A signature coaching program supports multiple clients’ performance and development needs, promoting growth and change (Ribbers & Waringa, 2015).
A signature program is a reusable system or framework that you use to coach your clients over and over again, to attain a specific goal. In a signature coaching program, there is no need to plan your clients’ journeys from scratch, since that work has already been done during the design of the program itself.
The challenge for designers is to produce powerful coaching programs they can tailor to meet the demands of a growing audience, add value to client’s lives, and be recognizable as supporting them to get along and get ahead (Hogan, 2004).
Programs must be built with the individual, group, and organization in mind, supporting anticipated change and development needs that lead to agreed outcomes (Kanatouri, 2020).
This article explores how to create your signature coaching program as a part of a successful and growing business and includes several templates and outlines that will help.
How to Create Your Coaching Program 101
The International Coaching Community (n.d.) describes coaching as unlocking a person’s potential, maximizing their performance, and helping them learn rather than teaching them. A well-thought-out coaching program does the following:
- Helps a person change in the way they want, traveling in the direction of their goals
- Supports a person (at all levels) on their journey to who/where they want to be
- Builds awareness that empowers choice and leads to change
An appropriate and tailored coaching program can “effectively support individuals’ and groups’ positive change and development in the contexts of work, career, or personal life” (Kanatouri, 2020, p. 10).
Cutting-edge online coaching software such as Quenza can digitize and automate coaching practices and programs, offering improved services at scale.
While the fundamental principles of coaching remain the same, such powerful, dedicated coaching software makes it possible to deliver targeted, personalized coaching services specific to the needs of individuals, groups of clients, and organizations (Kamphorst, 2017; Ribbers & Waringa, 2015).
Yet health professionals must remember that “coaching is a partnership between coach and client” (International Coaching Community, n.d.).
Dee Hutchinson (2021), coach and three-time Amazon bestselling author, advocates the co-creation approach to building coaching programs. And it makes good sense. The benefits of building programs through engaging both the designer and the client, especially using Quenza’s intuitive design platform, include the following:
- They meet the needs of the organization and the learner or client.
- They empower the client through a shared responsibility for their development.
- The material is more practical. It becomes relevant to the client’s environment and needs.
- A coaching program, especially an online one, can be launched and scaled quickly.
- It offers a reduced financial investment, yet bespoke designs.
It is crucial that coaching is targeted appropriately to the client as a learner. Between 60% and 90% of training is “either forgotten, not entirely understood, or will never be applied on the job” (Hutchinson, 2021, p. 22).
Coaching may be able to work well if traditional training is performing poorly. Development preferences are changing; people prefer to be engaged in their training and growth, pulling instead of pushing learning (Hutchinson, 2021).
How do I create my signature coaching program?
Hutchinson (2021) suggests a multi-step co-creation process that ensures that coaching programs are designed with the client firmly in mind. The following eight steps establish coaching as a valuable learning experience.
1. Capture and describe the problems to be solved.
Your client must understand the problem you are solving or the need you are addressing. For example:
I am struggling to balance work and home life.
I have goals for my life but am unclear how to reach them.
If coaching is for a corporate client, you may have the delicate balance of meeting the needs of both the organization and employee. This requires capturing both employer and employee problem statements.
2. Identify the skills required to solve the problem.
Once the problems have been identified, you must specify the skills needed by the client to solve them. For example, they may need to develop self-care, time management, or boundary-setting skills.
3. Get inside the head of your clients.
“Knowing your audience is absolutely crucial if you want to create a program that people will actually value and engage in” (Hutchinson, 2021, p. 48). When putting together your signature coaching program, your focus must be on the client.
What have they tried that has and hasn’t worked?
What do they want to achieve the most?
Most importantly, get post-session feedback. Feedback forms are simple to create in Quenza, and you can review the results online.
4. Put together an initial skills list.
Identify a set of skills and begin to form the structure and content of your coaching program. However, you may still miss vital elements that neither you nor your clients have considered.
