A coaching client intake form is a good way for you to demonstrate commitment to your business.
It symbolizes the prioritization of quality over quantity and sets you up for success in the long-term.
By using this form, you’ll be able to attract and welcome your dream clients with ease and confidence instead of working with clients who aren’t the best fit for the sake of filling a seat.
But you don’t need high-tech wizardry to find high-quality clients for your coaching business. This system can be simple, fun, and fast with a “coaching client intake questionnaire.”
Today we’re breaking down what an easy, effective client intake form looks like so you can do it yourself!
By using this simple guide, you’ll find more of your dream clients faster than ever before.
What Is a “Coaching Intake Form”?
A coaching client intake form saves you the mess of research, back-to-back prospect calls, and chasing after clients who lack serious interest or compatibility.
It also gathers key information from potential clients so you can better understand their needs and goals.
That’s why it’s important to ask all the right questions to ensure you’re getting the most accurate picture of your potential client and ensure they’re a right for your services.
As a result, you’ll empower your clients to know they’ve found the right fit and if not – for them to move on to a better match.
It’s a win-win, and you’ll leave more space for the ones who are a best match for the transformation you offer.
Why You Need a Life Coach Intake Form
This coaching business tool excels at saving you time, energy and resources. After all, you don’t want to spend all your time talking to people on enrollment calls who end up being a poor fit.
With an intake form, you’ll be able to filter out who isn’t a good fit and get the right people excited to work with you!
These client questionnaires make it as fun and easy as possible to talk to people who are a good fit and avoid enrolling clients who aren’t ready for the investment or uncommitted to their transformation.
The ideal process is automatic:
1. Prospective client “P” finds you online.
2. They click on something that offers coaching with you.
3. They’re automatically led to the questionnaire.
This simple process creates a streamlined, structured approach to finding and working with your dream clients and releasing the rest.
Side-Note: Just because a potential client looks promising on paper doesn’t mean they’re an automatic match.
This creates a repeatable, standardized client experience you can set on autopilot.
How to introduce these coaching intake questions to your client
Although the best place to have your coaching intake form is on your website or marketing funnel, there are plenty of opportunities for potential clients to find you in-person as well. In-person workshops and networking events are a good example of this.
When they aren’t automatically directed to your intake form, you can introduce them to the form yourself.
The best way to introduce the form is by asking your potential clients if they would like to take part in an online questionnaire.
This will give you a chance to explain the purpose of the interview.
You could say something like “I’d love to send you an email with a link to my questionnaire. This will help us determine whether we’re a good fit for each other.”
After all, being a “fit” isn’t a one way street. Even if someone needs coaching and is ready to invest, they may not be aligned with you or your services in other ways.
For example, maybe they’re looking for a coach who would be available to communicate with them after office hours, but you don’t offer that type of accessibility.
Or maybe you’re a confidence coach and fitness expert but your potential client has no interest in a health or wellness routine as part of their transformation.
You can triage these needs and wants prior to your enrollment call with a detailed intake form.
However, if they refuse to fill out the form at all, don’t feel discouraged! You likely just saved yourself and your prospect time and effort. After all, if they were serious and eager to work with you, they would make time for it.
Simply thank them for taking the time to read through the questionnaire and wish them the best in their search for a coach.
Otherwise, set up a page, send them a link, or direct them to their client portal (like Dubsado) to begin the qualification process!
How to Create a Fillable Life Coaching Client Intake Questionnaire (Using Google Forms)
An intake questionnaire is a series of questions designed to help you understand your clients better so you can determine “best fit”, build context, and coach from a place of clarity and confidence.
The good news is setting up a coaching client intake questionnaire is simple and easy!
In the following example, we’ll use the easiest coaching intake form tool: Google Forms.
It takes less than 5 minutes to create and only requires basic knowledge of Google Forms.
Here’s How:
Step 1: Open Google Forms
First, open Google Forms and start a new form.
You will be taken to a blank page where you can name your form and select a template.
If you’re not sure which template to pick, just leave it a blank page.
Name your form whatever you’d like.
I suggest using the title “Coaching Client Intake Questionnaire” to keep things simple.
Step 2: Add Questions
Start by asking for basic details at the top like the “First, Last Name”, “Date/Time”, and contact details like their “Email Address” or “Phone Number”, etc.
Then, you can create coaching intake questions that are:
- Multiple choice (Ex: When would you be ready to start coaching? Today / 2 Weeks or Less / 3 Months or Less / Unsure)
- Short answer (Ex: What are your communication preferences?)
- Paragraph answer (Ex: Why are you looking for a coach now?)
