How to politely limit time on phone coaching calls?

Your time is valuable and you need to be in control of your conversation. Yes you will need to get off the phone politely....I've got another client call coming up is appropriate.

I agree with both comments above. Let them fill the form so you can get ready with the answer. If he still goes above 30 min, let him know that other student/client call is coming up.

I used to deal with Marc Emery. He would unceremoniously hang up on people who couldn't take a hint. His sales literature stated very clearly this could happen.

While I don't recommend that (Marc was deluged with idiots), I would be firm when the time is up. Tell people at the start of the call that they are on the clock and if they want to go over you will have to charge accordingly.

Get a timer with a loud alarm!

When I'm on a "timed" call, the last five minutes I will ask the person "we have 5 minutes left, what is your last question" Works good for me so they are notified of a timeline and you stay in control of your time.

Do a 10 minute warning, and be clear at the beginning and before the call.

You could always blame a robot...

(i.e. this call is through a tracking service that will automatically terminate at 30 minutes... I find it annoying as well, but that's life I guess, let's make the most of the time we have)

I imagine this approach would be better for people who are too timid or otherwise unable to control their clients.

Just say: "I've got time for one more question before we wrap this up...."

Always remind them beforehand the limit of the call and that they can have more time for $xxx, remind them again when the call starts, when you hit your time, just politely tell them the time is up and ask if they would like to continue for your price

Want to incentivize the client to be the one to watch the clock?

You could always add a steep per-minute charge for any overage... of course, that could have unintended consequences with poor communication as well, so good communication is still the key.

This is actually a good way to prepare the person you're talking to to wrap it up. You don't want to be rude, the main idea is to let them know it's time to hang up soon and you need to be polite when doing it. And your approach seems to be a good way to do just that.

hey thanks everyone, good dialogue and great insights from you all; that's a big help; I like the idea of doing 5/10 minute warnings, maybe have my casio travel alarm clock set to beep when time's up, so they hear it...good example w/sopranos

it's odd being on the other side of it, and having to enforce time limits...from my perspective, whenever I pay a professional (lawyer, consultant) for a 30- or 60-minute call I always respect their time and end on time....when I've hired people for time, toward end of call I always say something like, "thanks for all your great ideas, you've been a big help, I know we're out of time now, so thank you"...and end it without them having to. but when I do coaching calls, virtually nobody does that and they want to mooch more time.

I think having big clear written guidelines communicated to them ahead of time will help, I do say that in writing, eg '30 minutes means 30 minutes not 45 minutes', maybe i need to use larger font, lol. Completely agree re leveraging, I only add in rare a single coaching call as a bonus for buyers of some of my high-end products.

start on time, end on time is what professionals do...thanks for all the great ideas in the thread here, I'll try them

Just be straight up.

Your time is valuable, you have to value it.

There is no nice way to do it

The people I coach through the ASM process (on joining ASM) all get coaching from me, personally.

In order to prevent the problem you mention, i make everbody aware that the coaching call will last 45 mins max. that there is a schedule and that this schedule is full for each slot.

I let them know in advance that they cannot go over this time as it eats into someone else's time.

Also 5 minutes before the due end time, I let them know that we have a couple of minutes left before we need to end.

Never, ever had anyone go over this. Works perfectly for me.

Hope this helps.

Hi Ken,

At the beginning of the call, lay out the details to drill them home. Example; at 9 PM you have to go, because you have another call. Most folks are super aware of this and for those who aren't, well, you gotta go. People almost always get it unless they aren't busy business folk and if they are, they need - and you can keep learning - about a thing called posture

Doing great Ken, keep offering that value, just respect your time, your business and your authority, by ending calls on the minute, to free up your time for your other clients or for your other business-growing ventures. You really can't go wrong by being prompt, and by ending calls when they need to be ended. Just cut them off if need be, at 8:59 and say, "This was a really great call but I need to go as I have one schedule at 9 PM", even if you don't. Works every time. And the cool thing is, you're setting up a vacuum for more clients to fill that 9 PM slot

Tweeting from Bali.

Ryan

Use an Up Front Contract at the beginning of the call:

"So today you understand is a free coaching call; because it's free, our time is limited to 30 minutes. Do you understand that? ...OK. What this means is that as we get to about 27 minutes, I am going to let you know that either we need to wrap this question up, or if we just started on a new question, that it will have to be a quick answer. Does this make sense?"

Now set your timer--make it an audible one so they hear the beep--and when it goes off you can make disappointed noises, but also say, "Oh dear. Well you heard the timer...we've got just a few minutes left. Do you want to continue with this question, or ask one final one?"

and if they want more time with you:

"I appreciate that. Sounds like you are getting a lot of value from our talk. Well, we could continue talking now (or later if you do have another call, but be specific), and the rate for that is $X. That gives us Y more time together. Would you like to do that?"

Keep in mind that you as the FREE service provider don't owe them anything. You have given them your time and if they don't really value that, or are unable to afford more time with you after the free period, you are not responsible for that. If they found your conversation valuable, it's up to them to get the money to continue to receive the benefit of your expertise.

The key is to make them understand the importance of your communication protocol during the call. Unless they realize it, it is an usual scenario that any number of hours will seem insufficient for them and without any significant outcome regardless of you doing your best during the call. So it is wastage of time for both.

The protocol is that you being a coach are going to ask questions to the client and getting the case from the answers given by client to your questions. Before the actual call, you may have a brief pilot call or a written communication for getting the brief from the client and about the protocol explaining both it's steps and the importance of it during the call that is going to happen.

This process produces more from a stipulated time and you may remind about how much time is remained for Q & A session. Remember however that last 15 minutes or so should be for discussing about the probable solutions for the things that client is seeking advice for.

Even if the call exceeds about 5 minutes or so and you won't mind it but bring it to client's attention afterwards, it is only going to increase your goodwill.