36 thoughts on “A major change to the Noomii “bidding” system”

1. Linda Ratcliff April 2, 2013 at 6:26 am

   YES!!!!! I am delighted.

   Can you please explain more about how the “top” clients will be chosen? Will you pay attention to coaches who have certification over those without? I hope to be certified very soon and feel that certification is a good way to know whether or not a coach is qualified. There are currently a lot of coaches who may be wonderful, but many just hung up a shingle and had no real coaching education. Those of us who did go to school, paid a huge amount of money to be qualified and we spent months learning how to coach under the direction of supervisors!

   Good going, Stephan and thank you for listening.

   Linda
2. Pauline Haynes April 2, 2013 at 6:48 am

   I think this is a great idea. I clearly understand about the location and you deciding to use it as a factor. However, I don’t entirely agree, and will acquiesce.

   You made no mention of how the monthly fees will be utilized. Some clarification on that would be much appreciated.

   Lastly, I commend you on your ongoing efforts to listen, revise and reconfigure Noomii’s Business practices.

   Thank you, Stephan, Kurt, Ayla.

   Warmly,

   Pauline Haynes
3. Caterina Barregar April 2, 2013 at 11:17 am

   I think this is a good idea and I am willing to try it for a couple of months. Thank you. I was just about ready to give up on Noomii, but I am willing to give it another chance. Thanks again.
4. Paul April 2, 2013 at 11:20 am

   Good thing. I almost signed up last week, but didn’t because of point system.
5. Kelly VanReeth April 2, 2013 at 11:48 am

   2 questions. What about the free offering to be placed in the directory? What happens if there are NO relevant clints on the site for our location (IL/Chicago)?
6. Steve Grimm April 2, 2013 at 11:50 am

   It will be tough to justify paying a fee to you without a guarantee of client exposure. You choosing the top five instead of the clients choosing leaves me uncertain of a good return on investment. Even though you are probably a great person, you are still human. I prefer entirely to have the client who wants to be coached, be the one who chooses.
7. QuinnCreative April 2, 2013 at 12:12 pm

   The change has a lot going for it, and I think it’s a good idea. The location part is less pleasing, but that’s just my experience. I have clients in many U.S. cities and in Europe, but absolutely none from the location where I am living. I was trained in phone coaching and use Skype, but one of my reasons for choosing the location in which I live is that I didn’t expect to be limited by geography in a world that isn’t limited by geography anymore.

   Nevertheless, it’s your company and you know what works for you. So we’ll see what happens and adjust.
8. Suzanne Goulet April 2, 2013 at 12:27 pm

   Kaizen. Good.

   I’m glad your getting rid of the point system because – well we all know we weren’t happy with that.

   So this is at least one step in the right direction.

   What worries me here is

   1) that my messages to the client are no longer private
   2) I am relying on Noomii staff to pick, and not the client who may or may not resonate with your picks
   3) Premium payers get twice as many leads?
   4) Why would I keep my subscription if I take time and energy to connect write proposals and then be put on the 2nd tier
   5) I think you guys might want to keep working on this.

   My suggestion is why not allow more than 5 coaches? Why not open it up completely? You never know who’s going to be a good fit, only the client does. This allows them more freedom to choose. Allows the coaches more freedom to be selective as they know they’ll be presented. Allows your staff to have less work, and more income for all.

   Just a suggestion. I’ve bid so many times, put a lot of time an energy in my profile and comments etc. I notice few clients stepping up to the plate and many state they don’t have any funds.

   Perhaps you could unify everyone’s rates, you take a percentage, and the clients know exactly what it costs for Noomii coaches.

   Good luck to you!

   Suzanne
9. Stephanie April 2, 2013 at 12:38 pm

   Two Questions:
   1- Will we billed and points added during the month of April?
   2- If we don’t choose to change our monthly plans will we simply be billed as we have been?

   Thanks!
10. Iris Arenson-Fuller April 2, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    Hi and thanks for the info. I do have some concerns though. I agree that the bidding system just hasn’t worked. I would like to see more follow up with those who make requests, to see if they actually contacted the prospective coaches and/or hired anybody. In spite of your screening, I have felt strongly that some of the requests are from those who don’t really get what coaching is. I agree with Pauline, that the location preference may not be the best method of narrowing things down. I don’t know about the other coaches, but most of the clients with whom I work are not local, in my area, or even in my state. Those who live in smaller states or not heavily populated areas will be at a disadvantage immediately. I think perhaps preference by region might be a better filter, or maybe one question for requesters should be “Does the coach have to be in your state or local area or not?”. I think prospective clients should get to make that decision, rather than Noomii.

