Online facilitation tool - is there a market?

[Bob Griffiths]

Hi All,

Could I call on your collective wisdom on this issue. I am not sure if I have posted it in the right forum but if not could someone redirect me.

Several years ago I developed a web based tool which provided a structure for one person to coach or facilitate another person or a small team.

It is based on the GROW model which some of you may know. It does not have to be based on GROW as it could use any problem solving model. The programme works like a kind of structured chat session with the problem solving process, questions, hints and advice all laid out for the facilitator. Through the discussion the facilitator guides the person or group through the stages of problem resolution right down to the point where they have defined action steps to get their goal. It is written in php which requires little installation and gets past more firewalls. I have a video which explains more but cannot post it yet as I have not done enough posts.

I have approached a large number of large and small companies with it and have been successful in getting a few trials going but so far no one has adopted it. The reasons have been a) that managers did not have time to solve problems in a facilitative way b) the IT dept did not want any more systems c) I was too small a supplier.

As a coach myself I have given it to lots of coaches but the general response is that is it too restrictive for ongoing coaching. Whenever I use it I generally find it very effective and the clients like it too. Most people who have seen it find it different from other software they have seen and interesting but that is different from finding a need that someone has to use it.

There is a bit of a drawback in that the coach has a lot of the work done for him and her and has to wait for the client(s) to type their responses. But there are also a lot of advantages, you generally get good quality of information, the ability to restart sessions, complete records of sessions amongst others.

I have looked to several companies who use messaging type systems eg Basecamp for project management and various collaboration software systems to see if CoachMaster could be combined with their products but the answer has been it is outside their core products and they want to concentrate on them. I have also contacted coaching organisations such as the International Coaching Federation without a lot of success.

I think I need to find a group or organisation that needs to solve problems virtually and would see a shared understanding on how to do that as helpful. But I am not totally clear who the target market is and how to find out.

My question is a) was I ahead of my time and the now companies might be have more need to work in this way or b) is it an interesting idea but no one but me is likely to use it?

The question is very important to me having put a lot of time into developing it I would be sad to let it go but have other projects in my life and would rather be doing those more intensively if this one is never going to take off.

If anyone has any questions please Pm me or post. I will reply.

Thanks for any advice.

Best wishes,


Bob

[vida]

your concept is good... u need to isolate a target audience and then stress on the paperless and tele commute side and how they cut costs and save time by using ur solution.... I think your concept should work.

[Mark_anderson]

But I am not totally clear who the target market is and how to find out.


This must be clear before starting. One of the first things you need to do is to refine your product or service so that you are NOT trying to be 'all things to all people.' Become a specialist! A target market is a specific group of people that you will focus on to offer your services.


Chose the wrong target market and you will waste time and money. You need to understand that people purchase products or services for three basic reasons; To satisfy basic needs, to solve problems, or to make themselves feel good. When you develop your target market, you want to ensure your target market has the following issues.

1. Your target market has a big problem.
2. Your target market wants the problem solved. Some groups of people assume their problem will never go away.
3. You can easily find your target market. If the problem you solve is people who live in Antarctica well you have a solution and no customer.
4. Your target market has money to spend. This group of people must be use to paying for solutions, not relying on the government or someone else.
5. Your target market has a history of paying to solve their problem


Once you select your target market, the next step is to refine it even further. You want to use the available tools that can help you get down into a subset of this target market and find the profitable niche within it.

The clearer you are about who you want to do business with, the more you will attract exactly the type of customer you are looking for to build your business with and become profitable.

[Bob Griffiths]

Thanks to Vida and Mark for their replies. I was a bit confused my Mark's comment-

3. You can easily find your target market. If the problem you solve is people who live in Antarctica well you have a solution and no customer.

The issue is that I have do not know who the target market is and I don't know how to find out. Maybe I am not understanding something here but the key issue is that I do not know how to find the target market.

Could someone explain?

Thanks and best wishes,



Bob

[Esk247]

i think what mark meant is that don't try to make your target market a huge great mountain of potentials..focus it on definitive buyers e.g. my website design can fit anybody, a huge target market, but i have decided to focus and channel it to start-ups only! thats my target market..startups.

i think thats what you need to do...don't think 'oh well this is for everyone' because you don't actually mean that, you don't mean the guy working in argos on a saturday surely!

its very important to define who it is that will benefit from this and who will pay the most for your service/product.

