What does it mean when prospects baulk at your coaching fees? Perhaps they say they know your fees are fair, but they just don’t have the cash right now – surely you understand. Maybe they are overcome with a coughing spell, excuse themselves and never return. Or they just burst into laughter and say you must be kidding. Fine. But what does it really mean?

Coaching Is not a Commodity

The fact is that if anything is not a commodity, it is coaching. Standards and credentials are still not well established. And to make things trickier, coaching is new to most people so they don’t have a sense of what is a reasonable fee. It’s a little like people’s reactions to the cost of a custom made suit or piece of handmade fine jewelry. We live in an era of mass produced items, sold in highly competitive marketplaces. We buy retail and wholesalers wheel and deal to deliver manufactured goods at the lowest possible price.

If Prospects Question Your Coaching Fees, You Have not Proven Your Worth

But the factors mentioned in the previous paragraph just exacerbate problem. The real issue is that you have not proven your worth, and so your prospect naturally questions your coaching fees. The fundamental questions are: what problem are you helping your client to overcome and what is the value to your client of their overcoming that problem? Comparing the value of the fix to your fees, does it seem worth it? So either you have not identified an important enough problem, you have not helped your client establish a high enough value for overcoming the problem, your client does not need your help, or your client does not believe that you can help enough to have them solve their problem. Now go back, work through those four questions and make sure you have established the right answer, both in your own mind and in the mind of your client.

Value-based Coaching Fees May Be the Fairest Fees of All

Now if you really want to put money where your mouth is try using value-based coaching fees. Don’t determine your fees based on your price per session, or your price per hour. Help your client put a hard value on the solution you are helping them achieve. Then negotiate a percentage of that value that they are willing to invest to get the solution. You can either take that percentage based on the value of the actual final outcome, or you can take a smaller percentage upfront based on your client’s estimated value. Obviously, the second choice is preferred because this fee can be paid in advance; putting pressure on the client to take the coaching seriously, and assuring that you will get your coaching fee. Think about it and maybe give it a try. But don’t blame your client for thinking your fees are too high.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

It might seem reasonable for shorter coaching engagements to result in lower total coaching fees. But you need to remember that your clients hire you to help them to achieve breakthroughs and results. If you agree to coach a client to achieve certain goals in, say, three months that would normally take six months to achieve, it will require much more commitment and much more effort on their part and yours to achieve the goal in the shorter time period, and the client needs to compensate you accordingly.

Don’t Set Your Client up for Disappointment

If your prospective clients says “Let’s start with three months, and continue with three more months if necessary.” You need to lay out a plan to get the job done in three months. The reason is that either your client will not achieve their goal in three months and think that coaching doesn’t work, or they will achieve their goal, and run the risk of falling back into their old ways without your support.

Let Your Coaching Fees Reflect the Intensity of Your Program and Your Client’s Commitment

As the timeframe of your coaching program is shortened, both you and your client must be committed to work more intensely, and higher fees are fair for you and your client. For example, if your client asks to achieve, in three months, a goal that would be reasonable to achieve in 6 months, your client should be prepared to dedicate four to five times more hours and effort to achieving the goal, you should plan on spending three times the hours and effort, your coaching fees should be at least three times the regular monthly rate, and you should include a maintenance coaching relationship to assure that new behavior is fully established.

Making the Argument for Longer Rather than Shorter Coaching Engagements

Once you realize the greater risk of failure, the possible dissatisfaction of your client with you and with coaching, and the much higher coaching fees associated with shorter coaching engagements, it is clear that longer rather than shorter engagements probably best serve your client. For this reason, I suggest that you consider moving from six month to twelve month programs. Not only will your clients have a greater probability for success, but you will be able to help them achieve one major breakthrough after another during the longer engagement period.

To learn more about how to generate an endless wave of high paying coaching clients, get your FREE Instant Access to our “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit when you go HERE.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

Setting and justifying coaching fees for business coaching can be much simpler than for personal coaching. In business, people are used to justifying decisions using return on investment calculations based on numbers from accounting. In our personal lives, many decisions are made by default, driven by emotions and often “against our better judgment.” But you can still justify your coaching fees based on intangibles. Here’s how.