    Also what about your agreement with coaches re the one year guarantee?

    Thanks.

    Iris Arenson-Fuller
11. Linda Ratcliff April 2, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    I agree with you, Iris. I have had only one client in my state and she came from a private referral. I believe that is has much more to do with what the coach has to offer the client and much less to do with the area of the country. The only time it is not great for me is when I have a client who cannot talk until after work and is 3 zones away. I have one client I talk to at 10PM and I admit that it is not a great time for me. I think that some clients don’t really understand that most coaching is done by phone
12. Kirsten Enriquez April 2, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    I wonder if you’d be willing to run (if you haven’t already) an analysis as to where noomii’s prospective clients reside? I’ve considered your advice regarding working with local clients for months now, and since I’ve been paying attention it’s seemed that relatively few leads are in my state, or even in my region of the country. Perhaps that’s a misperception, but I wonder if an analysis would show significant differences in terms of where leads come from? I’d want to know whether this new system is favoring coaches in the most popular locations. If you have run this kind of analysis, would you publish it? If you haven’t run one, would you run it?

    I’m not loving that coach location is weighing in so heavily in terms of noomii’s pick of the top five coaches to recommend to clients. If the two main factors noomii evaluates are location and fit — and if fit is based on the limited information that can be provided in the profile — my feeling is that that data doesn’t do a fair job of representing me to noomii. Perhaps there could be a private forum for conveying our qualifications to noomii? I get it that our current profiles are essentially all prospective clients have to go on, but still… I don’t love that a third party is making a recommendation based on such limited data. I’d rather make my pitch — I spend close to an hour on the bids I write — and let the client decide.

    I didn’t love the current bidding system at first, but it does make sense that it forces us to be very clear about the clients we want to try to connect with. If you’re willing to be selective, it seems fairly easy to bid such that you rank among the top five bidders. Using the number of points necessary to rank among the top five won’t allow you to place many bids per month, but the system made sense. In terms of noomii’s list of “some of the” benefits of the new system, the only one that really makes sense to me is the faster turnaround, and clients expect some turnaround time. I don’t see at all that noomii’s matching coaches with clients is a strong factor in improving the client-coach fit — I think the coaches and clients can manage fit by themselves.

    Thanks for listening,
    Kirsten Enriquez
13. Cynthia Gunsinger April 2, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Wow! I love the fact that Noomii has such engaged coach-clients! Thank you so much for your comments.

    Stephan and Kurt are taking some time to work through all of your awesome feedback and will be providing more details specific to your comments by the end of this week.

    Thank you very much!
14. Anja Serfontein April 2, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    The only constant is change!
    I am not yet in favour of the proposed changes as I seriously fear to loose out – there are zero clients from Taipei, Taiwan and hence will be very difficult for me to find clients.

    But like said before – it is your company and you need to act in alignment with your values and what you think is best for the company. I love the fact that there is noomii to start with.

    Will trust that also good things will come out of this change.

    Otherwise… Do you still hold on to your money-back guarantee?
15. Susanne Kahle April 2, 2013 at 7:53 pm

    Wishing you the BEST, Noomii! Thinking outside the box and making a change is always a great choice! If it doesn’t work so well, you can re-group. I really believe you have not made this decision without research and a lot of thought. So, I’ll enjoy the ride with you and here, here!
    Susanne/LifeCoachinLA.com
16. Kirsten Enriquez April 2, 2013 at 8:10 pm

    And I’m now also wondering — one of the things we hear over and over in educational/marketing contexts is how wonderful it is that long-distance coaching is completely embraced in today’s markets. If this is true, why make clients’ proximity to coaches a key factor in determining fit! If the market is what it appears to be, let’s let clients make that decision for themselves. Those clients who need a local coach can easily make that decision based on our profiles; we don’t need noomii to make this decision for clients, especially when it means excluding so many from a successful bidding process.
17. Donna Esau April 2, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    Hi Noomii Staff:

    As a person sitting in the background, trying to figure out how to get clients from my location which is in Asia, this system of narrowing down to location is not a good option at all. This will actually destroy any possible contact with the clients that I really would like to target. I am stuck in a situation where I need to go beyond my current setting due to language barrier. I am a qualified coach and Noomii would have been a possibility for me to be able to have some point of contact internationally. I have been holding back paying for membership because I have been struggling with finances and also location. By you putting the limit on us this will actually not help me be able to launch out at all. I am use to staying up late to work with clients via skype or getting up early to work with clients also. I think by you narrowing down location you will actually begin to lose coaches because they may not actually get clients in thier area.

    I also think you are going to be over working yourself by having to keep tabs on us and trying to help us with what you think we may need. I am totally in agreement that clients and coaches can make the best judgement about who is their fit. Everyone is created uniquely and the fit will be figured out best between the people who know themselves the best.

