6 Pervasive Business Problems That CEO Coaching Solves

If most business problems could be solved by reading a book or taking an online course, then no CEO would ever face problems!  Sound familiar?  If so, have you ever considered CEO coaching?

If you're reading this, odds are that you've already read all the books, listened to all the podcasts, and taken all the courses, yet there is still a problem or two that you just can't seem to shake.

Don't keep running in circles only to accomplish nothing.  Instead, go the most simple and straightforward route to not just smash your problems, but use them to your benefit.  And, that route is CEO coaching!

That being said, we're sharing 6 of the most pervasive business problems that you can kick to the curb by working with an executive coach.

​Again, if you could fix these problems by reading books or taking courses, then you probably would have already solved them!

No more running in circles and jumping through hoops.  CEO coaching is a one-stop shop to solve your business problems for good and even learn how to use them to your advantage.

The Root Cause of Almost Every Business Problem Is…

While there are a plethora of business problems that entrepreneurs face, almost every single one of them can be traced back to a single root cause: Fear.

More often than not, whenever you see a business owner struggling to get by, it's because they're allowing fear to stand in their way.

And the worst part is that fear breeds fear.  Think of it like this: When a business leader feels fear, their team members start to feel fear.  When an entire team is fearful, their potential customers will feel it and lose confidence in them.  

Moreover, fear is pervasive and palpable.

The good news is that by working with a top-tier CEO coach, you not only learn how to not let fear stand in your way, but you learn how to use it to your advantage.  

Because the truth is that when you learn how to tame fear, it can actually help you get the results you want!

The best CEO coaches who have stood in your exact shoes before have experienced the same problems that you're currently facing.  Therefore, they're the perfect source to learn from!

Bottom line: Fear underlies each of these 6 pervasive business problems, and almost every other one out there.  There is no better source to help you tame fear than an executive coach, because their wisdom comes from direct experience.

1. Feeling Powerless and Out of Control

How many times has something like this happened to you before: You make an initial sales pitch to a new lead.  You believe that you've nailed it, but then all of a sudden they hit you with a 'we'll get back to you' or 'let's talk again next week'?

All of a sudden, your stomach drops.  You thought you had this in the bag, but now you feel completely powerless.  And the worst part is that you absolutely believe that you have the answer your customers are looking for.

This feeling of being powerless and not having control over business outcomes is not only pervasive, but sets off an endless cycle of terrible feelings and even more terrible results.

Without having power and control over your business outcomes, then any hopes of achieving your goals are gone.  The most successful CEOs know this, and they learn how to harness their power and take control through coaching.

Without Power, You Leave Your Future Up to Customers

Here's the thing: Somebody will always be in control of your future.  If you don't control it, then somebody else will.  Therefore, why let it slip out of your hands?

More often than not when a chief executive isn't in control, they give it up to their potential customers.  And when potential customers are in control, they never get their problems solved and you lose out on the deal!

Why?

Because at the end of the day, prospects don't know what their problems are or how to solve them, but you know!  Therefore, if you hand power over to prospects, then nobody makes any progress.

When you are in control, you close more deals, prospects get their problems solved, and confidence goes through the roof.

Power Comes From Asking the Right Questions

So, where does power come from?

Power comes from asking the right questions in the right way!  And the best person to show you how to do just that in the most straightforward way possible is a coach.

What makes asking questions so powerful?

Think of it like this: Whoever is asking questions is on offense, and whoever is answering questions is on defense.  And, you never want to be the one on the defense!

By asking the right questions in the right way, you gain both surface level and below-the-surface level information about your prospects.  That information is one of the most valuable business assets you could ever have.

Knowing how to ask questions is a skill that must be developed and nourished.  You could waste your time learning how to ask questions through an indirect source, or you could go the straightforward route by working with a coach.

2. Sales Plateaus Stunting Business Growth

Is there any worse feeling in the world than pounding the pavement everyday to ignite business growth but not getting the results you want?  More specifically, not making more week-to-week sales to grow your business.

In short: Sales plateaus are an extremely painful and common problem that almost every entrepreneur faces at some point in their career.  

In fact, plateaus are an almost guaranteed reality because they are a result of our own human nature to be complacent.

Unfortunately though, even the most experienced entrepreneurs often find it challenging to break out of stagnation!

*Enter the experienced executive coach*

A coach is your best bet out of a plateau because they:

1. Help you end the stagnation;
2. Re-kick start growth; and
3. Take growth to an even higher level than before.

If you want to break out of that never-ending cycle of growth and plateauing, then a coach is the way to go.

Fixing Sales Problems Solves Almost Every Other Business Problem

When you solve sales problems like sales plateaus, almost every other business problem fades away.  

Because, at the end of the day, sales success is central to overall business success.