[Cornish Steve]

I'd like to see the video you've produced that explains more. Can you spell out the link or something? It would help to understand better the concept.

[Mark Nagurski]

I'd like to see the video you've produced that explains more. Can you spell out the link or something? It would help to understand better the concept.

Agreed.

My initial thought though is whether this is something that could be offered via a hosted platform (SAS kinda thing). In which case you could offer it as a free trial and then introduce a monthly subscription.

(Assuming the cost of implementing it is something you can manage.)

It doesn't really get you round your problem of not knowing your market - or whether there is a need (and yes, that should've been the first step).

But, it does mean that you could put it in the hands of more people and see who uses it for what.

[Bob Griffiths]

I'd like to see the video you've produced that explains more. Can you spell out the link or something? It would help to understand better the concept.

Ok lets have a go. Feel a bit naughty but it is for clarification. The three w's bobgriffiths dot com and go to the coachmaster page where the video resides.

Am very grateful to all who replied and will keep in touch.

[Bob Griffiths]

its very important to define who it is that will benefit from this and who will pay the most for your service/product.

Thanks for your comments Esk,

As I said in my original post I have been trying with CoachMaster for some time. The difficulty when you are starting something pretty new (which is probably not the best marketing move anyway!) is know who wants it. I have tried:

- Coaching companies
- Consultancies of various kinds
- IT companies
- Groupware companies
- Messaging companies
- One man bands
- Organisations setting up internal 'universities'

It would be fair to say that quite a few of them were contacted several years ago and things have moved on since then. But my thought were
- Who needs a very robust problem solving process?
- Who works a lot online anyway?
- Who can afford to pay for it?

I have not really 'scattergunned' I have tried one area and when it has not worked I have tried another. But it has been an extremely frustrating business. Anyway am seeing Eon Engineering tomorrow so it will be very interesting to see what they say.

Thanks and best wishes,



Bob

[Cornish Steve]

Ok lets have a go. Feel a bit naughty but it is for clarification. The three w's bobgriffiths dot com and go to the coachmaster page where the video resides.

Am very grateful to all who replied and will keep in touch.
Thanks, Bob. I have a much better picture now of what you've developed. Clearly, the tool is tied closely to a particular coaching methodology, the GROW model, so to get something going you're going to have to work with proponents of that method.

How closely tied to the method is your tool? Could you turn it into something more generic? This often seems to be the key with successful tools: They can be applied to a wide variety of situations.

[bloked]

Use viral marketing. Develop a small, but useful tool that you give away for free on you website. With good programming and good marketing design, you can drive freindly traffic to your site and too your service. Become the Guru of your product niche.

[Bob Griffiths]

Thanks, Bob. I have a much better picture now of what you've developed. Clearly, the tool is tied closely to a particular coaching methodology, the GROW model, so to get something going you're going to have to work with proponents of that method.

How closely tied to the method is your tool? Could you turn it into something more generic? This often seems to be the key with successful tools: They can be applied to a wide variety of situations.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your comments. Yes I agree and many of the people I first contacted were companies I thought would use GROW but while it seemed like a lot of people use it for training it was harder to contact people who used it in practise as a problem solving methodology.

It would be straightforward to change the software to another problem solving methodology. The software is really just a way of sending and receiving message content. What the content is can be reprogrammed fairly easily.

But that still leaves me with the original problem i.e. who has a need to use it.

Best wishes,


Bob

[Chris Kaday]

My question is a) was I ahead of my time and the now companies might be have more need to work in this way or b) is it an interesting idea but no one but me is likely to use it?

Could be B mate as you do seem to have given it a lot of exposure over many years.
All the best for 2009
Chris Kaday
Buisnes coach and mentor

[Trainer Bubble]

Bob, You should talk to the learning and development group at Royal Mail and the Post Office. They use GROW as a basis for their Performance Management procedure and I know that a lot of their managers struggle with using it in practice. This tool might be very interesting to them and would potentially make a lot of profit for you from one source. If you get a large organisation on board like RM, you could have an in demand product.

[Bob Griffiths]

Could be B mate as you do seem to have given it a lot of exposure over many years.
All the best for 2009
Chris Kaday
Buisnes coach and mentor[/quote]

quite possibly! Wish you guys lots of good times in 2009

Best wishes,


Bob