    Also, the payments have held me back because I can’t afford to put $59 up every month at this point to get clients. I am a volunteer overseas and only receive an income from donations myself. $59.00 is a huge chunk to give every month. So it leaves me to be on a different level which means less access to options of clients. I am also then nervous to invest because even if I get 1 client but no more than that, I won’t get money back and I end up paying more out of my pocket than it is worth. I honestly am not sure what the best way to provide clients for coaches, but it would be nice to know somehow that my investment into this company could somehow guarantee some clients for those who are starting up and in my shoes.

    I definatly, believe that the point system was a good idea to get rid of.

    I would love to pay for a membership, but am hesitant because of exactly the two main issues you address. I somehow need to be convinced that this is worth it. Maybe even some feedback from other coaches of how it has or hasn’t helped them to do business this way.
18. Melanie Parish April 3, 2013 at 6:59 am

    I have many of the same concerns that many coaches have expressed, particularly over geography. I guess I really don’t want geography to enter into the decision at all unless the client is asking for an in person coach.

    I may be unique, but I sort of liked the point system since at least I could control my own destiny. I have fondness for this community and I am not sure what the solutions are but I like that there seems to be a goal of continuous improvement. I do have a concern that Noomii will treat all of its “coach” clients equally–for them we are all equal–that is, we all pay the same dollars and so our credentials really don’t matter to Noomii. They do matter to the end clients and so I wonder whether Noomii will be acting the interest of the client or trying to be fair to all the coaches. I am really not sure how this conflict of interest can be ethically solved by Noomii. Business is inherently unequal. As someone with 3 certifications, I have already found it difficult to get clients from Noomii because my prices are considerably higher than newer coaches. I am having a hard time seeing how this new system will have the transparency I need as a consumer.
19. Iris Arenson-Fuller April 3, 2013 at 8:12 am

    There are lots of very good, thoughtful and relevant comments here. I am getting the sense that many coaches listed are dissatisfied with the numbers of actual clients who have followed through and contacted them. It might be helpful to have a broader range of coaching categories or niches for your listing, or even to let the coaches declare their own specialities and to create those categories in their listings.

    I must also comment that I don’t often see requests coming from my geographical area. I know I have responded to some requests that seemed like perfect fits for me, wrote a personalized and thoughtful reply and never heard another word. That is why I think that charging a modest feel to those who submit requests for a coach might weed out people who can’t pay anything at all, or who are not really serious. Many of us do some pro-bono work anyway, but we can’t afford to pay monthly subscription fees to get more pro-bono clients.

    You might look at a change in fee structure that charges those wanting a coach and yes, maybe instead of the monthly subscription fee from coaches, there could be a modest fee to be listed and to be permitted to submit replies to requests in the first place, but then a flat fee going to Noomii when a client makes a commitment and pays. That would weed out prospective clients who are not at all serious and would also give Noomii a good incentive to make some serious and appropriate match suggestions that are not based on who pays a higher monthly fee. I think that kind of preference is going to disturb a lot of coaches.

    I also have some concerns about having Noomii staff do the matching and referring to the prospective clients. I think it would be very important to do follow up with the requesters, perhaps in the form of a brief survey, about how many they called to discuss possible coaching, what they liked, what they didn’t and why they hired or didn’t hire a particular coach.

    I hope the Noomii staff will make some time to respond to these posts.

    Thanks.
20. Catherine April 3, 2013 at 8:55 am

    Hello Noomi,

    While I am one to usually embrace change, I have a few reservations about the changes you are imposing.

    I live in a geographic area where there are very few client requests. This has been addressed in many of the other posts here, so I don’t need to say much more about it. I’m just not sure how filtering by geographic area would benefit me in any way.

    I am also a firm believer in clients and coaches choosing each other. While I think my profile describes me quite well, there is nothing like a private message from a coach to a client about their particular challenge, to establish a connection. I am not keen on having Noomi reading my private message, or acting on my behalf to choose my clients. Since many clients have little knowledge about coaching, they are often unclear about what it is they are looking for. Given their lack of clarity, and somebody else acting on my behalf (who doesn’t know me either), I cannot see how this will benefit the client.

    I may be one of the few who is fine with the bidding system. It’s not perfect, but it seems to provide coaches with the opportunity to work hard for the clients they really believe are a good fit for them. I will always support finding my own clients, over someone else choosing for me.

