Posted on November 16, 2012 by Stephan Wiedner
Do you think the client bidding/referral system on Noomii is flawed? Are you finding that you’re not being contacted by clients even when you’re in the top five – especially after writing a thoughtful, personalized message?
Our goal here at Noomii is to make the best matches between coaches and clients. We know that the better the match, the more likely the client is to hire a coach, and the more successful that coaching will be.
So guess what? It turns out that the 3 biggest mistakes you may be making come down to one simple concept: you’re bidding on the wrong client. Here are three of the most common ways that we see coaches doing this, and what you can do about it.
Problem #1: Coaches are bidding on clients who are too far away
Solution: Reserve MOST of your bidding for local clients
Yes, we know that you coach clients in cities all over the world, and yes, we know your clients love phone coaching and achieve great results. But we also know that most clients – particularly the first-time coaching clients we get a lot of at Noomii – strongly prefer to work with a local coach. In fact, you’re 20% likely to get a consultation request when you are local to the client.
Let’s say you live in NYC. If you see a lead in Seattle that has 3 other Seattle coaches, don’t bother responding. If a similar lead in Seattle doesn’t have any Seattle coaches, then go for it and take your chances.
This doesn’t mean you should only bid on local clients. It simply means that you should make sure the client is an extra-great fit before putting your name in the hat for someone on the other side of the country.
Problem #2: You’re not reading the extra “message from Noomiiâ€Â
Solution: Read it, and follow the instructions!
Noomii staffers follow-up with every single lead and we aim to speak with clients requesting matches prior to their request closing. When we do, we issue a note on the client request with any special instructions. For example: “this client is looking for a female coachâ€Â. Please heed those.
If the client is asking for a female coach, don’t bid if you are a male. If the lead wants a local coach, don’t bid if you live in a different state, country, or time zone. This valuable information is collected directly from the client lead so don’t waste money by bidding on a poor fit because you missed the client instructions.
Let’s work together to give clients what they want: this will get more coaches hired.
Please note that there are time lags and sometimes a coach bids and then we issue the special instruction after speaking with the lead. If this happens to you: send an email to support@noomii.com and we can remove you and return your bidding points.
Problem #3: Your profile and interview are not consistent with your client message
Solution: Only bid on clients if your profile is consistent with the client’s request and your personal message
We see this far too often: A client comes in asking for help with a specific issue. Various coaches look at the client’s description and think to themselves, “Hey, I could totally help this client; I’m perfect!â€Â. The only problem is, the specific issues mentioned by the client have nothing to do with the coach’s “About Meâ€Â, interview, testimonials, articles, or any other part of their profile.
Here’s what we think is happening: coaches often put together a very specific profile to attract a certain kind of client (say, single moms or internet entrepreneurs). The coach’s entire profile – testimonials, articles, interview – focus on that one type of client. Then they see a client who asks for something completely different, and they think “well, I can still help them even though my profile says nothing about thatâ€Â.
Here’s the probem with this approach: Clients frequently DO look at your profile when deciding who to contact, and they WILL be put off if your profile says nothing about their issue. This is true even if you write a great personalized message to the client highlighting your experience and training in their specific problem.
The bottom line is this: you should only bid on clients when your profile is more or less consistent with what they’re asking for. Because if not, they’re simply going to contact a coach who is more consistent.
Stephan;
While I absolutely agree with your assessment, there seems to be something else that could enhance the coaches chance of success. For instance, when a coach is one of the top 5, it would be helpful to find out the client’s reasoning for choosing a particular coach. That gives some indication of how effective or not, the self-rec was. It also allows for a more personalized way of dealing with coaches, which in turn helps the clients, which helps Noomii, and we all win. Since Noomii has the inside track, it might be a good idea to have a systemized way to follow up when a bid has been made. I know and appreciate the extra steps means more person-power, and as we are all in the business of serving, perhaps it’s worth considering.
Thanks for your attention and usual consideration.
Warm regards,
Pauline
I agree with Pauline. If we knew why someone got selected, we are more likely to understand what areas we missed on. Follow through on your end after the selection would assist us greatly. I have bid and bid and about to end my contract with you as I seem not to be successful. I am beginning to wonder if these leads are really clients after all.
Jennifer Elizabeth Masters
Hi Pauline / Jennifer,
Both of you are raising good points about collecting more feedback from clients. We will be publishing information on what factors correlate with getting more client messages in the coming weeks. There’s a lot of information that we are compiling and it will take a bit of time to compile.
We are investigating such things as, are you more likely to get contacted by a client if:
– you’re male or female
– if you’re the same sex as the client
– if you address cost in your message
– the length of your message
– if you have a clear call to action in the message
And more.
