This episode is the 3rd in my Money Mastery series.
You’ll learn a powerful shift in the approach to your coaching business that will dramatically boost your earning power.
Are You Charging Fees for Coaching Sessions?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever priced your coaching by the session or by the hour.
You’re not alone in that. It’s the typical pricing strategy for new coaches. I raised my hand too.
I used to charge by the month for a certain amount of sessions. Now, that’s slightly more strategic than charging by the hour, but as pricing strategies go, it’s on the low side of effective.
Today, the only time that I charge by the session is for my Strategy Session. You’ve heard me mention this from time to time. It’s a one-off 90-minute session where you can get my expertise to help you choose a smart target audience and coaching niche.
Those are small but crucial steps for your success. Once you have your audience and niche figured out it’s like being let out of mental prison after a long stay. Sunshine. Fresh air. Freedom.
Consider giving yourself a special Christmas present that will be a turning point for you in your coaching business. Grab a Strategy Session with me.
Jil Hunsberger wrote this beautiful testimonial for her session:
I am so thankful I invested in a Strategy Session with Rhonda. I was at a standstill trying to define a viable target market and had spent way too much time and money trying to figure it out on my own with nothing to show for it. In one amazing session with Rhonda, we were able to define a unique target market that I am truly excited about. Rhonda is very good at what she does and I am excited to continue working with her to grow my business in the coming months!
Thank you, Jil. We had a lot of fun in that session!
The Coach Practitioner Approach
So why is my Strategy Session the only time I charge by the session now?
Because when I used to ask for fees for a certain amount of coaching sessions each month it kept me from earning well as a coach.
That by-the-session pricing approach is what I call The Practitioner Approach.
If you think of yourself as a practitioner of coaching then you are selling coaching and your only strategy to earn is to try to convince people to buy coaching from you.
Sound familiar?
That Practitioner Approach is the same thing that therapists do, that body workers do.
There’s a HUGE limitation to selling your services by the session or even a package of sessions.
Because you are putting a price to your time, every prospect and client is mentally calculating the value of each session against the cost.
They keep asking themselves …
do I really need any more of these sessions?
And that’s the problem with selling coaching. More about this in a minute.
Most likely you learned to price your coaching this way from your coach training school. It makes perfect sense when you’re first learning how to coach, you need to fulfill a number of hours of coaching to pass or certify.
If you have finished your coach training … I invite you to STOP that pricing practice now.
It’s time for a wholly different pricing strategy that won’t hold you back from earning well.
And it begins with key mindset shifts:
Shift to Being a Business Owner
First, stop thinking of yourself as a coach practitioner and start thinking of yourself as a business owner. Rather than running a coaching practice, run your business.
I know the whole world of business ownership can feel intimidating. But it can also be hugely empowering.
When you take ownership of your business it will raise your confidence. It puts you in the driver seat of your results.
Stop Selling Coaching
If you’ve been listening to my podcast for a while no doubt you’ve heard me suggest something that at first sounds crazy.
When you talk about coaching and sell people into a coaching program you’re pushing a big rock up a steep hill.
People don’t know that they want coaching. And some people have a negative opinion of coaching or they immediately rule it out for themselves because they think it’s like therapy and expensive.
In their minds, coaching is a nice-to-have for wealthy people instead of something they urgently want right now.
I talk about this in my most popular ever episode called Why is Coaching a Hard Sell?
Yes, you’ve been trained as a coach. Yes, coaching is highly valuable. You and I know it.
But if you’re trying to sell it you’re working very hard to earn very little.
What do I suggest instead?
- Target a unique viable audience and find out what they want so much they’ll invest in you help to get it.
- Then, gear your entire business around serving those clients towards that ultimate outcome.
- Your website is no longer an online brochure about the type of coaching you do but a place your target audience feels at home with a strong conversion process to build trust and a desire to work with you.
Will you still coach your clients? Yes, because coaching is the main skill in your toolbox. But you’re no longer selling coaching – something people don’t readily buy.
And if you create a long-term private program that helps that audience reach their ultimate outcome one milestone at a time, you can charge much higher fees. And that means:
- You need far fewer clients each year.
- You’ll do less marketing to find and enroll them.
- You’ll do deeper work with each client.
- You’ll never have to try to convince people to buy coaching ever again.
Your target audience will be inspired to enroll because you’ve tailor made a program that helps them overcome specific obstacles while helping them reach their big goal.
They trust you because you’ve bothered to research what they want, what’s in the way and then put a clear pathway together to help them reach what’s been unreachable on their own.
And because they are investing in a whole program up front and it has milestones that get them where they want to go, they are not thinking about the money and calculating value. They are fully focused on the transformation.
And we all know that clients focused on their own transformation make greater leaps.
So, are you ready to make these shifts? I double dog dare you to try it. Get the word “coach” and “coaching” out of your vocabulary, off of your website. You’ll be amazed how things will change for you.
And if you need help to make these shifts in mindset and approach and get everything set up in your business to make enrolling great clients easy for you, check out my VIP Coaching Business Breakthrough program.
In the Next Episode: Coach, Is It Time to Give Yourself a Raise?