    Thanks
21. Linda Ratcliff April 3, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    Again, you are right on, Iris. I, too, have spent SO much time on answering requests and no response is received. I had 4 clients this year who came from the general list-GO FIGURE!
22. Stephan Wiedner April 3, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    Hi everyone,

    Again, thank you for all your comments and concerns. In addition to the 20+ comments here, I’ve received nearly 100 emails in response to this announcement, most of which are positive. I think we’re getting to the heart of the matter. 🙂

    I’ve updated the post with 4 more FAQs that are highlighted in yellow. Please have a read. I know I haven’t addressed all of your comments and concerns and I will get to those.

    Thanks for your patience and understanding.

    Stephan
23. Rori Boyce April 4, 2013 at 9:34 am

    If our renewal date is days before this change, how can we avoid getting a bunch of points that we won’t be able to use in time. For example, my renewal date is the 26th and there is no way I will be able to effectively use 50 points in three days because of my niche.
24. Elsbeth April 4, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    I have similar concerns to what Catherine has mentioned vis-a-vis Noomii either reading my personal message to the client and/or simply making a recommendation based on profiles. What about expanding the questionnaire for clients to include whether they are open to telephone, Skype or in-person and a more comprehensive detailed list of questions as to what the client actually wants. It’s rather vague right now. You might also include how much they are willing to spend – rather like the ICF referral yet based on bidding.

    Have you actually polled all your coaches to find out what they would prefer based on what we are doing now versus the proposed changes? I may not have been that fussy about the bidding however based on the proposed changes, I prefer the old way. At least I new what I was getting for my premium plan and I took a chance with the bidding process. This way I don’t know what I am getting.

    The 2 clients I got through Noomii are both long distance – Boston, MA and Montreal. Neither are local and any others that contacted me, was not because of geographical location. They were all long distance.
25. David Frank Gomes April 10, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    I appreciate what Noomii is trying to do here, so well done for being engaged.

    This system is a change, but not an improvement. It feels like you are tinkering around the edges of the problem, instead of diving inside it to fix the essential simple question.

    How to attract high quality clients who are educated about what coaching is, who can afford the time energy and money involved in a coaching relationship are committed to change.

    This new change really does nothing to address that foundational issue.

    If clients think they need local coaches, perhaps it’s because we have not educated them sufficiently on the benefits of phone coaching, and the value of choosing a coach based on a good energetic emotional fit rather than a geographic perspective.

    Noomii is now making choices for the client, the antithesis of what coaching is..

    Lets go back to what Noomii is – A portal providing high quality leads, not high quantity leads.

    Lets face it there are a lot of tire kickers on Noomii, who even mention they have no job, or don’t even take the time to spell check their submission. It feels more like a lot of them are just doing it on a lark , but have no real juice to go forward, or they just want some free sessions. Hardly someone willing to pay 500 dollars a month for coach.

    I believe an improved system would incorporate these foundational principals of commitment from coaches and clients system would be best.

    1. Intake process should be refined to weed out the tire kickers, and funnel clients toward what they need…ie man/woman/ local cost/ duration /specialty …

    2. The listing system should simply be flat monthly fee based on first pages second pages third pages etc. You free listing should be done away with, as it really is not free – you can’t connect with any leads, so why have it? Again coaches have to commit as well.

    3 Clients pay too.
    New revenue stream for Noomii and forces instant commitment. Each clients pay 1 dollar for every free sample session they want to try, pay 5 bucks get 5 sample sessions tokens.

    Bingo, they have committed to something -filled out a preliminary intake form( you can make this fresh and fun) that narrows down what they want, and they get a list of coaches they can contact themselves based on how many tokens they purchased.

    Noomii creates the portal and the opportunity to bring coach and coachee together and benefits from commitment on both sides. Noomii is now a serious site for clients seeking coaches.

    Once you show clients the value of your system, you’ll start to attract better leads – better leads equals more coaching engagements

    I’ll sum up by saying we don’t give ourselves value nor our clients if they don’t know right off the bat that coaching is an investment in time energy and money… I think Noomii is generating traffic, but the quality is not there yet, because Noomii does not demand it from the clients.

    Kind thanks
26. Linda Ratcliff April 10, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    David,

    So well said! I hope the reads this carefully and pays close attention. I, too get frustrated with the poorly spelled requests and cant’ help but wonder if these clients can pay. I avoid them. I have bid over and over and “won”, but not even received a phone call. I spend considerable time writing to the potential client so it is discouraging.

    Sincerely,

    LInda Deming Ratcliff
27. Amanda April 10, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    I LOVE the change. Though I’m curious, what will happen to the free coaching profiles? Will they be wiped from the system?
28. Stephan Wiedner April 11, 2013 at 12:50 pm

    Like I said, I will try to address all of your comments and questions.