5. Conduct external research.
Perform additional online searches for related topics, and complete your list of skills to help your clients overcome their obstacles and live more complete lives.
6. Prioritize and group the skills.
Take the skills list, prioritize, and logically group the skills into related topics; this is crucial for designing a smooth coaching journey.
Within Quenza, it is possible to create pathways to coach clients on a particular theme or subject or with a specific aim in mind. For example, a resilience journey may include coping and stress management skills and visualization exercises.
You can remove unnecessary elements or make aspects of the coaching optional through prioritizing.
7. Outline high-level learning pathways.
The skill groups naturally lead to the development of high-level coaching activities (or pathways) that facilitate change, growth, or development in a particular area.
8. Brainstorm and finalize the learning paths.
The coach can now set out the care pathway in an appropriate order for the client. They will take into account where they need to begin their coaching journey and how to progress.
For example, coaching may begin with focusing on where the client is in their lives at present and then where they see themselves in the future.
This step logically leads into a process of goal setting.
Throughout the design and build of your signature coaching program, it is essential to consider whether each activity is absolutely necessary, maintaining clarity and avoiding diluting the coaching experience.
Structuring Your Coaching Program: 2 Examples
The following two examples identify different and yet complementary approaches for structuring your coaching programs while targeting the needs of the client.
They work equally well for face-to-face, online coaching, or blended coaching and learning experiences.
Using problem statements to build a resilience coaching program
Dee Hutchinson (2021) gives the example of a coaching program for resilience at work.
The employee problem statement upon which the following coaching program was based was:
- I feel worn out.
- I am struggling to balance multiple roles.
- I am working too many hours.
- I am no longer connected to what I am doing or my team.
The organizational problem statement set by Hutchinson’s customer that had tasked the employee with creating a coaching program was how to help their employees:
- Stay productive when working from home
- Balance working hours
- Support remote teamwork
- Manage stress
Based on the problem statements and working through the earlier coaching steps, Hutchinson (2021) produced an asset that captures the activities that together form the resilience program structure.
| Section description | Activities (Sample) |
|---|---|
| 1. Importance of self-care (physical and mental wellbeing) | Identify and measure:
|
| 2. Time management and organizational skills |
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| 3. Stress management |
|
| 4. Building resilience in your team |
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| 5. Communication skills |
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| 6. Your resilience blueprint |
|
Engage with the customer or client early and often to ensure that all development work adds value to the overall signature coaching program and does not lead to wasted time or resources (Ries, 2019).
It is easy to create individualized feedback forms in Quenza and incorporate feedback questionnaires within each self-care pathway that provide valuable input into future refinement or development.
Using the ABC model for sustained behavioral change
Anne Ribbers and Alexander Waringa (2015) suggest using an accelerated behavioral change (ABC) model for structuring e-coaching sessions.
There are three parts to the ABC model that guide fast, enduring behavioral change and direct the development of the coaching program.
- Analyze
“Formulate realistic, relevant, and achievable goals” based on the current and desired situation (Ribbers & Waringa, 2015, p. 47). - Internalize
This is where the clients work on achieving the goals. Each goal is split into smaller goals that can be realized through a series of baby steps that receive continuous positive feedback, resulting in more successes. - Sustain
The aim is to ensure that the changes are sustainable and endure into the future. Without it, behavior can revert to pre-intervention, and any gains are lost.
Several crucial process elements support the client in behavioral change and should be factored into the coaching program.
- Awareness
Along the journey, the client must develop an increasing degree of self-awareness. Such insight is essential to the personal development process and relies on reflecting on external stimuli and mental processes (Ribbers & Waringa, 2015). - Feedback
The client must be able to share feedback about their experiences and behavior. It enables self-reflection and input to the change process. - Knowledge transfer
Knowledge and psychoeducation shared in a structured way can support self-awareness, self-reflection, and the acquisition of new skills.
A coaching program designed to facilitate the building, internalizing, and persistence of new behavior supported by the above elements, has a good chance of offering clients successful and lasting support (Ribbers & Waringa, 2015).
