Master the Mindset to Charge More For Your Coaching Sessions
A lot of coaches have great skills and are good at what they do. But is that sufficient to pay back their business expenses and keep their business afloat?
Very often, new coaches don’t charge enough for their services, which will eventually lead them to max out on the time they spend coaching and drive them to overwhelm and financial stress.
Here are five mindset shifts that saved my business, enabled me to get a consistent income for myself and generated an ever-growing profit for my business.
1) I Am Worthy of Charging Higher Prices
Often, when someone resists putting a big price tag on their services, it almost always boils down to a self-worth issue.
It will be easier for you to raise your prices once you increase the feeling that you are worthy of receiving higher compensation for your work. Then, you’ll appeal to new clients who are attracted to entrepreneurs in that price range.
How do you increase your self-worth?
At the end of each day, list three ways you bring value into the world (it could be related to your business or your personal life). Then, think of someone you admire, and think about how much they would charge if they were offering your services.
2) Money is Simply an Exchange of Value
In my corporate career, I often felt like people judged me on what I had (or didn’t have). One of my hobbies back then was to give a lomilomi massage. While I loved giving free massages to my friends, I quickly realized it energetically drained me. That’s when I understood the concept of exchange of energy. Money is simply there so that there is an exchange for the value of your services.
In order to debunk subconscious belief systems preventing you from raising your prices, ask yourself:
- Do I pay attention to what other people have (or don’t have) compared to me?
- Do I think it’s unethical to be charging a lot of money? Do I believe I can help more people if my prices are more affordable? Do I think that I can’t possibly charge that much because I am not an expert?
Then, take a piece of paper or your journal and reflect on your answers. In your past, were there some examples that led you to feel that way about life? Note down everything that comes to mind until you have an epiphany.
3) You Get Better as a Coach and Have Better Clients When You Charge More
One woman I recently spoke to told me she felt the clients she was attracting at a low price were very demanding and not respectful of her time, often canceling their session at the last minute. They ended up not getting results because they weren’t motivated to do the work.
Once she raised the prices of her programs, she found that higher-paying clients were more serious about their work together, paid on time, did the work, and respected her time and expertise.
When I was under-charging, I also often felt resentful of clients. Now that I charge premium prices, it invites me to be even better as a coach and deliver amazing customer experience.
Reflect now on the type of clients you have been attracting lately. What type of behavior do you wish wasn’t happening? What type of behavior do you wish you could see instead if they were your ideal client?
4) Think Results, Not Time
The only thing your customers care about is transformation, so charge by the value you provide. Ask current and past clients what they achieved as a result of your work together.
One of my past clients is a health coach, helping women to have healthy pregnancies. When my client realized that she helped her clients save about $40,000 in medical bills for invasive fertility treatments, suddenly charging $5,000 wasn’t hard anymore!
Ask yourself how much it would cost your potential client NOT to invest in your services?
5) You Only Have 24 Hours in a Day
As a coach, you spend time to deliver your services to your clients.
You have a limited amount of time and energy available so avoiding the overwhelm zone is critical if you want to keep providing a high quality service.
Charging bigger fees allows you to feel safe with your finances while freeing up your time, allowing you to keep your sanity.
Know your numbers:
- How many sessions and sales calls can you handle in a week?
- How many hours do you spend on business tasks per week?
- Would you reach your financial goal if you maxed out on your number of clients at your current price point?
Gaelle Lecourt (France)
Gaelle Lecourt mentors women to create thriving online coaching businesses so they can have the financial and personal freedom to do what they love while traveling anywhere in the world. Leading by example, Gaelle lives the digital nomad (or laptop) lifestyle. After 10 years of an international corporate career, she completely redesigned her life in 2014, which included starting an online coaching business so that she could live between the United States, France, and Mexico. She helps customers successfully sign up their first online high-paying clients after they graduate or get certified from a coaching school or program.
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Hi Gaelle,
This is a great article because it addressees a much neglected topic. (as in everybody thinks about it but no one talks about it openly,) Congratulations. I am the developer of the Job Hunter’s Edge or JHE and it may have some relevance to this topic. That is, if you have a waiting line for one’s service, pricing is less of a challenge. I have invited coaches to look at JHE to see if they can use it to recruit more clients. I allow them to use if for a time without charge. This appears to work quite well. Thanks, Dale.
Annual earnings: Global figures for 2018
Executive Coaches:
$104,700 USD, up from the $90 – 95K range the last three years.
This information is from the Annual Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey
Executive Coaches:
$386 USD per hour, up from the $350-$360 range the last three years.