Approching Coaching

A few days ago I had someone come to me and ask "How do you tell someone they need a Coach, how do you approach it?" A curly question as there are times where you will meet someone and they so desperately need help so I offered the following suggestions:

1. Tell them straight "Dude, you need help". Obviously this is a close friend you would say this to

2. Ask "It sounds like you're in a real pickle, have you thought about getting a coach to help you sort through it?"

3. Say "You know I have a friend who saw a coach for something similar and they got it sorted, would you like me to get their number?"

4. Say "OK, so are you wanting to whinge and moan or would you like to do something about it?" and if you are sick of them going on at you about it say;"because if it is whinging and moaning you have used up your quota and I am going to start charging by the minute". If you are not sick of it then you can say "because you know I am always hear to listen to you but if it's help your looking for I don't think I am qualified."

5. Hand over a brochure and say you are thinking about seeing a coach yourself and will they go with you

6. Ask a coach cold call your contact

7. Find a coach that does initial consultations for free and say "Hey I know just the person, what if you call them? What have we got to lose, besides I'd be interested in what they have to say and we could have a good ol' gas bag about that instead of going over the same old ground aye?"

8. If you have a performance issue with an employee sometimes being direct is the best approach. "Your KPI is to ensure you complete 10 cold calls per day, currently the standard is not being achieved. I have a sales coach who I know can help you. I want you to discuss all of your issues with this coach so that they can help you achieve your KPI. I want you to succeed and I think that perhaps I am not the person to help you but I want to help you, it is my job as your leader to do that. Here are their details call them and make an appointment this week and let me know when it is set up so we can meet straight after and you can debrief me on the experience." If you do not like this script turn it all into questions.

8a: Where are you at with cold calls? How many are you currently achieving? What is the standard? How successful do you think you are at this task? What are you thoughts on a sales coach? What can I do to help? Would you be willing to make contact with a sales coach and set up a time if I give you the number? What would a sales coach be able to do for you? If you don't call this coach what do you think will be next on our agenda?

So you have done that already and they refuse. What can you say to

"Nah it will be alright."

Response: How long will it be before it is not alright? Sounds like you have been nahhing about it for awhile now and it's not alright. What's alright about it?

"A coach can't help me."

Response: Right so who can? Have you seen a coach before? Is that because you don't really want help? Is a coach supposed to help you or help you help yourself? Well you could try therapy or hire someone else to fix the problem? What do you think a coach would do?


"They cost too much."

Response: And what price are you paying at the moment? Cost too much in comparison to what? How much is too much? When you say cost are you talking money or personal cost?

Essentially the idea is to coach them into coaching. You will notice there are not many statements in response to objections, only questions. The idea is to facilitate them to the idea of coaching rather than telling them. Get them to tell you what their thoughts are on coaching and without imposing (unless you have the authority to do so) share your ideas. At the end of the day if your heart is in the right place they will hear you.