Over-delivery can be strategic, such as amping up the quality of your free offers or loading up a paid program with juicy bonuses. But chronic over-delivery in coaching sessions could actually undermine your financial success and relationships with clients. That’s because it’s often rooted in a lack of trust… either in the value of your services or in your client’s abilities. Or both.
Think about it…
- Do you chronically go beyond the time boundaries of your sessions?
- Do you sometimes do your clients work for them (when it’s not part of your package?)
- Have you ever sensed that you might want more for your clients than they do for themselves?
- Do you ever feel resentful that you’re not paid well enough for your time, but then still over-deliver?
If it’s “yes” more than “no”, you’re in good company. Even some highly experienced coaches undercharge and over-deliver habitually. They offer services that they don’t enjoy to clients that aren’t a good fit and struggle to earn enough. If unchecked, this could go on indefinitely!
The shift to a healthier, more professional and lucrative approach is beguilingly simple. Haven’t you already made small but definitive changes in your life that created a dramatically positive result that rippled out? That’s the potential here. And it begins with trust.
Trust Your Self
RESISTANCE to charging more and doing what’s right for you in your coaching business may seem like a solid insurmountable wall. It turns out though that resistance is just smoke and mirrors. That’s what this thing of undercharging and over-delivering is… a sham. So, make the decision now to:
- Say ‘no’ to clients who aren’t right for you.
- Make changes in your targeting and branding to attract ideal clients.
- Highly value your time and pay yourself well, always.
- Set boundaries for both your sessions and stick to them.
- Train your clients to bring specific bite-sized agendas to calls.
Remember, big problems are solved one integrate-able step at a time. Support your clients to make leaps in their perspective, and to make progress on their own between sessions. Then you won’t take responsibility for what isn’t yours.
How will your clients benefit from this?
- They will invest more deeply in their own transformation.
- They will learn to value their time from your modeling.
- They will appreciate your professionalism.
- They will make bigger leaps without overwhelm.
Trust Your Clients
The other side of the coin to not trusting yourself and your value is not trusting your clients either.
- Trust that your clients are creative, resourceful and whole… even if they don’t act like it in the moment. The real beauty of coaching is the co-creative relationship: where coach and client focus collaboratively to draw out and utilize the client’s wisdom toward high payoff actions.
- Replace the desire to effect change on your clients with an understanding that what is best for your client is only what they are ready to commit to change within themselves right now.
- Ask your clients to step up and take action.
We can never know the path of another person. If we react protectively, anticipating our client’s pitfalls and mistakes, aren’t we also keeping them from valuable experiences that may bring success more quickly? If we jump in to solve all their problems and salve all their hurts too vigorously, don’t we take away their power?
About the Author: Rhonda Hess co-authored the Coach Training AcceleratorTM and designed the CTA Certified Coach Program. She has a super power for helping coaches choose and champion a profitable niche they’ll love. Learn more at Prosperous Coach.
