It is an exhilarating feeling when you get to the point in your business when you can afford to reject people who enquire about your coaching services. Not every lead will be suitable, even if they are your ideal coaching clients. Rejecting unsuitable leads is essential for your long-term coaching business success. However, you don’t want the people you reject to go and badmouth your business. Here is how to say no in a way that makes your rejected leads respect you more.
Why You Need to Say No to Unsuitable Coaching Clients
It is damaging to your business to take on unsuitable coaching clients. As a coach, you probably want to help your coaching clients to achieve incredible results, but the success of your business also relies on it. Just as with any other service-based business, the results you help your clients to achieve are your main selling point. Prospective coaching clients want to see testimonials, case studies, and results when considering working with you.
When you take on unsuitable coaching clients, you won’t be able to help them to achieve the results your ideal coaching clients achieve. This could be due to issues on your end, like not having the expertise to help them solve their particular issues. Alternatively, it could be due to issues on their end, like they are not willing to put in the work necessary to achieve the results. No matter the reason, it means that you will not be able to give the coaching client the results you can usually achieve.
Another impact of taking on unsuitable coaching clients is that it will make you fall out of love with coaching. It adds unnecessary friction to the coaching process, not to mention a whole lot of frustration.
Reasons You May Need to Decline Working with Coaching Clients
There are many reasons why you may decide to decline to work with a coaching client. Here are some of the most common ones:
- You do not have enough time – If your coaching program is full, then taking on more clients will impact your ability to serve not just the extra client but every client in your coaching program.
- They are not your ideal coaching clients – Your ideal coaching clients represent your area of expertise. This is where you can offer the most value, so think long and hard about taking on clients who do not meet your criteria for ideal coaching clients.
- They have unrealistic expectations – A coaching client with unrealistic expectations is not one you want to work with. No matter how great you are as a coach, they will be disappointed. In some cases, they may not be willing to put the work in because they expect you to do it all for you.
- They need expertise you cannot or will not offer – Some coaching clients may need additional expertise that you do not have. We advise not straying too far from your zone of genius because you will be less able to guarantee the results.
- Communication is a struggle – Your emails go unanswered for days or weeks. Booking a discovery call was like pulling teeth, and when you finally scheduled one, they cancelled last minute. Do you really want to put yourself through months of this?
- They are rude, or there is a personality clash – You will be working closely with your coaching clients over a long period of time. Do you really want weekly meetings with someone who is rude to you?
- They need to do foundational work before they are ready for your coaching – In some cases, your clients may need to meet some requirements before they are in a place where you can offer value.
All of these reasons and more are valid for deciding not to work with a coaching client. At the end of the day, it is your business, and you don’t have to work with anyone that you don’t want to. However, there is an art form to turning down working with a client without making enemies.
How to Say No to Working with a Coaching Client in a Way that Strengthens the Relationship
This is perhaps one of the most awkward conversations you will need to have as a coach. Most people feel icky disappointing people. However, rejecting unsuitable coaching clients isn’t a bad thing for the lead. In fact, it is actually a good thing for them.
Reframe rejecting unsuitable coaching clients as making sure they’re not spending thousands on a course that will likely not help them get the results they are looking for. This gets them a step closer to finding the right fit.
Here are some things to include when rejecting unsuitable coaching clients so that you turn them into raving fans.
Give Reasons
Let the prospective coaching client know why it is not in their best interests to work with you. Forget the reasons you don’t want to work with them; this is all about what is best for them. Here are some examples:
- While I appreciate your interest in working together, I don’t have the expertise to help you with PROBLEM and, therefore, you would not be able to achieve the full results my coaching program usually delivers.
- From what we’ve discussed so far, you seem like the type of client I enjoy working with. However, RESULTS require a significant time commitment over the coaching period. Currently, it seems like your schedule doesn’t accommodate the time needed. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to work with you – I do. In the interest of helping you to achieve the best possible results, I simply recommend waiting until you have a little more time on your hands. Please reach out to me when you do.
