Episode 21
How to Be a Prosperous Coach
One of the most important, and least taught aspects of being a coach is the process of enrolment. A coach with no clients is a useless coach. How can we enrol clients in a way that is both ethical and effective?
In this wonderfully down to earth conversation, master coach Steve Chandler unpacks some of the main difficulties coaches face and shares three core ideas for an easeful enrolment process.
Why being a prosperous coach is important
Many new coaches struggle around the subject of money and find pricing and selling their service tricky. Steve’s big insight around this many years ago was that selling coaching is only going to work if it’s something you love to do. For this reason, you have to master it in order to really be of service and get out of the struggle.
The principle reason it’s important for coaches to be prosperous is so that they can be truly powerful coaches. The money struggle takes some of your attention away from the client you’re with., which feeds a negative feedback loop where you coach less well, and hence make less money, and hence have more money stress.
Prosperity is having more than enough, so that money is no longer a source of worry. It means getting to the point where money is no longer in the way of you thriving. Prosperity benefits the client as well as the coach; the client is now committed and has a higher level of willingness to change because they’ve made a financial investment.
Three core ideas for enrolling new clients
For an enjoyable, service-oriented and effective enrolment process, Steve recommends these three core ideas:
- Sell the experience not the concept: people will make a decision about whether or not to work with you based on their experience of working with you, not about theoretical ideas about what coaching with you might be like.
- Stay in the prospect’s world: don’t talk about yourself. Stay curious about them and their experience, have humility rather than trying to make an impression. This way you create connection and the person feels understood.
- Die before you go into battle: use the old samurai trick of letting go of any expectation or desire around the outcome before you go into contact with a prospective client. This has you let go of being influenced by what you think you need and have your focus on helping them.
Tips for new coaches
Finding new clients: talk to people, get curious – who’s out there, how can you help? Reach out to people, join groups, give gift certificates for coaching, get creative. A big one here is separating the social self (that generates social anxiety) from the professional self – get over your socialised self holding back and offer your (professional) help.
The first conversation with prospect needs to begin with helping them to feel safe enough to talk openly about their life. The only objective is to find out more about their challenges and what they believe about those challenges. Let your natural curiosity come up. Ask what they’ve tried. Then ask permission to share insights.
Self-confidence is often something new coaches struggle with and the best thing to remember here is it’s not about you. You don’t need to know you can help them, you only need a willingness to explore. Untangle worthiness from coaching. Ask yourself if you’re useful and try to be helpful.
Resources Mentioned:
Related Interview:
- If you enjoyed this podcast, check out this rich interview between Steve and Joel where they explore how to enroll clients in more depth: The Secrets to Building a Thriving Coaching Business