s rare.
So, the coach sounds like they have this super-cool thing that you can’t learn anywhere else – and all the DFY providers with their similar vague messaging just sound like noise.
As always, the way you position and talk about what you do makes all the difference.
A lot of us don’t see or appreciate the expertise and strategic minds and attention to detail that a lot of DFY providers probably have, because they don’t tell us about any of that!
There’s another thing, too.
When it comes to coaches and consultants and experts specifically, I’m not sure that every marketing method COULD be done 100% by a DFY person without the involvement of the actual person whose services are being marketed.
For example, I market my services using detailed posts like this one that give information and examples from my years of experience.
I have yet to be convinced that a DFY provider could magically just write these kinds of posts for me.
How could they, unless they’d been inside my head for the past 10 years, having the same experiences I’ve had, building up the same expertise and living the same life?
So, yes, in a perfect black-and-white world, a DFY provider would be able to execute a strategy in the exact same way that you yourself would after learning it from a coach – and you should, in theory, be just as interested in their service (or more so) than you are in the coach’s service.
But we don’t live in a black-and-white world – and in reality the DFY provider might not be an expert in the particular method that you want to use (and/or are learning from a coach), and they also might not be able to communicate as powerfully or precisely as you, the expert, would when constructing marketing content.
So, when those two uncertainties enter the picture, it actually makes total sense that so many would go for a coach rather than a DFY provider.
So, if you’re a DFY provider, what should you do?
Well, of course I’m biased, but I think you should use my method for getting clear about what you actually offer and then writing/communicating about it. 🙂
DFY providers sometimes ask if my method will work for them, or how it’s different from the way coaches would use it… and my answer is that it’s really not very different.
Whether a client is going to have you do something for them, or learn it from you and then do it themselves, they still want to know the same kinds of things before hiring you.
They want to know what kinds of results you can help them get, and what your game plan is for getting those specific results.
A lot of DFY providers (at least the ones I’ve talked to/had as clients) haven’t niched to a specific result, nor have they identified their own unique philosophy/game plan for getting that specific result, so that’s the place to start.
And, obviously, the part where you develop the game plan/method/philosophy is going to necessitate some careful testing and reflection on whether you truly CAN do this particular method in a magical done-for-you fashion where the client is totally hands-off, or whether you actually need their brain and expertise on board.
It’s not “wrong” to include the client more – but just be clear about exactly how it’s going to work, and test it to make sure it actually does work!
Once you have the specific result and methods nailed down, then you can write about them in your marketing – and I’d be very surprised if people didn’t start coming to you excited to work together to execute your cool and super-effective method (and maybe even have it mostly done for them), just like they’re excited to learn the cool method from the coach.
Truly, as I look back on all my coaching experiences and what I spent on them, I can say that I would much prefer to have redirected many of those funds (not all) to DFY providers who could have magically done it all FOR me.
But I never saw a DFY provider who caught my attention in the same way the coaches did, nor convinced me that what I wanted to do could actually be done in DFY fashion.
Interesting, right?
I’m going to link you to a few of my popular trainings (which apply to DFY folks just as they do to coaches) on how to determine what result to market, and how to write content that makes your methods clear.
Here they are:
Training on how to determine the result you market
Training on how to write content that makes your methods clear
Additional training on how to write content about methods – plus case studies and examples
I’m also going to invite you to skip the trainings if you like, and just work with me 1:1 – we can get your outcome and process and content figured out much more quickly by going through a few simple worksheets and meeting together on private calls – NO videos or other content to consume. 😉
Here’s the info on my 1-on-1 program.
And I also offer my Articulate Your Outcome Workshops a couple of times per month – where we focus JUST on identifying and articulating your outcome.
(This is part of the 1:1 program too, but there’s a lot of additional stuff on the agenda in the 1:1 program.)
The info on the workshop can be found here.
Do you have thoughts on what I shared in this post? Love to hear ’em! 🙂