Why Market Research is the Secret to Building a Successful Coaching Business

Welcome to the Thriving Therapeneur Podcast. The show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue make an impact without sacrificing the life you love. Welcome Therapreneur. This is exactly the place for you. Think of it like the business school we never had. I am so excited to dive in with you. Let's get started. Welcome back to the show Therapreneurs. Today we're diving into one of the most critical, yet overlooked aspects of building a successful coaching business and that is market research. So I know it might sound like one of those things that you can just skip over, especially if you've been working with this type of client for a long time, maybe in your private practice, maybe you went through this journey yourself and you are your own ideal client and you're like, oh no, I know this ideal client inside and out. I just want to skip to the good part. And you feel like you can move past this, think again. Because market research is non negotiable in my opinion. And it never ends. It's not a one and done thing, it's ongoing. I continuously do market research in my business still to this day. And when we do so, this is when we can truly understand our audience. We can connect with them emotionally and intimately. We can uncover opportunities. So it's not just about gathering data. You could ask some powerful market research questions and uncover an opportunity for a new revenue generating idea. You could be sitting on a gold mine. And also it helps continuously position yourself as the go to expert in your niche. I call this being the Beyonce of your space. So in this episode I'm going to walk you through why market research is essential, how to do it effectively, even how it can help you land your first paying clients. Because you can turn market research conversations into paying clients clients very easily. And if you've ever wondered, well, how do I stand out in this crowded market? How do I feel confident in what I'm going to offer, then this episode is for you. So let's get started and let's first talk about why market research is critical. Number one, it helps you identify the opportunities to stand out. So one of the biggest benefits of market research is it allows you to see what other coaches are doing, what other solutions are already available in your niche, because you need to know what you're up against. I hate the word competition because I believe anybody who is doing something that we are doing is on a similar mission to us. And I firmly believe in collaboration over competition. But for the sake of teaching purposes, I'm going to use the word competition. And you do need to do competitor research because you need to see what other coaches or programs are serving your audience. More importantly, what are they offering, what are they missing? This is how you find the gap in the market, this quote unquote hole that you could fill. And it's also how you identify what makes you different. Because what makes you different is how you are going to become a thought leader in your space. This is how you are really going to become and rise to be the Beyonce of your space. How do you do it differently? What do you offer that no one else does? What do you take a stand for? So when you're seeing, oh, this is how they teach it and this is their personality and this is their story and this is what they believe in, then you can see how that is different and separates from how you teach it and what you believe in and what your story is, what you maybe disagree with, what they're missing. And this clarity is going to help you be magnetic to your audience. It's going to help you get crystal clear, boost your confidence in everything that you have to offer. So it helps you really stand out and rise above. So you need to do competitor market research, but we also need to do ideal client research as well. And it's not that ideal client research can't be tied to competitor research, because your competitors have probably done ideal client research already. And when you're taking a look at their stuff, you're taking a look at their messaging and what verbiage and language that they're using to connect with the ideal client. It may spark some inspiration. But when you do ideal client research, it really forces you to connect with your client. So it's not just, again, about data collection, it's about conversations. Maybe you've heard me say this before, but conversations equal conversions. Conversations build trust, which builds sales. That's how we have a conversion. It forces you to get in front of your ideal client and actually talk to them. That's what market research forces you to do. This is so powerful because not only do you learn about their struggles and desires, but you also start to break out of your own fear. I think it's very Easy for us to stay stuck in our head. When we're first starting, we're worrying about whether our offer is going to work, who's going to buy it. But when you're having real conversations with your audience, you're getting out of your head and you're getting into service. That's one of the best things that you can do at the beginning. Get out of your head into service. And then the fear starts to fade. You're in your zone and and you see firsthand how much they really need your help. And it's motivating and it's inspiring for you. And then through these conversations, it's generating content ideas and then you're starting to put it out there and then you're getting feedback and people are like, wow, I love that post that you did. That really resonated with me. So then you create more of it, which leads to