This will help assess what IS working and then we’ll make improvements from there.
That said, I still stand behind everything in the article above. If we can fix the fit between coaches and clients, we think way more coaches are going to get contacted by prospective clients. The clients are real, we’re just not giving them what they want.
I understand you want feedback why you weren’t chosen. They’re not telling us that but the feedback we are getting is that we are sending them the wrong coaches.
Stephan
The previous commenters have made just the points I have felt were important. It would be extremely helpful to all of us if we knew if the client ended up hiring one of the five coaches presented and why (or why not). I note that you ask the coaches to indicate whether or not they were hired but don’t know if there is any such follow-up for clients. I also feel the frustration of bidding over and over on clients I believe are extremely good fits for me and whom I know I could help, and then hearing nothing.
I know you spoke of significant changes coming soon and we all eagerly await these.
Thanks and Happy New Year,
Iris Arenson-Fuller
Hi
Is it better to state your fee or not. I noticed that some coaches do not. Are there any stats on this? I wrote a not that says please contact me to discuss the fee. Is this a good idea?
Thanks
Stephane
Sending them the wrong coaches huh? Well, I kind of appreciate your bidding system – but it does seem set up to do way more for the coaches who can afford a wealth of credits, than it does for the best fit between coach and client. There was a client within the last week for example who was trained as an arts manager – so was I, and her and my issues lined up extremely well. I went and looked at the “top 5” and none of them had the same sensibilities as me and the client. I mean they’re probably great – but I noticed I was the only one qualified on a very particular personal/professional level and yet because I didn’t yet understand the bidding system, and most likely would have been out bid even if I had … this client will never know about me.
Perhaps there could be one loop hole to attend to this discrepancy. Perhaps there could be a list of profession specialties, personality specialties, issue specialties etc. on coaches profiles where the coach could only choose one item in a drop down menu for each category – and the same lists with drop down menus existed in the Client profile/questionnaire. Then, in the case that any bidders have exact matches with the client (without the ability to temporarily change their answers to match with the client in question), this coach would be awarded a special “6th” slot no matter what their original bid was (i.e. they get locked in). If there is more than one bidding coach with identical matches – well, they just all get to be on the final list that goes to the client. And NONE of this would interfere with the top bidder’s set-up – the top 5 bidders at closing time will STILL be sent to the client – it’s just that they’ll be sent alongside the perfect matches too.
Interesting suggestions Dawndae, especially the one about the special “6th spot”. Stay tuned. Changes will be coming soon.
I’m new to noomi and I don’t recall reading information, when I signed up, about the “bidding system” and “bidding points.” What are these? How do they work? What are the pitfalls? What do I need to know?
Thank you.
Hello,
Just wanted to bring this up. I was the 6th bidder tonight on a client, so I went back to upgrade my bid. I tried several times with the little pull down menu, and although it correctly showed that I had the credits available, it wouldn’t take, so I assume I’ll loose the bid.
Any help on what happened?
Thanks!
Amanda
Update. Problem fixed. I just tried again and apparently there is a tiny little grey “Go” button next to the drop down menu that either wasn’t there, or I didn’t see before.
All good now. Thanks!
Welcome to Noomii, Marilyn!
The bidding system is part of the coach matching service available to our premium and premium plus coaches. In the bidding system, clients specify their specific goals and coaches recommend themselves as potential candidates, using points that are included in those packages.
More details about the bidding process are here: http://www.noomii.com/faq-coaches#Bidding
The biggest pitfalls to the bidding system are outlined in this article, and using the system can get you in front of the right-fit clients for you!
Hi Amanda! Glad to hear that the problem was fixed! Our *awesome* client service manager is available to help troubleshoot any issues that you might have: 1-800-278-1057
Hi Iris, thanks so much for your feedback and we are working on refining the bid process and also capturing more information from clients in that process. Tentatively termed: Coach Match 2.0!
Another novel idea….
Flat “fee” bidding.
If I am interested in an client, I put myself in there and it costs me maybe 5 credits. When four others have bid, the bidding is closed and the coaches are sent to the client.
Quicker turn-around for the client will likely lead to more closed deals.
Coaches would be in the system more often to get to the clients they want.
Coaches would be more selective in the clients they bid on, making better matches for the client.
If the client isn’t satisfied they could go in for round 2 of coaches (though I’d reduce the bid rate by 1 credit for every 5 coaches they look at).
What is the current ratio of successful “matches”? For every potential client, how many actually engage a coach?
Thanks, Cindy
Hi Cindy! Thanks so much for your note. Coach match 2.0 is coming shortly and will address some of the challenges of the current system. Your feedback is invaluable: thanks so much.