I recently hosted a three week summit to help coaches increase their fees (and went with the very original title; “The Command Higher Coaching Fees Summit”). Now that I’ve had time to reflect on the event, I want to share what I learned.
(If you have no desire to charge more than you’re currently charging, save a few minutes and do something else. But if that little voice is telling you that you need to increase your fees, read on …)
I won’t go into the many reasons why coaches need to charge more, but in a nutshell it means greater commitment from the clients, and less burn out and frustration for the coaches (I believe it was Michael Beckwith who said; “You can’t light up the world if you’re worried about your lights staying on” … or something to that effect).
Most coaches “get” the need to raise their fees, so the question then becomes HOW can they do it. Here are my suggestions:
1) Convince Your #1 Critic
The biggest hurdle that you face regarding your fees isn’t with potential clients, but with that person who’s staring back at you in the mirror when you’re brushing your pearly whites. Once you convince that bugger to do it, the rest is easy.
If you’re stuck and just can’t do it, look at your offerings and make sure you’re confident in the value that you’re providing. I raise my fees several times a year (I’m now 600% over what I was originally charging when I first became a coach), but I’m able to do that because I’m confident in the value that I’m bringing to the marketplace.
Once you get clear on what you offer, and the results that you provide, raising your fees becomes easier.
2) Get Clarity On Who Your Ideal Client Is
If you don’t know who your ideal client is, it’s tough to command high coaching fees. You have to get super-clear on this ASAP! I provide a video exercise that makes this easy, and you can get it (and an hour of free video training) at www.AccelerateForClients.com.
3) Get Clear On What Problem You’re Solving
Part of defining your ideal client is knowing what he or she’s biggest problem is. What are you going to solve for your clients? Once you pinpoint a pressing problem, it becomes easier to charge higher fees – since most people are willing to pay to solve whatever it is that’s keeping them up at night.
4)Make Sure You’re Targeting the Right Crowd
You could be the best coach in the world, with the greatest offering, but if you aren’t fishing in the right pond it’ll do no good. I see this a lot – coaches putting a ton of time and energy into getting the word out there, but they’re in the completely wrong place!
5)Just Do It!
This sounds simplistic and common sense, but push ahead and make those changes. Edit your website (if your prices are posted publicly) and change your paperwork to reflect the higher fees before your mind has a chance to talk you out of it.
In every single conversation with a potential client, confidently put that price out there. It’ll become easier the more you do it (one of my clients recently increased his fees, and was amazed at how easy it was after the 3rd conversation that he had with others about his new rates).
About the coaching fees summit, I want to take the opportunity to thank the people who took part in the summit as interviewees, attendees, and also my brother Matt, who handled editing the interviews like the pro he is (if you need someone to edit your podcast, check his services out at www.PodAssist.com).
The summit was a lot of work, but getting messages like this from coaches who listened in make it all worthwhile, and I’ll continue to push to ensure that coaches are paid for the value that they bring to the world!
