Value Proposition Design for Coaches

What is Value Proposition Design?

Value Proposition Design is a thinking and toolkit that enables a coach or other helping professional service provider to offer relevant, important, unsatisfied and high-value services to their respective target audiences.

Target audience: why it matters to have one (or more)

I have been working as an ICF qualified life coach and business for the past 8 years. But in my previous ‘life’, I used to work in advertising, where I came across dozens of brands, services and products that needed to reach their target audiences. Some of them achieved this quite efficiently, others did less so. Most brands (service and product providers) – to this day – define their target markets based on demographics (age, location, gender, family status, etc.), which works to a certain extent, however is much less effective and efficient, than if we take a look at what is the situation and context people are in, and we equip ourselves to serve those needs with services and products we provide for them. This is where Value Proposition Design comes in.

With Value Proposition Design, we can think about and understand your customers (target audiences) in a much more meaningful way: what ‘customer jobs’ do they have that need to be done (e.g. be more self-confident); what pains are they trying to avoid and ‘kill’ (e.g. be able to avoid loss-of-face during a presentation); and what gains are they looking to achieve within their lives (e.g. win the trust of people when going into a sales process)? Here’s where your services come in: you are competing for their time, money and attention with your coaching, mentoring or consulting services (or a product you have developed for them). Your potential customers have plenty of choices to choose from (e.g. self-help books, online trainings, therapy, etc., and not only other coaches!). So how will you become relevant for them?

What will we do during Value Proposition Design consulting and coaching?

I offer Value Proposition Design coaching and consulting as a unique, highly tailor-made service that results in a very detailed set of customer jobs, pains and gains, matched with your painkillers and gain creators that meet your customers’ needs. My added value is thinking all this through with you, acting as both a brainstorming partner, a mentor, a coach, a consultant and a sounding-board for your ideas.

Why work with me?

I have been trained by Strategyzer’s Alexander Osterwalder, founder and co-author of Value Proposition Design and Business Model Generation in a MasterClass to be able to act as a consultant and trainer for this toolkit.

I have worked with over 100 business owners, coaches, consultants and service providers in various sectors providing different services (and products) to a wide variety of target audiences.

I am an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited PCC level coach, and have worked with dozens of coaches on their respective profiles, creating unique Value Proposition Designs for each of them. I have 20 years of consulting experience, in a wide spectrum of industries and niches. My coaching experience is also vast, having worked with leaders, entrepreneurs, multinational organisations’ team leads and with teams as a team coach and a business coach.

Testimonials

“My time working with Benedek has been invaluable. I was in a transition time with both life and business in 2020, and had way more questions than answers. While I felt like I was good at being aware enough to the problem that needed to be resolved, it was Benedek’s coaching that really supported me to come up with so many incredible a-ha’s, new awareness, and solutions that felt aligned and exciting. Each session I’d come in with my “thing I’m trying to figure out”, and his skill of deeply listening and exploring what is most relevant and important to me is what always served me to create a powerful outcome of our session, and big shifts in awareness and life in general. I now know the business and career I want, how I want it to balance with my family life, and how it plays into the big picture of how I want to show up and serve others. Benedek is great at helping you dig deep and uncover the real meaning and intention behind what you want, and I always leave our sessions feeling heard, understood and accomplished.” –Paula Haubrich, Certified Professional Coach, Lead Your Way Coaching Inc.

Working with Benedek has helped me get clarity on what was stopping me to achieve my goals. More than that, addressing my obstacles enabled me to get a deeper learning about myself and my behavioral patterns.

As a coach, Benedek has a very invitational approach, exhibiting patience and empathy to the rhythm of the client. I felt both safe enough to explore my thoughts and feelings and held accountable on my learnings the entire time.

As a counselor, Benedek blended his expertise in designing my business value proposition with his coaching skills and pointed where to look and what to be careful at but also allowing me to discover by myself what really works for me.

