Coaching Calls- Managing Client Emotions

Coaching calls are one of the most important parts of your business. Today I want to talk about one of the best practices that we've seen across a number of different programs. It's one of those things that people get really nervous about. When you're in a group coaching call with a bunch of people there, maybe it’s only three or it could be with 50 or more people. Sometimes, in this group setting one of the participants, one of your clients, is angry or upset and starts to go a little nutty.

That's always the fear, right? You got all these people on your call, and suddenly, one client is angry, and they're like, "I'm not getting this, and this isn't working for me, and I'm really upset," and they start dominating the entire conversation.

You try to kind of listen, to take care of it, but you can't let that one client overtake the coaching call for everybody. That's not something that's going to be useful in the long run.

 On the other hand, you don't want to basically ignore that client and tell them to shut up or mute them or shut them off or something, so unless they're really a problem and you feel like you have to kick them out of your program, that's not something you want to do.

So how do you handle coaching calls with lots of emotion?

How do you handle a situation where you have one angry client on a group coaching call, and you want to deal with it? It’s really simple and can be done effectively in just two steps. 

Step one

Number one, if you're not familiar with our LAVA format for handling complaints and issues, then go take a look at it here. LAVA stands for listen, acknowledge, validate, and address.  It's a requirement for successful coaching calls.

So listen, give that client some time, not tons of time, to talk about what the issue is. Acknowledge it. It requires at least a brief acknowledgment of the issue. Remember, acknowledgment is different than agreement. You can say "I acknowledge there's an issue" without actually having to agree with it. Validate the concern, "Yep, I totally understand what you're saying," and then address it. Very quick and simple, don't take forever so that you can get back to the rest of the group. 

Now, if that doesn't handle the problem, the question then becomes you've got an angry, vocal person overtaking your group call; how do you handle that? That's where step two comes in.

Step two

Step two is taking your coaching call offline. The best practice is to handle them in a one-on-one call. Tell them “I'm going to give you a one-on-one call, and we will address that concern.” Generally, that shuts it down because it basically takes it out of the group call, and it allows you to address that concern one-to-one where you might actually have to give some tough love, some coaching advice, to that person without other people around and without it affecting the morale of the rest of your program.

Now, if you know me, you know I'm not a fan of one-on-ones generally. That's not scalable, it's not something that I like to do. But that is building one-on-ones into your program. But using one-on-one conversations strategically to address client issues is very effective, and in this particular case, when you have somebody who is sort of causing trouble or being a problem, this is a great way to handle it.

Say, "You know what? I'm going to address that with you one-on-one. You and I are going to solve that problem together." That will reduce their blood pressure quite a bit and keep them quiet. When you book the one-on-one call it doesn't have to be long, you probably don't need a full 60-minute strategy session. 15 minutes is usually enough time to deal with the issue. 

Simple system for high performing coaching calls

So, it's just two steps for that client who's on a coaching call and who's a little grouchy in the middle of a group coaching session when you start to realize that they're going to take everything off the rails for the entire call. Use the LAVA format first, and then number two, take it offline. Offer a one-on-one call. 

If for some reason you have someone who's really, really unruly, you might have to address that separately, but in my experience, that doesn't happen very often. That's a really rare situation. Most of your clients are going to be well-behaved, but they might come to a group coaching call a little grouchy and then you handle it. 

Two steps: LAVA, one-on-one.

These kinds of tips and best practices on how to run a group program is what we are doing in our Facebook group. So if you haven't joined the Facebook group yet, do so here. It's called High-Ticket Programs and it's free to join. This is the kind of thing that we talk about every day. We go through these kinds of best practices and have training on how to set up, launch, and run a high-ticket program.

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