4 Useful Coaching Program Templates [PDFs]
Quenza offers an easy-to-use and intuitive drag-and-drop function to create automated messages, questionnaires, and worksheets. The client can complete them to provide feedback or gain insight into the developing coaching program.
The following simple yet effective templates are helpful in various stages within the development lifecycle of your signature coaching program.
Checklist for building a coaching program
There are many ways to build a coaching program. Each approach has its strengths and valuable coaching techniques appropriate to the specific behavioral change or intended outcome.
Use the Checklist for Building a Coaching Program to see if you are considering everything when creating your signature coaching program.
Capture the problem statement
Understanding and capturing the problem statement is crucial to identifying the client’s needs (whether an individual, organization, or both).
The coach can refer back to the problem statement during and after the development of the coaching program to ensure they develop an appropriate solution (Hutchinson, 2021).
Capturing the Problem Statement identifies problem statements for multiple clients. Once coaches have a collection of their clients’ problem statements, they can synthesize this information into a vision statement that describes their signature coaching program (modified from Sheldon, n.d.).
“I help [target market] go from [starting pain point or need] to [end point or goal] by [solution].”
For example, it could be:
I help busy people go from working hard with no clear direction to becoming focused by co-creating clear goals and developing the mental toolkit to provide the support needed.
2 Coaching Program Outlines to Get Inspired
Many coaching programs offer help across all aspects of life, from careers and relationships, to achieving life goals. Each varies in the techniques, medium, tools, and support given to the individual, couple, or group.
Two examples of specific coaching programs include the following.
Coaching in stress management
Joe Robinson, a stress management coach, offers coaching services to help people manage their stress through teaching them the following skills:
- Managing pressure, deadlines, difficult people, and overwhelm
- Separating yourself from your thoughts
- Setting boundaries and speaking up
- Catching yourself when stress goes off and turning it off
- Avoiding thinking traps and catastrophizing
- Controlling anxiety with coaching, and sleeping better
- Building resilience to manage any challenge
- Leaving work at work with work recovery strategies
Robinson’s program explains how it is possible through coaching to learn how to manage stress and avoid hanging on to it long after the triggering event has passed.
Coaching in resilience
The Resiliency Solution provides several coaching programs aimed at building resilience. Their seven-day elite program covers the following:
- Day 1 – Resiliency framework
- Day 2 – Becoming resilient: Finding yourself
- Day 3 – Becoming resilient: Time to regulate
- Day 4 – Professional resiliency: Importance of creativity
- Day 5 – Professional resiliency: Lead with what you are good at
- Day 6 – Professional sustainability: We all need someone sometime
- Day 7 – Professional sustainability: Expecting good things
The program is online and self-paced so that you control when you start and finish.
Ultimately, the format and design of your signature coaching program should be determined by the needs of the actual and potential users.
This course is ideal for independent coaches or consultants who…
- Are currently selling their time by the hour, or term (e.g. 3 month package)
- Are brand new in business and aren’t sure how to package their services
- Would like to make it easier to sell their services
- Are tired of prospective clients negotiating down price or term
- Aren’t comfortable selling because they don’t know what their time is worth
- Aren’t getting enough of the right clients
- Are creating time-consuming spec proposals for every single prospect
- Are having to re-invent the wheel with each new client
- Would love to be able to promise specific outcomes to their clients
- Would like to create more efficiency in their business
- Are interested in creating leveraged programs (e.g. online courses, books) in the future
- Would like to know how many clients they need to make the money they desire
- Want to be sure they can reach their income goals without working more hours than they want
- Would like reliable, predictable cash flow (instead of being on a cash flow roller coaster!)
- Want to be sure their business is viable, profitable, and enjoyable
Don’t waste another day trying to sell your time.
This course will take you step-by-step through the exact same process I used successfully for myself, and with my private consulting clients, for years.
This course includes:
- Instructional Video Lessons for each step of the process
- Fill-in-the-blank Worksheets so you can create a profitable Signature Program
- Examples for all exercises for your review and reference
- Step-by-Step Instructions so you can easily apply what you’re learning to your business
Design a Signature Program…
- You can become known for
- That will set you apart from the competition
- You can sell confidently
- You know will deliver the results your ideal clients want
- That will make your business profitable, enjoyable, and successful
How To Structure A Coaching Program
The key to a powerful coaching program is structure! Your program should bring clarity, organization, and a process to your coaching.
Here’s an easy-to-follow step-by-step process to help you create your signature coaching program.
Step 1: Identify Your Coaching Niche
You need to know what your niche is before you can start putting together a program. What problem are you solving? Who are you helping? Which clients are you targeting?
Until you know what makes you special, you will find it very difficult to convey your skills and the assistance you offer to clients. You may also have trouble determining what material you should and shouldn’t cover.
For example, if you’re a relationship coach that works with separated couples, you wouldn’t use the same materials as a relationship coach that works with newlyweds.
The money is always in owning your niche.
Step 2: Name Your Coaching Program
The process of naming something can be challenging, especially when trying to communicate your program offers in a memorable, creative, and simple way.
Your coaching program’s name needs to convey quickly and concisely what it will cover, but it also needs to sound good.
Firstly, think about how your clients define themselves. If you’re looking for clients that are artsy and romantic, your name can afford to be flowery and creative.
If your clients are business-like, you want something simple and professional. Don’t just think about what sounds good to you.
Next, focus on solutions. Your client should feel the promise in the name, the answer that you’re going to give them to help them fix things.
Ask around and see what people think of potential names you come up with – ask in your actual target group if possible. Do they like it? Would they buy it?
Think about the sound, too. That might seem obvious, but if your program has a boring, forgettable, or tongue-twister name, it’s not going to do well.
Go for alliteration and rhythm, and try the name aloud several times to see how it sounds to you and to others. Consider rhyme too if you can come up with something clever.
Step 3: Choose Your Coaching Program Frequency & Duration
An important aspect of your program is how often and for how long your coach your clients. Does it run for six months? A year? Just a month? A day? How many times will you meet with your clients and how long will the sessions be?
When making these decisions, think about what the client wants as well as what works for you.
- If they are very busy, are they going to be able to show up to a weekly meeting?
- How long might a session be?
Structure the sessions around your content and goals, but remember to think about the client’s convenience too.
In general, long programs should meet less frequently (1 to 2 times/month) than short programs (3 to 6 times/month).
Depending on the circumstances, you might even meet frequently at the beginning of a new client relationship, working intensively on material, and then move to monthly meetings to stay accountable.
Another option would be to start with a longer VIP day (at least four hours), followed by regular shorter sessions.
Step 4: Choose Your Coaching Program Delivery Method
The choice is entirely yours whether to offer your coaching in person or virtually. There are benefits to each method. This is why you must understand how you will meet with your clients since that will dictate how you deliver your coaching program.
Are you going to be working with clients face to face, or over the internet? How do your materials need to be made available to the client? What is more convenient for them and for you?
Think about what meeting space you will use if you’re going to do physical meetings, and what programs you will use for virtual ones. How will you store and transfer resources? If you need physical resources, how will you provide these?
All these questions are important, especially when deciding which coaching management tools to use, like CoachAccountable, Paperbell or Delenta.
To find out whether you should deliver your coaching in person or virtually, ask your current clients or your ideal clients how they prefer to receive coaching.
Step 5: Choose Your Program Structure
One-on-one coaching means that you work with an individual client, whether you do so face-to-face or virtually.
Group coaching involves working with multiple clients together; this can happen in person or online.
Which one you offer really depends on your preference. Many coaches offer both, but you will still need to know your plan in order to structure your program effectively.
To decide, ask yourself how much guidance and feedback does each client need?
If your coaching methods require you to customize every session, then group coaching won’t work for you. It’s better to work one-on-one.
If your coaching methods allow you to follow the same process for every call, meaning you have a set curriculum and focus, then group coaching makes more sense.
