I often say to students of coaching: “Money buys commitment – and commitment buys success, change, and progress!”. For many of the coaching gurus out there, commitment is the most important factor in their coaching’s success rate. Because a lot of the gurus that I’ve witnessed don’t actually have great coaching skills, but the commitment they invite through clever marketing, exorbitant fees, or manipulative techniques, does most of the work for them. Because, after all, the client is the one doing most of the work in coaching, and to change their lives. You’re merely in the passenger seat, with little to no control of what your client is going to be doing in between sessions.
The challenge: When you’re not charging any money yet, how can you get the kind of commitment that will maximise the outcome of the coaching?
Here are some suggestions:
- Have a candid contracting conversation about commitment. Explain how important this is to the success of the coaching. Invite them to pay you a fee, even if it’s nominal, not for you to benefit (you’ve already invite them on the basis of no charge and you’re committed to that offer), but so that they are invested in the process, and because you know that they’ll be getting more form the coaching if there’s some meaningful exchange.
- Clients don’t need to exchange money for coaching in order to have some “skin in the game”. Chances are that whatever they bring to coaching is important enough to feel invested in the outcome. However, this is something that you should check into as part of your first conversation, to make sure that what they bing to coaching is actually important to them, not just something they bring, perhaps to do you a favour and offer you an opportunity to practise coaching. If your client isn’t very committed to working on something (you can check commitment on a scale of 1-10, and if it’s less than a 7…) it’s likely not going to happen, and it’ll be frustrating for a coach, and not actually resembling a real-life coaching scenario.
- Highlight how you expect your client to pay for the coaching, other than with money – by paying attention, coming prepared, following through with whatever they commit to during sessions, travelling to the session (if it’s in person), offering honest feedback at the end of the coaching, a testimonial for your website, or perhaps a warm introduction to a potential client after the coaching has finished (see our section on “Transitioning from free to paid coaching clients”). This way, your client will have the end in mind, and will be more invested in making this a valuable experience. The important part here is that you’re offering your client a choice, an invitation to commit, and agreement that they will commit and if they do, clear on what the expectations are. A powerful thing to share is that that it’s important to you that they take this work seriously, and that you’d rather go separate ways right now then to waste both of your time but bringing goals that aren’t really that important, or to engage half-heartedly. And if this means that we need to revisit the goal they brought, then you’d be more than happy to spend that time to ensure that your work is important to them.
- As part of your first conversation with a new client, get curious as to how what they’re bringing to coaching connects with their purpose, their values, their character strengths, and/or what they care about as people. Connecting the “presenting issue” to something that sits at the core of a person’s character and worldview will inevitable increase their commitment to their coaching goal, and often lead moving the “goal post” to something that is a lot more meaningful to the client, and hence more likely that they’re committed to the process of moving towards it.
- Use laddering as a technique to connect the client’s presenting issue with higher level goals or deeper aspirations.
- Invite your client to share with a friend, family member, partner, or on social media that they have started a coaching journey, possible also what they’re currently working on in that space. The accountability and commitment that grows from making a goal public can work wonders in eliciting commitment and motivation to make progress towards their coaching goal and apply themselves to the process. Be aware that his can also have dark side as it may create unhelpful discomfort and pressure, so don’t push your client to do this, but instead offer this as a choice, possible with a gentle encouragement/invitation to commit at a different level.
- Free yourself from the weight of being responsible for creating outcomes for your client. Instead highlight that you’ll be partnering with your client to help them make progress towards their goals, and that they are the one who will have to do the heavy lifting, and usually major shifts occur between sessions, rather than during your time together. This is to be expected and a normal part of coaching journeys. While you’re fully committed to your client, this sends a message that the client is the one who’s ultimately responsible for what they will and won’t do during your time working together, and that it’s them who will need to commit to achieving change and success – you, the coach, can’t do it for them! And in fact, if you are more committed to your client’s success than they are, the coaching usually doesn’t work in the first place, or the results won’t be maintained after the coaching has ended.
