Hi, so today's topic is five ways to raise your prices as an executive coach. And the reason I wanted to talk about this today is that pricing is a serious hot button for coaches. My theory about why it's such a hot button. Is that there is a hefty dose of altruism in most coaches. We're here to help.
We want to positively impact our coaches in the world. And many of us carry some old stories about money and money, particularly being associated with attributes like greed or being power hungry. And as coaches, these are things that we don't associate with ourselves or that we don't want to associate with ourselves.
So I'm here firstly to say that wanting to be well paid for your work as a coach is not greedy. It is not unethical. In fact, it is very good business sense because unless you're profitable and sustainable, you won't be able to do all the good work you want to do in the world. And also you are allowed to make money from your business just because you want to.
And because that's your goal. So for all my permission seekers out there, consider this permission to have a meaningful service oriented business and to make money doing it. So when it comes to your overall pricing strategies, I, and I go into this in a lot more detail in my digital course, the Corporate to Coach Blueprint.
There are three factors at play when you are picking your pricing strategy for any given opportunity. The first factor is coach factors. And those are things like your experience, your comfort, asking to be paid your mindset, your business now. All of that. The second factor is client factors, and this relates to the client's experience in paying for coaching or something similar.
It's their budgets and it's their financial decision makers. Then we have market factors as the third factor and market factors include things like standard rates that coaching goes for in the geographical area or the industry. It's exposure to things like the bulk coaching platforms and it's acceptance of the value of coaching in the market in which you're playing.
So those are the things that go into our overall pricing strategy at a high level. Now I want to share today, five things. That you can control when it comes to increasing your prices and they all fit within the coach factors, part of our pricing model, because really when you think about what we can influence, we can't really influence the client or the market in the same way that we can influence ourselves.
So our five, or actually there are six factors that I'm going to introduce. Consider the sixth, the bonus. That I want to share, and these are things you can control that will help you to increase your prices. So predictably, because I'm a coach, the first thing you need to do is fix your mindset. I'm sure you're groaning, but I'm very serious.
When it comes to pricing, the biggest thing that gets in the way is mindset. And the biggest mindset factor that pops up is worthiness. So just take a moment. Have you ever stopped to say, Hmm, I don't know if I'm really worth this amount that I'm charging my client. If you are, and if you do question your worth when it comes to pricing yourself, or if you think you might question your worth, if you were to increase your prices, stop it.
We aren't pricing you, the human being, that's the first thing to remember. What we're doing is we're pricing the value of a service that you provide. So I want to normalize, you will absolutely shudder when you think of people reading your pricing sheet, you will feel awkward when you tell them what you charge.
I still do, right? I've felt uncomfortable. Sometimes I still do. And to be honest, sometimes people do read my prices and they go. Oh my God, I can't possibly pay that. And that is okay. We get to decide, right? We get to be uncomfortable. We get to push on anyway. And what I can say is that when you keep doing it, you stick with your pricing, the discomfort goes away.
And when the discomfort goes away, the lovely benefit that comes with that is that people start reacting to your pricing in a different way. They don't read your discomfort and then feel uncomfortable themselves that perhaps they won't get the value out of this product. What they realize is that you're comfortable in your pricing and they feel comfortable then that you can deliver the service to them that they hope will give them the value that they want.
So mindset. As coaches, I'm sure you've got a lot of tools in your toolkit, but I would encourage you to think deeply about what are your automatic negative thoughts when it comes to pricing, particularly putting a price on your services rather than pricing yourself. So. The second the second tip for increasing your pricing is that you need to reset your benchmarks.
What do you mean, Ellie? I hear you say. Well, firstly, you're probably underpricing. Out of all of the coaches that I talked to, I would say 70 percent are currently underpricing themselves to the point that when they tell me, I feel kind of shocked. And I, I immediately tell them to double their prices.
So that's another strategy, double your prices, perhaps that should be number seven, but firstly, you're probably underpricing. And I want you to ask yourself, what actually are you comparing your prices to? What are your benchmarks? And if your benchmark is not a successful executive coach in a similar area to you, then you are comparing to the wrong things.
So firstly, don't compare your prices as an executive or leadership coach to the prices of a therapist, for example, or the price of life coaching or the price of you know, a wellness provider. That's not what you should be benchmarking yourself. Don't compare your prices to what you might get paid by the big coaching platforms or what you've heard people get paid by the coaching platforms.
You should compare yourself instead to what the coaching platforms are getting paid by the client. Right? Which is usually a factor of, I would say, I would say the platforms are paying out about 20 to 25 percent of what they're bringing in. So, you know, you should use, use that as a benchmark, maybe times by four to think about what they might be charging their clients.
Now, that is not a hard and fast rule. So it varies, but that would be a sort of a benchmark. So when it comes to benchmarking, ask around, ask your, your coaching colleagues, particularly those who are doing really well, not necessarily ones who are in the same boat, if you're struggling with this issue.
And I would say, if you don't do that, find a community that you can ask about pricing. Some people will not want to share, and those might not be your people. So I always tell my community and my course members exactly what I charge, what I've charged, how I would be willing to, to vary that price bracket.
And you know, as I mentioned, I'm astonished by how people react to that. Sometimes they're shocked. But you know, a little, a little plug, I'll take a moment to plug. If you want to find a community where you can talk about pricing, you might want to consider the impact coach collective. We talk All of this sort of thing in our community and particularly in our deal clinics, where we work through live opportunities, we work through pricing, we work through proposals, all of that.
So you can have a look at elliescarf.com/icc if you want to learn a bit more about that, but generally reset your benchmarks and reset your comparison points to something that is more aspirational. Then you might currently be the third tip is to stop over delivering because you're over delivery is reducing your effective rate.
