All life coaches should have a toolbox filled with life coaching tools. These tools are gained through training, experience, and the pursuit of knowledge. These tools are learned from other coaches, classes, seminars, books, DVDs, online content, and previous successes and failures.

Though the toolbox is filled with many different kinds of tools that perform different tasks, each toolbox must have tools that work to gain and retain clients. The following life coaching tools should be mandatory for every life coach.

10 Life Coaching Tools to Gain and Retain Clients

1. Make use of a mailing list. A mailing list might be a simple tool, but it is also a very powerful one. By capturing the contact details of individuals who may have not jumped at your latest offer, you will have another chance to excite them with a new offer in the future. Invest in an autoresponder, create some good followup message, and keep your subscriber base happy with some valuable information.
2. Develop and nurture relationships. Relationships matter – whether they are with other coaches, people in other fields, clients, or potential clients. The bigger your network and the wider your range of relationships, the more opportunities you will have to get referrals and build your client base.
3. You can retain clients by giving bonuses. A bonus can be anything above and beyond your normal time and rates. A bonus can be free time, added services such as a book or DVD, or some other type of gift that seems appropriate for the client.
4. Recognize your clients when they achieve a goal. This recognition can be anything from a firm handshake to a gift, It is definitely the thought that counts – and clients will certainly remember your recognition.
5. One of the most basic yet most important of the many life coaching tools is to deliver value. No matter what rate you charge, the client has to believe that your coaching is worth their time and money. When you deliver value to a client, they become a form of marketing – word-of-mouth is one of the most effective types of marketing.
6. Try to over deliver. Not only do you need to provide value, it works even better to over deliver the goods. This life coaching tool means you must invest more time in the client than the client expects. Over delivering also leads to great word-of-mouth advertising.
7. Ask for feedback from your clients. Most clients will appreciate the chance to offer criticism or compliments on your service. This is one of the most underutilized life coaching tools, yet it provides great value when used appropriately.
8. Not only should you recognize your client’s successes, you should also recognize their birthdays, anniversaries, and other pertinent dates. This is where that mailing list you have built gets put to good use.
9. Assess your value. It is important to try to calculate and measure the value of your service to clients. This can be done by using feedback, comparing your rates and service with other coaches, speaking with peers, and continuing to learn as mush about the business side of coaching as you can.
10. Be positive and optimistic. No matter where you are or to whom you are speaking. Coaching is all about being positive. It goes without saying that you will be positive during a session, but your sunshine and rainbows attitude should always be your public persona. The world is a small place. People you meet now, you may also meet later, or you may meet their friend or a family member. You want to be known as a positive person, Optimism – perhaps the best of the many life coaching tools in a coach’s toolbox.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article…Thank you!

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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