U2 stated the problem but never really offered us a solution. Your potential customers may be climbing the highest mountains and scaling city walls looking for you. But if in the spirit of creativity or so-called “trends” you’ve obscured your brand in such a way that you’ll never be found in searches on Google, Yahoo or Bing, you’ve created a problem that needs to be fixed.
While involved in a recent networking conversation, a question was posed about whether a personal coach should continue to use “coach” in her title or should she get with the times and adopt the language of “consultant.” The answer to the question is ultimately another question: what are potential customers searching for?
It’s true that titles and terms get overused or stigmatized. In the world of “coaching” there is concern it is being overrun with unskilled and untrained people lacking certifications and tarnishing the reputation of the industry. Here’s a newsflash for you coaches, this is true in every industry – but changing your name from “coach” to “consultant” may just create confusion.
If at some point all restaurant chefs wanted to change their title from “chef” to “meal constructor” and began promoting their services with this new title because a chef somewhere brought shame on the entire industry due to some rookie mistakes, potential employers would be very confused. They aren’t searching Indeed or LinkedIn for “meal constructors.” Restaurants look for chefs.
People who look for coaches are familiar with the word coach – don’t miss the opportunity to expand your business by obscuring yourself among your competition. But don’t take my word for it. Do the research and see what your most successful competition is up to. Where are they located? How much business are they known to be generating? Are they a coach or a consultant? Whatever you’re doing to promote your brand, unless you have unlimited financial resources, breaking new ground by repositioning the entire industry within a new framework because of a trend you heard about is not what’s going to lead you down a path of success. You need to market yourself so that when potential clients are visiting Google, Yahoo and Bing, they can find exactly what they are looking for and you are included in those search results.