    @Linda Ratcliff: Good point about certification and credentials. We also think those are important. We’ve updated the FAQs to address the new matching system.

    @Pauline Haynes: We’ve updated the FAQs to address the new matching system.

    @Caterina: You’re welcome. Thanks for your comments.

    @Paul: Yay!

    @Kelly VanReeth: The benefit of the free listing is that clients can still find you and send you messages. You don’t pay until you’ve been messaged. If there are no relevant clients on Noomii, work on your other channels of acquiring clients. Noomii should not be the only feather in your cap.

    @Steve Grimm: With the matching system, we only send 5 coaches to the client. Then the client chooses. The new system is no different, from the client’s perspective. They are still given 5 coaches and need to choose. Instead of coaches being able to choose based on their bidding strategy (which we know is flawed), we are going to choose. For the client, it’s no different.

    @QuinnCreative: Thanks for your comments.

    @Suzanne Goulet: Originally, we were sending the client dozens of coaches but that didn’t solve their problem of not knowing how to choose. It made it worse. That is the whole reason we developed the bidding system.

    Your message to the client is still private. Only the client and Noomii admins can read them (and always could).

    @Stephanie: Yes, you will be billed for points during April and will have to use them before the 29th, in some cases, leaving coaches with very little time to use them. If that happens, you’ll be able to participate in the new system for nearly a full month. Think of the points you get towards the end of April as a bonus. If you don’t change your monthly plan, the billing will continue as it does now.

    @Iris: I disagree that the bidding system “just hasn’t worked”. We think it could be better but there are plenty of coaches who do very well with it. It comes down to the clarity and consistency of your offer. The most successful coaches on Noomii tend to have a professional photo, a clear and desirable value proposition, solid coaching credentials, lots of reviews, and a website that reiterates the same clear message.

    @Kirsten: I don’t agree that there is “limited information that can be provided in the profile” to accurately represent you. There’s room for you to write 4 or 5 paragraphs, post reviews, publish articles, and for many of you, we’ve recorded a 3 to 5 minute interview. In a world with Twitter, that’s an overabundance of space. The most successful coaches can communicate what they’re about in 10 seconds or less.

    Also, you said “I think the coaches and clients can manage fit by themselves.” I disagree. I think we are more objective than individual coaches with lots of bidding points to spare.

    Thanks for raising the point of the new system offering a quicker response to clients. If a coach responds to a lead in the first five minutes and they appear to be a good fit, we will send their information along to the client immediately. We don’t need to wait 48 hours. This alone, could be incredibly beneficial.

    @Anja: Yes to the money back guarantee still applies. We will be recommending non-local coaches too. Read the FAQs again.

    @Susanne: Thanks.

    @Donna: Would Google guarantee that you will get paying clients when you buy ads from them? Would a local newspaper? No because the results will vary, big time, based on who you are and what you’re selling. Noomii’s no different.

    The downside with Noomii is pretty small. We offer a one year money back guarantee. The upside is a few thousand bucks in your pocket thanks to the client leads we generate. You have to decide if the risk is worth it to building your business. It’s not for everyone.

    @Melanie Parish: You raise great points on transparency and credentials. In the future, we would like to have a matching algorithm that can help us match coaches and clients so we can take out the human bias. And you’re right, some clients want to see credentials. That’s an important consideration.

    @Iris: We have a lot of evidence that supports the decision we are making to get rid of the bidding. We speak to potential clients every day and way too many of them have complained that our coach recommendations are not good enough. We didn’t make this decision lightly.

    @Catherine: Here’s what you said “I’m just not sure how filtering by geographic area would benefit me in any way.” What we aim to do with this change is grow the pie. We want to take the same number of potential clients and have more of them hire coaches. That benefits all of us coaches.

    @Linda: We like it when clients hire coaches through the listing. It’s less time and effort for us and they find what they are looking for right away. The directory works.

    @Rori – if you get points days before the new system is deployed, you’ll be able to participate in the new system for nearly a full month. Think of the points you get towards the end of April as a bonus.

    @Elsbeth – Good suggestions about asking other questions of the clients. We will test out a variety of options in the coming months, all with our eye on improving how many coaches get hired through the matching system.

    @David Frank Gomes – You raise some really good points. It would be great to weed out the tire kickers but it’s hard to determine who the tire kickers are. Some of the leads provide little information, or like you say, don’t take the time to spell cheek they’re raquests.

    How do we decide who to turn away? How many people would follow through with their intentions if the right offer or list of coaches came their way? What about the people who don’t want to be asked too many questions or be called on the phone and just want to check things out on their own?

