Written by:

Stephanie Licata, M.A., A.C.C.

CREATEWINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS

PAGE 2CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 03

CHAPTER 2: TEAMS VS GROUPS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 04

Group Coaching Myths Busted • • • • • • • • • • • Page 04

CHAPTER 3: DETERMINE OUTCOMES, BUT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 05

DON’T OVERENGINEER What to Expect Checklist • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 05

Selling Your Program to Companies • • • • • • • • Page 06

CHAPTER 4: CLIENT ATTRACTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 07

It’s About Mindset • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 07

Digital Marketing • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 07

Speaking & Networking • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 08

CHAPTER 5: PROGRAM DESIGN • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 09

Cohort vs Rolling Enrollment • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 09

CHAPTER 6: PROGRAM FORMATS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 10

Goal Focused Group Coaching • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 10

Typical Group or Team Coaching Agenda • • • • Page 11

Training & Coaching Hybrid • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 11

CHAPTER 7: TIMING & CADENCE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 12

Kick Off - Longer Session or Workshop • • • • • Page 12

Communication In-Between Sessions • • • • • • Page 12

Resources • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 13

CHAPTER 8: ADD-ONS & BONUSES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 14

CHAPTER 9: TECHNOLOGY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 15

CONCLUSION: WHAT NOW? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Page 16

PAGE 3CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 1

INTRODUCTIONGroup coaching programs provide dynamic learning environments that can accelerate individual and group learning. Participants in group coaching programs are able to benefit from the insights and results each person shares, enhancing their ability to reach their own individual goals.

These programs also provide an avenue to create scalable products so a coach can move beyond a practice that centers around 1-1 coaching. In short, you can do what you love, make a difference for your clients, in less time, for more profit! (sounds pretty good!).

Whether you are a part-time or full-time coach, the purpose of this guide is to help spark YOUR creativity in designing group coaching programs in your specific niche. If you see something that doesn’t quite fit your thinking, ask yourself “How can I amend or build on this idea to work with my brand or style of coaching?”

Whether you sell coaching B2C or B2B, this guide will cover needs and strategies that benefit both types of coaching practices and products.

CHAPTER 1

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TEAMS VS GROUPSEvery team is a group but not all groups are teams.

There are two types of group coaching programs you may consider, depending on what your practice is focused on.

1. A pure group coaching program may work better for a B2C coach who focuses on career or health and creates a program for people who typically do NOT know one another.

2. A group coaching program that is made up of a team within an organization could be a TEAM coaching program that might also include a group working on team and organizational goals as well as individual goals. This approach may work better for a B2B service model.

CHAPTER 2

GROUP COACHING MYTHS BUSTED

MYTH #1“I can’t run a group coaching program

unless I have a huge mailing list.”

TRUTHYou do NOT have to be a digital

marketing expert to conduct a

group coaching program. Does

digital marketing expertise help? It

absolutely does, but we will share

some ways to launch a program, even

if you don’t have a big mailing list.

Your PAST customers and prospects

are the PERFECT people to start with!

Make a list of the clients you’ve had

the best rapport with. Also make a list

of people who may have not chosen

to work with you perhaps because

of cost or timing. Craft custom

messages to these individuals

and set up brief discovery calls to

help enroll people in your program.

(B2B coaches, you can tailor this to

contacts at key organizations you’ve

worked with in the past.)

MYTH #3“I need a large group of people to do group coaching.”

TRUTHWhile you might not want to run a group coaching

program with just 2 people, you can absolutely run it

with as few as 4 or 5. It’s recommended to start with

a bit larger group of 6-8 but you can make almost

anything work!

MYTH #2“Companies won’t buy group or team coaching.”

TRUTHTeam coaching can be a GREAT way to get

your foot in the door to eventually sell a larger

retainer package for consulting or organizational

development. This is called “Coaching as Paid

Discovery.”

Consider selling a smaller team coaching

engagement to build rapport and trust with the

organization. Throughout the engagement, you can

identify key priorities that you fold into a proposal

towards the end of the coaching program to upsell

the organization to a larger initiative.

