What my assumptions taught me
I assumed that when I’d offer my coaching services for free, people would jump on the occasion to have a coaching session at no cost. My intention was to give them the experience of being coached by me and create a sales opportunity.
I failed to realise how biased I was by my assumptions: 1) everyone is interested in being coached and 2) my offer is free.
I kind of knew that not everyone is interested in being coached but as many founders, I assumed that what I’m doing is awesome and everybody wants a slice of my cake. I got reminded that it’s not true.
My offer was not free for them, I was asking for their attention and their time. A whole 75 minutes of it! Crazy, isn’t it? I didn’t see it then, I definitely saw it when I only got a 3% response rate to my messages on LinkedIn.
I had to change tactic in order to get people’s attention.
My assumptions had gotten me into this mess, how could they serve me moving forward? I asked myself what other assumptions I was relying on and realised there were quite a few. So I decided to challenge them by asking for help from the very people who’d ignored me so far.
I am now asking for an interview where I ask questions about what is preventing their company to scale easier by looking at how core values, vision and purpose impact their growth capacity because that’s the core of the consulting and coaching services I offer.
The purpose of this interview is to challenge my assumptions about the services I offer, hear the perspective of entrepreneurs in my target market, as well as know what vocabulary they use to describe their values, vision, purpose and company culture.
In exchange for their valuable time, I offer a coaching session. And suddenly the free service I offer has value. The response rate increased to about 20%. That’s how I’ve learned a lot from the very people I aim to serve and how many “feet in the door” I’ve gotten.
Instead of asking for people’s attention and time for “free”, what value can you create for them?