Business Consultant Discusses The Problem With Business Coaching

You know the old saw about the jack of all trades who is the master of none.

This is the problem with many business coaches who go into organizations with the promise that they’re going to be able to fix everything from finance to sales.

I, for one, just don’t buy it.

In business, most of us develop, if we’re focused at all, some very specific skill sets.

I know I have a few that are very deep.

One of them is in telemarketing, specifically cold calling for business and generating something out of nothing. I do it well, and I’m first-rate at training others to do it.

Also, I’m very sharp at improving customer service in measurable ways, reducing costs in the process. Moreover, I’m FAST.

That, by the way, is the signature of a true expert in nearly any walk of life.

A barber or hair stylist that labors over every snip is either putting on a show for your benefit, or he’s inept. The worst cut I ever got was by someone who took the longest time, and at the end of it all, she admitted she wasn’t licensed!

One particularly terrible heating and air conditioning guy looked at an old furnace of mine for about an hour and said he’s replace it, and he sent me a bill for his “advice.” Needless to say, he didn’t get the ultimate removal and replacement work order.

Just as I wasn’t having him out for an opinion, but instead a repair, most small businesses can’t afford the luxury of paying someone to say something is wrong. They expect someone they retain to roll up his sleeves and fix it, and fast.

One of the reasons a reported 90% of all consulting is done within the Fortune 1000 is that these firms know how to hire people with specific skills. They demand and often get exactly what they’re seeking. And in my experience, they tend to avoid coaches, preferring consultants with credentials.

If, for instance, they want to train their sales force to open and close business by phone, they don’t settle for an advisor or trainer who knows only how to qualify prospects or set appointments.

Operations managers who want their customer service reps to start paying their freight by selling find consultants who know exactly how to get this done, with a minimum of fuss and employee turnover. (See my best-selling book: Selling Skills For The Non-Salesperson.)

A mere coach, who doesn’t know how to help people to transform themselves from being clerks to being sellers, will rely on useless motivational ploys and even less successful standard sales texts.

To be fair, all coaches are not inept.

But one symptom of quackery is when they say they’re competent at everything.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of http://www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to http://www.customersatisfaction.com