Learning to Pick the Right Clients
Hello fellow coaches. Last blog entry, I spent a little time talking about the phobia some beginning coaches have regarding telling their clients hard things, and thus risking the account. I want to take that a step further and blog about deciding what potential client to say “No” to from the beginning, even when the person is saying “Yes” to being coached by you. Sounds crazy, right?
At Businesscoach.com, we don’t sign up clients, or get them, or sell them into what we do. Instead, we “enroll” them. The enrollment conversations we do are unique, and too much to go into in this blog, but they center on overturning a “want to” in the potential client that we absolutely must hear from them if we decide to work with them. Why is this so important?
Because I’ve learned in coaching business leaders since 1989 that the successful clients all show “buy in” to the process. The failed ones (and the ones who end up stressing my coaching life, and yours), quite simply, just don’t show “buy in”. In fact, more than one has actually succeeded in selling me into taking them as a client. That’s where the problems start.
You’ve got to be willing to test a client’s commitment to true change. If they fail that test pretty clearly, you’ve also got to be willing to stop the coaching relationship, no matter how loudly your accountant yells.
Post a Comment