more conversations, which will naturally lead to conversions. So it's going to force you out of your comfort zone. It's also going to create confidence in your offer. So when you do the research, you're no longer guessing. We don't have to guess. There's no reason to guess. So I'm helping some clients create some low ticket funnels right now for passive income and we're creating order bumps and one time offers throughout their funnel and we're talking through what their digital products could be. And they were kind of guessing and I was like, we don't need to guess. I don't want to guess. This is a risk to guess. Let's go look at the data. What is your most popular lead magnets? Can you go post a poll to your community? Can you create a survey and send that out via email? Can you make a post inside your Facebook group or on your Instagram that says what are the top three things that you're struggling with when it comes to xyz? Then you create your products around that we don't have to guess. You'll know exactly what your audience wants and needs and that confidence will show in how you market and sell your offer. We're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall. Your messaging becomes more clear, your content becomes more compelling. You start attracting the right clients easily and effortlessly. It's a beautiful thing. Use market research, leverage it. Now that you understand the importance of it, you're like, okay, well how do I do market research? Because there's a million different ways that you can do market research. There's passive ways that you can do it and there's active ways that you can do it. Everything kind of falls into those two buckets when I think about market research. So let's talk about some passive ways first where you don't have to actually talk to anybody. You can just do some searching. So I would start by maybe going on Amazon, search for books related to your niche. So remember when I said you need to look at what other solutions are available in your niche, what these other coaches are doing, this competitor research. Go to Amazon, search for books, look at reviews. What are people raving about? And is anything actually even popping up when you go to search your niche? If not many books are popping up at all, then you're probably searching something that either people don't need or you're not searching the problem. Maybe you're searching something more related to your process and how you help them solve the problem. You need to think about what are they complaining about? What is this persistent problem in their everyday life? So go to Amazon, search for books related to your niche. We want at least a hundred, two hundred of them to show up. The more that show up, the better. That's a good sign to us. So when you're doing competitor research, I need to preface we're doing it with intention because it can be very easy to slip into comparisonitis and I don't want that to happen to you, where you're going to get discouraged and you're like, oh, well, you know, all of these thousands of coaches are already doing this. There's no room for me. They're already way ahead of me. No, there's always room for you. The time to get in is now. Absolutely. It's not too late for you. No one can do what you do, how you do it. Okay. We're simply doing competitor research to see are other coaches doing what I'm doing. If so, yay, That's a good sign. And then all we have to do is stand out against the other coaches and be the Beyonce of our space. That becomes the easier part. But we want to make sure that our idea that we have for a niche to create a signature program is validated before we even create it. And this is what market research is going to help us do. You can also go to Facebook and you can use the group search bar. So when you're going to find groups on Facebook, go there and then type in some keywords to find groups related to your niche. So if you are helping moms who have gone through a divorce, go to Amazon first. Type in moms going through a divorce. Divorce coaching for Moms, same thing. Copy and paste that into the Facebook group tab. See if any groups pop up. Go ahead and add yourself to some of those groups. Read through some of the posts and comments. Just like on Amazon, you were going to read through the reviews. What are people asking for help with? What verbiage are these other coaches using? What verbiage is your ideal client using? What are their persistent painful problems? You can check out Instagram. You can search hashtags relevant to your niche. You can just type in keywords. People's handles will show up. So who are these influencers or coaches already in this space? What kind of content are they posting? Don't forget about Google. That is definitely overlooked when it comes to market research. Legit. Open up Google and type in your niche. And remember, if other people are coaching in your area, this is a good thing. It means there's demand, There has to be demand and then we can stand out. That's no problem. Hey there. Did you know we give away one of our incredible digital products every single week? All you have to do is leave a review for the show, then submit proof using the link in the show notes and you'll be entered to win. Prizes include amazing resources like our passive income course, the license protection bundle, top business trainings, my best selling book, and so much more. It's super simple and your review helps us reach more listeners just like you. So take a moment to share your thoughts, enter to win, and maybe you'll be our next winner. So once we realize that, okay, people want this, this is a problem that they have that I can solve, other coaches