You will have gotten to know your coaching client a little bit during the discovery call, but before you can coach them, you need a little bit more information. Sure, you’ll learn a lot about them during your first call, but using an intake form allows you to really hit the ground running in your first coaching session.
What Is an Intake Form
An intake form is a form that collects some initial information about your coaching clients before the kick-off call or first coaching session. The information that you collect on your intake form includes:
- Basic information – Gather some basic information about your coaching client including contact details and details related to your niche.
- Current situation information – Collect some information about where your coaching clients are now in relation to your coaching program topic. What problems do they face? If you think about your coaching client as undergoing a transformation, you are collecting information about the “before” to contrast with the results they achieve (their “after”) in your marketing.
- Goals information – Get some insight into what the coaching client wants to learn from you and what they want to achieve by the end of the coaching program. You will most likely dig into this a little bit more during your first session so you can set goals together, but it’s good initial information to have.
- Marketing information – Ask questions that will help you to determine the effectiveness of your marketing. Include a few questions about where the coaching client heard about your coaching program and where they follow you.
The exact questions you ask will depend on what information will help you to hit the ground running during your first coaching session. You can always change the questions later if your coaching clients misunderstand them or if you want to collect different information.
Plan Your Coaching Intake Form Questions
It helps to create a blank document with the headings from the section above. Then, write down the questions you would like to ask in those sections. Right now, you are planning, so just write down whatever comes to mind. You can edit the questions later.
Once you feel like you have all the information you could possibly need from your coaching clients before you start coaching them, open a new document. In this document, you are going to create 3 sections:
- Information you need before the discovery call
- Information you need before the first coaching session
- Information you need to get during the first coaching session
You will have a short intake form before the discovery call to collect contact information and find out why they are seeking coaching. Then you will have your main intake form that you send your coaching clients after they’ve signed the invoice but before their first coaching session. The rest of the questions will be explored during coaching sessions.
How to Create an Intake Form
Once you have your questions, you can create an intake form for your coaching business. Your intake form doesn’t have to be complicated; you can use a Google Form to collect the information. Alternatively, if you use a CRM, you can create an intake form that will automatically update that coaching client’s file.
Integrate your coaching intake form into your onboarding process so that every coaching client gets one. Some CRMs may have functionality that allows you to automatically send the intake form. Make sure you set reminders to follow up on outstanding intake forms.
What to Do with Coaching Intake Form Responses
The responses you receive in your coaching intake form will provide you with vital data for your coaching business.
Firstly, you have information about the coaching client on file so you can prepare for coaching sessions and track a client’s progress throughout the coaching program. This will help you to refresh your memory throughout coaching so you don’t get your coaching clients mixed up or forget vital details.
Secondly, you will be able to examine client data as a whole to gain all sorts of insights into your ideal coaching clients. You could find common:
- Goals
- Problems
- Pain points
- Stressors
- Needs
It can also help you to see how your coaching clients found out about your course and where they follow you. This will help you to track which of your online presences are most effective.
Last but not least, you can compare the intake form responses to their offboarding responses so you can celebrate how far your coaching clients have come and create marketing assets like case studies for future intakes.