When my clients complain that they are not getting enough clients, a little probing usually reveals that they have under-estimated how much effort it takes on the front end to generate the results they desire.

Ask yourself these four basic questions to help you quantify the effort it will take to reach your goal. Sometimes just knowing your numbers is enough to depersonalize the process and get you motivated to act!

1. How many deals do you need to close each month to make your numbers?
   
   You should be able to see from your history what an average new client will spend, and what repeat customers typically buy. Take into consideration that you will naturally lose business regularly through no fault of your own, and expect some surprises.
   
2. What are the key steps in your sales process--from when you first meet a prospect to when they become your client?
   
   At each key stage in your sales process, prospects get eliminated or move to the next stage. Know the steps, and encourage potential clients to move from one stage to the next, deliberately feeding the system that feeds you. Many people are ready to buy but won’t move forward unless you call them.
   
3. Of the prospects that begin your sales process, how many complete it to become your client?
   
   This ratio is critical because it gives you power, no matter how “bad” it is. If you know you have to call 100 people before one will say yes, then you can only feel good after your first 50 “no’s”, because you only have 50 more to go. But if you don’t know your numbers, you may end up completely deflated after 10 calls and consider yourself a failure.
   
4. What kind of marketing do you need to do to generate at least as many prospects as you need for item #3?
   
   There’s no getting around making calls and having conversations to get the results you want. If you know how many contacts you need to make, you can find a way to enjoy the process with confidence that the results will come.
   

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Integrity. Confidentiality. Courage. Ethics.
b y Philip H. Henderson, Ethical Magician

These are the character traits that define the profession of coaching. Without these essential ways of being, our clients cannot trust us to be of true service to their needs. Foremost, our work is about our clients. Our work is about their wants, desires, aspirations, and ambitions.

We work best when there is congruence between our wants, desires, aspirations, and ambitions. However, in most cases our clients are headed in completely different directions than we are. It is tempting to insert ourselves, to place our values into the coaching process.

Often I am asked what religious teaching I use to coach in an ethical manner. My answer is the religious basis that guides my client is what I use. I know some coaches base their ethical teaching on their personal religious beliefs and express those beliefs to their clients. It is just as comfortable for me to coach a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, or atheist. It is more comfortable for them that I do not express my religious beliefs. Even if we share the same faith, our way of expressing our faith is likely to diverge. The successful coach resists the urge and focuses on the expressed wishes of their client.

It is difficult to measure success as a coach. Sometimes it is obvious as our clients surge ahead in their work using tools and ways of being that were foreign to them before we began our work together. However, often the changes are subtle and even though the subtle changes are significant, it is hard to put a price on the value gained by our clients.

Many coaches charge their clients at an hourly rate, often with a monthly retainer. We must not confuse the money we receive with the value our clients receive from our work together. When coaching is done at the highest level, the payoff to our clients is measured in multiples of our fees. If it costs a client $1,000 a month as a retainer, we expect the client to receive $10,000+ in value for his investment. That’s a good return on investment. This is why coaching is a good business, it is highly leveraged.

The best coaches are people whose mission as a coach is to release our clients with new abilities to achieve success without our guidance as a coach. I practice high-impact coaching. I want my coach-client relationship to move quickly and release is within 6 months.

During the intensive time we work with each other as coach and client, I give my clients 100 percent of my attention. I think about them when we are not together and devise activities for them to experience new learning about themselves. I devise activities that reveal deeply felt emotions that inspire my clients to greatness in their daily lives. I care about them as if we were close family.

I want my clients to learn “new ways of being” rather than new skills. If I were to encourage them to learn new skills, they may be good or bad at execution of the new skills or may neglect altogether to employ the new skills. When I encourage my clients to accept new ways of being, their behavior is different because they are different people than when we first met.

The new “ways of being” that emerges in my work with clients come from the sincere desires on the part of my clients to become the best human being they are capable of becoming. (I insist that all my clients adopt one new way of being whether they like it or not. I coach my clients to become people who are empathic listeners by choice.) This aspiration to become the best they can become is defined by my clients in their own terms in the development and writing of a Mission and Legacy Statement authored solely by my clients.

The Mission and Legacy Statement is a roadmap for success. Many of my clients chose to post this document on the wall of their office and some also on their home refrigerator. This document becomes a lifelong guide my clients are proud to share with family, friends, and coworkers.

The wonder of coaching is that by acting from the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, my clients and I experience the feeling of love. Love is the essence of good human relationships. We find the courage to feel real love for each other because in coaching we live in grace, generosity, and gratitude.