PAGE 5CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 3

DETERMINE OUTCOMES BUT

Many coaches, trainers and facilitators spend hours toiling over content, checklists, slides and resources only to realize that giving themselves more flexibility when delivering a coaching program can actually provide more value for the coach and the clients.

Don’t overproduce your program out of the gate. Your brand is YOU. If you can outline some key objectives and outcomes that are relevant to YOUR target audience, you are already halfway there.

Here are the questions to answer to determine your program outcomes:

- What are the tangible benefits of participating in the program?- How will each participant shift or change?- How will you support the fulfillment of your program’s benefits?

When you participate in the Career Change Accelerator Coaching Program, you can expect to:

Gain access to several key personality, leadership and behavioral assessment tools through the unique Cloverleaf assessment dashboard.

Design a clear and exciting career search strategy that focuses on role, organizational and market fit.

Transform your career “assets” including your resume, LinkedIn profile and online headshots to reflect your best self.

Create a simple networking plan that targets your direct and INDIRECT networks even if your immediate network is not in your chosen field.

Receive daily coaching tips through Cloverleaf that help you put your best foot forward during your career development process.

Speak about yourself, your talents and your opportunities for growth with confidence.

CHAPTER 3

DON’T OVERENGINEER

WHAT TO EXPECT CHECKLIST

PAGE 6

SELLING YOUR PROGRAM TO COMPANIESIf you are in discussions with organizations regarding group coaching, consider offering to work with 3 or 4 key stakeholders in the organization to give them a taste of what a program could look like.

Offer to do an amended 6-8 session program with this small group and customize it to the group’s individual and collective needs. It is MUCH easier to sell something at a larger scale that stakeholders have ALREADY experienced. And why not get PAID to build trust?

CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 3

PAGE 7CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 4

CLIENT ATTRACTIONIT’S ABOUT MINDSETThis is where coaches get really overwhelmed and at times, even freeze!

First, you need to put aside three things:

1. Your fears. Might you have to learn a few new things? YES! It’s impossible to be an entrepreneur in a digital age without a commitment to lifelong learning.

2. Your belief that YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING. Bootstrapping doesn’t mean that you have to perform every single task. It also doesn’t mean being so scared to spend money on outsourcing that it holds you back from actual business growth.

3. Your belief that you can’t promote yourself or ask for money. Here’s the thing: YOU BECAME A COACH FOR A REASON! Coaches want to impact the lives of their clients no matter what niche they are in. If you are constantly worried about sounding “salesy” then it’s important to do your own development work in that area so you can authentically market yourself with confidence.

DIGITAL MARKETINGIf you do have a mailing list, GREAT! Targeted email campaigns to invite people in to find out about your group coaching program is a great way to engage people on your list. Consider inviting people to a webinar that gives people a TASTE of what is possible in the program. To create urgency, offer special promotional pricing that may only be available for 24 hours.

If you don’t have a list but are connected to Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms, consider investing in paid advertising to drive people to a webinar registration.

If you are interested in building a list, you might consider doing paid advertising to a downloadable piece of content that is relevant to your coaching program’s benefits. As people opt-in you can then warm that list to invite them to a free webinar.

If you are not a “tech” person there are plenty of freelance marketing professionals that you can outsource some of these tasks to. From copywriters to social media ad managers, you don’t have to do EVERYTHING. If you think that investing in paid advertising isn’t worth it - think again. You’ll be attracting new people to your business that you ordinarily would not come in contact with. (Fiverr & Upwork are great sites for this!)

CHAPTER 4

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SPEAKING & NETWORKINGThere’s no better way to meet new prospects than inspiring them through speaking and networking. It is COMPLETELY possible to build a successful coaching business this way. While live conferences are changing due to recent global challenges, there are a plethora of online opportunities to speak, be on a panel and more.

Your key coaching and professional organizations are great ways to stay in the know about upcoming opportunities. Many conferences and events have a “call for speaker application” period.

Set aside time to research speaking events and opportunities and connect with event organizers, applying for as many opportunities as you can.

Depending on your niche, look at local opportunities to speak or create free events with your local chamber of commerce, public library or community programming. Many local communities have plenty of opportunities for you to reach people in your immediate area. You’ve got to reach out and put yourself out there as much as possible!

