This week marks the one-year milestone of COVID in the United States. For most coaches, trainers and facilitators that means over the last year you’ve had to adjust your coaching practice to the virtual world. The great news is that with the right coaching software platform, leadership and executive coaching can be seamlessly conducted in a remote environment.
Here are four strategies to help you onboard your clients using a leadership and executive coaching software platform. Hopefully, you’ll consider using Coachmetrix in the process if you aren’t already.
Strategy #1: Position Your Coaching Software During the Sale
The positioning starts before the coaching engagement even begins. If you are using a coaching software tool like Coachmetrix, set your practice apart by letting your executive sponsor know three things – you already have a virtual coaching platform, you measure behavioral change with the same level of discipline as anything else in the business, and you prove people change as a result of your coaching.
Plant the seeds early and often.
Strategy #2: Pre-Load Content
With coaching software tools like Coachmetrix, you can add content to your coachee’s account before you invite them to join you on the platform. This enables you to do things like:
- Create a welcome kit with a video introducing the client to the coaching practice.
- Include templates for collecting rater 360 information.
- Show an infographic of your coaching process.
- Add assignments so that the coachee knows exactly what to do next.
After the content is loaded, invite your clients to the platform.
A coaching software tool should allow you to optimize repeatable processes in your coaching practice. Most coaches have a fairly standard process for how they onboard their clients.
Strategy #3: Position the Software with Your Coachee
To help your coachee engage early and often with your leadership coaching software, it’s important to position the tool as part of how you coach. If you assertively say that the coaching tool is part of your process, coachees will use the platform. If you are wishy-washy and ask for permission, adoption rates will be lower. We recommend the following actions during your coaching intake session:
- Let the coachee know that your leadership coaching tool is an all-inclusive hub for everything related to their coaching – their action plan, behavioral measurement, discussions, resources, assignments and more. The platform will help minimize the need to use multiple tools like Box, DropBox, Google Drive or others. Instead, they’ll have a one-stop location for everything coaching, making their life easier.
- Send an invitation link to the coaching software platform prior to your coaching intake session. Then, provide the coachee with a quick five-minute orientation to the platform during your coaching intake session.
Strategy #4: Schedule an Onboarding Nurturing Sequence
Coachmetrix, like other coaching software tools, allows you to create templates for any repeatable messages you may have. For example, do you send the same pre-coaching session message prior to every coaching session?
Combining those templates with the scheduling feature, you can create a series of messages that are scheduled in advance to welcome the new coaching client and provide extra support in the early stages of the coaching engagement. It’s a super easy way to add extra value and give clients personalized attention in an efficient manner.\
What’s Next with Your Online Coaching Software Platform?
These are just a few ideas for how coaching software tools like Coachmetrix can help you add value to your clients, especially during the onboarding process. Download our free Onboarding Checklist below to kick things off with your clients the right way every time!
