At some point in the coaching conversation you are going to have to talk fees. But before it gets awkward, remind yourself of the value you bring
How do you broach the question of fees with your prospect? Or what do you say when they ask what you charge?
In the early days of building a coaching practice, talking about money can feel emotive and awkward, if not utterly daunting. But at the appropriate moment, as for any other profession, fees need to be discussed.
The appropriate moment is most often when you start to feel or sense that the prospect is showing a discernible interest in working with you. When that time comes, you need to be able to provide details of both your fees and how your coaching packages are structured or designed. And this, of course, takes forethought.
If coaching is more of a hobby or philanthropic pursuit for you, then perhaps you tend to brush fees aside as a zero-sum agreement; repaid in kind by your client’s growth or progress. Or maybe you charge a nominal fee so that the client values your services and demonstrates commitment through payment. If, however, like Russell and I (each married with families who still rely on our support), you need to earn a sustainable living, a serious look at your fees is probably essential.
You obviously need to feel comfortable and confident in the fees you charge, and it can therefore be all too easy to undervalue both yourself and your services. What you need to do is remind yourself of the value you bring to your clients and think from a business perspective about what you need to charge to maintain a viable practice.
In our experience, it has made financial sense to bundle our one-to-one coaching service into, for example, six or 12-month packages with monthly meetings. You may also want to include other components such as a personality profile or 360-degree feedback.
Another consideration is whether to include expenses or charge them as extras up to an agreed limit per trip. We always offer a fixed fee that includes all expenses (unless travelling abroad) so that the prospect knows exactly where they stand.
Team or group programmes, sometimes interleaved with one-to-one coaching,
can be more complex to cost. What we do here is quote a daily rate, which we then apply on a pro-rata basis. Our preference is to work with clients over time rather than one-off/one-day workshops, which rarely have the desired impact.
In these instances, we will typically quote a daily rate split up over, say, two half-days or three two-and-a-half hour sessions. As long as you have factored in your travel expenses, this is a great way of adding value and building the relationship, rather than, for example, delivering a one-day workshop and never seeing the client(s) again.
Having addressed the question of fees we then turn the conversation back to what the prospect is hoping to achieve through the coaching programme. This diffuses any remaining awkwardness and reinforces value as opposed to cost.
Our prospects invariably respect us for talking through our fees. All being well we then advise them that we will follow up with a draft proposal so they can see the details laid out in black and white. Sending such a proposal – especially for a bespoke programme – allows for further collaboration with the prospect and gives them a sense of comfort in the growing relationship.
- Thomas Chalmers is a co-founder with Russell Borland of Leading Figures. Thomas is a chartered banker whose previous careers span 10 years in commercial banking followed by 14 years as owner/partner of a seafood business. Russell was previously at Hymans Robertson where he held a number of senior leadership positions including firm-wide managing partner.
- www.leadingfigures.com