The Gamble of Business Success Coaching: Are You Buying a Pig in a Poke?
A new breed of entrepreneurs is emerging on social media platforms, especially on LinkedIn—those who want to show (in new terms: coach) other entrepreneurs how to become successful. And even on Nostr I have already discovered the first coaches.
Their areas of influence vary from general measures to spiritual-mental attitude change, and even to specializations on a medium or a specific platform. Over the past few weeks, I have looked into several of them and expressed interest in their offerings, always with an open mindset: "Maybe they know something I don't, and I could learn something new." I engaged with generalists, mental attitude changers, and specialists. I went through a few stages that all look the same:
1. They somehow get in touch with you, often subtly lured through indirect means so that they don’t appear to be cold-calling you (which is illegal in many countries).
2. You are invited to a mass event, usually a webinar with general teasers about the offering.
3. Then you are asked to pay to access the valuable information.
Here are my thoughts about this business model.
They all promise to know some kind of secret formula or have a proven system that you just need to follow to achieve success in 90% of cases (or so). This system has, of course, been tried and tested over the years, they say, and they have made an effort to formalize it—for you. So they can now sell it to you, saving you the trouble of doing the work yourself. The target audience seems to be entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s, or those who want to become one. While they claim it’s for all age groups, the presentation clearly appeals more to this demographic. It would be difficult to convince someone in their 40s or 50s. No wonder, as all these success coaches I met were under 40 themselves and have no idea how people think when you get older.
Now, after reading their social media posts, which are admittedly persuasive in rhetoric, and after being tempted, like I was, to comment on one with "BS, that only works in exceptions," they respond positively, never offended, and in an inviting tone. Or they send you "info material" or some other goodies behind a link where you have to sign up with your email address. Since I use disposable email addresses, I have no problem with that and think, why not? Let’s see what they have to offer.
And sometime later, maybe in 2 or 3 weeks, you receive an invitation to a "webinar" at the same address. And that’s where it starts to get unethical. Most of them didn’t indicate in the sign-up for the initial info material that they would also use your email address for other purposes, or that the whole thing is actually set up with that intention. Such information should be placed near the email field according to EU privacy laws. If it’s missing, it’s a violation of GDPR and actually a justiciable issue.
But okay, I participated in all the webinars out of curiosity. And they are all structured the same way. First, there’s a one-hour presentation with slides covering general points, followed seamlessly by the introduction of their own product or service. There’s no "advertisement" or "sponsored" label beforehand (red flag number 2). It’s either access to several training videos or an initial consultation session to tailor the coaching to your specific needs. So it all boils down to selling the coach’s own product or service. In the past, this was done directly in the first step. That doesn’t work as well today, so they’ve added 1-2 steps beforehand with bait offers. But at the latest, after or at the end of the webinar, prices are presented. These range from 5,000 to 10,000 Euros. A young or unsuccessful entrepreneur has to invest this amount if they want to receive the formula for financial bliss.
Yet, they don’t even know exactly what they would be investing in. They are constantly led to believe that this magical formula works for most people, and in every case during the webinar, a previous successful client is showcased, who is now floating in the clouds of financial happiness thanks to this "secret formula." However, it is also mentioned that this formula must be specifically tailored to your business. Hence the 5-10K euro investment. This means that after at least 2 hurdles of customer attraction, you still don’t know what you will actually receive and specifically, whether it will really work for you. You are essentially buying a pig in a poke. And that is the main problem.
It is repeatedly pointed out that the customer also has their obligations, such as doing everything the coach recommends and investing a certain amount of time each week. But nothing is promised with certainty. You only hear the alleged success statistics of X% over and over again. You can’t verify that; you just have to take it on faith. And that’s when you start to gamble internally. "Ah, I’m sure I belong to the 90% (or whatever the success rate is) if I just follow along."
You also have to trust that the success example presented in person in the webinar is authentic, meaning that the success of this entrepreneur stems solely from the implementation of the coaching measures and not from other circumstances. I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything, but that’s a bit too much trust for me to invest. I’m more the type who believes "respect and politeness are free, but trust must be earned."
I addressed this candidly in the last "client meeting." I pointed out that I had no guarantees, even if I fully participated, that I could expect an increase in my leads/appointments/revenues (whatever they specifically promise). In contrast, their fees are secure and likely paid in advance. I see an imbalance in fairness there. Instead, I proposed a fair commission model. For every lead/appointment/revenue they bring me, I would pay them a certain commission. And if they are indeed as good as they claim, they shouldn’t have a problem with that. I also said it would be more "entrepreneurial" to share both the success and the risk. Because with their model, only one party (namely them) has their ducks in a row while I, as the coached one, am taking a gamble. There are so many other influencing factors beyond my participation. What if my country or my industry is in a recession, for example? Or I could think of many other factors that are out of my control.
Well, they vehemently rejected this proposal. No guts. No entrepreneurship on their side with this. I even said, "With your business model, it’s reasonable to suspect that you just want to rip me off and cash in, no matter what happens." That didn’t help either.
My father once said something wise. When I was 18 or 19 years old, I wanted to sell building savings insurance, and for that, I was supposed to attend a sales training that costed about 50 euros, which isn’t much. My father immediately said, "Nonsense. You want to make money, not spend it." That stuck with me, and this whole situation reminded me of that. Now, this doesn’t exclude entrepreneurial risk and investments, but it should be more tangible than a pile of promises and hot air. You need to limit the risk and uncertainty as much as possible. A commission model, like the one I proposed, would have been fairer. Let’s grow or fail together, right? But not just one side taking all the risks.
I also once worked as a math tutor in an organization with a money-back guarantee. Students who had failed math came to me every day for six weeks in the summer, and I prepared them for their last chance, the retake exam. Our promise was that after these six weeks, you would pass math and move up to the next grade without having to repeat the school year. And if not, you would get your entire course fee back, and both sides would have just wasted time. We only refunded one out of about 30 students, and the one's failure was more due to the immense pressure she received from home. All the others passed the retake exam, and 20% of them even became math whizzes in the following school year, achieving top grades.
So, beware of such "business models." Sharing the risk is fairer. And if someone really knows their stuff, they can easily take on a 30-to-1 risk. And if not, and they insist on securing all the money upfront … you know where I’m going with this.