Think about it... Need to hire new employees to free up time so that you can spend more hours with your family?  Make more sales.  Want to increase your company's market share to dominate your industry? Make more sales.

Whatever business problem you have, addressing sales-related issues will likely solve it.  And, sales plateaus are one of the most pervasive and problematic sales issues you can have.

No. More. Complacency.

While the surface level cause of a plateau is stagnating sales, there is a root cause underneath the surface.  That root cause is complacency - a byproduct of fear!

Here's how it works: A plateau is always followed by a growth period.  Hitting a growth period requires you to be uncomfortable.  Once we start to get the growth we want, it is in our human nature to get complacent with the results in order to alleviate the discomforts.  As a result of complacency, our outcomes begin to plateau.

Even the most experienced business owners and leadership teams run into plateaus because complacency is a byproduct of human nature, and it is super challenging to be highly self-aware of our own nature.

Having certainly faced plateaus before AND having human nature, coaches know how to keep you in that sweet spot of discomfort that growth comes from.  They know how to keep you uncomfortable, and therefore in a spot to grow without putting you over the edge.

3. Being Ghosted by Potential Customers

Ahhh, yes... The feeling of having a potential customer say 'Great! I'll get back to you soon', only to never hear from them again with little to no explanation why.

Just like sales plateaus, ghosting is another one of the most pervasive sales-related issues that makes you want to throw your hands in the air and pull your hair out!

But again, just like plateaus, ghosting is almost completely preventable with the wisdom of a coach.

At its core, being ghosted comes from surrendering power to your potential customers, which, as we already talked about above, is a recipe for disaster.

Therefore, preventing ghosting comes from learning how to harness your power plus other strategic changes that a CEO coach can show you in a simple, straightforward way that plays along to your unique leadership style.

Understand What Your Customers Need

Do you know what your customers want?  On top of that, do you think that your customers know what they want?

Here's a hard truth you need to swallow: You need to know what your customers need, and your customers don't know what they need.

Think of it like this... Let's say that you have horrible back pain so you go to see a back surgeon.  The surgeon walks confidently into the room, asks you questions, and immediately proposes that you set up an MRI to dig deeper into the issue.  You are sold and set up the MRI.

The surgeon didn't have to tell you where they went to medical school, how many successful surgeries they've performed before, or how they're just so awesome and know what you need to feel better.  Rather, they simply asked questions to uncover truths that the patient didn't even know existed!

Now, what does this have to do with ghosting?

When you make it clear that you're the one with the answers and that your prospect needs you, then they're not going to ghost you.

Be like the doctor who your prospects know they need to succeed!

Be the Expert Your Prospects Need

Ghosting comes down to power and how you play with your own power as a leader.

More specifically, it comes down to how you use your power to show that you are an expert at what you do.  The better you show your potential customers that you are an expert, the better leader they will see you as and the more confidence they will have in you.

Moreover, when they believe that they need you, they will see you as irreplaceable.  The last thing they will think about doing is ghosting you... Just like the surgeon!

While it might sound easy, knowing exactly how to show off your power as a leader is tricky.  On one hand, you want to come across as an expert, but on the other hand you don't want to come across as a know-it-all. 

Take advantage of the leadership development that coaching has to offer to show off your expertise and never get ghosted again.

4. Lack of Clarity and Direction

Do you sometimes feel like you are lost in the business woods and don't know where to go?  Or, do you sometimes feel like you're wandering through the woods but don't really know why you're wandering in the first place?

If so, then odds are that the central tenet of your business's success either doesn't exist or isn't strong enough to hold up the company that you're trying to create.

What is the central tenet of business success?

Simple: It's your vision.  It's the ultimate experience that you're trying to create through selling your specific product or service.

For example, co-founder of Apple and the brilliance behind their revolutionary technology, Steve Jobs, was the company’s visionary-extraordinaire.  He wasn't an engineer, nor did he really know a whole lot about technology, but he had a clear vision!  He had an idea for an experience that he wanted to create, and the iPhone was just the vehicle for that experience.

The key reason why infamous CEOs like Jobs became so successful is because they have a clear vision of the experience they want to create through their business.  Having that clarity is what shows them the direction they need to move in and the moves they must make.

Furthermore, if you either currently don't have a vision or have a lot of blind spots in your vision, you'll never be fully confident in what you need to do to be successful.  If that resonates with you in the least bit, it’s time to call in a coach!

Without a Clear Vision, You Can’t Go Anywhere

Instead of starting off with a clear vision, many CEOs incorrectly set goals.

While you should set goals, setting them shouldn't be your first priority, because goals can never capture the total essence of the business that you're trying to manifest.

At the end of the day, goals are a means to an end.  They're the boxes that you check in order to fulfill your strategy playbook and bring your vision to life.

