copyright © 2016 christian mickelsen and future …...going to lose 60 pounds in that one session....

Copyright © 2016 Christian Mickelsen and Future Force, Inc. All rights reserved. http://christianmickelsen.com/training !1

http://christianmickelsen.com/training

In this special report, I’ll be sharing with you the ten biggest mistakes that people make when doing introductory coaching sessions that keep them from getting clients.

Long before I ever wrote a bestselling book, made millions of dollars, was promoted by Wayne Dyer on Facebook, or shared the stage with Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan, or Lisa Sasevich, I was a new coach struggling to get clients.

I knew one of the secrets to getting clients was the introductory session. I knew I needed to do them, but I did them horribly. I made many mistakes and those mistakes cost me a lot. In fact, they cost me a lot of money. I almost lost my house and my car. I almost became homeless.

When I first started off as a coach, I actually got six coaching clients in my first month, but I didn’t charge much. I was only charging $195 per month. While that adds up to just under $1,200 per month, my bills exceeded that. I made a lot of mistakes that not only cost me a lot of money, but they also cost me a lot of confidence.

I thought if I could just show people that I am a good coach and coach someone really well, they would want to hire me. When they didn’t hire me I thought that they must think I’m not a great coach or not a good enough coach. It sapped my confidence.

I’m going to teach you about the ten biggest mistakes that coaches make conducting introductory sessions, their impact, and what to do instead so that you get clients that sign up to work with you right on the spot.



MISTAKE #1: Conducting Sample Sessions

The first mistake that people make is by doing sample coaching sessions. I did these like crazy in the early days. I really wanted to help people. I really wanted to coach as many people as I could. I believed in the power of coaching because of how it changed my life so much. I wanted to get people coached. I also wanted to make a living at it.

I didn’t have any big, lofty goals back then. I didn’t think of becoming a millionaire, at least not through my business. All I wanted to do was make the same amount of money I made at my last job, which was $35,000 per year, while doing what I loved and being my own boss.

I would coach someone and say, “Okay, what do you want to get coached on?” They’d say, “I don’t know.” And I’d say, “Alright. Let’s do the wheel of life. Rate yourself on a scale of zero to ten on your health, relationships, money, fun and creativity, and spirituality.” People would rate on a scale of zero to ten and I’d say, “Alright, which of those areas do you want to focus on?” And I would just coach them on that. Or if they knew what they wanted to be coached on, I’d coach them on that. Either way, I’d end up helping and solving their biggest problems, in which case I’d be taking away their biggest need to sign up for coaching.



One of the problems that coaches have is that they think sample sessions are contributing so much. The issue is that no matter how good your introductory coaching session or sample session is, no matter how awesome of a coach you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter what kind of magical tools you may have for helping people make instantaneous changes, if someone hired you to lose 60 pounds, there’s no way they’re going to lose 60 pounds in that one session.

It’s possible that one session might make an impact and they just go off and lose all the weight on their own, but coaching is really about long-term results. If I’m working with a client I want to coach them all the way until they lose all 60 of those pounds. If somebody hires you because they want to get into a great relationship, no matter how great of a coach you are, it’s not going to happen in that one session.

That one session could possibly lead them to release one of the blocks holding them back. They could go off and have a great relationship after that, but in my experience, we usually have a lot of issues that need to be addressed, a lot of planning to do, a lot of actions that need to get taken, and lot of fears that come up when we try to take those actions.

If somebody was going to hire you to find love, then it would be much better if they worked with you for three months, six months, or even longer to achieve that result. You could stay with them until they get into a relationship and then maybe even a little longer to make sure that the relationship sticks.

Doing a great job in that sample session, unfortunately, can do more harm than good because now they feel like, “Oh, good. I feel better. I feel clear about what I need to do and I’m just going to go do it on my own.”

So, the first thing is: don’t do sample sessions.



MISTAKE #2: Talking too much about yourself and your coaching

The second mistake that people make during introductory coaching sessions isn’t a mistake that I’ve personally made, but one I’ve experienced.

I’ve been coached a ton over the years and I’ve had some intro sessions with people. One of the things that someone did with me was they spent the whole time talking about themselves and about their coaching. It did very little to make me want to work with them.

On one hand, you don’t want to do a sample session where all you’re doing is coaching, coaching, coaching. On the other hand, you don’t want to do a total sales presentation where you’re just talking about yourself, your coaching, and why someone should work with you.

You don’t want to have your session focused all on you and your coaching.



MISTAKE #3: Feeling uncomfortable discussing your fees and asking for the sale

The third mistake that I made in the early days was feeling really uncomfortable discussing my coaching, talking about my fees, and asking for the money and the sale.

