56: Are You Turning Away Coaching Clients with Your Pricing?

This episode is the 4th in my Money Mastery series. I’ll have the link to the whole series so far on the show notes, which you can find at prosperouscoach.com/56. In this episode 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 or end of the year present that will be a turning point for you in your coaching business. Grab a Strategy Session with me. There are two weeks left this year to invest in a Strategy Session before the price goes up in 2020.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!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. Read about shifting from being a coach practitioner to being a business owner.