Questions to Ask a New Coach
Questions for a consultation call with a coach you are thinking of hiring, covering training and supervision, what they actually do in a session, fees and contract terms, how they handle clients who stall, and where coaching stops and therapy begins. Written for anyone paying for coaching themselves.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What kind of clients do you work with most?
Why ask it
A gentle opener that quickly shows whether you are their usual case or an experiment. Coaches who name a narrow group tend to have real patterns to draw on, while a list covering everyone often means a thin practice.
What training did you do, and how long was it?
Why ask it
Coaching is unregulated in most places, so anyone can use the title. Ask about hours of training and assessed practice rather than the name of a certificate, since programmes range from a weekend to two years.
Do you have a supervisor or mentor coach you take your own cases to?
Why ask it
Supervision is standard in the serious end of the profession and rare at the other. A coach with no one reviewing their work has no external check on habits that stop being useful.
What actually happens in a session? Walk me through the last one you ran.
Why ask it
Turns a philosophy question into a description you can picture. Listen for the balance between them talking and you talking, because some practices are closer to consulting or teaching than to coaching.
What would we be working on in the first month?
Why ask it
A specific answer shows they have listened to what you said; a generic one about clarity and goals shows they have a fixed programme. It also gives you something to compare against a month in.
How long do clients usually work with you, and what makes them stop?
Why ask it
You want to hear that people leave because they got what they came for. Vagueness here, or a suggestion that everyone stays indefinitely, points at a model designed around retention rather than results.
What is the total cost, and what is the minimum commitment?
Why ask it
Ask for the full figure over the term rather than the per-session price, and check whether a package must be paid up front. Long lock-ins are the thing former clients most often regret agreeing to.
What are the cancellation, rescheduling and refund terms?
Why ask it
The detail that matters when your circumstances change, and the point where a professional practice looks different from an improvised one. Get it in writing before paying anything.
How much contact is included between sessions, and how quickly do you reply?
Why ask it
Between-session access is where packages differ most and where expectations are usually mismatched. Ask whether messaging is genuinely included or a courtesy that quietly disappears after month one.
How do we tell whether this is working?
Why ask it
Push for something observable rather than how you feel after a session, since talking about your problems is enjoyable regardless of progress. Agreeing a check-in point now makes it easier to stop later if nothing has moved.
What happens if I keep not doing what we agreed?
Why ask it
Stalling is the normal case, not the exception, so the answer here describes most of what you are buying. Watch for whether they treat it as information to work with or as a lack of commitment on your part.
Have you had a client relationship that did not work? What did you do?
Why ask it
A coach who can describe a specific mismatch and how they ended it well is describing professional judgment. Claiming it has never happened is either inexperience or unwillingness to admit it.
Where do you draw the line between coaching and therapy?
Why ask it
The single most important safety question. A coach without clinical training who is comfortable working on trauma, grief or depression is operating outside their competence, and a good one will say so and have referrals ready.
What is confidential, and are there exceptions?
Why ask it
Coaching carries no legal privilege, which surprises most clients. Ask specifically about notes, recordings and, if an employer is paying, what gets reported back to them.
If my employer is paying, who is the client?
Why ask it
Sponsored coaching creates a genuine tension over what gets shared. Ask what the sponsor is told, in what detail, and whether you see it first.
Do you do this full time, and how many clients do you carry?
Why ask it
A large roster alongside another job affects preparation and availability. It also tells you whether the practice depends on retaining you, which can quietly shape their advice.
Can I speak to two clients who finished with you a year ago?
Why ask it
Testimonials come from people mid-engagement and mid-enthusiasm. Someone a year out can tell you whether anything stuck, which is the only question that matters.
Can we do a single paid session before I commit to a package?
Why ask it
Their answer is informative regardless. Willingness suggests confidence in the work; a refusal on the grounds that coaching only works over months may be true but is also convenient.
What do you expect from me, and what would make you decline to work with someone?
Why ask it
Coaches with standards turn people away, and hearing the criteria tells you whether you have been assessed or simply sold to. It also sets out the effort involved before you have paid for it.
What did you get wrong early in your career that you handle differently now?
Why ask it
An open question near the end that reveals self-awareness and how they think about their own development. Answers that stay abstract, or turn into more marketing, are worth noticing.
Choosing a coach
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you commit
Talk to three, not one
Almost any competent coach sounds impressive in isolation, because the consultation is designed to feel useful. Three conversations give you a basis for comparison on price, structure and how much they listen.
Write down what you want changed, in observable terms
Bring something you could point at in six months: a conversation you keep avoiding, a decision you have deferred twice, a working pattern you want to break. Vague aims are why coaching often ends without either side able to say whether it worked.
Read the contract before the sales call ends
Check the notice period, the refund position and whether unused sessions expire. Reluctance to send terms in advance is the clearest single warning you will get.
Notice how the consultation is run
A coach who spends most of it asking you questions is showing you the product. One who spends it describing their method, or applying time pressure on a discounted package, is showing you something else.
Coaching, therapy and consulting
What coaching is suited to
Forward-looking work where you know roughly what you want and struggle to act: decisions, habits, difficult conversations, taking on a bigger role. It relies on you being well enough to act between sessions.
When you want a therapist instead
Persistent low mood, anxiety that interferes with daily life, trauma, disordered eating and substance problems need clinical training. A coach who agrees readily to work on these, without a therapist involved, is a reason to stop.
When you actually want a consultant
If the gap is knowledge rather than action, someone who has done the specific thing will help more than a coach asking what you think. Coaching does not supply expertise it does not have.
Common mistakes
Buying a long package on the first call
Twelve-month commitments paid up front are common and hard to exit. A month or a few sessions is enough to learn whether the relationship works, and any coach confident in their work will accept that.
Confusing feeling understood with progress
Being listened to attentively for an hour is pleasant and can continue for a year without anything changing. Set a review point and check it against what you are actually doing differently.
Skipping the credentials because you liked them
Rapport is the strongest predictor of whether you keep going and a weak predictor of whether it helps. Ask about training, supervision and boundaries even when the conversation is going well.
Not saying when it is not working
Coaches cannot correct what they do not know about, and most would rather hear it than lose you quietly. Raising it in a session is also a reasonable test of how they handle challenge.