    Maybe it feels like we are scratching at the surface but we have more changes coming, thanks to all of your comments and suggestions. This is just the starting point. We look toward Zappos as a company that has raised the bar on customer service and creating a “wow experience”. No doubt, there is more we can do there to have potential clients love us.

    Educating them that they don’t need a local coach doesn’t seem like the right thing to me.

    The ICF client study from 2009 indicates that 58% of “consumer clients” do their coaching in person but 67% of them would prefer to do it in person. That means 2 out of 3 coaching clients would prefer to coach in person.

    It’s worth noting that the ICF client study separates “consumer clients” into two client segments: 1) “business, executive & leadership” clients and 2) “life, vision & enhancement” clients.

    Adjusting for that and excluding the “business, executive & leadership clients” (for which Noomii draws only a small number), 39% of “life, vision, & enhancement” clients do in-person coaching and 48% would prefer to do in-person coaching. That’s nearly 1 out of 2 people preferring in-person coaching.

    Does that mean we’ll only recommend local coaches? No. But when a client from Seattle shows up on the site, I don’t think the right thing to do is to send them a list of coaches from Chicago, NYC, Miami, San Diego, and Denver. Not unless their requirements are really specific. Instead, we are proposing to send them 2 or 3 coaches from Seattle, and 2 or 3 other non-Seattle coaches. This is to counter the times when 2 or 3 Seattle-based coaches that are a great fit get outbid because they don’t log into Noomii, for whatever reason, two minutes before a lead closes to up their bid.

    Oh ya, regarding the free plan. It’s going to stay for now but we’ll eventually phase it out. We are in a chicken and egg situation. We would love to get rid of the free plan but clients want to go to the place that has the most coaches. This is especially true in middle sized cities. In the big cities, we could probably remove the free coaches and still be supplying enough coaches to the clients.

    Now, do I get a prize for the longest blog post comment ever?

    Keep the comments and questions coming.

    Sincere thanks to all those who cared enough to comment (and read all of this).

    Stephan
29. Coach Adrienne April 13, 2013 at 8:50 am

    I love the change and look forward to participating again.

    One concern, once you start to place favor on those who pay more (Premium Plus) than those who may be unable (just starting out in practice), you may negate the fit and location factors.

    Being a Premium Plus coach does not guarantee being a Premium Plus Coach.
30. Drew Carey April 19, 2013 at 1:29 pm

    I just joined today and made my first bid for a company that is two hours away from me. I indicated that I’d be willing to drive there to do on-site visits if requested.

    I don’t have enough experience with Noomii to weigh in on the benefits of one system over another. However, one point that has not been raised, that I can see, is that Noomii founders and staff have a lot of knowledge themselves of coaching, whether as coaches themselves or by conversing with thousands of clients who contact them. That makes me more confident in the selection system.

    And big props to Stephan for actually reading all the comments and responding personally. I came out of a corporate communication background so can be jaded when it comes to the authenticity of these efforts. But I sensed it in Stephan’s responses and feel sure it’s not some nameless intern creating these responses. If it is, you should hire him or her!

    I feel really good about my decision to join (I too waited several months) based on my experience with this single issue. I also like that you are so clear about proving ROI to us. That will make my decision to renew much easier. Bravo!

    Drew
31. Stephen Gann April 19, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    Hello Noomii,

    Thank you for working hard to insure we, your clients, have the opportunity to find ourselves coachees – thus keeping us both in business. I have cut and pasted some of your responses to other coaches’ thoughts (in italics). Since several of points were already raised, I am going to start here.

    1) “Thanks for raising the point of the new system offering a quicker response to clients. If a coach responds to a lead in the first five minutes and they appear to be a good fit, we will send their information along to the client immediately. We don’t need to wait 48 hours.”

    This answer bothers me tremendously. How will you KNOW that it is the best fit out of all of the coaches who are interested until you SEE them all? If five coaches, whom you self-determine are ‘good’ fits respond in the first five minutes, and you send them forward to the client, then the deal is closed. All before others even had the chance to SEE the post.

    The previous (current) system allows for everyone interested to bid, seeing the bid remained open the entire time. What you propose above is a game-changer and goes against everything you have done so far. If you are only sending five forward, then, according to your answer, the bid could be over before most even wake up. Will we be informed this happened, that the bid is actually closed? Or will it be a quiet, behind the scenes deal that we’ll never know?

    You are asking us to put a lot of trust in you to know what is right for the “client”, as you put it.

    2) “We speak to potential clients every day and way too many of them have complained that our coach recommendations are not good enough. We didn’t make this decision lightly.