So when I say stop over delivering, I don't mean to stop doing a good job being well prepared. Having great resources and tools, absolutely do all of that. Your research, your formulation, your preparation, your reflection time, that is all part of being a great coach. So I'm not including that when it comes to over delivery.
What I mean by over delivery, and you'll know if this is you, is you shouldn't be Weekly on troubleshooting calls with your coaches. If that's not something you've contracted for, you shouldn't be available on email at all hours to your coaches. They shouldn't be emailing you daily. If you're running workshops, this might mean limiting the amount of customization you do to a reasonable amount or what you have charged for.
If you are over delivering and I, you know, I'm not going to say exactly what over delivering looks like for you, you will know, but if that's you, stop it. Generally, over delivery comes from a place of fear and not from a genuine expectation or value on the part of the client. As a coach, you need to role model setting that boundary and your clients and your coaches are going to take your lead.
So. Turn off the over delivery tap, and then suddenly your effective rate is increased. Tip four is don't discount. And particularly I, there are a few things that come up when I talk about discounting. The first is don't preemptively discount. Does anyone else do that? I still catch myself doing this.
So this is one I find tough. And what preemptive discounting looks like is that I might be talking to someone about My coaching or a program I offer, and I might say, Hey you know, so this is the price, but, but because you're a friend of a friend's sister's cousin, I'd be really happy to offer you this to you at a really, you know, significantly different discounted cost, right.
Or, and I'll give you this as well for free. Sometimes you will discount and you will do it strategically. But if there is no good reason to do it, stop it. So you might say, well, what if the client says, Oh, I can't afford it. This is outside our budget. The question is, do you really want the work? If you really want the work then you can think about some options.
You've got a few options. The first is. You can just accept that it isn't in their budget. You can wish them well. So no worries. I hope we can work together in the future. And then you can keep in touch and use that as a warm connection that you can continue to engage with over the future. Or if you really want the work that obviously that one isn't really an option if you want to do the work.
But what I like when I want to win a job, but I don't want to discount is reducing the scope. Of what I've, what I've pitched and what that might mean is reducing coaching hours or reducing the duration. So how many months it will go for or removing options like assessments or alignment sessions, or, you know, removing a three 60 process and putting in an email survey inset.
There are lots of options that you can present as alternatives. But when you present the alternatives, and ideally before you do that, I always ask what the budget is. So they've said it's out of budget. Well, what is the budget? If it is way out of the ballpark and I couldn't really make it work for them within that very constrained budget.
Then I know not to spend too much time trying to make it fit because it's just going to be a repeated series of no, no, no.
But if you can get the budget to craft something that works within that budget. Do that. I'm generally willing to give 10 percent discounted price without thinking too hard about it. But honestly, when there's a budget challenge that doesn't usually get it over the line. If a client really wants to work with you, then they'll either do it at your asking price or they will happily accept a lesser scope to work with you within your boundaries.
Other alternatives that you can consider to discounting are to offer a different tier of service. So something like rather than individual coaching, could you offer group coaching for more people at a lower rate per person, or you might offer payment plans where the client can pay over a longer period of time.
That's less common with corporate clients, but if you're working with individuals that may work. The fifth tip I have is standard increases and to increase your prices on a regular schedule. So increasing your prices needs to be a habit. And what I mean is that at a minimum of annually, and ideally you might even do this quarterly or every six months.
If you are starting from a lower base, you need to increase your standard prices. Now, I'm not going to say what the amount or percentage should be. It could be 5 percent increase, could be a 25 increase. It could be a hundred dollar increase. The amount's not important. The habit is, and I would suggest that your increases apply to new clients, not necessarily existing ones, although that depends on the agreement you have with them.
And particularly, I wouldn't want to. Increase prices for existing clients more than once a year for existing clients where, where they are bringing new engagements to you, which is quite typical with a corporate client, then I think a rate increase once a year is really reasonable, but for new clients, you can increase your standard rates behind the scenes and they will not know any different.
The challenge here is really to make yourself do it. So I would consider creating. Each year you know, two to four versions of your standard proposal documents with gradually increasing prices. And then every time you hit that date, move on to the new documents. So you've already planned it out. It's ready to go.
And what happens when you have predetermined this, and even if you just map out what these price rises will be, then you're minimizing the psychological friction of having to make a decision in the moment at a certain time. It also helps to practice saying to yourself. Out loud, my rate is X and when you get used to how it sounds saying it out loud, it'll feel less awkward when you have to say it in a meeting, when someone's asking you what your prices are.
I should say, I do believe in flexible pricing rather than fixed pricing. So when I'm saying price. I'm really mean your pricing bracket. So what is the amount that you're willing to price? Where you would be happy with that price. I've go into more detail in that, in the corporate to coach blueprint.
And then my bonus sixth tip. Is to get out of people's pockets. What does that mean? It means that we need to stop assuming that someone can't or won't be willing to pay our desired rate for our service. And how that looks is often things like a coach might say to me, Oh, this person's between jobs, so they can't really afford it.
Or, Oh, this is a not for profit so they can't afford it. Oh, this person's a single mother. They can't afford that. And these are all crap, to be honest. So I've seen individuals and companies in these categories ready and willing to invest plenty of money when they can see the value to them. So you need to focus on the value and don't assume that you know anything about what is going on in someone's financial life.
Don't assume, you know, anything about a company's budget, unless you ask and get out of their pockets. Okay. I hope that these tips have given you some guidance when it comes to your pricing and particularly how to meaningfully increase your prices as an executive or leadership coach. Pricing for coaches should be an amazing win win.
You are offering tremendous value and your coaches and clients are really happy to pay fairly for this value. As always, thanks for listening and I'll be back next week with some more food for thought.
