by David Krueger, MD
Fees are often one of the most challenging aspects of practice for Professional Coaches. Issues can include inexperience in setting and collecting professional fees, fear of rejection, and low perceived value of the services.
Value is both monetary and intrinsic. If we devalue our services, we devalue the results obtained with clients.
Some of the most common mistakes in setting your life coach fees:
Stating your fee without clarity and confidence. The Wharton School of Business found that for professional services, confidence was a greater factor in signing on clients than expertise, credentials, experience, and amount of the fee.
Setting life coach fees based on your peers. Most coaches have fees that are too low or outdated, may have different expertise, may not be as good as you, or may be in a different niche.
Setting fees based on not seeing yourself as an expert. We are experts at change, and specialize in choice architecture.
Determining your fee based on where you live. If you work by telephone, you have an international venue. If you have a website, a blog, or an article, then you attract clients from all over the world, specially if you use help from a web development company, you will simply have more strategies to do so.
Believing that you will not be able to help those in need if your fees are too high. Affordability is your projection onto a client. You won’t be able to help clients as much if your fees are too low. Keeping your fees low until you have more expertise, or a bestseller, or have a sufficient number of clients.
Deciding in advance that clients won’t pay. This is the coach’s money story projected onto the client. If someone says that they can’t afford you, that’s the person who most needs your services.
Over-delivering: Sessions run over; over-availability to clients; afraid to raise fees; compensating for self-doubt about value or fee.
Each of these mistakes has its own set of beliefs and behaviors. You can change any of them.
David Krueger, MD is Dean of Curriculum at Coach Training Alliance, CEO of MentorPath, and author of The Secret Language of Money (McGraw Hill), a Business Bestseller translated into 10 languages.
Check out Dr. Krueger’s upcoming classes at Coach Training Alliance: http://www.coachtrainingalliance.com/upcoming-classes/