Sometimes called the Intake Packet, the Welcome Packet is provided to your client once enrolled. If you are inclined to send it to prospects, consider resisting that impulse. It may be overwhelming to someone who has not made a verbal commitment to hire you.

The Welcome Packet makes the verbal commitment between you and your new client official and informs the client of how the professional coaching relationship works.

Keep in mind: the Welcome Packet is not meant to be an exhaustive survey. Be sensitive to your client's time by making the packet relatively simple and appropriate for your target market. Remember, there are other ways to obtain more information, such as: on a contact us page on your website; before, during and after sample sessions; and, as you build the relationship in and out of sessions.

Keep it Simple

At Prosperous Coach, we recommend that you provide your clients with a simple Welcome Packet, such as the six templates we're offering you. If you want clients to complete assessments as well, consider keeping them to a minimum. The entire Welcome Packet should not take more than 1 to 1.5 hours to read and complete, unless you are doing a highly specialized and programmatic kind of coaching.

You are welcome to customize these six Microsoft Word templates to best apply to your own clients. The templates are provided in Rich Text Format, which should be editable in your word processing program.

1. Cover Letter

2. Coaching Terms & Agreements

3. Client Profile

4. Credit Authorization

5. Ten Big Questions

6. Ten SMART Goals in 90 Days

Instructions Appear in Red

You'll notice some text in the templates that shows on your screen in red. These are instructions for using the template (like, drop in your logo here, or fill in details specific to your practice). You'll want to delete these from your customized template. After you've finished each document, consider locking it so the fields are no longer changeable. If you need help doing this, consult the help function in your word processing program.

Mail or Email the Packet?

While your client may feel special receiving a mailed Welcome Packet with documents on your letterhead, emailing the packet as attached documents is very simple and efficient. The new client does not have to wait to get started. And, you may receive the completed documents back much faster, which may be critical if the start date of your coaching is soon. Note: The templates we provide assume that you will send them electronically.

The Templates

The following six templates are included in the Welcome Packet download:

The Cover Letter

A personalized cover letter is a very important element of the Welcome Packet. The cover letter template gives an example of what your cover letter might sound like. If you send the packet by email, simply write the cover letter into the body of the email message and list the attachments. If you send the Welcome Packet by mail, put the cover letter on your letterhead, attach your business card and alter the text to give clear directions for completing and mailing or faxing the packet back to you.

Coaching Terms & Agreement

Of the five enclosure documents we offer you as templates, only this one is critical. Coaching Terms & Agreement spells out your policies, procedures, fees and payment terms, and it explains the co-creative relationship -- something you should review verbally with clients as well. For professional and ethical reasons, your coaching agreement must be read, understood, signed and submitted to you by the client before your first official session (not including a sample session). Please note that the template is only a suggested form, not a substitute for legal advice. For legal questions, including questions about your coaching terms, please consult a qualified attorney.

You'll notice we include agreements about recording sessions for ICF records. Not every coach chooses to pursue ICF certification. However, if you ever intend to, you'll want to include these two agreements in the document. When the time comes, it will be easy for you to provide ICF with a log of your clients and have your recorded sessions reviewed by the ICF credentialing staff. To learn more about ICF certification requirements, read the three levels of certification requirements for either the ACTP (accredited), ACSTH or portfolio approach, whichever applies to you, at www.coachfederation.org/

NOTE: If a client does not initial these agreements, you cannot ethically list their name and contact information as your client on the ICF log and you cannot legally record sessions with that client. Do not assume that a client has initialed this. Inspect your agreement page.

While your clients can email most of the Welcome Packet documents to you as attachments, insist that the last page of the Coaching Terms & Agreements is either faxed or mailed so you have an actual signature on file. The Credit Authorization form should be faxed as well, so personal credit information is not transmitted in unencrypted form over the Internet.

Client Profile

This document provides you with basic contact and personal information about the client. Customize this template to suit your clientele. For example, if your target market is oriented toward career or business development, you may want to inquire about MAPP, DISC, MBTI or other assessments.

If you are using a paper filing system, staple this to the inside of your client's folder for quick reference. If you're using client management software, you may be able to import this information or simply cut and paste it into the client record.

Note: Some client management systems offer Welcome Packets.

Credit Authorization

If you take credit cards, you'll need this Credit Authorization form completed and signed by your client before your first official session. Again, for security reasons, have your client fax this form to you.

The best method for accepting coaching fees is credit cards. If you accept checks, you may find yourself dealing with collection issues, which could damage your coaching relationship. Initially, you can set up a Pay Pal account at www.paypal.com. Consider signing up for PayPal's Virtual Terminal service so that you can charge your clients directly rather than wait for them to pay you. Merchant service accounts, such as Practice Pay Solutions and those available through shopping carts, such as Professional Cart Solutions, (which is a reseller of 1 Shopping Cart), also allow you to charge your clients electronically.

Ten Big Questions

These questions tell you a lot about a new client. And they might also tell your clients a lot about themselves, which helps launch the coaching process even more effectively. If you substitute your own questions, limit them to 10 so you don't overwhelm your clients. If you're going to add assessments, consider omitting this page completely.

Ten SMART Goals in 90 Days

This document has many purposes. First, it encourages your clients to take their coaching investment seriously and name precisely what they want to accomplish during the first three months. Second, it provides you with overarching goals for the sessions. Third, it provides your client with measurable proof of the value of coaching. If they achieve most or all of these goals in the first three months, they will be more likely to continue with you.

Many clients may only consider surface topics when filling out this form. To encourage your clients to go deeper to find the most meaningful and achievable goals, consider suggesting that the first official coaching session or two be spent honing these goals to make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, risk element, timed) and divided into bite-sized tasks with timelines attached. This will help you set up an accountability system for these goals.

Download the six Welcome Packet Templates . The templates are compressed into a zip file, and you will need a zip utility to unpack them. If you don't have a zip utility on your computer, you can download one for free here for PC or here for Mac. 

Rhonda Hess is Founder of Prosperous Coach™ and a business success coach for professional coaches. She is co-author of the Coach Training accelerator, a comprehensive coach training manual, and senior trainer for Coach Training Alliance. She also wrote Working Websites for Coaches, an ebook available in Resources for Coaches. For more information about Rhonda, see: Contributors. For more information about Prosperous Coach, see: About Us.

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