The Cost of Pain and the Benefits of Pleasure

Every decision that humans make is intended to move them away from pain and toward pleasure. There is always a real cost to staying in pain and always a real benefit to moving toward pleasure. For example, your client’s productivity at work suffers when they are unhappy. This represents a real loss that can be valued in dollars and cents. The problem is that most people aren’t used to putting a price tag on things like unhappiness.

Tap into Your Prospect’s Emotions to Justify Your Coaching Fees

One way to approach this is to help your prospect to get into their negative emotional state, then help them move to the positive target state, and finally ask them what it would be worth to them to make the positive state their norm.

You would like to hear your prospect say something like “It would be priceless!” But still this might not get them to open their wallet. One approach is to help them compare the cost and value of your coaching with the cost and value of other choices they are used to making. For example, comparing the relative satisfaction they would get from buying a new car with the relative satisfaction of learning how to have real peace in their home. This will give them a basis for judging your coaching fees.

Fear Is Always an Unspoken Objection

Even if you are able to get your client to understand the value they can receive from your coaching. They may still object to your proposed coaching fee. In this case, you need to respond to your prospects unspoken objection: fear.

Whether they are afraid that your coaching will not be effective, or that they don’t have what it takes to get the results they are seeking, their fear must be addressed. By explaining your coaching process, by helping to confront their fear and talking them through it, or by sharing the success of other clients, you need to explicitly address their fear. If you do this and the other steps outlined above, your prospects will be more comfortable with your coaching fees, and you should see more of your prospects become your clients.

SPECIAL BONUS — If you would like step-by-step blueprints for generating a massive income from high paying coaching clients, I invite you to claim your FREE ACCESS to the “Life Coach Salary Secrets” video toolkit. Go HERE to get it FREE.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

Sometimes prospective clients pushback on your coaching fees because they are not clear what value they can expect to receive for their investment in your coaching. So it is important, particularly in business coaching, to know how to quantify the return on investment (ROI) that your client can expect.

Quantify the Benefits Your Client Can Expect from Coaching

In general, the coach’s role is to help their clients improve some aspect of their lives. This can be the client’s professional productivity, happiness or health. Every improvement brings a benefit. Every failure to improve brings a cost.

For example, let’s talk about a health coach who helps a man quit smoking for a fee. There are directly displaceable costs equal to the cost of the cigarettes that the man no longer buys. There are avoided costs related to the medical bills the man will avoid since he no longer smokes. Finally, there are less-tangible costs like the cost of feeling bad if the man continued to smoke. Similarly, you can consider direct benefits, indirect benefits and less-tangible benefits.

Ask your prospective client to estimate these costs and benefits. Then ask them to identify the part of each that they feel very comfortable they will actually achieve through your coaching.

Justify Fees with Benefits Received and Costs Avoided

As you discuss your coaching fees with your client remind them of the costs and benefits that they feel comfortable they will avoid and receive. The return on an investment in coaching is very favorable compared to most investments. If this all seems a little complicated, keep in mind that this is the standard way business decisions are made.

Setting Your Coaching Fees Based on Estimated ROI

As you become more comfortable with the ROI process, consider using it as a method for setting your coaching fee for a particular client. After you and your prospect have estimated the costs to be avoided and benefits to be received, ask your prospective client to pick a fair investment to get the return that the client feels comfortable they will receive. This investment amount becomes your fee and this approach is known as value based pricing. You might be surprised how much more your client is happy to pay you than the coaching fees you were planning to request.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works. If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

When figuring coaching fees, it is easy to think that price is the basis your prospective client uses in selecting you as their coach. If the prospect pushes back and says “your fees are too high” it is tempting to just lower your proposed fees to get the engagement. Don’t do it. Don’t think of your coaching as a commodity. That is the easiest way to go broke in coaching.

What’s a Commodity, and Why You Don’t Want to Be One

Webster’s defines a commodity as “a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins.” Commodities of a particular type, crude oil versus winter wheat for example, are distinguished only on price. If you compete solely based on the size of your coaching fees, you are treating your coaching as a commodity. And since there is always someone willing to settle for lower margins, you have decided to go broke as a coach.

