Without an intake form, you will spend most of your first session getting to know your client, and trying to make notes on all the basic information that they give you. This can be a tricky process, and it leaves your client feeling that they haven’t got much from the first session, except a lot of basic questions.
Also, without this form, during your first call, you’ll have to think of follow-up questions on the spot, because you had no information to prepare or plan. Everything will be done in a rush, and you may find that your first experience with your paying client feels rushed.
Now that we’ve covered the what and then let’s dive into the sections every life coach needs in their intake form.
You need to know your client’s current life goals, and this is one of the first things that you should ask about on this form. This will help you make a plan for the entire contract period and what you will do with your client.
You may choose to vary these, but they should help you and your client to get a clear idea of what they want from coaching, and this will allow you to craft a plan for moving them forward. You can’t help them achieve their goals if you don’t know what their goals are.
Pro Tip – Use Paperbell To Create A Digital Life Coaching Intake Form
Once you’ve tested and proven your intake form works, we suggest going digital! The perfect tool for that is Paperbell. Paperbell is an online coaching platform with a ton of features. One of our favorites is its ability to collect information with client questionnaires.
Your intake form will be presented when clients buy a coaching package, and their answers are saved for both you and your client to view anytime!
What your client has done is almost as important as what they want to do. You need to know who your client is, and this will be heavily based on their past experiences. You must ask some questions about where they have been in the past, so you can get a sense of the context in which they are operating.
Questions you might ask include:
Understanding their past challenges, what they’ve overcome, big life changes, their health and wellness, and more can help you get to know your client and develop a coaching program that works for them.
A life coach needs to understand how their client would like to be coached and what they find effective. Knowing whether your client responds best to praise or criticism, whether they like to talk by phone, and how they like to approach coaching is a great way to ensure you are able to coach effectively.
Be careful; your client may not have ever done coaching before, so don’t phrase these questions as “coaching preferences,” or you may get lots of “I don’t know” responses.
Try questions like:
It’s fine if your client can’t answer every question; just getting some answers will set you up for coaching success!
Don’t skip this part! So many coaches put materials out there that don’t match their brand.
Take the extra steps to create an intake form that reflects your brand perfectly. If you don’t have a brand you love, you can purchase one of our life coaching websites or logo templates.
They are easy to customize. Here is an example of how our free intake form template could be designed using our life coaching logo template:
Imagine how wonderful your client will feel when they get something that looks like that! You’ll feel confident knowing that every client who fills out your form will know they are working with someone who cares about their business and their client experience.
And if you get the matching website, your entire brand will be elevated:
We all deserve happiness and fulfillment in our lives – let’s make sure everyone knows how valuable their investment in your services is by designing a beautiful intake form!
As you can see, your life coaching intake form is the most important document you can give your client. It’s an easy way to get them thinking about what they want, why they want it, and how they can achieve it.
Plus, it makes sure you don’t forget anything important in your first session with them!
Just sign up for free HERE and customize it to fit your business before your next client meeting.
It’ll take less than 10 minutes to ensure that every detail is covered.