In only three sessions I was not only able to make significant steps I was postponing for months but I, more importantly, achieved mental clarity and confidence in my following moves. – Teodora I, coach, Bucharest

“How you talk about your job and yourself is very inspiring, because you’re always to the point and clearly articulate what you think is important.” – Moni

“You always add very useful examples to your topics, which you describe elaborately.  I learn a lot from you and thankful that there is a person like you in my circles.” – Dora

“I would like to learn to be as objective as you are, and see things the way you see them.  Thank you for showing me the solution through coaching to one of my problems.” – Judy

“I like to listen to your reasoning and thoughts on a particular subject, because you always shed new light on issues.” – Julie

“I was stuck in a static position for a long time and knew I should already have something on the ‘table’, but didn’t dare to decide on things which were only starting to be articulated inside me.  I didn’t know how to proceed and progress, and whether I was heading in the right direction at all. During the Business Model You training Benedek held, I learned a lot about myself in a new way, and could understand the way to the ‘dream job’ finally.  Also, when we put down the basics to paper, my coach (Benedek) showed me several practical things to do to progress – such as my new LinkedIn profile, how to do my CV in an attractive way, etc., which all brought me closer to my goal.  I met a very direct, empathetic, yet highly rational person.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with Benedek.” – Dori

Benedek worked with me in the elaboration of a Business Plan to introduce TropicOiL’s products in Europe. Ben’s experience and knowledge of the European market, his ability to see the big picture and his marketing and strategy skills were decisive in the shaping of a (Winner) Business plan that was chosen by the University of Oxford to represent it at the Moot Corp Business plan competition in Austin (Texas). I am very happy to recommend Ben as I consider him to be a very pro-active, passionate/committed and result’s oriented team player. I hope I will work with him again in the future.– Jose Andres Diaz, Director at IC Fundacion

I have known Ben through my MBA class, and his knowledge of marketing, attention to detail, marketing communication skills and his unique ability to look at things differently, would make him a asset to anyone thinking of taking him on in the advertising space. I wholeheartedly recommend him as a good fit for and advertising agency. – William De Laszlo,Managing Partner at Agathos

Benedek, as I know him, belongs to a rare kind of advertising professionals: he knows how to handle creative personnel, when to take things easy, and when to act harsh. also, he never had problems trasmitting the clients expectations and visions to us.
clients, as i recall, have always liked him, i guess that has something to do with his thorough way to handle things, and his ability to handle difficult and stressful situations with a cool head. – Balázs Pőcze, Founder and Creative Director, MITO Agency

Technical details

  • 3 x 3 hour sessions, where we explore, fine-tune and lay out the details about your target audience(s)
  • pre-work, homework and follow-up care included
  • Zoom or Skype sessions as channels of communication
  • £400 or €450 fee (which you will likely earn-back by finding your ‘new’ very first client, after our sessions)

Your work with me as process can be laid out in three simple steps:

1. Starting point

Many coaches and helping professionals think about who it is they would like to attract in a very generic way.

‘I will help people wanting to progress in their careers, or looking to have a better work-life balance…or are in a stressful situation…etc…etc…’

True, but useless (TBU). ‘Wait, what…useless?’ Let me explain. While I can’t disagree that if you would target people this way, you could be looking at serving millions of people…however, they as an ‘audience’ or ‘group’ don’t exist in their entirety. Instead, hundreds of different client ‘need-sets’ exist, waiting to be identified: very specific jobs, pains and gains can be identified, and served in a much more focused way.

2. A change in your thinking about who it is you could serve

Once we start working, I will call your attention to the details, allowing you to start thinking from the perspectives of your real target audience(s). You need to find something that you can relate to personally. Without this, you will sound and feel ‘cold’ to your potential coachee clients. Credibility and authenticity are words that I think are important to keep in mind, whatever topic you choose to address. Clients figure it out instinctively and very quickly, if a coach is a generalist without much affinity to a topic, or a specialist with personal experience and connection to a topic. Be a specialist!

If you were to think about your target audience in a segmented way, using Value Proposition Design thinking, you could communicate with them more efficiently. They would recognize themselves…and be inclined to get in touch with you, as you are the one to solve their pain.

3. Outcome: Specific niches identified and needs defined

Once you have well-identified niche segments that offer lucrative possibilities for You, it becomes much easier to identify respective needs – and serve them right. This is arguably the most exciting part of the work we do together, and the outcome is a feeling that you finally know who it is you want to attract, and possess the mindset to do so. Exciting stuff, huh?

…oh, and you will have a website full of authentic insights that get clients to call you.

I'm interested