There is an increasing fad towards hiring marketing coaches to educate business owners and decision makers about building their businesses.

The argument for working with a marketing coach is to allow business owners to grow in their knowledge of marketing concepts and principles.

This is a mistake.

What entrepreneurs really need is less self-education and more direct assistance.

Education is fine and all, but it is always better to see immediate sales increases than having to work ten months to two years through some `self help’ marketing package to hopefully see results at the end.

I’ve yet to find a marketing coach who guarantees the client will make money following the advice. And those that offer guarantees expire before the program can be completed.

Coaching is a risk.

After entrepreneurs pay coaching fees and fail to follow through because of lack of time or from being presented with pre-packaged solutions that fall way short, their situation becomes worse than before they began the coaching program.

Aside from the direct financial loss of buying the coaching bundle, the lost opportunity costs from trying to figure out how to apply someone else’s pre-packaged coaching program to your business can never be recovered.

Worse, change comes so rapidly that entrepreneurs need immediately implementable tactics and strategies to defend against competitors.

The risk of watching smart competitors immediately implement new marketing approaches while you are stuck for 10 months to two years struggling and distracted with a paint-by-numbers coaching system that prevents you from taking immediate action makes working with a marketing coach a bad idea.

Here are the top three reasons to avoid Marketing Coaches:

Accountability Coaching focuses getting you to fill out questionnaires and surveys and do `home work’ assignments between telephone sessions which may last only ten or 15 minutes. Hardly enough time to achieve real marketing success. When results aren’t achieved the problem falls on your own shoulders. You pay for `self help’ directed activities, not for results.

Consulting focuses on results. An increase in sales, more referrals, improved response rates, etc. The consultant is directly responsible for helping you achieve results.

Flexibility Two year commitment to what amounts to nothing more than a high- priced self-help program is foolish. A coaches pre-printed forms may or may not apply to you and your business. Pre-packaged coaching is not customizable; it’s a one-size-fits-all attempt to standardize the marketing of businesses that may have nothing in common.

Availability Coaching carries limited, scheduled time with a coach.

What happens when you need assistance between sessions? For most prepackaged coaching no such extra sessions are available since coaching is activity based, i.e. assignments that must be completed by the entrepreneur himself/herself instead of actual question and answer consulting. This is bad because when your competitors start to attack you are stuck having to wait until your next monthly session to ask for help. Consulting often is available without restrictions or with limited restrictions on ongoing contact.

And the worst reason of all to avoid marketing coaches:

Coaching is a one-sided relationship.

The coach can have several clients working through pre-packaged materials without his assistance and personally continue to earn income — regardless of whether or not the client makes money or even completes the assignments or not.

Industry peers have tried to talk me into giving up consulting for the more lucrative career of becoming a marketing coach.

For me that’s not an option. I’d rather make less money and see clients actually increase sales than to get filthy rich from making empty promises.

The disadvantages of this coaching fad make it clear that entrepreneurs need less self-education and more immediate direct assistance. If you want a prepackaged solution grab a book or two. You can read most marketing books in just a few days, instead of being strung along for months or years with a coach whose only promise is to tie up your time with prepackaged materials that were originally designed for some other business.

Andre Bell is an author and marketing advisor. He runs an informational website that provides technology marketing tips and recommendations for Solution Providers, Computer Consultants, and Small VARs. Visit his official site at www.AndreBell.com for his free 9-step technology marketing report.