- Checklists (Ex: Where would you love the most support? Health and Wellness / Love and Relationships / Career & Vocation / Time & Money Freedom)
- Dropdowns (Ex: On a scale of 1-5 How would you rate your happiness in Time & Money Freedom? 1/2/3/4/5
There are other question types as well, I encourage you to explore them all and see what works best for you!
(Optional) Step 3: Make It “On-Brand”
Feel free to use the “customize theme” button to make your questionnaire look professional.
There are few, simple options available to you:
- Adding a Header
- Choosing the Background Color
- Choosing the Font
Step 4: Send to Prospective Clients
Once your coaching client intake questionnaire is ready to go, you can choose to send your Google Form via email, direct link, or even embed the HTML for a website, landing page, client portal or more.
One caveat to this is that you should always receive consent prior to sending an email. Otherwise, you could violate the CAN SPAM act and have your email account marked as spam.
In the event of a negative report, you will not be able to send an email from your specific domain.
Your coaching business can be severely impacted by this, especially if you rely on email for communication and marketing purposes.
As a good rule of thumb, avoid bulk-sending your coaching client intake form to purchased email lists. Just send it directly to the client requesting it.
That’s it! You’re all set up and ready to begin qualifying your clients.
Take Your Coaching Intake Process to the Next Level with These Powerful Intake Questions
Using powerful, open-ended questions will give you instant access to the most relevant, important parts of your prospect that could reveal their potential as a dream client!
Furthermore, the data you collect on these forms can inform your future coaching session(s), coaching products, and coaching plan of action.
Here are just a few questions to inspire your coaching forms:
1. What do you hope to achieve by working with a coach?
By understanding this, you can determine whether they are a best fit for the transformation you offer.
2. Why are you looking for a coach now?
Sometimes people seek coaching services when they should really be looking for a therapist, consultant, or mentor. Asking this question will clarify their needs and ensure they choose the right kind of support.
3. How willing/committed are you to invest in creating the results you want?
Usually low motivation or commitment signals that they won’t seriously consider investing into a program let alone their journey of transformation.
4. Where are you on your coaching journey? Have you worked with a life coach before (if yes, how was the experience)?
This will help draw out their pain points and give you context about their previous life coach relationships. For example, they might mention how they communicated with their coach, what they loved, or what they disliked about the other program.
5. What is your biggest challenge right now?
Knowing what’s weighing them down will give you ideas on how you can best support them.
6. If money was no object, what would you spend your time doing?
This question gets straight to the heart of what matters to your clients.
7. How would you feel if you lived the same way you are now for the rest of your life?
This will give you insight on some of their past and current life experiences as well as how they perceive their circumstances, situations, and conditions.
8. How would you describe your level of spirituality?
When you ask this question, you get an idea of how to approach the client about spiritual principles and open a dialogue about religion and spirituality.
9. What does “success” mean to you?
Not everyone understands success in the same way. Success can refer to physical health, mental clarity, meaningful relationships, and many other aspects of life. Knowing the client’s motivation and dream will help you connect with them.
Ultimately, the more you know about your ideal client, the easier it will be to find them!
What to Do After Your Client Gives You Their Intake Form
The goal of your coaching client intake form is to capture data that will allow you to create a profile of the person you’re going to be helping.
It also makes the discovery call more effective because you’ll know what to say, what to ask, and how to present your offer if you’re a good fit for one another.
Even if you don’t get 100% perfect responses – I encourage you to start somewhere!
You can always tweak your questions later based on feedback from your clients.
For example, perhaps you notice that certain things aren’t being answered or people seem confused with a few of your questions.
Whatever happens, keep your eyes peeled for insights into your prospects’ unique needs.
You can go over the form with them when you set up the strategy session and discuss how to move forward!
Quickly Grow Your Life Coaching Business
High-quality clients are worth saying “no” to the wrong ones.
It will be a far better use of your time, energy, and resources to avoid chasing prospects who are not interested or serious about working with you.
But an intake form is only one small piece of building a profitable, sustainable life coaching business.
Here at the Brave Thinking Institute, we’ve helped thousands of coaches grow thriving businesses with our proven frameworks.
And I would love to give you instant access to a free, comprehensive checklist as a step-by-step framework for building your coaching business.
Download it here: The Thriving Coaching Business Checklist
You’ll save countless hours of trial and error by following the same process we’ve used to grow 7-8 figure coaching businesses in multiple niches.
Using our checklist, you’ll be able to avoid the mistakes most beginners make and uplevel your coaching business faster and easier than doing it on your own.
To accelerating your success,
Mat Boggs
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