A few weeks ago, my wife had an introductory coaching session with a coach who is a specialist in helping twin moms.
It was a match made in heaven… or so I thought.
After going through the introductory session, towards the end, my wife said to the coach, “Thank you so much. I'll think about it and get back to you.” The session ended and within two minutes, she had firmly, resolutely decided that she absolutely will not hire the coach in question.
What happened? What went wrong? And why did my wife say “I'll think about it” if she really meant no.
Well, the truth is, during the session with the coach in front of her she was more like 50-50 about joining.
However, it wasn't a 100% definite yes, and there was no urgency to join the programme. And ultimately, as I've mentioned in a previous article, the coach did not know the simple Client Signup System.
So the session was a little bit of random coaching, where the coach asked some good overall general coaching questions, but not the exact questions that will naturally lead the client (in this case my wife) to absolutely KNOW that they need support of a coach.
Why did my wife said think about it? Because she wasn't sure. Why wasn't she sure?
Because the coach didn’t deliver the strong, powerful introductory session that naturally leads the client to believe that the coach can handle it, no matter what Rachida throws at her, when it comes to the real in-depth coaching work that they would need to do together.
My biggest takeaway from hearing my wife's experiences was this:
When clients say, “I'll think about it”, or “I need to speak with my husband”, nine times out of 10 that really is just a polite way of saying no.
That's why, as part of my system for enrolling clients, I make sure that at the end of the session, the client actually says no, or agrees to me saying no to us working together.
I'll say something like:
“I don't like to leave things in limbo. So for now, let's just say that this is a definite no. And if at some point in the future, you want to work together, it will be at the regular rate and without any of the bonuses we talked about today, but you're more than welcome to apply again in the future. Does that sound good?” Great.
You can almost hear the client’s relief when you do this… and at the same time you’re upholding your fees and bonus package offer, AND you’re taking away all the awkward energy of leaving the session on a ‘maybe’… then wondering if you should be following up.
I would much rather the client say no than say I'll think about it. And keep me in limbo. Limbo isn't good for relationships. It isn't good for life decisions, and it's definitely not good for coaching.
To learn my full system on How to get as many Introductory Coaching Sessions as you want, and then actually enrol clients quite effortlessly, check it out here: