How to Differentiate as a Coach or Consultant
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Ready for the question that keeps most business coaches and consultants up all night?
Why should anyone work with you over someone else?
Most coaches have no problem describing what they do. At the same time, many struggle to clearly and concisely explain why, in a crowded market, someone should work with them over a competitor.
As hard as this is, answering this question is key to your success. It’s not enough to simply be good enough; you need to stand out and differentiate yourself from the rest. In other words, you need to be the obvious choice for your potential clients.
But how?
In this guide, I’ll give you a step-by-step process you can follow to differentiate yourself as a coach or consultant. I’ll also share some special resources to speed up your path to creating digital offers that set you apart.
Why You Need to Differentiate
Does differentiation really matter?
When the market isn’t crowded, it’s less important that you stand out because chances are you’ll be remarkable enough on your own. But in a crowded market, you’re just one voice among hundreds (or thousands).
And believe me, the coaching market is crowded. It’s estimated that the coaching industry generates over $4B per year, and there are over 100,000 coaches worldwide (source).
There are a few perks that come with differentiating yourself, too:
Differentiating is the key between struggling to find clients and becoming a successful six-figure coach. Read on for five actionable steps you can take to stand out from the crowd.
5 Steps to Stand Out as a Coach or Consultant
Standing out is one of the hardest things a coach or consultant has to do, but with the right framework and a bit of creativity, you can manage it.
Follow these five steps to differentiate your coaching/consulting business:
I’ll walk you through each one next.
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Define Your Niche
Differentiating your business starts with choosing a niche.
Niching down seems scary to most business owners; after all, wouldn’t it be better to serve more types of customers? You’d think that, but by marketing to everyone, you’re really marketing to no one. Even successful companies like HubSpot niched down in the early stages (HubSpot niched down by being the CRM of choice for SMBs; it was still a bit broad, but a far cry from “everyone”).
Start by choosing a market segment where you can excel and become the go-to expert. To do this, you can analyze your:
It also helps to interview current clients about what they like most about your services. Then test your niche by creating targeted content and seeing how it performs.
Another helpful way to narrow your focus and develop a good value proposition is to research until you can complete this sentence: "I help [specific type of client] achieve [specific outcome] through [your unique approach]."
For example, a social media strategist who focuses on nonprofits might say, “I help nonprofits raise awareness and more money through targeted and effective Facebook campaigns.”
Develop your Brand and Story
As Simon Sinek said in his TED talk, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Choosing a niche gives you a start, but to truly stand out, you need a story and brand that prospective customers will flock to and trust. To do that, write a compelling narrative that explains the “why” behind your business.
You can start by jotting down:
In a sea of businesses that all look the same, there is only one “you,” and this is how you make that clear. For example, I started Content Sparks because I’m a passionate learner who is fanatical about well-written content, hates to waste time, and loves to share my knowledge with others.
Remember that effective branding communicates not just what you do, but why it matters.
Create Your “Secret Sauce” AKA Signature System
A great brand and story are one thing to separate you from the crowd, but when combined with a signature system (or secret sauce), there truly is no other “you” out there.
A signature system is a proprietary methodology that sets you apart from your competitors.
It could be a unique viewpoint or approach to a topic (like a strategic process or framework for creating content), or a comprehensive offer. The key is that it’s yours, and the only place your customers can get it from is you.
If you have not already, take a moment to write down your exact methodology. If you’re a social media strategist, break down your process into clear steps that you follow for each client. Or if you’re a writer, write out your framework and philosophy for writing a great blog post. You can then test and refine your methodology with clients and collect testimonials to demonstrate how effective it is.
Combined with a unique story, your signature system guarantees you stand out in a sea of identical businesses. Check out my guide to creating a signature system for a full walkthrough.
Demonstrate Your Credibility
Just as no one has your story or signature system, no one has your exact experience as well.
You don’t need to be the most experienced or decorated person in your industry to demonstrate credibility. All you need is concrete evidence that you know what you’re doing. That could be:
Remember that credibility isn't just about qualifications—it's about consistently delivering value and documenting those successes. Want more ideas on how to demonstrate social proof? Check out my guide!
Looking for free PLR you can resell or use to market your business online?
Try our latest free PLR content pack
Create a Unique Series of Offers
Lastly, you can differentiate by delivering a unique series of offers for your clients.
You probably have a base offer that you provide for your coaching or consulting services. That’s fine, but you can separate yourself from others in your industry by presenting a unique combination of products and offers to prospective clients.
That could be:
Not only do these offers help you stand out, but they also help you scale your coaching business by building a stream of passive or semi-passive income. It’s a win-win!
The Best Way to Scale: PLR Products and Courses
If you want to create a line of scalable offers like courses, coaching programs, and digital products but are short on time, then I have the answer for you: PLR.
PLR (private label rights) is a license that allows you to purchase a digital product (like a course, eBook, or even blog post) and rebrand it as your own before selling. All the hard work is done for you! Whether you wish to sell PLR courses, planners, or eBooks, you can purchase a year’s worth of content in minutes. It’s fast and easy to customize PLR as well to add value and match your brand.
High-quality PLR products are one of the best ways to source content that you can tweak and turn into money-makers for your business. If you want to scale your business with digital products or stockpile content for a membership site, PLR is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to get premium content you can sell.
Check out my shop for hundreds of high-quality PLR products to sift through (but check the end of this post for a special offer)
Speed Up Your Path to Success with a Free PLR Product!
PLR is the best and fastest way to create high-quality content for your audience. In fact, PLR just may be the best way to scale your coaching/consulting business to six figures!
If the thought of spending hours creating, editing, and re-writing a course gives you pause, then I have a surprise for you: click the button below to get a free PLR product.
This is a ready-to-go, entirely done-for-you product that I’m giving away for free.
And when you subscribe to get the current free PLR product, you’ll get an additional new one each month!
There’s nothing stopping you now from filling your funnel and growing your business. Get your free product and launch it today on your website or to your email list.
Enjoy!
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