What’s the difference between coaching and mentoring — and why do most successful people have either a coach, mentor, or both in their lives at all times?
Taking guidance from someone who is where you want to be (a coach or mentor) is the closest thing you’ll get to a “shortcut” to create success in your consulting business.
In this article, you’ll learn the differences between coaching and mentoring in a B2B context, how to find the right coach or mentor, and how to get the most out of a coaching/mentorship relationship.
Ready? Let’s dive in…
“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”
-Roy H. Williams
What Is Coaching? (B2B)
Coaching, in a business context, refers to a relationship where you help an individual (inside of an organization) to overcome a challenge they are facing and make improvements in their work to be more successful.
As a coach, you guide your client and support them so they can achieve their goals. You often do this by using questions and allowing your client to figure out the answers on their own.
Typically, you’ll invest money to work with a coach. And ideally, your coach is 2-3 levels above you — a spot where you want to be.
For example, growing your business from $1M to $3M is very different from going from $10M to $100M.
So, it’s important that your coach is not too far ahead of you to the point where their advice is beyond being practical for where you are at. Nor do you want a coach who is at the same level as you are, because they don’t have experience growing beyond your current level.
An example of B2B coaching is our Clarity Coaching Program.
In this program, we coach consultants to build profitable, scalable, and strategic consulting businesses.
The coaches in our program have experience building their own successful consulting businesses.
Armed with their experience in the trenches, and the Consulting Success® framework, our coaches are equipped to help entrepreneurial consultants to avoid the most dangerous pitfalls and accelerate their revenue and growth goals.
Take the recent example of Alexandra Craig, a Salesforce and WordPress consultant.
Her firm was struggling to productize its offering in a profitable way. Most of their solutions were highly custom, and they did discovery work for free.
“Prior to working with Consulting Success, we didn’t have any kind of community of other consultants to lean on or ask questions of.”
She searched for help on these specific problems, and she discovered the Clarity Coaching program.
She worked with Coach Patrick on our team, who in addition to running his own consultancy, teaches a full-time MBA program at the University of Notre Dame.
“Coach Patrick was fantastic,” Alexandra says. “It was great getting an outside view from someone who has been there and done that in the business realm.”
As a result of investing in coaching, Alexandra was able to:
- Productize her services, making them easier to price and deliver to clients
- Create a $10K discovery offer (that she used to give away for free)
- Achieved a higher level of growth and profitability
- Gained confidence in growing her internal team and building a bigger firm
Alexandra’s story illustrates the power of coaching: working closely with someone who’s where you want to be and taking action on their recommendation and guidance.
And unlike a book or a course, a coach is able to give advice that is specific to your precise situation.
But how is coaching different from mentoring?
I’ll discuss that next.
Taking guidance from someone who is where you want to be (a coach or mentor) is the closest thing you’ll get to a “shortcut” to create success in your consulting business.
What is Mentoring? (B2B)
Mentoring, in a business context, refers to a relationship where a mentor works with a mentee. The mentor provides the mentee with guidance, advice, and support.
As a mentee, you’ll find a mentor instead of paying for mentorship.
They often come organically: someone in your network who is generous with their time and wants to see you succeed.
However, the term is loosely defined. Some people pay for mentorship. But the traditional definition of a mentor is a “trusted counselor or guide.”
Career-wise, the mentor is often senior to the mentee. And they provide mentorship because they find joy and fulfillment in helping others.
For example, I wouldn’t have been able to start a consulting business in Japan in my early 20s if it wasn’t for the help of my many mentors.
I was blessed to have executives in large Japanese firms take me under their wing.
- They took me out for dinner and drinks, sharing their knowledge with me.
- They brought me to meetings to show me the ropes and how business was conducted in Japan.
- They would introduce me to people in their network, some of whom became clients for our marketing consultancy.
All of these were tremendously helpful in helping me get the business off the ground.
But why did my mentors take time out of their busy schedules to help me?