In all of these opportunities, you can use the content you create for the webinar and transform it into a live presentation and offer people an opportunity to join your program.

Share the information about your live session on your own personal social media platforms and make sure everyone in your circle knows what you do and who you serve.

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PROGRAM DESIGNFiguring out how to structure your group coaching program can seem overwhelming. First, GIVE UP THAT THERE IS ONE RIGHT WAY TO DO THIS. When you are working with your ideal clients, and when you believe in the expertise and the knowledge you have to share, you will build a successful program!

COHORT VS ROLLING ENROLLMENTCohort programs start and end on specific dates. This is a more “open cart/closed cart” approach. You put your efforts to sell people into a program that you can only join by a specific date to participate.

If you are selling B2B and are working a bit differently, you will negotiate with the key decision makers when to start the program and when to end it. Consider volume pricing with incentives to put more people in the program (i.e. for up to 10 people it’s x per person, 11-20 people, y per person, etc). Ideally an internal contact is deciding who is in the program and facilitating your communication with the group.

Rolling enrollment is more for B2C programs. When your enrollment is rolling, typically there are pre-recorded resources that each person gets access to and perhaps you conduct weekly or bi-weekly sessions where people at different stages are sharing progress. This can be tougher to do, and if you are just starting out, consider the cohort model first and as your program evolves it might become more flexible.

CHAPTER 5

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PROGRAM FORMATSGOAL FOCUSED GROUP COACHINGB2C

In goal focused coaching, each individual person is working towards their own individual goals relevant to your niche.

For example:

- Career changers working on getting a new job- Entrepreneurs working on building their business- Health enthusiasts transforming their overall wellness through nutrition and fitness- Leaders working on their own leadership development

B2B

When you are working within an organization and the coaching program is more related to TEAM coaching, you’ll want to make sure you have desired outcomes from key stakeholders. For example, each individual may have their own goal, while the team may also have shared goals.

Here are some possible goal-focused scenarios:

- A NEWLY formed team that is working on cohesion and developing team norms- A team that has been working together for a while but is struggling with communication or conflict- A group of high potential employees that need accelerated leadership development- A C-Suite team that is in need of more strategic planning or vision setting support

With goal focused coaching in either case, you want to make sure that goals are articulated and documented. If you can provide resources for this tracking, that’s always a bonus.(See resource tips later in this guide!)

CHAPTER 6

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HERE’S A TYPICAL GROUP OR TEAM COACHING SESSION AGENDA FOR A GOAL FOCUSED PROGRAM:

1. Have individuals share wins, challenges or insights from the previous session.

2. Hot Seat: Invite one person to be coached live by you; invite others to listen with their goals in mind.

3. Ask for reflections or insights from the Hot Seat from the other individuals.

4. Create a key coaching question that helps individuals to uplevel or expand their goal.

A. If the group is large enough, you can do breakout sessions and have small groups reflect on the question and then come back to share key insights.

B. If the group is smaller, run a larger group coaching conversation.

5. Invite people to declare what their next steps and actions are between now and the next session.

A. Include a challenge or practice here relevant to your niche.

6. Share key takeaways.

TRAINING & COACHING HYBRIDIn both a B2B or B2C coaching program, this type of program follows a similar pattern as the goal-focused program. People are STILL creating goals, the big change here is in the actual session design.

Instead of the “Hot Seat” section, introduce training on a concept or skill relevant to your audience that relates to each individual’s goal. Don’t get too academic or lengthy, give just enough to help deepen each person’s ability to progress towards their desired outcome.

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TIMING & CADENCEWe all know that to get results, coaching has to happen over time. Again there is no ONE RIGHT ANSWER to how long a group coaching program should be. When you are first starting out, you can run an accelerated 90-day program that perhaps has touch points closer together, or go for the gold with a 6, 8 or 12 month program.

KICK OFF WITH A LONGER SESSION OR WORKSHOPConsider having a longer first session to kickoff the program. Design this more as a workshop where you provide content relevant to your niche. For example, if your typical sessions going forward will be 60 minutes, make the kick off session between 90 minutes and 3 hours depending on the number of participants.

