Discover Your Coaching Niche

It’s a common topic amongst coaches – difficult clients.  Ask any coach – “Got any difficult clients?”  and watch the reaction.  A wry smile.  A rolling of the eyes.  We’ve all seen it. 

Of course, when coaches talk about difficult clients we’re not talking about constantly rude or intolerant clients – most coaches will not tolerate that unprofessionalism.  No, the type of actions we’re referring to are not turning up to a coaching session, or cancelling at the last minute, not following up on actions and inconsistency – throwing their previous plans away at each new session, and heaven forbid, not paying on time.

We’ve all seen this as coaches – and it can be incredibly frustrating.  So what can coaches do when faced with these difficult behaviours? 

Well, the first thing to realise is that you’re not alone.  Practically every coach has seen the problems above.  But are these problems just inevitable, or is there something you can do about them? 

You’re not going to like my answer.  Firstly, this is a marketing problem.  You have chosen these clients – and you’ve chosen the wrong ones.  Secondly, your tolerating the problem IS the problem. 

Told you that you wouldn’t like it.  But the good news is you will like the results of taking action.

Read on to discover the problems associated with difficult clients and what you action you can take to be rid of them.

Problem 1 – They Don’t Take Action

Your client turns up – in person, or on the phone – week after week.  But they don’t take any action.  Yes, they have every excuse bar “the dog ate my homework”.  And sometimes we get suckered by their “reasons” for not acting.

Face it – the client is simply not committed to coaching, and to taking action to improve their situation.  There is no motivation there.  The client says they want change.  But what they actually want is things to change around them, while not actually doing anything themselves to make a change.  We know that without a client taking action, there will be no change.

So it’s time to put your foot down – you see some action, or they quit.

Solution 1: Tell them to demonstrate commitment or go elsewhere.

This article continues with more types of difficult clients in the next two postings.

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