The Impact You Have on Your Client Determines the Worth of Your Coaching

The true worth of your coaching is determined by your client and the impact that your coaching has on them. For example, let’s say you have two clients. The first makes $250,000 per year. The second makes $25,000 per year. Through your coaching, each client increases their income by 10%. Your coaching is worth ten times more to the first client than to the second. Now you can set any particular coaching fee based on a fixed hourly rate, on a percent of increase in client income, or you can give your services away, but your coaching services are not a commodity.

Prospective Clients Actually Judge Your Quality Based on Your Coaching Fees

People often judge the value of something based on its price. This is true of fashion and automobiles, and it is also true of services like coaching. Ironically, a client may actually be more motivated to follow your coaching and get better results, simply because your coaching fees are higher, and they want to make sure that they get their money’s worth.

So the next time you are tempted to lower you fees just to get a coaching engagement, don’t!

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coach Salary Secrets” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your Life Coach Salary Secrets.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

A lot of coaches wonder what they have to do to get people to pay their coaching fees. Coaching is not a tangible commodity. In fact, one of my friends and mentors says we are in the business of selling, “Unicorns and Rainbows.” Personally, it’s hard to imagine anyone paying fees for a dream. But they will if they believe the coaching they receive will turn their dreams into a reality.

Paying Coaching Fees Doesn’t Guarantee Results

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This is often the most difficult part of the coaching enrollment process. Enrolling in coaching does not guarantee success. People are people, and if someone really wants to sabotage their life they can also sabotage their coaching process.

How Do You Help Your Clients Get The Most Bang For Their Buck?

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1. Make sure you are upfront with your coaching clients regarding their responsibility in the coaching relationship. Your clients must agree to be open to the coaching. Even when they don’t agree, to at least consider looking at their situation from a different view.
2. Have your clients show up ready to work. You are not there to spoon feed your clients. Have them arrive at their session prepared with a result they want to achieve.
3. Warn your clients that at some time they will want to quit, feel like they don’t need you, or become otherwise disenchanted with the idea of coaching. Make sure you don’t take this personally, and help your clients navigate through this challenge so they can get the result which is just waiting on the other side.

While some people will initially pay coaching fees for someone to be their friend, most people want results. Show up with that focus each session, and make sure your clients do as well. One technique to anchor the call is to ask your client at the end of their session, “What was the most valuable part of this session for you?” Take this feedback and continue to sharpen your own skills so you will be able to deliver what your clients value.

SPECIAL BONUS — If you would like step-by-step blueprints for generating a massive income from high paying coaching clients, I invite you to claim your FREE ACCESS to the “Life Coach Salary Secrets” video toolkit. Go HERE to get it FREE.

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business

In your life coaching business, use benefits to get your potential client excited to pay your coaching fees. Many coaches, when building their life coaching business, think they are already doing that. Are they? More often than not, most do not use the benefits effectively enough. This is a very important skill. Why? So you can command the coaching fees you deserve in your life coaching business.

How To Get Your Client To Pay Your Coaching Fees: Use The Benefits Of Your Life Coaching Business That THEY Are Interested In

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Many coaches who start a life coaching business, mistakenly sell the benefits to the client that the coach thinks are important. How do you know what benefits the potential coaching client is interested in paying for in your coaching fees? First, you must ask them. Second, you must listen to their answer. This is the reason we have two ears and one mouth. Many coaches could double their coaching fees and enrollments by listening better. Learn what benefits interest your potential client and add to the perceived value of your coaching fees. Once you know what those benefits are, share with them how your life coaching business can help them enjoy those benefits.

Use One Of Two Kinds Of Benefits To Get Your Prospective Client Excited To Pay Your Life Coaching Business Coaching Fees

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There are two types of benefits in your life coaching business. The two types are direct benefits and indirect benefits. Direct benefits you can hear, touch or see. When you purchase a car, one direct benefit could be a satellite radio. An indirect benefit is one that you would receive as a result of having the car. For example, you might feel more successful in a convertible. Which type of benefit is more important to get your potential client excited about paying your coaching fees? The one that the prospective client of your life coaching business feels is more important.

Kris Thompson
JTS Advisors Strategy Coach

Technorati Tags: coaching fees, Life Coaching Business