From Coaching Individuals to Working with Corporates: Why Your Positioning Has to Change
I had a call today with a coach who is looking to expand her customer base to include corporate companies. To date she has positioned herself as a coach for ‘Women in Tech’ and has attracted customers from her existing network of ex-colleagues in the tech company she worked for for 15 years.
There often comes a point in a coaching or advisory business where working one-to-one, while deeply rewarding, no longer feels like the full expression of the work.
The desire to influence culture rather than just individuals, to work closer to decision-making, and to create impact at a broader organisational level naturally leads many coaches to explore corporate work.
Yet this transition is rarely as straightforward as it appears.
Not because the work lacks depth or quality, but because the way it is positioned no longer aligns with how organisations think, buy, or evaluate value.
The subtle but critical mismatch
What frequently happens at this stage is that the business continues to speak in the language of individual transformation, while attempting to attract organisational buyers.
The emphasis remains on personal insight, confidence, fulfilment and self-awareness — all of which are valuable, meaningful outcomes — but they are not, on their own, the criteria by which corporate decisions are made.
Organisations are asking a different set of questions entirely.
They want to understand how a piece of work fits within existing leadership development structures, how it supports performance and retention, how it aligns with strategic priorities, and how its impact can be articulated internally.
When those questions are not clearly answered, interest may exist, but momentum rarely follows.
Individual work and organisational work are framed differently
When working directly with individuals, it is entirely appropriate for positioning to focus on the personal experience of change: the quality of the relationship, the emotional depth of the work, and the transformation that unfolds over time.
When working within organisations, the focus shifts.
The same work now needs to be framed in terms of leadership effectiveness, behaviour change across teams, decision-making under pressure, and the broader conditions required for people to perform well together.
This does not mean the work becomes less human.
It means the human impact is no longer the headline — it becomes the outcome of something more clearly defined and strategically situated.
The real transition is a shift in role
At an individual level, the practitioner is often experienced as a trusted guide or partner in personal development.
At an organisational level, that role evolves into something closer to a strategic contributor, someone whose work supports leadership capability, cultural coherence and long-term sustainability.
This requires clarity around:
who the real buyer is within the organisation
what problem is being addressed at organisational level
where the work sits alongside L&D, DEI, performance or culture initiatives
and how success is understood beyond personal stories
Without that clarity, even excellent work can appear peripheral or difficult to place.
Why brand strategy becomes essential at this stage
This is the point at which instinct, experience and reputation benefit from being supported by strategy.
Brand strategy creates the structure that allows work to be understood quickly and confidently by organisational decision-makers, without the need for over-explanation or justification.
It helps articulate value in business language, define a clear role in the market, and ensure that messaging, offers and visibility all reinforce the same strategic position.
Rather than changing the essence of the work, it creates coherence around it, allowing the practitioner to show up with authority and ease in more complex environments.
A positioning gap, not a capability gap
When progress into corporate work feels slower than expected, it is rarely a reflection of ability or experience.
More often, it points to a positioning gap — a misalignment between how the work is currently framed and how organisations are prepared to engage with it.
That gap can be closed.
Not by becoming more corporate, less personal, or less values-led — but by being more intentional, more precise, and more strategic about how the work is presented and understood.
If you are ready to move beyond individual work and into organisational impact, brand strategy is often the most effective way to support that transition — providing clarity, confidence and credibility at exactly the point they are needed most.
Read more about my Brand Strategy process here.