Mentors aren’t thinking about the transaction or financial gain. They do it because it gives them tremendous fulfillment to help the younger generation.
They enjoy fostering people’s potential and helping them develop into leaders.
The important commonality between coaching and mentorship is that they both can provide you with a path toward your desired future.
More on that in the next section.
How To Find The Right Coach or Mentor (& Get The Most Out Of The Relationship)
Even though we run a coaching program ourselves, Sam and I have invested in our own coaches for well over a decade — and it has been key for the growth of Consulting Success®.
You can try figuring things out yourself, but it will take you much longer — and it will cost you far more money in the long run.
The critical mindset shift is when you understand that time is more valuable than money.
Time is infinitely more valuable: you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.
When you invest in coaching, you’re making an unfair trade in your favor: trading your money for more time.
Of course, when you’re not used to investing thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars into yourself, it can be daunting.
But, the sooner that you recognize that every successful person has worked with a coach or mentor (or both) — and invested heavily into their personal and business development — the sooner you can join them in their success.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about hiring a business coach:
- Does the coach have a proven track record of success? Have they helped others like you achieve the results that you desire?
- Is the coach 2 to 3 levels above you and where you want to be?
- Does the coach have a clear process or framework that you can follow?
- Can the coach teach you about things that you’re lacking, and that will take you to that next level?
- Are they in alignment with your values, and does the “vibe” feel right when you’re speaking and working with them?
- Are you confident that you will see at least a 3X return on your investment? For example, if you invest $10000, are you confident that what you’ll learn with the coach will net you $30000 in return?
- Will they keep you accountable with objective metrics and benchmarks?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions about a potential coach, then you’re on the right track.
Once you do hire a coach, you’re making a large investment into yourself in your business. But how do you make the most out of that investment?
Imagine you’re dropped in the middle of the dark forest and you want to reach a town that is 10 miles away.
You have a sense of where the town is, but you don’t have a clear sense of direction.
Sure, you’re somewhat confident you’ll eventually get there…but what if you come across a dangerous river, a treacherous ravine, or an insurmountable mountain?
If you haven’t reached the town before, you won’t know what lies before you on the journey.
To try and reach the peak of Mount Everest alone your first ascent would be foolish. That’s why first-time climbers go with a sherpa. And they don’t dare to ignore the sherpa’s advice.
This analogy carries over to B2B coaching and mentorship. And it helps explain how you get the most out of your coach.
You hire a coach and work with mentors to help get to your destination: a successful consulting business where you make how much you want to make, work with who you want to work with, and live life on your terms.
So, to get the most out of a coaching relationship…
- Be open to the coach’s advice.
- Commit fully to the process.
- Take imperfect action.
When I think about the most successful consultants in our program — the ones we feature on our case studies page — this is what they do.
With the help of their coach — and the rest of our consulting community cheering them on — they inevitably reach Mount Everest.
For us, Mount Everest is a profitable, scaleable, and strategic consulting business.
What’s it for you?
When you invest in coaching, you’re making an unfair trade in your favor: trading your money for more time.
Looking For Coaching To Grow Your Consulting Business?
The longest, most frustrating way to grow your consulting business is to try and figure it out on your own.
You’ll make all of the mistakes and learn things the hard way.
But that’s not the only way.
You have the choice to learn from someone who’s made all of the mistakes when it comes to building a consulting business — and can help you avoid making them.
Inside the Clarity Coaching program, we’ve helped over 850 consultants to build a more strategic, profitable, and scalable, consulting business.
Our program provides an unmatched level of both coaching AND mentorship. You’ll be surrounded by elite consulting business owners who have insight and experience in solving the exact specific business you’re facing now.
Inside Clarity Coaching we’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, use an effective and proven consulting pricing strategy, help you to increase your fees, business model optimization, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.
You’ll learn how to make more money with every project you take on — and how to land more clients than ever before. Learn more about Clarity Coaching and get in touch to talk about your situation and goals.