How do I know what pain points my corporate prospects have?

Being told to research your industry to land 4 and 5 figure corporate contracts can seem daunting.

What you really need are the exact questions you can answer via simple Google (other browsers are available 😉) searches which I am sharing in this post.

You see, the sales gurus don’t help because they tell you to “research your industry & find the pain points” without telling you HOW to actually do this. 

When you really understand the pressures and challenges in your industry niche, you can offer what they need AND position yourself in a way that helps them see you as an expert (that makes it easier for them to buy from you).

The 3 major pain points:

Before I dive into the questions I need you to understand three facts (this will help you make sense of what you find):

• Companies tend to be good at their core business, like banking or creating software or manufacturing goods, but they are rarely very good at supporting their people with e.g. managing stress, work-life balance, building confidence, etc.

• That is why they buy those kinds of services from external providers – in fact, the corporate wellness services industry is worth $6.6bn in 2021 in the US alone. 

• While most large organizations have a need for e.g. better stress management or better work-life balance, they all believe that their challenges are unique and they need someone who understands their industry to help them, not a generic stress coach.

Need help researching your industry niche?

Let’s look at how to research your industry so that you can position yourself as that “expert”!* (this assumes you have chosen an industry niche – if you need help with this, check out this post here): http://impactfulnesslab.com/what-is-the-best-corporate-niche-to-choose/

*Of course, when I say “expert”, I don’t mean that you know everything that there is to know about the industry. In every industry, you have many different types of experts, such as experts of strategy, experts on consumer behaviour, experts on product development, etc*.

You need to become knowledgeable about the main issues in your industry that relate to your expertise. As a stress coach for example, you learn how the topic of stress management is addressed in the industry. 

Key questions to ask when doing this research

Here are a few questions you want to research so that you gain a good understanding of what is going on in your chosen industry:

• What is the background to this industry/its history? Is it long-established or a relative newcomer? You don’t need to major in this but understanding that for example, the mobile app industry did not exist in any meaningful way before 2007. 
• What are the current trends in the industry? Maybe their customers are demanding different services from those in the past? Or maybe they struggle to attract employees? For example, not being able to recruit enough people is a huge issue for the Technology industry. Because of this, companies are investing in support that helps them e.g. reduce stress for existing employees in the hope they will not leave.
• What are the existing or looming changes that are coming to the industry? Maybe there are some new laws coming or political changes might impact it?
• How will technological or environmental changes impact the industry? For example, the financial service industry has been hugely impacted by new technology such as mobile phones. 
• Make an effort to understand what are the current debates that are happening in the industry? – what are the things that get mentioned in the press and are likely to worry (or delight) CEOs in your industry.
• Find out who are the leaders in your industry in regards to your topic? Taking the example of the stress coach, research who are the organizations with the best reputation for helping their employees reduce stress? And who are the losers, aka the worst offenders?
• Finally, are there any companies that do things differently from everyone else? Disruptors. Sticking with the financial services industry, there are a lot of digital challenger banks emerging which are offering new ways for consumers to manage their money, thus traditional banks have to change, too.

Which resources can I use?

The simplest way to conduct this research is online and there are loads of resources that help you gain a good understanding of what goes on in your chosen industry. 

Here is a non-comprehensive list of resources I frequently use: 

For trends, research, and case studies:

• Harvard Business Review
• MIT Sloan Management Review
• McKinsey Insights
• Google Scholar
• Industry-specific publications (e.g. CA magazine for accountancy industry)

For news, current trends, and debates:

• Google news
• Business Insider
• Financial Times
• Publications by big consulting firms
• Industry-specific publications

Of course, there are many more resources – feel free to add them in the comments!

When going to these resources (or just in google), enter simple questions to learn about the type of questions I have posted above.

For example, when I searched for “managing people” in the Harvard Business Review, I got 54 articles relating to the big debates happening in financial services on that topic.

When I googled “current trend stress coaching in financial services”, I found 5 articles on the first page that had relevant insights I could use too.

I do want to point out that you don’t need to become a scholar in your niche. Spending a few hours for a few days over the course of one week should give you enough insight to get started (afterwards you just top up your understanding).

Getting an understanding of your industry at this level will allow you to target your messaging to corporates in the industry and make you at least twice as attractive to a corporate prospect than someone who presents themselves as just a “stress coach”. 

This makes it crucial if you want to make 5-figures from a corporate client with just a few days of work. 

What I can offer you

Guiding you on how to understand your industry niche (without disappearing into a research rabbit hole for hours) is one of the things I do in my 3 months, 1:1 intensive program helping coaches and consultants win corporate clients repeatedly and reliably. 

I also work with you on focusing on the right niche that you are excited about working with, show you how to define exactly what results corporates can get from working with you (crucial for your messaging), help you with your marketing message so that you attract only those prospects who are right for you, show you how to leverage your network without ever worrying about being sales-y or desperate so that your diary is always filled and teach you how to have simple but effective sales conversations and create proposals that convert at approximate 80% of the time.

I teach you the exact system that allowed me to build a multiple 6-figure consulting business while working part-time and that has helped my students land contracts of $15k for 3x90min coaching, land their very first corporate contract in just 4 days at respectable multiple 4-figures, and help others triple their prices with existing clients who then ask for more work at the higher price point.

If you’re interested in the program, the next step is to DM me and we’ll have a chat to see if it’s a good match for your business.

Following my program you should be able to generate 2-3 conversations with prospects per week, typically starting in email/LinkedIn messenger, then moving to discovery calls and close 1-2 new clients per month @$5k-$15k while delivering repeat work at $8k-$25k+.

The investment for this is a respectable 4 figure (but small compared to earning $100k+ from just 5-8 corporate clients) which will go up towards the end of the year.