Coaching vs Consulting: What’s The Difference? (With Examples)

Coaching vs consulting: what are the differences and similarities?

In a nutshell, a coach focuses on asking questions and helping the person that they’re working with form their own answers. They also provide accountability to the person they’re coaching. That person is an individual who may or may not be a part of an organization.

A consultant, on the other hand, typically works with organizations. They help organizations by analyzing a situation or problem, providing recommendations on how to solve that problem or make an improvement, and often support the implementation of those recommendations.

Consultants can also be coaches, and vice-versa (although coaches who offer consulting services are less common).

What Is Coaching? (B2B Context)

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.

There are many different types of coaching in both B2C and B2B markets.

• Life coaching, relationship coaching, and strength coaching are examples of coaching for consumers (B2C).
• Business coaching, sales coaching, and speaking coaching are examples of coaching for businesses (B2B).

Technically, anyone can call themselves a coach (like the relationship coach whose own relationship is in shambles). This is both a gift and a curse.

An example of coaching in a B2B context is Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall coaches executives so that they can lead higher-performing teams. He does this through speeches, presentations, and ongoing coaching conversations.

Coaching is a rapidly growing industry. The industry is expected to reach a value of $20 billion. Over 1.5 million internet searches are made for coaches every month.

Now, it’s very easy to get into coaching. There are no barriers to entry. Technically, anyone can call themselves a coach (like the relationship coach whose own relationship is in shambles). This is both a gift and a curse.

As a coach, your client often pays you for a set number of conversations or a defined period of time where you provide said coaching (eg. a set number of months).

Ultimately, being a good coach is about empowering your client so they can be the best version of themselves and achieve the progress and results they desire in their work.

What Is Consulting? (B2B)

Consulting, on the other hand, refers to a relationship where you help an organization by providing them with an analysis (SWOT analysis, competitive advantage analysis, etc) of their situation and then provide direct recommendations based on your expertise. Sometimes, you’ll even support your recommendations with implementation.

Consulting is a rapidly growing industry. The independent consulting market has reached $50B annually. And since the pandemic, many workers have started doing freelance consulting work due to its flexible and remote nature.

An example of a consultant is one of our Clarity Coaching clients, Nic Campbell.

Nic consults with non-profit organizations, where she provides them with expert recommendations on grant-making, internal/external structuring, and organizational growth. She does this through consulting projects, like her infrastructure assessment.

(You can find many more examples of consultants on our client results page)

In practice, the consultant might sound like this:

“Here’s what you should do. Here’s why you should do this. Here’s a deep analysis of the different paths you could take, and the optimal one I recommend is X because….”

Here’s another example: a sales consultant.

Unlike a sales “coach,” who might help an individual salesperson, the sales consultant typically helps a sales team or department, not only one person, to improve their performance through a consulting project.

As a result, the sales team sees an improvement in their sales performance, productivity, and success.

Now, it’s common to see consultants offer coaching as an added-value service.

For example, as a result of this sales consulting project, the CEO of the company might ask the sales consultant to coach the VP of sales.

For a coaching engagement, you shift from working on a project basis with the organization to an ongoing basis with an individual. Instead of doing just analysis and recommendations, you’re coming in and supporting the VP of sales.

Similar to coaching, being a good consultant is also about helping your clients achieve results. But, as a consultant, you help them achieve those results through a different method.

In practice, the consultant might sound like this:

“Here’s what you should do. Here’s why you should do this. Here’s a deep analysis of the different paths you could take, and the optimal one I recommend is X because….”

How To Position Yourself As A Coach Or Consultant (Or Both)

Based on the differences between coaching and consulting, how should you position yourself?

If your work is focused on asking questions and helping your client to formulate their own answers and being a source of accountability for your client, then you are likely best suited to position yourself as a coach.

If you are helping people inside of organizations with a defined project or scope of work that typically starts with an analysis and review of the situation that leads to a set of recommendations — and in some cases, implementation — you should position yourself as a consultant.

Despite these differences, there is a crossover between coaching and consulting.

We recommend that consultants think about adding coaching services to help their clients.

Ask yourself: how can you help your client continually benefit from — or even expand upon — those initial results you’ve created for them?

For example, let’s say you’ve completed a consulting project for your client. You’ve helped them achieve the result they desired (like a more motivated, higher-performing sales team).

Ask yourself: how can you help your client continually benefit from — or even expand upon — those initial results you’ve created for them?

Back to our sales consultant example…

For a sales coaching engagement, they might pay you a monthly fee for 2 conversations with the VP of sales per month. On those calls, you would coach them: review their team’s performance, ask them questions, keep them accountable, and support them with the questions or issues that they have.

I hope this breakdown of the differences and similarities between coaching and consulting was helpful. Let me know your thoughts and experiences, we always welcome your feedback.

Now, are you ready to increase the value and impact of your client engagements?

Learn How To Develop Profitable Consulting Services

Positioning yourself correctly can be the difference between clients accepting your offers…

…or being confused by what you do, and ultimately, not taking action and hiring you.

If you want to learn how to position yourself in a way where you’re the obvious choice for your ideal client, we can help.

Inside the Clarity Coaching program, we’ve helped over 850 consultants to build a more strategic, profitable, and scaleable, consulting business. And we’ve helped many of them create monthly coaching offers so they can generate predictable, recurring revenue.

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 setup your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.

You’ll learn how to make more money with every roject 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.