The Definitive Questionnaire for Hiring the Right Coach for Your Business

Thinking of hiring a coach for your business? 

Arm yourself with our definitive questionnaire that can greatly assist you in choosing the right coach for your business. 

By asking 30+ questions presented here you will know: 

1. Your potential coach’s level of experience 
2. The vision and core values of your potential coach, and if they align with your company’s direction 
3. What your coach’s process and methodology looks like 
4. The type of results your coach has produced for others 
5. Your coach’s past success stories 
6. What your coach’s offerings are and the pricing structure
   

Experience 

In business there is no substitute for experience. Finding a coach with experience in the area that you need for your business is an easy task once you know what questions to ask. As a business owner, you want to be able to filter through the marketplace and find a coach with the necessary knowledge, experience and results.

1. How many years have you been practicing coaching?
2. What do you consider your level of training to be? Beginner? Apprentice? Expert? Master? What makes you say that?
3. What area of business do you specialize in?
4. Who are your mentors/coaches? How often do you speak with them?
5. What did you do prior to becoming a coach? How does that add value to what you are doing currently?
6. What is the coaching level you have the most experience with? 
   • Clearing Coaching: being clear about where you are, the direction an individual wants to go in 
   • Foundation Coaching: having life work, setting up a powerful foundation for the future 
   • Implementation Coaching: having an individual operate with integrity, be reliable, relatable and relevant, producing consistent results, being held to account
   • Business Coaching: Working with teams, re-imagining and causing businesses at will, business growth, development and expansion 
   • Executive coaching: Executive development, organizational design, scaling of the enterprise, global opportunities 
   • Ownership Coaching: Deeper issues of life and business, succession, asset development, legacy conversations 
   • Other: _____________________________________________
7. Do you work independently, as part of a team or do you belong to a larger organization?
8. Who are your current customers and clients?
9. What are your biggest successes?
10. What are some of the biggest challenges that you have experienced as a coach working with your customers and clients? How did you solve them?
11. How do you stay ahead in the field of coaching?

Vision and Core Values

Working with a coach is not a fly-by-night agreement. Coaching relationships usually last over 12 months, and in some cases can exceed 3 years – especially when the development of a business is at stake. Being able to align on the vision and values is an essential foundation.

1. What is your vision?
2. What are your core values?
3. Why do you think my business needs coaching?
4. What qualities do you think are required to be a good coach?
5. What level of accountability do you have as a coach to my business?
6. What do you require to make your job easier and more successful with your clients?

Process and Methodology

A coaches’ intellectual property exists in their process and methodology. This normally takes years of training and development. There are some coaches that are results-driven while others who are process-driven. Some focus on training and development while others focus on growth and development. These are distinct methodologies. Depending on your needs you should look for a coach that will be the right fit for you. 

1. What is your process? Can you describe it?
2. What is your methodology?
3. Is there a limit to the type of results that your process and methodology can produce for our business?
4. Do you think coaching is best implemented as a weekly, monthly or quarterly process?
5. How do you handle the strengths and weaknesses of our team?
6. Walk me through a typical coaching meeting/call with me. What does the process look like?
7. How often do you continue to develop your process and review your methodology?
8. Do you have strategic partners?

Results

The key measure of a coach’s effectiveness is in their ability to produce results for their clients through their coaching. If there are no results, the coach is ineffective and you should consider finding another coach. By the way, this does not mean that the coach is not necessarily good. He or she may be effective in different scenarios. More reason to find the coach that you can work with to produce the results you want.

1. What type of results are you committed to producing with each and every one of your customers and clients?
2. How do you track success with your customers and clients?
3. What results can I/we expect from coaching?
4. What specific results have you achieved for other clients? How did these compare to your goals?

References

Every coach should be able to produce 2 to 3 satisfied customers to serve as a reference for their business. 

1. What current and/or past customers can we call to obtain references for your work? 
   1. _________________________________ 
   2. _________________________________
   3. _________________________________

Questions for References

1. What criteria did you use to select your coach?
2. How long did you work together?
3. What did you work on with your coach?
4. Have you worked with other coaches in the past? How did they compare?
5. Was there anything in the process that didn’t go as expected? Why and what were the results?
6. Would you recommend ‘Coach X’ to a friend and/or associate? Why or why not?

Offering and pricing structure

Cost is an important consideration, especially when assessing Return On Investment for the services acquired. 

1. How do you price out your services? Is it per session? Retainer?
2. How do you raise your rates?
3. Do you offer workshops and courses? 
4. Do you offer package discounts?
5. Do you offer consulting services? i.e. Business plans, operational plans, strategic plan development, systems design, process and procedure design, project management, market research etc.