are doing this. Let me start to have conversations with my ideal clients. So now we're moving kind of into active market research versus just this passive market research where we were lurking. Another good place to lurk, I will say, is Reddit or any online forum for that matter. So check that out as well. If you Google, you'll probably end up on like a Reddit thread or something. But then we can move into having conversations with our audience. It forces you to talk to your ideal clients and this is where magic happens. And this is where you can actually get your paying client. So you can do this through DMs, you can do it through discovery calls, you can do it through surveys and polls. People love polls. They love to vote on things. And you can even offer an incentive to get people on a call. So for example, you can say, you know, I'd love to ask you a few questions for 15 minutes. Market research purposes. In exchange, I'll give you 15 minutes of hot seat coaching or a $10Amazon gift card. And of course you need to preface what the subject is about. Okay? But this is not only going to help you gather insights, but it's also going to help you start building relationships with these potential clients. If you can get them on a discovery call and you can ask them some powerful questions, and I'm going to give you some powerful questions that you can ask, then you're having a conversation with them, they're opening up, they're being vulnerable. You guys are kind of shooting the shit. It will naturally lead into why you're passionate about why you're doing this. If you were your own ideal client, you can probably relate to them. Maybe you share a little bit about your own story and then you know, why is this important to you? Why. Why are you asking me all these questions? Oh, well, you know, I'm working really hard behind the scenes and I am creating a brand new program for people exactly like you. If you would like, I can reach back out to you. You'll be one of the first people. I'll let know when shop is open. And then you have a hot lead on your list who you could very easily convert. When you move out of the market research phase and you are ready to enroll clients, which can happen very quickly after the market research phase, it's going to help you validate your niche and your offer. So you can ask them questions like what is the specific problem that you want solved in regard to X, Y, Z? What's the specific problem that they want solved? We also want to know what if they already tried? That's not working. This one's really important. How much time, energy, money have they spent trying to solve this problem? You can also ask them what would be a dream come true for them in relation to this problem. Almost like the magic wand question we ask in therapy. So what are their current problems? What have they already tried to solve this? What would be a dream come true for them? What are they afraid of? This is a good one too. Okay. They may be afraid that this isn't even possible for them, that it's not going to work out for them. Maybe it's because they've tried so many things in the past and they've been burned. So really try to get down on their level and ask these powerful questions. I list out much more of these questions inside my book. If you haven't read the Therapeneur book yet, highly recommend doing so. It's free, I ship it out to you. I just ask that you cover shipping. You can get the audiobook, you can get the ebook. There's worksheets to go along with it. So if you need more help with market research, other than the gold nuggets we're dropping today, definitely pick up the therapreneur book. Some common mistakes that I see is one skipping past this completely, which I preface at the beginning of this episode because you think you already know your ideal client and again, think again because it's not a one and done thing. I meet with my sales team weekly and we have a running document where we are having conversations about the common threads and themes, common denominators that they are seeing when they are having conversations. And then we use that as inspiration to create social media content. We're like, wow, this is getting brought up a lot. A lot of people are struggling with their niche. I'm hearing over and over again from all of these therapists that they want to add coaching, but X, Y, Z. So I'm listening. We almost want to listen more than we create. And we want to create very, very intentionally. So it's very easy to get focused on our own ideas and we'll forget to see what's already out there. We really need to find our unique angle. So again, we need to know what we take a stand for, which is why knowing our competition on a deeper level is helpful. It's not about copying them, it's just about understanding our ideal client inside and out and then finding our unique angle. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. So if somebody is already offering a similar service, again, that's a good sign. There is a market demand. Our clients are hungry for this. Yay. And then we'll bring our personality, our unique methods. How many people are out there doing what you're doing already who have no clinical background, they didn't go to years of school, they don't have certifications. Every letter of the Alphabet you do. This is a big one up that you have as a licensed clinician or an aspiring licensed clinician. And then from there we can take action on the data. We need data. We don't want to guess, we don't have to guess. We don't have to throw spaghetti at the wall. Let the data guide you in what you create. This will help you take the path of least resistance where you're not just hoping and praying that something is going to stick. And please do not create your whole entire program and then go to market and sell it. Don't do that. We want to sell first and then create as we go. And we'll drip the content to our clients. We're going to create kind of like a Runway for them. I also talk about this in my book, much more in detail. But imagine that you created your whole entire signature coaching program without doing market research. You spent so much time being a perfectionist, re recording everything, making sure all your PowerPoints look good, make sure everything was tip top pretty. You screwed up talking, so you re recorded it a million times. Then you go to market and sell it and it falls on deaf ears and you get crickets. That's what I want to prevent from happening for you. So we're going to do market research first. And even once we validate our offer, before we even sell it, just because we did market research, we're still going to get paid to create an asset in our business that's going to help us reduce our hours. This is the smartest, fastest way to do it. And any good business coach will agree with me on this. Okay, we're still in integrity selling something that we haven't yet created because we have created a skeleton, a rough draft, a whole outline. So it's not like we don't know what we're creating. And we have started to create it already. We just haven't created and finished the whole damn thing. We're going to create it as we go. Okay, so here's a little secret. Market research can lead you to your first paying client. When you're on those calls, those DMs, you're building trust. You're putting out surveys, you're posting polls, you're showing people that you understand their problems and you're the one who can help them. And then when you get them on the phone or you're having a DM conversation and they're like, wow, I didn't realize how much I needed this. They're going to ask you, how can I work with you? I see it happen all the time. So don't just think of market research as this task, this tedious task that you have to do before you get to the good stuff. Think of it actually as the first step in building a relationship and turning them into paying clients. Like I said earlier, it can lead to a natural conversation where you're going to tell them, hey, I'm going to write your name down and you're going to be the first person I'm going to reach out to. Because when I launch my offer, I'm going to do a founding Members discount round and it's only available for three spots and you would be one of those people. They're going to feel so special and honored and you already build trust with them. This is how powerful market research can be. Okay, ladies and gentlemen. All right, so action steps. I want to leave you with action steps that you can take away this week, this month, apply in your business today, tomorrow. So number one, identify three competitors in your niche. Go find them on Amazon, on Google, on Instagram, on Facebook groups. Go find three coaches who are doing what you're doing. Analyze their messaging, find the void, see what you like and don't like about what they're doing. Pay attention to the verbiage, the messaging that they're using. Be intentional about looking at their stuff so we don't get sucked into comparisonitis. Number two, create a short survey or a list of questions to ask your ideal clients. So either a survey or a poll and I want you to post that as many places as possible. You can post the same one all the places. If you have an email list going, send it out to email. If you have previous clients, send it out to them. Post it on all of your social media channels and then when you get these answers back, this can lead to conversations. If it's not an anonymous survey, okay. But number three, regardless if it's anonymous or not, you still need to have conversations with people. If that survey is anonymous, you need to create another post where you're saying for market research purposes, I'm offering $10Amazon gift card or I'm offering 15 minutes of free hot seat coaching. If you're willing to get on a call with me and answer five questions in relation to xyz, whatever your niche is, okay, Try to get on the phone with three people and then use what you learn to refine your niche, your messaging, your offer. Market research is a secret sauce to creating a coaching business. It's going to help you stand out, be the beyond savior space. It's going to help you serve your audience at the highest level. It's going to help you connect with them emotionally, intimately. Where they are going to be like, wow, she gets it. She knows me inside and out. They're going to feel like you know them better than they know themselves. That's the goal. And when you take the time to understand your clients needs, you're going to feel so much more confident about what you're offering. That confidence and conviction is going to come through. The results will speak for themselves. So cheers to doing market research. I hope you have your homework assignments. I hope this was inspiring for you. I hope this inspires you to take action and if you have found this helpful share it with a fellow coach or a therapist who could use this advice. Don't forget to tag me on Instagram. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. Let me know what you're working on. I would love to cheer you on and until next time take care and keep building your dream business. My love is with you guys and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Thriving Therapy Neuro Podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales and adding coaching ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.