4 Steps To Turn a Consulting Client Into a Coaching Client

Whether you’re a consultant, therapist, or healer, this article explains how to transition your clients to coaching clients.

Recently a coach asked me about how they could turn a consulting client into a coaching client. It’s a question I’ve gotten from other people as well. Therapists, healers, and consultants often want to bring more coaching into their work but they aren’t sure how to make the transition.

And the answer is really not that different from how you turn ANY potential client into a coaching client. Here are the steps to follow:

1) Tell them you’d like to try something new and ask them if they’re open to it.

You might simply explain the difference between coaching and consulting, therapy, or healing.

In consulting we use a combination of teaching and knowledge to help someone get to where they want to go, but we also advise them on where we think they should go and share helpful milestones and steps along the way.

In therapy or healing, you might work to uncover patterns of thinking or unprocessed trauma in order to help a person live a healthy life in which they can function well and enjoy the things they normally enjoy.

But coaching is a bit different in that we use inquiry and sometimes teaching to help someone discover what they want, what’s in the way, and how to close the gap.

Consulting requires knowledge and experience of the pathway the person is walking. Because in consulting you’re helping them walk along a path that you’ve walked and/or that you’ve helped others walk.

In therapy or healing work the focus is often on the past and preparing someone to work with challenges from the path as they reemerge.

In coaching, while knowledge can help, it’s not required. Instead what’s required is knowledge and experience about how human beings work. It’s also important to stand for possibility, to create safety, and be an example of someone who’s committed to doing deep work.