In a B2B program, you may want to upsell an in-person workshop for a higher fee. Companies may appreciate or prefer more in-person work if time and budget allows.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SESSIONSThis is also niche specific. For example, if you are running an accelerated health coaching program, it may make sense to have sessions weekly. If you are working on a leadership development or business building program, have 2-3 weeks in between sessions to allow people to take action or practice skills.

To increase accountability, engagement and drive program results, you may want to consider using a community platform. Now before I use the “F” word, there is some good news. YES, there are other group platforms besides Facebook.

However, sometimes Facebook can be a good choice for managing groups since there are usually less user adoption concerns if you use a different platform. (You will always get a few people who say “I am not a Facebook person.”)

If you are working B2B, in many cases Facebook is blocked by company servers, and if you want to use a community platform, make sure to work with the organization’s IT company to ensure the employees have access.

CHAPTER 7

Beyond FacebookHive BrightCircleBubble You

More Course/LMS type resources that also allow discussion boards or have community components:KajabiTeachable

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RESOURCESMost people are visual learners and appreciate having some sort of resource to go along with the coaching program. You don’t have to go overboard, but it’s great to have some sort of workbook or tracking tool where people can collect insights, celebrate wins and complete relevant exercises.

Do you need to hire a graphic designer to put together resources? Well, you could and places like Fiverr or Upwork are great for that. However, if you are bootstrapping and think you can drag and drop, check out the following programs to create winning PDF workbooks and resources. You can use Adobe Acrobat Pro to make any PDF have fill-in features.

Other design program options:

VenngageCanva

Slide deck templates:

Slide TeamBeautiful.ai

Royalty free images:

PexelsPixabayUnsplash

PAGE 14CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 8

ADD-ONS & BONUSESWhile the key to doing group coaching is to eliminate 1-1 coaching, you could add a bonus or add-on of one or two individual coaching sessions especially if your program is small. If you are running a B2B program, offering 1-1 executive coaching might be especially attractive to an organization trying to develop key talent.

The more “all inclusive” you can create your program, the easier it is for the buyer. Here are some additional accents to your program that you can use as add-ons or bonuses:

1. Assessments - Check out Cloverleaf for this! Each of your participants would have to spend hundreds of dollars to take the assessments that they can get all in one place with Cloverleaf!

2. Checklists - People love lists! Customize these relevant to your niche.

3. Ebooks - If you have created content, consider compiling it into an e-book.

4. Workbook - This is similar to what is referenced in the Resources section of this guide. Workbooks that helps people track progress & share insights create a lot of added value.

5. Email Support - Offer email support during specifically stated working hours.

6. Community Engagement - As mentioned previously, having a group forum that connects everyone can be a great way to keep participants engaged.

7. Q&A Sessions - Schedule additional short live Q&A sessions sprinkled throughout the program.

CHAPTER 8

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TECHNOLOGYScalability means programs that are mostly virtual are the most practical. While many people will be familiar with Zoom, click here for detailed information about Zoom alternatives. Whatever you do, keep tech simple to start out. You want the star of the show to be the coaching itself and the rich conversation between participants. Do NOT let hangups about tech hold you back. If you feel overwhelmed, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to run the technology for your coaching sessions.

CHAPTER 9

BONUS TIPYou can always hire interns who would be glad to assist you with tech for a small stipend or college credit.

PAGE 16CREATE WINNING GROUP COACHING PROGRAMS - Chapter 9

WHAT NOW?Well like any good coach would ask you, what is the next step? What is ONE step forward you can take to start creating your first or next group coaching program?

Here are some other key tips to getting started:

- What are the areas shared in this guide that you feel the most confident about?

- Which areas are a overwhelming? Who can support you to move forward and conquer anything in your way?

- By when could you launch a group coaching program?

- Create a strategic plan to design and launch your program and block out time to work on it!

- Remember ideas stay ideas until they are planned in REAL TIME.

Lastly, HAVE FUN! It’s exciting to think about all that is possible as you grow and scale your coaching business. You CAN do this. Don’t try to do it all today, just take ONE step forward.

CONCLUSION