    I am trying to figure out whom you serve, so I will ask you a question in return: Who pays to use Noomii? I know people seeking coaches do not, and I do not see any advertisements. So, I would assume that coaches are the ones paying. That being said, us coaches are YOUR clients. We pay your bills. If you are changing your system to benefit people who do not pay for your service, I think you have failed to recognize your market.

    Based upon several comments above, by stating LOCATION as one of the top determining factors of who you choose to recommend, you have already alienated many coaches who do not normally see coachees appear from their region. I am sure they are paying a monthly subscription to use Noomii. Are you prepared to lose their revenue because “way too many people” who do NOT pay said they are unsatisfied?

    Also, who ARE these unsatisfied people? What is “way too many?” Would they have actually hired a coach anyway? Would they have actually returned a call or email? Of the dozens and dozens of bids I’ve won, only THIRTEEN have contacted me to request a consultation. That is over 1 1/2 years.

    But you are stating that YOU know better than us, the actual coaches, what sort of client would best serve us. So long as we pay the most, live the closest, have the sharpest profile and have the fastest trigger finger; among others…

    3) “How do we decide who to turn away? How many people would follow through with their intentions if the right offer or list of coaches came their way? What about the people who don’t want to be asked too many questions or be called on the phone and just want to check things out on their own?”

    Another example of not knowing who pays your bills. I pay $59.00 a month for this service, yet only AFTER the fact am I asked for an opinion on the matter. I am TOLD changes are coming and I should like them. Because it is what the client wanted.

    Let me state this again: WE ARE YOUR CLIENT. Coaches.

    4) In the future, we would like to have a matching algorithm that can help us match coaches and clients so we can take out the human bias.

    I can hardly believe I am reading this one. Human bias. We are in the business of dealing with humans. Choices are made based upon HUMAN BIAS. If I, as a coach and client of yours, need to fit into an algorithmic mold, I will no longer be your client.

    5) We will look at the client’s request and match it with each profile from coaches who have requested an interest. We will take into account factors such as gender, type of coaching, experience, and price, among others.

    You cannot discriminate, or choose, based upon gender. You should check with your legal department on this one. As a coach based in Canada, and you have requests for coaching coming from Canada, as well as paying clients (yours, I mean). Stating that gender will be taken into account is trouble.

    In addition to that, assuming you will take that out and NOT use gender as a determining factor (though, now stated, we will never know anyway – YOU make all decisions behind closed doors). What does, “Among Others” mean?

    If we, as paying clients, are handing over all decision power to you, we will need EXACT details on what you are using to determine who is recommended. “Among others” is not an answer. It’s a feint. Please define EXACT parameters.

    As you can tell, I am not happy with the changes. Your entire premise is to provide better service for the client, yet the client you are thinking of does not pay to use this service. I know your argument: without coachees, there will be no service. True, but until those coachees are paying to use Noomii, then you should rethink who you are committed to. If you tilt the floor completely toward those who do not pay, then you will lose revenue. When people stop paying for a service, they go elsewhere. When they go elsewhere, trying to get them back is VERY difficult.

    What I enjoy about Noomii is the fact it is a meeting place. It is a location where you bring together people who want coaching with coaches who want clients. You have let us paying coaches decide:

    1) how much we are willing to pay to have the OPPORTUNITY to gain a client. The more we have committed financially, the more clients we had access to on a monthly basis.
    2) What sort of client we were interested in pursuing.
    3) Whether we were qualified to coach that client

    We understood there was no guarantee that a client would respond. It was up to us to determine, through reading the post, if a client was serious about hiring a coach.

    Now, you are changing it. Not only are you providing the meeting hall, you are now playing bouncer, screening us like a security checkpoint, all to determine who is worthy to coach YOUR client; Thinking you know best.

    Well, I think you’ve overstepped your mandate and lost sight of your mission. One more time: WE, the Coaches, are your clientele. WE pay your bills. WE buy the subscriptions. WE have the choice whether you stay in business or not.

    I like what you have offered so far. I am good with the bidding system, though I wonder if five is too few. I have wished for a method of contacting clients after we win bids, but I would imagine there’s a confidentiality issue there, as well as issues around “Selling of personal information”. So I get that. We’re at the whim of the potential coachee.
    But we understand that when we agree to join.

    I pay the higher fee so I can have greater access to coachees. That is my choice, as it is with others. Under your new system, I see no value in paying more if I can post to as many as I choose, leaving it to your staff to determine who is worthy. If you say greater access, then I ask HOW?

    In closing, I would request that you postpone this severe change in methodology until you have interviewed all of us who pay to use your service. What do WE want from Noomii that isn’t already there? You have a good thing here, why wreck it?

    Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express myself. I like your service, but these changes are not acceptable to me.

