The Big Sheet Spreadsheet
One of the big problems we used to have when we were doing business consulting with multiple consultants and coaches handling a client, was that the client would get into such Rapport with the Coach and then if the coach was not available, the client would leave. Now, that is a problem!
Sure you could have both the old coach and the new coach on the job for a month or 2 but even that did not always work. We agonized over it and then we hit on a solution. We devised a system to solve this problem. What you need to know are the client’s NLP Meta Programs, Myers Briggs, NLP Values, and the NLP Coaching Values Inventory.
- NLP Meta Programs There are 19 Meta Programs that are useful in predicting your client’s preferences and behavior. Meta Programs are discovered in an oral interview that is conducted one on one. There are 19 questions and they take 8 minutes to ask the prospective client. The interviewer will ask the question and then evaluate the answer and categorize the new client. One of the categories, for example, is Frame of Reference. To find out Frame of Reference, ask, “How do you know when you have done a good job? Do you know a) Inside yourself or b) does someone have to tell you?” The answer to the question will allow you to know whether the new client needs more or less supervision being coached as a client.
- Myers-Briggs There are 4 categories that we can also use to be sure that we utilize the client’s skill set most efficiently. One of the categories is Introvert-Extrovert. Introverts are more internal than Extroverts and not as well suited to jobs such as Receptionist. Extroverts do well in selling kinds of jobs. Useful to know about your current sales staff and useful in predicting results from a certain team.
- NLP Values It is important that we know what motivates the new client. This is true of both short term and long term. We can determine what motivates him and we can use that in the future when it is needed to increase the results we get from our relationship with him. We can also find out the threshold values which if violated, will cause him to leave the consulting relationship. This is useful in preventing new clients from “blowing out” in a week or so.
- NLP Coaching Values Inventory In order to know how our new client will react to our consulting approach we also need to know what he values in the areas we are working. People, in their lives, move through certain pre-defined values levels. Some managers or owners, for example, are not suited for jobs that require selling. In their lives they have just not grown to that level. They may be good in organization and systems but not good at meeting people and selling and communicating their ideas. Better to find this out early on and not ask the owner of the business for behaviors he cannot produce.
Once you have determined the client’s NLP Meta Programs, Myers-Briggs, NLP Values, and the NLP Coaching Values Inventory it’s now time to make a big spreadsheet. You can do it on computer or on a large piece of accounting paper. Take all the 19 NLP Meta Programs, the 4 Categories of Myers Briggs, the 8 or 10 top NLP Values in career, and the 7 NLP Values Levels, and lay them out on the spreadsheet horizontally with the names as the vertical component. Then you will have a spreadsheet which you can out in a PDA or a Sheet which you can carry in your Day-Timer book. If you are not sure how to do this, give his description to your secretary with the data and have her do it. If you are a graduate, just call the office nearest you for assistance.
While this may at first glance seem complicated, it is actually very simple to administer and will take less time than getting to know the client in a random way, and it will do it with better results. Many of the questionnaires are done with paper and pencil, requiring no time from the consultant doing the interviewing. This is very efficient in terms of time spent. It allows the consultant/coach to focus on interviewing the new client and evaluating him in person. We have had clients tell us, “I feel like you know us better than any other coach ever has.”
This is by no means all of the NLP Coaching Master Practitioner Certification Training, it is just a couple of days of that training, but these 4 things alone allowed us to reallyknow our client and resulted in hundreds of additional billable hours because we knew them so well. We saved them time and they were happy too. It was clearly a win-win for both of us.
If you are interested in learning how to know your client better than he knows himself, you must be at the next NLP Coaching Master Practitioner Certification Training. This is something the Tad James Co. is well known for and you will love it. We promise.