- You sound like my kind of person. Unfortunately, my client roster/coaching program is currently fully booked. Please sign up for my waitlist to be notified if any spaces open up.
- Thanks for reaching out to discuss working with me. My program is designed specifically for clients starting from X. You sound exactly like the type of client I love to work with, so please reach out to me when you reach that point. I’ve included some resources below that will help you get there faster. Please reach out if you have any questions, I’d like to stay in touch.
- Thank you for your interest in working together. I specialise in helping NICHE achieve RESULT. I don’t work with people who fall outside of that simply because I’m not familiar with the additional issues and circumstances that other groups of people face when working on GOAL. Perhaps COACH may be a better fit for you. They do similar work to me.
- The foundation of successful results and a good coaching experience is to feel comfortable with your coach. In our call, I sensed that you weren’t entirely comfortable. That’s okay, I’m not going to be the right coach for everyone. I want to see you achieve your goals, so I recommend continuing to look for a coach you feel comfortable opening up to. Please let me know if I can make recommendations.
Feel free to steal any of the examples to use in your rejection emails. If you are modifying one of them to suit your needs, just remember to be empathetic towards the unsuitable coaching client.
Offer Alternative Suggestions
People often reach out to coaches because of the Dunning Kreuger effect. They don’t know what they don’t know; they just know that they need help. Offering alternative suggestions or even pointing them in the right direction will be incredibly helpful.
You can suggest:
- More suitable coaches
- More appropriate resources
- Information and resources that will help prepare them for coaching
- Topics to look into
When you’re writing an email to reject an unsuitable coaching client, take a second to think about how you can still be helpful, even if they have been rude.
Stay Polite
It can be tempting to deliver a smackdown to people who contact you with unrealistic expectations or who try to haggle your prices down. But you can be firm while staying polite.
We recommend approaching all emails as if out-of-context screenshots will be plastered all over the internet. (Because it can happen.) Stay polite in every single email. Don’t get dragged into arguments or poop-flinging. And most of all, avoid accusatory language.
The beauty of email is that it allows us to take a few minutes or hours to consider our responses. We don’t have to reply in the heat of the moment. So take that time and craft a response that matches your values.
Wish Them Well
The people who look into coaching have huge goals and are motivated to achieve them. Always end a rejection email by wishing them well – no matter how the interaction has gone.
What to Do When Your Coaching Program Is Full
One of the most common reasons for rejecting potential coaching clients is that your coaching program has sold out. You can only handle a certain number of coaching clients at once without sacrificing the quality of coaching you provide.
When you sell out your coaching program, always create a waitlist. This allows you to fill the spot of anyone who backs out or has to cancel last minute.
Think of your waitlist as a list of coaching clients who will gladly pay the advertised amount to work with you. They are red-hot leads. They should be added to your email list under a special category that allows them to get advanced notice of masterclasses, the next intake of your coaching program, and even new products.
If your waitlist is long enough, you may even be able to consider outsourcing things so you can run a second intake.
How to Make Money from Coaching Clients You Decline
We recommended always providing coaching clients you reject with suggestions for alternative options. You can monetise those suggestions by becoming affiliates with people and products you recommend. This is why competition isn’t always necessarily a bad thing.
Contact coaches who provide similar services to different niches and see if they would be willing to create an affiliate agreement. Tell them that you serve NICHE but that you get enquiries from people in NICHE every so often. Would they be interested in negotiating an affiliate agreement where successful referrals would receive a fee? Of course, if they successfully referred you clients in your niche, they would also receive a fee. (You can negotiate the prices or terms once they say yes.)
You might as well receive payment for these recommendations you are making because these coaches are effectively benefiting from your marketing.
If they say no, don’t push the issue, just let them know that you are open to discussing it again in the future if they change their mind. You can always look for another coach in the same niche who would be willing to pay you an affiliate fee.