Life Coaching Discovery Session Questions  

The Purpose Of A Coaching Discovery Call

The purpose of a Discovery Session is to provide you and your potential life coaching client with an opportunity to see if you are a good 'fit'.

For you it is an opportunity to get to know the person, decide if you are a good match for coaching and "sell", but not hard sell, yourself as a coach.

For the person interested in coaching it is an opportunity to sound you out as being the right coach for them before they commit.

I put together this information and questions on having a successful Discovery Session together to support both these outcomes; give the session structure and provide the greatest benefits for both the prospective client and you, the coach.

I designed a Pre-session Questionnaire to to help you do what you can, within reason, to make sure the person who wants to book a session is genuinely interested in investing in coaching and will not just waste your time. They also give you a starting point to work from and create rapport during the actual session. 

How I Created My Discovery Session Template

I discovered early on in my coaching career that it is one thing to be a skilled coach, quite another to master the enrolment process for getting new, committed clients. 

When I was first coaching, I used to give away hours of time by offering an hour long free session to prospects with the aim of enrolling them as paid clients. I’d coach my heart out to show them how good I was and how I could help them.

Sometimes they'd become committed clients. Other times, they would thank me and I'd never hear from them again.

Reasons they gave for not investing in my coaching included:

• They couldn’t afford my coaching fee.
• I’d already helped them solve their issue and they didn’t feel the need for more coaching.😳
• They didn’t feel I was right for them (which was sometimes mutual).
• They had clicked the "book a free session" button out of curiosity - not genuine interest.

There had to be a better way!

Vital Pre-Discovery Session Questions To Ask

Asking people who have requested a Discovery Session to answer a few simple questions, helps weed out those who are simply not suitable to be coached by you. Request that the answers be returned to you before the session. This will give you a starting point to engage with them easily on the actual session.

Confirm the session the day before, either by email or text and remind them about answering the questions if necessary. 

Three of my important pre-Discovery Session questions

Here are three of the seven vital questions I suggest to ask prospective clients. Not only does the willingness to answer them show they are serious about being coached, but it give you a snapshot of who they are and where they are coming from. 

1. Clarity:
   Do you know what goals or outcomes you want to get from being coached?  It's OK to only have a rough idea on this one. As your coach I will help you get specific.
2. Issues and challenges:
   What are your most pressing challenge/issues?
   Personal:
   Work:
3. Therapy?
   Are you currently in any sort of therapy and if so what? This may not affect whether you can be coached but I need to know so there is no conflict with your therapist.

In my pre-discovery session questionnaire, (and because I believe in publishing my fees) I also asked if they have read about the coaching packages I offered and the cost. This, of course, up to you, but one of the first questions prospects ask is about cost so it saves having the money conversation cold, often at the end of the session. 

Questions To Ask And Useful Tips For Discovery Session Success

After you have had a brief 'rapport-building' welcome chat, the first thing to do is briefly go over the completed pre-discovery session questions.

Then go a bit deeper on what they have told you about any issues and/or challenges. You can give them a taster of your coaching but don't go overboard - hold back on giving a complete coaching session. 

Here is an example of the questions I suggest using and a couple of other hints:   

1. If you could solve this problem/reach this goal, what would that be like for you?

2. What’s getting in the way of you achieving this goal/outcome?

3. What will be the effect on you of not moving forward on this? How will it look? 

When you have gone through all the questions and maybe asked for more information, tell them about the process or program you would use to help them achieve their goals or outcomes. "This is what I would do to help you achieve the outcomes/goal you want."

I also show you how to close the session by asking for a commitment and set a date for the first session in an elegant and non-confrontational way. And, what do do if the client is still reluctant or, and it happens, you would rather not have them as a client.

 More Discovery Session Help

There's a lot more success than just asking the right questions:

• How to set up a Session (including 7 pre-session questions).
• An email template for introducing the Discovery Session to the client.
• Conducting a successful Discovery Session (with some vital questions and useful hints)
• How best to respond to the answers to both sets of questions and what to look out for.
• How to wrap up the session elegantly, whether it results in a new coaching client or not.
• What to do when they say "Yes" or even "No"

There is also lots of extra information in this compact little book to help to create a successful outcome for you and the prospective client. 

For the cost of a coffee and a piece of cake😀) you can  take advantage of my experience  and remove the guesswork out of assessing and engaging the prospect as a quality paying client.

You are in charge of designing your questions

Of course, Not all of the questions I suggest will be right for you in every case. Each client presents to you differently and will relate with you in different ways depending on your coaching niche. However, I find that these questions are a powerful basis for getting to know the person and a successful outcome. 

And bear in mind that a discovery session can also be about discovering that a prospective client is not a good match. This can really save you time and frustration in the long run. 

What's next to discover?

I hope I have given you enough food for thought about introducing prospective life coaching clients to your coaching through asking the right discovery session questions and other hints. 

And again I would encourage you to invest owing Mastering the Discovery Session where I expand on all this with some more clues I used for getting quality clients.  Also check out the other books in my Life Coaching Success Series all of which come with a money back guarantee.

Here's to YOUR success!