An Introduction to Strategy Coaching: The Basics

Whether you’re running a marketing campaign, looking for ways to increase lead generation, or simply trying to make your workplace more efficient and productive, the path to success starts with one crucial thing: a strategy. Carefully formulated strategies ensure businesses can pursue a range of goals, leveraging the right resources at the best times to boost their chances of positive results.

However, developing and implementing effective strategies in the business world isn’t always as simple as it seems. Sometimes, business leaders, employees and teams need help looking at projects holistically, and defining the right strategies to facilitate success. That’s where strategy coaching comes in. Here’s everything you need to know about strategy coaching.

What is Strategy Coaching?

Strategy coaching is essentially a consultative service offered by educators and leaders in the business environment, to other growing companies. A “strategist coach” guides other professionals through the process of evaluating situations, and coming up with strategic plans for success. They show staff members from a range of environments how to evaluate situations, so they can create and implement effective strategies for accomplishing specific goals.

There are various types of “strategy” a strategy coaching professional can help with. For instance, some general business strategy coaching experts focus on helping business leaders plan how to expand, grow, or develop their business, unlocking new avenues for revenue and conversions. Other, more specialized strategy coaching teams might help with specific projects.

For instance, a branding company might offer brand strategy coaching, designed to help business leaders define their brand identity, and come up with plans to improve brand awareness, recognition, and reputation. Ultimately, the focus of these professionals centers around teaching companies how to leverage specific techniques and skills when coming up with plans for success.

What’s the Difference Between a Strategy Coach and Strategist?

A strategy coach may have a lot of the same skills and knowledge as a business strategist, or a business consultant. However, the way they deliver support and services to companies can differ.

A business strategist will analyze crucial metrics and marketplace information to come up with a comprehensive plan designed to help companies achieve a specific goal. They’ll do all of the behind-the-scenes research required to ensure a plan is effective, and guide team members through the process of implementing the ideal “strategy”. These professionals often use analytics and reporting to monitor the success of a strategy, and optimize a company’s efforts over time.

For instance, a sales strategist might examine the current sales opportunities for a business, create plans on how to increase and cultivate sales, and work with sales teams to implement new campaigns.

A strategy coach, on the other hand, isn’t responsible for implementing specific strategic initiatives in a business. Instead, they take on a consultative and educational role, working with businesses to help them develop their own strategic skills. Rather than telling employees exactly what to do to achieve a specific goal, a business strategy coach will show companies how they can evaluate, create, and implement their own strategies, giving them skills they can use for the life of the business.

Strategy coaching professionals empower companies to create more effective strategies, and improve their chances of success long-term. If you’re looking for someone to help you implement a specific strategy, you might work with a strategist. However, if you’re looking for someone who can teach your team how to become more strategic overall, you’d work with a strategy coach.

Do you need a strategist coach?

Companies are reliant on strategies for a range of business processes. If you want to ensure you’re speaking to customers with the right tone of voice to encourage long-term relationships, you’ll need a strategy for effective branding and messaging. If you want to ensure you’re making the most of your outbound and inbound sales techniques, you’ll need a strategy for cultivating and converting leads.

Strategic thinking is a core soft skill in almost any business environment, but not every employee will be naturally excellent at coming up with great strategies. Here are some common signs your company might be able to benefit from strategy coaching:

• You often struggle to come up with effective, data-driven plans for success.
• Your employees struggle to work together towards a consistent business vision.
• You have specific goals you want to accomplish but you don’t know how to reach them.
• You’re struggling to evaluate the success of your strategic initiatives.
• You want to optimize your business strategies but don’t know where to begin.
• You need to troubleshoot and overcome business problems and inefficiencies.
• You want to teach your team members to operate with a more strategic mindset.

How to Find a Business Strategy Coaching Expert

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy to finding the right business or branding strategy coach for your company. Today, it’s relatively simple to find experts with experience in teaching strategic methodologies and skills to employees. You can search for strategists and consultants in your area, focusing on the specific strategic initiatives you’re interested in, such as sales, branding or marketing.

The right coach for your business will have a deep understanding of your industry, target audience, and the methodologies you can use to cultivate success. They’ll be excellent mentors and educators, capable of working with your team, and adapting to their learning styles. When selecting your business strategy coach, it’s important to ask questions such as:

• What is your experience in coaching and strategic initiatives?
• How would you describe your coaching or consulting style?
• What can I expect from working with you, and how will we measure success?
• Do you have any testimonials or reviews from previous clients?
• How will you ensure my employees are successful?

Although finding the right strategy coach can be a little complicated at first, the ideal professional can have a huge impact on the long-term success of your organization.