How do people make buying decisions? Is it always about price?
If you’re in the grocery store and your primary goal is to save on groceries then you will look at the price of each similar product and choose the least expensive.
Someone else with different priorities will read the label to see what is in the product and choose that way. Still, others will be attracted by packaging or brand.
The same will be true of your coaching prospects:
- Some are price conscious.
- Some take cues from how you show up in the world and make decisions based on their intuition or gut.
- Some will compare all possible service providers and make their decision analytically.
The question becomes — WHO do you want to attract? The person who decides everything by price or the person who is guided by a more holistic decision?
I want to work with people who fit me and who feel I and my program are a good fit for them. My goal is to attract my ideal clients.
What about you?
Misconceptions About Coaching Prices and Clients
Hey Coaches!
When I started my coaching business, I thought my priority was to attract as many clients as possible. I wanted to just enroll them in by the dozens. Coach and coach and coach anyone, anytime, on any topic. It turns out that was not a good goal for me.
I also thought that I would need to price my services based on “what the market would bear.” Surely, there was some dollar per hour figure I needed to stay below if I wanted to be competitive with other coaches? And, surely, I should put that $ figure on my website! Right?
But I found out something fascinating and that is this … each service entrepreneur has the opportunity to create their own marketplace. This is what I teach coaches to do.
YOU can create your own market and not have to compete with other coaches or sell coaching sessions for low prices just to get clients.
Coach, Examine Your Money Values
The way this realization first came to me is when I heard of a coach that was charging $1500 per session and regularly enrolling clients at that price. This was in the early 2000s, y’a’ll.
Then, I heard about a coach who was not charging by the session at all but by the year instead — this guy was enrolling clients into a $100,000 per year coaching program! His clients were CEOs of corporations. And doesn’t that make sense that those people might be attracted to something exclusive like that.
That sounded highfalutin to me, but it made me wonder … and later on I fell in with a group of people marketing to coaches in joint venture campaigns and these people were all going for 7 figure incomes. But I didn’t love the way they got there. It just didn’t fit my world view so I got off the train.
All of this caused me to closely examine my money and lifestyle values. I had to look hard at what is most important to me and to stop following the leader.
I had to decide who I really wanted to serve and how I wanted to serve them. I didn’t want to sell a bunch of online programs that few people do anything with. I want to make a difference one person at a time. And I knew that I couldn’t serve hundreds of clients well each year.
For me earning well is about being able to take good care of myself and my family. I didn’t want to run myself into the ground selling inconsequential stuff or doing short term coaching with just anyone.
So what is important to you in your business?
Examine your money and lifestyle values.
- What will truly make you happy?
- Decide what kind of clients you most want to attract, and
- Build your coaching business in a way that supports those specific values
5 Powerful Questions to Decide Whether to Post Prices on Your Coaching Website
So now, let’s get back to this: Should your prices be posted on your coaching website?
It depends on what you really want:
Who is your ideal client?
What drives their purchase decisions?
How deeply do you want to serve your clients?
Are you selling coaching sessions?
Or do you want to offer a unique 1:1 program of your own design?
If you are on the end of the pricing and earning continuum where you want to be in competition with other coaches and sell coaching sessions, then, YES, post your prices on your website.
But if you want …
To only attract ideal clients who are serious about investing in themselves and who make decisions from a more holistic place where they are looking for the best fit for them.
And, you want to create your own market by offering a Signature Program for your idea clients with specific outcomes based on their big problems and goals (rather than selling coaching sessions)
… then do NOT post your prices for your Signature Program on your website.
NOTE: I offer a single Nail Your Niche Strategy Session on my website and I do post the price there. The reason that I do is that the offer is a stand-alone session for one single outcome — deciding your niche.
It’s something I mention when educating coaches about niching in my podcast. People come looking for that session on my site already knowing they want it and the price serves to close the sale.
Only you can decide if posting your prices for each offer is right for you. It depends on what you want and who you’re trying to attract.
Think it through!
