Choosing brilliant clients is the best way to perform well as a coach!

Brilliant clients are open to the process of coaching. This means being ready to be challenged on how their perception of the current situation is affecting the results they are achieving and being willing to learn and implement different ways of doing things to change the outcome.

Not everybody is OK about being questioned that way and that’s fair enough too; coaching is definitely not for everyone.

Over the years I have seen different groups of people for whom coaching is not right at the time:

  • Those who are not receptive to coaching

These people often fall into one of 2 camps:

  1. They don’t believe that an outsider without specific knowledge of their industry could possibly be in a position to support them with their business or
  2. They think that the coach is going to march into their business and start telling them how to run their own business
  • Those who cannot justify coaching in their own mind or to significant others

Often the key objection here is either cost or embarrassment:

  1. Coaching fees can be significant and thought of that money “going down the drain” is a real concern for many. Often they can only see the coaching fees as an expense rather than as an investment in themselves or their business. And even though the person I am talking to may see the benefit of coaching, often it goes wrong when they try to justify the expense it to their “significant other”.
  2. Some Business Owners do not feel able to admit to others that they are engaging a coach, they see it as some kind of personal failure or (and this one is a common one) they feel that the coach will expose their own inadequacies that they have thus far managed to hide; business owners often suffer from imposter syndrome too!
  • Those who need results faster than is reasonable

Sometimes a client will have unrealistic expectations of the coach thinking that years of mismanagement are going to be put right in the blink of an eye. This viewpoint is especially worrying when the coaching fees are not readily affordable and the result is too much pressure to perform for everyone.

I haven’t always got it right!

Despite a coaching career that I’m proud of, there have still been a few upsets along the way, but only one that I still regret taking on. That was due to a blend of poor affordability and need for results faster than I could deliver them. The couple of others that didn’t work as well as I would have liked were hampered by unsupportive “significant others” which in both cases were business partners rather than spouses.

So what do I do differently now to ensure I only take on brilliant clients?

Firstly my mantra is that if you think coaching is not right for you, then you will almost certainly prove yourself right. Once I come up against that mindset, I tend to politely leave the discussion as in my mind, life is too short to try and convince people otherwise.

Secondly, in my head I’m much less of a salesman and much more of an “auditioner” so before I agree to work with a client I need to be convinced that the person:

  • Actively wants to work with me and is open to the process
  • Has a clear vision of what they seek to achieve
  • Is honest about the the obstacles that have hampered them so far
  • Has the determination to make it happen.

Once I have a sense of the above points, then I can make a decision about whether or not I can help them get there.

And because I have no interest in taking money off anybody until they feel comfortable working with me and are ready to commit, I offer everyone 2 separate money back guarantees so they can experience working with me risk free.

No system is perfect, but so far this one seems to be working well for my clients and me.

If you’d like to try out working with me risk free then I’ve described the enrolment process on my programmes page.