Are you thinking about getting into coaching or better yet, you’ve started your journey into coach training and now you’re wondering if you should become certified?

Let’s explore the question more deeply.

Should you get a coaching credential?

When you ask the question, you’re probably wondering if getting a credential is going to lead to more paying clients. The truth is that there are plenty of credentialed coaches who struggle to get clients and there are also plenty of successful coaches that don’t have a credential.

But overall, we see credentialed coaches getting more clients and becoming more successful over time. On the Noomii coach directory, an environment with many coaches available to clients, often the difference between Coach A and Coach B is subtle. If they both serve the same types of clients, have similar years of experience, and charge the same amount, but Coach A has a credential, the client is more likely to choose Coach A? Even if you didn’t specifically ask for a credentialed coach, wouldn’t you choose the accredited coach too?

Based on these observations alone, you should strongly consider getting a coach certification. But there’s another reason.

What does it mean to be an accredited coach?

From anecdotal evidence collected over the years speaking with hundreds of coaches, it is apparent to me that the most successful coaches tend to be the most professional coaches. In other words, there is a high correlation between professional conduct and income. If I could create a scatterplot graph, it would probably look something like this:

Notice the exponential growth that shoots up and to the right. This means that the coaches that are the most professional are not just making a little bit more money, they are making a lot more money.

What does it mean to be a professional coach?

It’s hard to measure a coach’s level of professionalism because it’s a subjective assessment of their business mindset. But there are material artifacts that we can look at. A professional credential is one of them. Here are some others that we’ve discovered over the years.

The most professional coaches tend to have:

• a dedicated phone line

• a professional headshot

• perfect spelling and grammar in their marketing copy

• a commitment to continuing education

• an organized system for following up with clients

• dedication to doing what it takes to succeed

Due to their mindset and approach, many of the most successful coaches go on to become accredited with the International Coach Federation, the International Association of Coaching, or the Center for Credentialing and Education (Board Certified Coaches).

So maybe instead of asking “should I become accredited as a coach?”, perhaps you should be asking “how can I be more professional in service of my clients, my business, and the coaching industry as a whole?”

If your answer to that question leads you to get a credential, great! Start today!

Check out These Related Articles:

How to Get an ICF Credential: Clearing Up Common Misconceptions

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