Know your customer's aspirations

Many coaches do a great job of getting close to meeting what they believe are the needs of their clients. Unfortunately, they don't take the time to learn about their clients' aspirations and are therefore more motivated by their own interests and beliefs than by achieving an outcome that truly meets the client's needs.

These are the reasons why discovery sessions play a key role in obtaining satisfactory results, hence the importance of taking these spaces seriously and providing total freedom for our client to express themselves honestly.

During the development of this guide we will be addressing some of the elements of value around the importance that is given to the process of knowing the aspirations of our customers.

Why should I strive to understand my customers' aspirations?

To the question of why should I strive to know my customers' aspirations, you should think about the typical phrase "the customer is always right". Keep in mind that the person who comes to your services and entrusts you with his problems does so because he expects you to be able to help him satisfy his interests and provide solutions to needs that he has not been able to meet on his own. That said, it would be a mistake to believe that you can understand better than the client what he wants to get out of your services.

When you strive to understand your clients' aspirations, you are also protecting the quality of your work. It is not smart to invest time, energy and resources in developing objectives that are not in line with what your client aspires from your work. Once you are able to understand what your client's aspirations are, you will be sure that your actions are directed in the right direction.

What is the right space to deepen my client's aspirations?

The ideal space to meet the objectives of knowing what your clients' aspirations are is the discovery sessions. This is because the discovery sessions are the prelude to the concrete work you will have to do to solve the problem you have been entrusted with. For this you have a number of sessions that you will have to establish depending on the particular needs of each specific case.

During the development of these sessions you must show special interest in each aspect that the client entrusts you, enable spaces of fluid exchange and deepen in their real interests. In this way you will be able to know the real magnitudes of the situations you will have to face and the best strategies to apply to obtain satisfactory results.

What is the best way to learn about my clients' aspirations?

As we said before, discovery sessions are the best place to learn about my clients' aspirations. There are several resources to obtain this information, however, the one that has shown the best effects is the use of questions. Questions allow us to be precise in what we want to obtain, being direct is the best way to let the client know that this is the moment in which he should be honest and communicate his true intentions with the hiring of your services and what are the results he expects from you.

Try asking questions such as:

• What motivated you to hire the services of a coach?

• What results do you expect to achieve through these sessions?

• What are your three main objectives to develop during the sessions?

• By asking these questions you are ensuring that your work responds to the client's desires and not to what you think is their need.