July 2, 2021
Do you struggle with re-enrolling coaching clients in longer coaching contracts and packages? In this episode, coach Ajit shares the secret to engaging with clients powerfully and how to enroll (or re-enroll!) them in longer coaching contracts...
Do you struggle with re-enrolling coaching clients in longer coaching contracts and packages?
In this episode, coach Ajit shares the secret to engaging with clients powerfully and how to enroll (or re-enroll!) them in longer coaching contracts easily.
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." – Heraclitus
[2:20]
A powerful distinction on your capabilities as a coach.
[4:36]
Why is there a common belief that you can only work with clients for a limited time?
[8:20]
A 2-part question that will help you re-enroll clients for longer coaching packages.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello there, this is Ajit Nawalkha and you are listening to the Evercoach podcast. Today, I wanted to discuss something that I get as a common concern from coaches who are slightly newer in the game, coaches that have worked for less than five years in the space of coaching and have one concern, which is, will my client work with me more than one, two or three sessions? Will they ever rehire me? And more importantly, why would they rehire me? I know a model, I have a methodology and I work with a client on that model and the methodology. Once they've got the outcome, why should they rehire me? My clients should work with me for a certain period of time, and then it'll be okay if they move on. So is there any truth to believing that coaching is a short-term engagement that you have with your clients?
I wanna rewire that thinking in your mind. And I come from a place of love and service. When I share this with you. Most of the clients that work with me end up working with me for at least two years. And some of my clients have been with me for over three years now I've coached them for three years or over, not off and on, on a week-to-week basis. But my model of coaching, anyone has been the same. I use the process when it's a life coaching scenario that I'm dealing with. And I use my coach consultant. First principle coaching model, when I'm working with businesses, neither of the models have adapted from what they truly are. These models are consistent. They continuously get results for my clients and my clients continue to work with me. So what is the difference between somebody who has clients working with them for years after years after years after years versus somebody who believes that their clients can only get a set number of results, because they have a particular model that they have to approach coaching with, or, or, or that there's only a particular kind of result that you can drive for your client.
Let me make a distinction for you using a philosophical approach. So what is the difference? Let me expand on that. Using a Marcus Aurelius quote. Marcus Aurelius was a stoic philosopher. And the quote that I'm talking about is "no man steps in the same river twice." No man steps in the same river twice. The understanding of this statement is that when a man steps into a river and gets out of the river, the man has changed and the river has changed. So the same man is not entering the river twice because the river is different after the appearance of the man and stepping out the man, and the man is different because he has experienced the river once. So no same man or no man steps in the same river twice. It's important to understand this in the coaching context, when you coach someone, even if you have used the same philosophy again and again and again because the person you are coaching changes because of the coaching philosophy in the coaching methodology that you have used for them to have that transformation in your life.
The next time you have a conversation, you are not talking to the same person for that matter. When your methodology, your philosophy has experienced the transformation that happened for the man as you being the conduit or the channel of it, your philosophy also evolved. Your methodology also evolved. You may use the same principles again and again and again, but you will end up getting a different outcome because the container and the content both changes when it experiences each other for the first time. So when you work with a client, when you approach a client and you are sitting with them, having a transformation in a particular area of their life, know that because of that transformation, that person has changed, which means you could be using the same principles, the same philosophy, the same methodology next time. But because of the experience that you had gained from the previous conversation you had with that person, you now have a chance to evolve the transformation and create a bigger transformation for your client and your client has changed.
So he or she is ready to receive that big transformation as well. No same man steps in the same river twice. So why is it that sometimes we hear that we could only work for a set amount of time with our clients? Why is it that this is a popular narrative? Well, it comes from two specific areas. First is context contextually. When somebody says, Hey, you can only offer services for a set period of time to our clients. Contextually. What they may be meaning is from the lens of marketing, from the lens of decision making for your clients, from the lens of ease of decision making for your clients, it is better for you to create a limited package. You see, if I approach you and we are in a conversation, I make an offer and I say, I should coach you forever. Or I make an offer.
