Selling Sawdust

Ever heard of the business phrase "selling sawdust"? It's a marketing concept drawn from a very traditional business, sawmills. A by-product of milling timber is of course sawdust. Sawdust is a product in itself but sawdust is not made to sell, it’s just created as part of the process of making a different product.

The sawdust is not wasted though, it’s sold and used for many things including gardening, smoking meat, animal bedding, oil spill cleanup, packaging and even crafts and DIY projects. All this to say it, doesn’t go to waste and can add to the sawmills bottom line.

How does this relate to us in the endurance coaching world? Well, it's all about spotting the gold in that can be found from the hard work put into coaching athletes.

If you prefer audio, you can listen to the audio version on the podcast, or use the embedded player below.

Discovering Your Coaching "Sawdust"

In endurance coaching, your "sawdust" could be those bespoke training plans you’ve painstakingly crafted for individual athletes. Each plan is tailored, precise, and packed with value. But once the training is over, what happens to those plans?

Although athletes do have unique requirements, we are more the same than we are different so why not repurpose these personalized plans into templates that can cater to athletes with similar goals and attributes?

This way, you're not starting from scratch every time, and you're providing value to more athletes at once.

This isn’t about replacing one-on-one coaching, it’s about repurposing your work and selling your sawdust.

By selling these repurposed training plans, you're not only making your coaching more accessible but also opening up a new revenue stream. It's a win-win; more athletes get access to your expert guidance, and you get to maximize the value of your hard work. Plus, this strategy can help you tap into new markets, reaching athletes who might be looking for high-quality training guidance without the full customization. This raises your revenue ceiling making for a more sustainable business model over the long term.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be products you put a price tag on, using your sawdust as content and marketing material is also of great value to your business, will save you time and help you attract new clients.

Here are some other potential by-products of your coaching efforts:

• Group Zoom Calls: With a little bit of extra work, these can become interactive webinars or case studies for future athletes to learn from.
• Recorded Athlete Feedback Sessions: With permission, these recordings offer a real-world glimpse into personalized coaching adjustments and athlete development.
• Athlete Testimonials: Captured immediately post-race, these testimonials are raw, genuine, and highly persuasive to potential clients. Coaches and athletes put a lot of work into preparing and executing a race, taking 5 minutes to record each others thoughts and reactions post race could be a great

Repurposing Training Plans with Training Tilt

A little plug for Training Tilt. Imagine taking a training plan you've designed for a one-on-one client and transforming it into a template with just a few clicks. Training Tilt's platform makes this possible, offering a straightforward way to repurpose your existing plans and add them to your store for others to purchase. It's a simple yet powerful way to expand your offerings and reach.

What Next?

As business owners we should always be looking for ways to extend the reach of our expertise and make our businesses more sustainable. By adopting the "selling sawdust" mindset, we can uncover new opportunities hidden within our existing resources.

Does this trigger any of your own ideas about what could be your “sawdust”?

I’d love to hear about them, hit me up with an email or chat, and I might be able to share some ideas around how Training Tilt could help you get them off the ground.