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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 target=_blank>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 href="http://www.paypal.com/" target=_blank>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 target=_blank>Practice Pay Solutions and those available through shopping
carts, such as target=_blank>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 href="http://www.prosperouscoach.com/public/Programs/WelcomePacket.zip" target=_blank>six Welcome Packet Templates
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 class=262355618-16022007>for PC or href="http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/index.html" target=_blank>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.
Copyright © 2008 Bubbling Well Inc. All rights reserved.
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