Rather than goals, having a clear vision is central to success.  When you focus on that clear vision, your perspective on what is possible broadens.  With a broader perspective, you're more open to all of the opportunities at your disposal to grow.

It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned senior executive or brand new to the business world, or if you run a startup or a mature business... Wherever you're at in your business journey, the vision is EVERYTHING.

Maybe You’re Not Thinking Big Enough

Here's a question for you: Have you ever asked yourself if the reason why your vision isn't manifesting is because you aren't thinking big enough?

After all, if you have big dreams, the only way to manifest them is to see them through a big vision!

The reason why you aren't thinking big enough is that you haven't given yourself permission to think bigger!  The reason you haven't given yourself permission... You've been hanging around small minded people!

Want to know who isn't a small minded person?

A CEO coach, who is either a current or former CEO themselves and built their own business on being relentless to manifest their own big vision.

Yes, you should join peer groups and find sounding boards to vent your frustrations to, but be very, very careful about hanging around small-minded people.  The people who you vent to might not be the right people to dream big with.

5. Not Knowing How to Apply Information and Skills

Straight-up: The last thing you probably need right now is to go through a coaching program that teaches you basic skills and gives you pointless leadership advice that you could learn from reading a $5 book.

Not only that, but you probably already have all the knowledge and skills you need to be a successful CEO!

However, what you probably do need is the empowerment to apply your business and leadership skills to everyday business scenarios.

Believe it or not, but we live in a world full of highly intelligent people, including business leaders, who don't know what to do with their intelligence.  When they step into the real world with all of their knowledge, they're not sure how to use it to solve problems.

Resonate with you at all?

If so, then you need the kind of empowerment that comes through working with a top-level coach.

Being ‘Educated’ Doesn’t Mean Anything

Once again, we live in a world full of highly educated people who don't know what to do with their education.  People go to school to learn information, but they never learn how to apply it to real life!

Don't believe us?

Consider this: If every CEO who was educated about business-related problems had everything they needed to solve them, then there would be a whole lot more successful CEOs and businesses out there.

The thing that they're missing is knowing how to apply that knowledge and use it to problem solve.

We're not saying not to learn new skills, read business books, or listen to podcasts, but we are saying that simply equipping yourself with more knowledge won’t take you to the next level.

Don’t Educate Yourself, Empower Yourself

The difference between a person who is educated and a person who is educated and knows what to do with it is empowerment.  If you are educated but don't know how to use your education, then you lack empowerment.

To put it simply: Being empowered means that you have the authority to accomplish something and you know it.  You know that you've got what it takes, so you do what it takes!

And here's the thing... You already are empowered, it's just covered up in the back of your mind right now, so you can't see it.  And, no amount of skills or information will ever uncover it.

What will uncover it though is the support of a coach who understands you as a person.  Because they understand you, they know how to get you to uncover your own empowerment.

6. Not Having a Process for Anything

Whenever you need to get something done, do you feel like you're jumping through hoops to accomplish it?

For example, whenever you get an ideal lead into your sales funnel, does chaos automatically ensue and you feel like you don't have a process to handle the situation?

If so, not only are you not alone, but not having a process or methodology sets you up for failure.  

Because, when you don't have a process, you go into panic mode.  When you go into panic mode, you start to feel fear.  And when you feel fear, your potential customers will run away from you before you have the chance to get your act together.

Moreover, not having a process for anything opens countless doors for fear to slip through the cracks!

The best person in the world to help you get your act together and develop the perfect methodologies is a CEO coach who knows the in’s and out’s of developing processes.

It's simple: Better methods = better results.

No Process, No Customers, No Life

If you don't have processes, it's only inevitable that you'll panic, chaos will ensue, and you'll become fearful of the things that could go wrong.  There's no better way to drive potential customers away than to show them that you're fearful!

On top of that, having processes makes your life a whole lot easier.

Never forget that if your business life is chaotic, it's only inevitable that your personal life will become chaotic.  You can't completely box out the two; overtime, the contents of one will spill into the other.

Therefore, if you show up to work everyday and everything is a wreck, it's inevitable that you'll be in a poor state of mind.  Then once work is over, that poor state of mind and energy will go home with you.

Do you really want that?  Do you really want your business life to take such a toll on your personal wellness?

Of course you don't, and there isn't any person on earth who knows how to walk the line between business life and personal life better than a CEO coach.

Final Thoughts on Using Executive Coaching to Overcome Challenges

This isn't a difficult equation to understand: If you want to become the best CEO version of yourself, you need to learn from the best.  AKA, you need to learn from an experienced CEO turned coach.

By working with a coach, you will not only wave goodbye to your worst problems, but you'll understand how to use them to your advantage.

You can't make any more excuses as to why your problems still aren't solved.  You know the way, now it's just a matter of making the choice to move forward!