Sometimes I’d say, “You know what? I’m just going to do the sample session part and coach them.” Then, at the end I’d just wait and see if they asked me about my coaching.

Sometimes they did and I’d think, “Okay, great.” I’d tell them about it. Every once in a while I’d get a client that would sign up from that.

Other times they didn’t ask.

After coaching my heart out for an hour or two, again, still trying to show them how great of a coach I was, I would not get paid for it.

So I stopped doing that. That came out of my own insecurities.

MISTAKE #4: Trying too hard to make the sale

The fourth big mistake that a lot of coaches make with introductory coaching sessions is trying too hard to make the sale.

Being too aggressive, too pushy, too attached, and too needy for the sale.

I’ve had people get really aggressive when trying to sell. If you’ve ever been in a sales situation, whether it’s somebody trying to sell you coaching or selling you a car, when people start putting pressure on you, it feels really uncomfortable and unnatural.

While maybe once in a while it leads to a sale, most of the people leave feeling kind of icky and you don’t want to do that.

That’s a mistake that I would highly recommend you avoid.



MISTAKE #5: Not coaching people through their concerns

The fifth mistake is on the other side of that spectrum, when coaches stop entirely when people say, “You know what? I’d really like to just think about it.”

We don’t want to be aggressive and pushy, but as a coach our job is to help people make decisions.

If somebody is trying to make a decision about whether to hire you or not, then your job is to help them make that decision.

One of the questions I often ask is, “If you are wanting to think about it, then it sounds like a part of you would like to do it and a part of you might be a little bit concerned about giving it a shot. Is that true?”

If they say yes, then you can address their concerns, which are often fears of some kind.

MISTAKE #6: Not scheduling enough time for the introductory session

Once I started trying out different things, testing different things, and started getting more consistent yeses at higher and higher coaching fees, the next big mistake that I would make was to not schedule enough time for the intro sessions.

A lot of times I could get through those sessions in about half an hour. I used to tell people that they were 25-minute sessions or half hour sessions.

What would happen is that I would get through the session, and at the end they’re super excited and want to get coaching with me.

They would want to hear about my coaching, how it would work, how it would help them, the coaching fees etc., but then I’d say, “I’m sorry, I have another appointment. I have to run.” We would try to set up a follow-up session a couple of days later, but by then a lot of the momentum is gone and you need to start over.



Every now and again I could still salvage a client out of it, but a lot of times I didn’t. While it seems that there’s nothing worse than having spent all that time giving a free session only for them not to sign up, even worse is having someone so close to hiring you and the only reason why they might not is because you’ve run out of time with the session.

Here is what I do instead. I tell people that the session is going to be between 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half. I tell people to schedule 90 minutes. This way I have plenty of time for the session and we’re not going to run out of time. Also, I personally schedule an hour-and-a-half. If I have another appointment coming up, then I can always just let it go to voicemail or have my potential client hold on and tell the other person that we’re going to need to reschedule. But I have more control.

This way I can do a session every hour if I’m doing a big batch of sessions and I don’t have to worry about running out of time on the client’s end. They know they have an hour- and-a-half scheduled and it’s very rare for sessions to go over an hour-and-a-half. Often, you can get the session done in 30 to 45 minutes.

Make sure that you schedule enough time during your intro sessions so that you don’t end up losing out on a client. When you lose on a client, everyone loses. You lose out because you’ve spent some time with the potential client and you didn’t end up making any money from it. Which, of course, is going to happen from time to time. Even with the best systems, techniques, and best potential clients, sometimes people aren’t going to hire you and that’s okay. But even worse, they lose out on the coaching.

I believe that coaching is the most valuable and most powerful force for change on earth.



If you are coaching someone, their whole life is going to change. If someone hires you because they want to lose weight, not only will they lose weight, but also their whole life is going to change. They’re going to become a more powerful, stronger person, a more capable person, because they made this journey or transition in their lives.

Plus, being thinner might give them more confidence, maybe they’ll get raises and promotions, or maybe they’ll find the love of their life. All kinds of things could change for them by making this change.

So coaching is far more valuable then you think.

Whatever you’re charging for your coaching, it’s worth more.

There’s nothing worse to me than having someone that’s so close to signing up and then missing out just because of a scheduling error. Don’t make that mistake.

MISTAKE #7: The Packaging of Coaching For Sale

The seventh mistake that a lot of coaches make is how they package their coaching for sale.

One big mistake that I’ve seen a lot of coaches make is charging per session. You could pay $100 for a session, $75 a session or $150 a session.