Step 6: Outline and Create Your Coaching Tools
There are plenty of coaching tools, models, methodologies, and techniques out there. You should think about what to use in advance and plan your coaching program structure around these.
Here are three categories you should define:
- Methodologies: All coaches, consciously or unconsciously, use certain models for developing coaching conversations.Usually, such methodologies follow a coaching model (such as GROW or CLEAR).
Decide which coaching methodologies you’ll follow to help your coaching program participants break through their obstacles.
- Techniques: A coaching technique is a strategy that is used with coaching methodologies to train a client’s brain to understand a new behavior.Every coach has different techniques depending on their niche and training. However, there are some universal coaching techniques and tools that can be used by any coach.
- Worksheets and Homework: Worksheets and homework are things that you give to a client to work on in between sessions. These tools are used to continue progress when you are not working with the client.When developing your program, you should have homework created to help each client to continue to make progress.
Step 7: Decide What to Charge and Create Packages
Deciding what to charge can be a major challenge when it comes to creating your coaching program. You need to price your packages right to attract clients and make a living at the same time.
You do not want to set your prices too low; this will decrease the value that the client sees in your service, and can reduce your credibility as well.
You may also find that you end up catering to the wrong clients if you don’t set your prices high enough. You don’t want to sell yourself short or undervalue the importance of the service you offer.
To get an idea of what to charge, look at other similar coaches and what they are charging. Decide where to place your mark, and think about how to convey the value proposition to potential clients.
Here are a few best practices for beginner coaches.
Strategy Sessions
- An hour-long session that will work on helping clients implement their ideas and strategies.
- A one-off session, rather than a recurring coaching package.
- Starting at $197 for the session.
½ Day Sessions
- A 4-hour session for a solid block of time.
- Intense focus on the most important factor to ensure the client’s success.
- Can cover more than one topic if this is believed to be more suitable for the client.
- Starting at $597 per session.
Full-Day Sessions
- 8-hour sessions (with breaks).
- Covers a wide range of topics, and you will often seek to define a client’s vision, their offerings, their goals, their plan for a month, for two months, and for a year.
- Aims to come up with an actionable plan they can implement going forward.
- Covers all important areas that you feel will help your client.
- Starting at $997 for a session.
Month To Month Coaching
- Ongoing coaching over a set period of time.
- Up to 8 hours for the first session.
- Often includes one weekly meeting of an hour.
- Aims to provide long-term support, direction, and help with your client’s specific goals.
- Usually based upon an agreed plan with a fixed end date.
- Starting at $1500 for a month.
Yearly Masterminds
- Ongoing coaching for a full year.
- Usually starts with an intense kick-off call to discuss goals, client requirements, expectations, roles, and structure going forward.
- Often includes weekly meetings of an hour or two, but maybe more or less regularly depending on the group’s needs.
- Aims to provide long-term support, direction, and help with your group’s specific goals, and will include conveying tools they can continue to use throughout life.
- Will have a fixed end date with specific, agreed-upon goals.
- Prices depend upon coach, client, and frequency of meetings required.
- Starting at $5,000 to $10,000 per seat.
A Take-Home Message
A well-put-together and professionally delivered coaching program taps into the individual’s “implicit knowledge to create impactful and powerful learning experiences” (Hutchinson, 2021, p. 31).
Where possible, like other company assets, you should create your signature coaching program through regular and early feedback from potential clients to ensure that their needs are met and that design and build resources are not wasted.
A well-designed program should provide your clients with an opportunity to see the best of what you have to offer, capturing your potential to coach them in the direction they wish to develop.
Using a tool like Quenza, it is possible to create, copy, and tailor coaching programs quickly and effectively. With a drag-and-drop interface and the powerful Activity Builder, journeys can be crafted responsively to client needs and promote engagement and growth.
Designing and building general and targeted care pathways will promote your coaching business and meet changing needs in response to new demands. Customers will receive high-quality, well-designed coaching that is intuitive and life-enhancing.
