Final coaching session - a process for closing the coaching relationship

This process enables an effective review of the coaching, highlights your client's growth and development, enables you to identify priorities for your development as a coach and gather references and testimonials.

Coach reflection

Give your client an overview of the major themes and topics covered in the coaching, of their growth and development and any changes they have made. Here you could look back at early goals and assessments to get a sense of how far your client has travelled, as well as his or her major accomplishments.

Client reflection

Ask your client questions designed to identify the value of the coaching relationship, its impact, and to draw out specific gains and growth which you client wishes to celebrate. It is also useful to ask your client to give you specific feedback on your coaching.

Some example questions

During the time we have been working together, did anything surprising emerge?

What has been most useful?

Can you name any significant turning points?

Which qualities or strengths have you recognized in yourself or developed?

What have you achieved?

What can I do to be a better coach?

Permission

Ask your client for permission to use their comments for future testimonials and references and agree how you will check the accuracy of the notes you have made for these. At this time is also useful to agree how you will describe your client, their role and organization, in order to preserve client confidentiality.

Affirmation

Affirm your client's achievements, strengths and growth and state your hopes/wishes for them for the future.

Author: © Sonia Thomas, December 2007

Terms of Use:

You cannot use this article without the written permission of the author.

Find more resources on marketing coaching at Business Resources for Coaches

Your USP stands for your Unique Selling Position or Unique Selling Point. If you've done your homework well and have chosen a specific target market - you might have nailed an untapped group of people and you'll be in the enviable position of not having any competition.

But for the rest of us - even if we have narrowed our target market down well, we'll still have others who are attempting to reach and serve the same group of people.

Some tight markets are incredibly competitive and standing out from the crowd is hard work. And, when a potential client lines you up with the half dozen or so other coaches they could work with they will need a reason to choose to work with you.

In other words, how is what you offer different or better matched to their needs? This can be described as your Unique Selling Point.

It is worth taking the time to identify and list your strengths, abilities and experience as well as your products and services and taking a long hard look at all of these these.

There are probably a lot of things you can list but are they perceived as valuable to your potential clients? It's no good, for example, offering a product that your clients do not think they need.

When you can state what you feel gives you a unique approach to coaching, ask for some feedback from others. And, whoever you ask for feedback, it is useful to an get honest response, particularly if any of the items on your list make other people think 'so what?' (Perhaps you think it makes you special but nobody else really cares.)

Ask people if knowing any of these things you have listed inspires additional trust or makes them feel drawn to you in a special way.

You can also have a look at what other coaches are doing and identify those who communicate clearly and inspire trust in you. How is the value of their coaching communicated to you?

If you bounce these ideas with a few different people you can narrow it down and start to develop your own USP - then you'll be on your way to communicating it to your potential clients.

This article is based on an extract from our ebook Stand Out as a Coach - Know your Target Market and Unique Selling Point which is free to all our members.

Author: © Sonia Thomas August 2008

Coaches Plus

Terms of use

You may not publish or reproduce this material for without the written permission of the author.

I work with lawyers and their clients. I coach lawyers, I run workshops giving them basic coaching skills to bring to their work and also facilitate leadership development within law firms using the amazing tools from The Leadership Circle.

Lawyers will refer their clients to me for life coaching work, normally as part of divorce proceedings.

My niche grew very organically. I quit my corporate job with very little planning and had a "if it will ring me I'll coach it approach". I found it difficult to talk at networking events about what I did because it felt very intangible and lacked a vision that was accessible to other people (although my vision for the life I wanted for myself was crystal clear!).

My husband works for a law firm in Greater Manchester and whilst doing my certification I approached one of his colleagues to use for practice. She grew through the coaching and began to tell her colleagues, who told their colleagues and I soon realised that I'd found a gap in the market. I also identified that there was an opportunity to integrate my corporate training skills and combine it with my coaching practice.

After my first year of trading I sat down and looked at my client list and realised that most of them were lawyers and decided to finally own the niche and begin marketing to it.

The thing that 'sealed the deal' for me about my niche was that I love coaching these types of people, and that they can afford my rates. I think having a niche that can afford you is often overlooked. It's all well and good that you love coaching them - and you still need to eat.

Having a niche market makes it easier for clients to decide whether you're the right coach for them and is very useful in enabling other people to market for you. 70% of my new clients come from referrals and when people think of lawyers and coaching - more and more people are thinking of me! It's a huge buzz for me when I meet someone and they tell me they've heard of my business and what we do, and I think having a niche has made it much easier and quicker to accomplish that.

As to how I attract and reach my clients, referrals is number one, and that's a snowball that takes time to grow.

Whilst building my referral machine I did a ton of networking events (a very mixed bag in terms of success), wrote articles aimed at my target market and offered my services pro bono on several occasions to get the ball rolling and start establishing a track record in the market.

Our workshops have also been a useful opportunity to enrol new clients. Normally at least one person per workshop will convert into a coaching client.

I also joined their regulatory body so that they can see I'm within their industry.

E-mail has been useful when promoting our workshops for lawyers. Yell.com was a horrific waste of money that has not yielded a single call in a year (my personal belief is that people don't choose their coach from the yellow pages). Local interest groups where my potential clients will be have also been useful in getting word around.

Free sample sessions are my primary marketing technique. It's useful for people to experience it, especially if they're new to coaching.

The most successful marketing is done by other people for you. Word of mouth referrals are worth their weight in gold.

Author: © Simon Ireland-Davies July 2008

ID Coaching Limited

Read more articles on coaching niches

Terms of use

You may not publish or reproduce this material for without the written permission of the author. Click here for our full terms and conditions.