The problem with the pay-per-session model is people may pay for sessions, but they don’t come back, or they only come back when they’re finally in enough pain.

When people sign up for six months or a year of coaching, they’re much more likely to get all the results they’re looking for. It’s more proactive. They’re going to be checking in with you. They’re going to tell you about their progress. They’re going to tell you about their challenges and you can help with them. You don’t have to wait until things get so bad that they want to come back. Charging per session is a big mistake.

As is charging on a month-to-month basis. This is one of the big problems I had in the early days. I would just sign people up for month-to-month so they could cancel whenever they wanted. If somebody hired me and then cancelled after a month, I would start to feel



like my coaching wasn’t that good. They hired me to find a great relationship and they wouldn’t find that relationship in that first month (which is unrealistic). I put all this pressure on myself and it just led to more self-doubt.

Then I switched. I started having people sign up for three months at a time. Then it went to month-to-month after that. All of a sudden, people were getting better results and they were sticking around longer. Then I went to six months and they were getting even better results and sticking around even longer. Then I went to a year. Now, when I work with clients I work with them for a year at a time to achieve their year-long goals. They stick around for the year, and some stick around for years.

Don’t do pay-per-session. Don’t do month-to-month.

MISTAKE #8: Offering too many options

The eighth mistake also involves how you package and sell your coaching, and that is giving people too many options.

Coaches will say, “I have the four sessions per month package and that’s $400 per month. Or if you want three sessions a month, it’s $300 per month. If you want just two sessions per month it’s $250 per month.”

The problem with that is clients have no idea how much coaching they need and how much coaching is going to help them get the results that they’re looking for.

We’re giving them too much power in this situation. Plus, they’ll make the decision based on their budget. Some coaches even throw in, “Well, I have group coaching. You can do group coaching for $199 per month.” With too many options, it can be confusing.

Instead, I recommend you first pick whatever type of coaching is going to make the biggest impact for them. If it’s three sessions a month for 30 minutes, do that. That’s what I do with my clients: three sessions a month, 30 minutes per session. Just have one price.

For me, my coaching fees were just raised up to $500,000 per year, per client. Before that I was charging $9,750 per month, and if people full-paid for the year, they would get a saving and they could just pay $79,500. It was a big discount if they full-paid for the year. Now they’re choosing between whether to full-pay or to pay monthly. They’re deciding



which option is the best fit for them instead of deciding how much coaching is the best fit for them.

If someone says, “Oh my gosh, that would be great! I’d love to work with you. It would be amazing, but I can’t afford that.” Then you can say, “Well, I have another option that might be a better fit for your budget. Would you like to hear a little bit about that?” Then you can tell them about your group coaching program or an information product that you have.

Or you could give them fewer sessions. Instead of three sessions, maybe you could offer them two sessions per month. Each step of the way you want to get a clear decision from the client. If it is a yes and they want to full-pay, then great, move forward. If it is a yes and they want to do monthly payments, great, it’s a done deal. You don’t need to tell them about all the other options.

MISTAKE #9: Not having a structure to explain your coaching

The ninth mistake that coaches struggle with is how to explain what coaching is and how it helps people. Years ago I made a list of all the things that I could do as a coach to help my clients. I brainstormed this giant list on this big white board. I thought, “If I’m going to use this in my marketing materials, there are way too many things here. There’s like 50 things.”

So I started looking at how I could chunk them together into categories. I discovered that there are really five categories that people need to focus on for getting results. I call this the “5 Step Client Breakthrough System”. When I explain my coaching in my introductory coaching session, I explain it by telling people about these five things. You can use these same five things if you’d like.

When I explain my coaching, I tell people that there are five things I’ll help them do. Number one, I help them to clarify their vision and their direction for what they want to achieve. If they’re single and they want to get into a relationship, then that might be getting clear on the kind of person they would like to attract and the kind of relationship they’d like to have together. If it’s business, it’s getting clear on the vision for their business.

Number two is to strategize their actions. “If you want to achieve this result, how are we going to make it happen?”



The third thing is helping them upgrade their skills. There could be certain skillsets they need in order to achieve some results. For example, if they’re a business owner, maybe they need better leadership skills or time management skills.

Number four is to help them optimize their environment. For me, I’ve noticed that if I start getting a little chubby, I could put myself on a diet, but I could also just look around my kitchen and see what’s there. Have we let a lot of candy, cookies, and desserts proliferate the house? If so, I could try to willpower myself to not eat the chocolate, or I could outsmart the chocolate by just not having any in the house. It’s a lot easier for me to just clear out the environment, get rid of all the tempting foods, and replace it with healthy, nutritious, delicious foods and make them really easy and readily available to eat. That’s optimizing your environment.