I should coach you for two months. It's much easier for you to make the decision and commit to two months of transformation or two months of change or two months of coaching versus your lifetime of coaching. And that is why when you first offer your coaching package, you want your client to experience what you can offer in a short burst of time. So they can make a decision. They can make a decision of saying, can I dedicate myself to these two months of working deeply with this individual? It makes it easier for your client to make a decision because all they're committing to is two months of transformation with you for a set price. So first reason why sometimes it is asked of you to make a limited time offer, a coaching contract that is offered for a limited time, is because it's a way to help your clients make decisions. You're easing off their decision-making.
The second reason why sometimes we tend to hear the notion that the coaching contractors are limited, and you can only serve a client for those many months, or those many years is because of our own self-confidence and our own understanding of what is possible we can create. You see, when you are learning from a coach, when you are training with a coach, sometimes the coach will transfer over their own beliefs, unconsciously to you. This recently happened in a conversation where I was coaching a client. The client asked a similar question. They said, well, I've heard so many times that you can only lead to that much transformation in somebody's life. And so your coaching contract should be something that is of a short term three months or six months. And I could see that that was a transfer of belief from a previous coach of that person, where the previous coach didn't believe that they can create something bigger, that they can create something grander, that they can create something that was a lifetime of change.
And unfortunately, because the coach that trained that client of mine didn't believe that they could be coaching somebody for a long period of time. They transferred that belief to this new coach. My invitation to you is to challenge the beliefs that you have. Challenge what somebody may tell you is the absolute in a particular scenario. Because most of the time when somebody talks in absolutes, they're talking because that is their limitation of experience they've had as of now. And they're trying to build certainty in their life. And because of that, they're giving you an absolute answer, but it may not be true. It may be true for that individual maybe, but it definitely is not true for you. So I invite you to explore further and know that if you do your job well, if you explore your coaching, well, if you serve your clients with all the power, all the love, all your heart, all your compassion, they will get great results, and then they will get great results.
There is no reason to believe that they would not wanna keep working with you forever and ever, and ever. I wanna offer you a question that hopefully would help you extend your contract length and will hopefully help you extend the impact you get to have on a company or a client for a longer period of time. It's a two-part question. The first part of the question is where I want you to take a piece of paper or just make a mental note of what would it look like if you were your best self, that you were the best version of the coach, that you can be, that you served with all the power, all the might, that you were able to be powerful in the coaching conversation, courageous in the coaching conversation, curious in the coaching conversation, that when your client experiences that coaching, they can truly feel your heart, your love, your presence in that coaching conversation.
And because of that, your clients were also experiencing absolutely amazing results. They were meeting the goals. They set themselves for. They were living the life they wanted to live. They were always growing. They were always progressing. They were always in, in a place of joy and bliss. Thanks to you. Thanks to you being that channel that helped them become a better version of themselves. What would that scenario look like for you? How would you be as a person? Once you answer that question, I want you to ask the second part of this question. And the second part of this question is if you were all that you just mentioned, you will be, if your clients got all that you said that they will get as a consequence, as, uh, as an experience, as an outcome of coaching with you, would this client not want to work with you forever?
Would this client actually wanna quit on you after six months? Would this client would wanna quit on you after three years, five years, 10 years, or never see asking this question from a place of your being and outcome of your clients, hopefully, will change the answer for you that you will extend your contract length because you suddenly not operate from what the world tells you the right way to operate, but from a place of what is it that you get to create? How is it that you get to be? And how is it that people experience you? When people experience us, our authentic self, our powerful self, our impactful selves, they want to associate themselves with you. So I invite you to ask yourself, how can you be the most authentic, powerful version of yourselves so your clients don't have to de-commit working with you because, honestly, they would love to work with you for a very long period of time because of the quality of change that you can create in their lives.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I know today's episode might have created a deep, meaningful impact in your life and will definitely change the contract lengths that you have been signing with your clients. Share with us, How did you find this episode share with us? How are you liking this new direction of the podcast? I feel we as a coaching community, lack a place where we can talk about the philosophy of coaching and the philosophies of coaching that make us better coaches. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is Ajit Nawalkha and you are listening to the Evercoach podcast. I am your host, Ajit Nawalkha, and every week on the Evercoach podcast, I will bring the world's best thinkers, coaches, trainers to share some of their best ideas to solve real client problems, live a prosperous life, and be an even better version of ourselves.