    Stephen Gann
    Forward Focus Coaching
32. Shiva April 23, 2013 at 7:39 am

    Hi Stephan,

    I have signed up in Noomi like 2 days back.

    When i signed up they said, i can apply to 50 people.

    when i use 10 credits for each client, is it that i can only apply to 5 people?

    or its kinda different?

    what i learnt from this post is that, i need to use the 50 points in another 5 days.

    Thanks.
33. Stephan Wiedner April 24, 2013 at 11:27 am

    @ Coach Adrienne – Fit will always be our first consideration. Even with that consideration, we expect Premium Plus coaches to get roughly 2x as many lead introductions as Premium clients.
34. Stephan Wiedner April 24, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    @ Drew Carey – thanks for the positive feedback, even if my feedback is not immediate.

    @Stephen Gann – Wow, lots of thought went into your comments. I’ll try to give you the same care and attention as you gave.

    1) With the new system, we will eventually have the flexibility to send along more than 5 coaches, if we want. If a great fitting coach shows up after a week or so, we can send their name along. In practice, will we be able to approve coaches in the first five minutes? I doubt it. We’ll probably want to wait longer than that but we have that flexibility. That’s all I was trying to point out.

    There won’t be any behind the scenes stuff happening. That’s not our intention. You’ll still see all the leads the way you do now.

    2) Yes, you – the coaches – pay for Noomii. And we make coaches happy when they get the leads and even better, paying clients.

    On one hand, you are frustrated for the change. On the other hand, you’re frustrated that only 13 of the leads you’ve responded to have followed-through to request a consultation.

    That’s the exact problem we are trying to fix.

    I’m pretty sure that if instead of 13 contacted you, 18 or 20 or 25 did, you’d be more happy. Wouldn’t that satisfy you – our paying client?

    At the end of the day, we know that getting our coaches more clients is a win-win for all of us – the coaches, the clients, and Noomii. That’s the main driver behind every change we make.

    3) Of course we realize it’s our coaches who pay the bills, which is exactly why we’re so focused on making clients happy. As stated above, that’s why we’re so focused on giving clients great fitting coaches. Because when they get great fitting coaches, they hire those coaches.

    4) One of our core principles is to use human and technology differentially. What that means to us is that there are things computers do really well and there are things humans do really well. We want to take advantage of both. If we wanted to replace humans with computer algorithms, we wouldn’t be in the coaching business. So to be very clear, we are NOT replacing humans with an algorithm. Instead we will always have a human being “in the loop”, with technology used to help assist our matching decision.

    5) We intend to be transparent with the matching system as we move forward. We’re not trying to play favourites.

    I say “among other things” because clients may make specific requests and we can’t predict those. If a client says they want someone who is Jewish, or has experience running an MLM business, or has worked with NGOs, or something like that, we’ll try to find a good match.

    Furthermore, we haven’t done it yet and will be learning as we move forward.

    As you acknowledged, you want some human consideration with each match. Not just some stupid algorithm. So I don’t think I can offer EXACT parameters as you desire.

    I like your analogy of the bouncer at the party. I can extend that metaphor. If some drunk guy shows up at the party, should they be allowed in because they paid the most money? Of course not.

    So yes, let’s call a spade a spade. We are playing the role of the bouncer. We are making sure that BOTH coaches and clients are treated fairly and get what they want.

    But I don’t anticipate abusing that power. That is not our intent. If you put yourself in the line, waiting to get in the party, we’ll let you in. We also expect to “let you in” on the same number of leads as you do now through the bidding system. Each month, we are going to have roughly the same number of coaches and leads. Therefore, we will be making roughly the same number of introductions each month.

    Hopefully, more of those leads will respond and hire you.

    I’m not sure if I have convinced you and addressed all of your concerns, so please feel free to call our office and we’d be happy to talk to you in more detail. 1-800-278-1057.

    Thanks.
35. Pauline Haynes April 29, 2013 at 5:03 pm

    Wow, what a lot f good, solid comments. Thank you all. I don’t know if the new system is THE system – none of us do. Only time will tell. It occurred to me that most of the clients I’ve had from Noomii, have not been as a result of the bidding. They have simply done their individual research (with Noomii’s help, of course) and decided that I would be the right coach for them. In only one case has location been important.

    I believe that Shift Happens. It’s all a learning curve, and we’ll see the results soon enough. Or not.

    Thanks.
36. Steve Grimm November 4, 2013 at 10:29 am

    I just don’t understand why you’re trying to control things. Be done with it and let the client make a choice themselves. Just supply them with the correct information. I know you’re goal is just like ours, to help people. You could be the healthy conduit that God uses to help people but it has to be 100% client choice. I would be interested in subscribing to your service again if this were the case.