The fifth and final thing I help clients do is master their psychology. Again, helping them release their fears, doubts, limiting beliefs, and their insecurities and help them to create confidence and new empowering beliefs.

Basically, any challenge a person faces is because one or more of these five things is missing. You want to have a great way of explaining your coaching. You can use this “5 Step Client Breakthrough System” as a way to explain your coaching or you can have your own system or method.

You really want to have a system, method, or framework for how you explain your coaching because saying, “Well, you know, we’re going to talk on the phone and somehow we’re going to brainstorm. I’m going to reflect things back to you and you can bounce things off of me,” is not tangible enough.

One bonus step that I teach in my Free Sessions that Sell program, is to actually take those five things and relate them to what it is that the client is trying to achieve and what the client’s challenges are.

This way if they tell you that one of their challenges is that they don’t have a clear plan, then you talk about how we’re going to strategize your actions.

That’s exactly what they need. You just keep connecting those things.



MISTAKE #10: Not having a step-by-step script and system

The tenth and final mistake is probably the biggest.

It is not having a step-by-step script and system for doing your introductory coaching sessions. Not knowing exactly what you’re going to do at the beginning of the session, not knowing how to explain everything, how to overcome those objections, how to get people to sign up and not having certain magic phrases to use when asking for the sale. You need to have a system in place for these introductory sessions.

You could make up your own script, or you could use my “Free Sessions That Sell” system. I’ve perfected this system over the last 15 years that I’ve been coaching. I’ve made many tweaks, adjustments, and enhancements over the years. I’ve tested everything over the years to create a system that works like a charm.

I’ve been using it myself to sign up clients at all kinds of coaching rates over the years. When I first started out and was just doing sample sessions and charging $195 per month, eventually charging $597 a month, $1,000 a month, $1,500 a month, $2,000 a month, $2,500 a month, and even almost $10,000 a month for clients to work with me.

Now, I’m actually turning away clients that want to pay $100,000 to work with me because my business is so profitable that clients need to pay a quarter of a million dollars per year for it to be worth my time. I have a whole team of coaches that do coaching for me, so if people want to work with me personally, that’s what the investment level is.

“Free Sessions That Sell: The Client Getting System” works for signing up clients at any fee level. I’ve taught this to thousands of coaches all over the world for the last ten years. It has worked with coaches from all different niche markets—dating, relationships, parenting, business, spirituality, career, etc.

Here are words from real students who have taken the program and got real results in growing their coaching business:

It's officially time to celebrate, credit card swiped and money in the bank! 2 clients at $1,000/month and 2 clients at $1,250/month in the last three weeks!!! - Thuy Tran



Signing up for this course is one of the best things I have ever done!! I am getting so organized now for when I talk to potential clients on the phone! Each day I can't wait to get to the next module!! I am on Module 5! - Laura Martino

I did my first FSTS signed up a new client! - Sarah Khambatta

I raised my pricing and immediately signed up two clients last month. - Ditta van Vark-Beun

Yay! Yay! Sent a FSTS offer to my list and got 30+ applications within 12 hours. - Polina Solda

Signed up a client today - full pay $997 for six months!! He was sold long before I ever got to the coaching details. - Kimberly Adams

Christian I want to thank you for your work. I'm so grateful that I've got these techniques in my back pocket. I've used them daily since last Fall when I first came to your live events. - Terry-Lynn Aplin

Great News Christian Mickelsen! I just signed up my first paying client! Thank you for all you've taught me! - Ann Puglisi

I signed up a client yesterday at my highest rate yet $997 / month. So happy - had to share. - Veronica Baca

It's been an amazing week! Not only did a free consult pay me for my time even before they signed up for my plan, but just got a 12 month sign up client who can't wait to get started. I love delivering value to people! Love you all! - Luis Rivera

Yay, got back from vacation in Colorado and thanks to 2 FSTS, got 2 more new happy & fun clients, no objections. What makes a difference in terms of ease & joy of FSTS is shifted energy (light & open), mindset (committed to create value & build relationships) and environment that resonates with me (meet in person at the W hotel) - Polina Solda



I hope you found this helpful. If you did, leave a comment on our website and you could win access to my Free Sessions That Sell: The Client Signup System program along with a pass to my live event The Instant Miracle Experience.

And if you haven’t registered for my upcoming web class “Get Clients Today | 3 Simple Steps to Get All the Clients You Could Ever Want,” go here to register:

http://christianmickelsen.com/training.


Remember, people need our help. Let’s get people coached.



copyright © 2016 christian mickelsen and future …...going to lose 60 pounds in that one session....

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