Powerful questions create powerful clients. Here are two of my favorites:
1. The key question to filter dream clients
In the book “Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World” by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross, they ask some great questions. One of my favorites is “How ambitious are you?”
My initial reaction was, “I’m not ambitious!” And then I realized how untrue that is. I have always been ambitious. I am just at a stage of my life where I am no longer willing to get burned out as the price for my ambitions. But I am still ambitious.
It’s a provocative question and these are key for drawing out and filtering your dream clients.
I have a bias for action and I actively filter for clients who show up that way, too. Here are some of the questions I ask, to identify my people:
- Do you tend to work quickly, shoot from the hip and take on many projects at once?
- Do you tend to start stuff without knowing the outcome?
- Are you often heard saying things like “I don’t know, let’s just try it…”?
To find a filter question for your dream clients, think of the quality you desire the most in them. And then design a question or two to ask about that specifically.
The photo at the top of this article is of me and my dream clients – the members of 4PC, when we got together recently in San Diego.
2. The key question to ask at the end of a discovery session
Imagine that you’ve served someone powerfully and they have asked what it would look like to work with you. What do you do next?
Do not jump into making a powerful proposal.
Here’s what to ask them first: “If you make the decision today to work with me as your coach, how will you know in a year’s time that I was the right fit?”
This is a powerful question because it helps them visualize you as their coach before you’ve even begun working together.
The more powerful your questions, the more power in your coaching.
Love. Rich