How not to finish a Client Consultation
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Okay, so I was told that a self-proclaimed industry influencer thinks you should finish a client appointment with,
"Is there anything important or concerning to you that we have not covered?"
The rationale for this is that you don't want to leave the client feeling like they have not shared everything.
The reasons I hate this (strong word but it is important),
1 - The message to the client is that we have completed all the things I want to do in this appointment, now what is that important thing to you, while we have five minutes at the end of a session?
2 - Your success will be built on and around the rapport you develop with the client in the appointment, and one of the themes of building rapport is to support, challenge, and encourage your client to share everything. See my Why Why So So post, or look out for my Rapport talks in the courses. If the client has not told you what is important to them by the end of the session, you have not done well enough, or they are not ready to share with you.
3 - The client's experience, which is a collection of feelings that usually follow a bell shape graph of up and down, is important to the client. It is what shapes their opinion of you, and can directly impact if they continue to attend sessions with you. So, finish on the right feeling, which is rarely triggered by a question that suggests you have not listened.
4 - Try and say the sentence "Is there anything important or concerning to you that we have not covered?" in a way that sounds like you have built rapport and the client can feel you both sit at the same status level when sharing information
5 - You are a trainer, coach, therapist, if you have to be told that clients have information that might be useful and interesting, and this is a side note to the consultation, then you really need an industry where you don't work with people.
My suggestion is this -
* Always be Why Why So So'ing
* Build workouts that rely on eliciting the different feelings required for a full story-based experience
* Ask about the feelings and take SOAP notes* for each exercise based on the feeling, as well as the physical aspects of the exercise
* Know how to coach so the client does open up each session (use the science of rapport building, and the skills of yes and, what if, like when do you mean this etc)
I have put a picture of a bulldog because they make me happy again.