Pricing coaching services can be one of the most difficult parts of being a coach. There are a lot of factors that go into pricing, and it can be hard to balance them all. Countless articles and calculators give you formulas for how to price your coaching services and encourage you to charge what you’re worth, but sometimes it’s easier said than done.
At the end of the day, you need to charge what works for you, not what other people tell you to charge. Let’s look at how to balance charging what you are worth and realistically pricing your coaching services.
How to Price Your Coaching Program
In a coaching relationship, there are two parties: you and your coaching client. When it comes to the price of coaching services, you both have different priorities and mindsets.
As the coach, your pricing needs to do a lot more than just cover your business and personal bills; it needs to provide you with a profit. This profit is essential for growing your coaching business. It will allow you to invest in staff or software to take some tasks off your plate so that you have more time to take on more coaching clients and to create new coaching programs.
You also want to charge a price that makes coaching worth your while. When you feel like you are undercharging, every frustration is compounded because you spend the whole time feeling like, I don’t get paid enough for this! This is often the first sign that you are undercharging. It is a lot easier to be patient when you charge what you feel you’re worth because your customer paying your prices show that they value your expertise at least as much as you do.
From your coaching client’s perspective, they don’t necessarily want the cheapest coach they can find. The online space is full of scams, so consumers don’t trust something that sounds too good to be true. You may have experienced this before where something seemed too cheap for what they were offering.
Different types of coaching clients will have different price ranges where the price fits their internal value of your coaching offer. This will be based on:
- The value of solving the problem
- Their budget
- The certainty of success
- Their market research
This means you don’t have to be the cheapest available option – you just need to provide what your ideal coaching client views as good value. You don’t need to price your coaching services cheaper than your competitors; your ideal coaching clients will pay more if they believe your coaching program gives them the best chance of success.
What Is Your Coaching Program Worth?
For those who struggle with imposter syndrome, you’ll be glad to know that your self-worth is barely a factor. The main factor is what your ideal coaching clients think your coaching program is worth. This will vary considerably depending on your ideal coaching client. Let’s say you’re a career coach, for example, if your ideal coaching clients are corporate executives, your coaching program price will be a lot higher than if your ideal coaching clients are young adults who are starting their careers.
The main factors to the different worth in this scenario will be their budget and the value of the problem you are solving. Corporate executives will have much higher budgets, and career progression or pay rises are worth tens of thousands. Young adults who are starting their careers will have smaller budgets, and they may not see the value in coaching. Sure, they may find it helpful to have someone help them navigate the adjustment to full-time work, but they will likely view it as an added extra rather than a necessity.
The two other factors we discussed above will also play a large part in how your ideal coaching clients value your coaching program. They were the certainty of success and market research.
When people purchase products and services, they are not actually buying the product or service; they are purchasing the results they believe it will bring. This is why the value of the results your coaching clients can achieve by working with you is a huge factor in your course pricing. However, your ideal coaching clients need to be certain that they will achieve those results. There are a lot of people out there making bold claims on the internet; you need to back up what you claim.
This happens in two parts. First, you need to create a coaching program tailored to your ideal coaching client. It needs to identify every possible barrier to success your ideal coaching clients will deal with and every problem they may experience implementing what they learn from your coaching program. When you are prepared to help your ideal coaching clients overcome that, you increase the chances that your clients will succeed.
The second part is to communicate the extra diligence you have put into your coaching program when you are marketing your course. Your ideal coaching clients will be reading your landing page with “what if” questions in their minds. For example, a finance coach’s ideal coaching client may wonder:
- What if I struggle to remember when payments are due?
- What if an unexpected expense occurs during the coaching program?
- What if my partner is not fully on board with my financial goals?
- What if I don’t want to sacrifice my social life?
- What if birthdays/Christmas/holidays fall during the coaching period?
You don’t want them to have any “what ifs” by the time they see the price of your coaching program. That means your coaching program landing page needs to show exactly how you can help them overcome these obstacles. Whether that be through a list of low-cost and no-cost socialising options or setting up direct debits for your bills and savings during your first coaching call.
Finally, you need to acknowledge that your ideal coaching clients will shop around when choosing a coach. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been following you on Instagram or subscribed to your email list; they will take a look at what other coaches in your industry are offering before they make a decision. This doesn’t mean you can’t charge more than other coaches. It just means it needs to be clear why you charge more than other coaches. That reason may be your experience, the format of your coaching program, your inclusions or higher certainty of success. It may be a combination of them, just make sure that your value for money is competitive when compared to other coaches.