I still remember the first time I blurted out the price of $1500 for my package of eight private coaching sessions, to a woman who would soon become my first private coaching client.
I couldn’t even look her in the eye as I mumbled the price.
I actually felt bad about asking her to pay me.
I loved helping people so much, and had for my entire life, it felt almost wrong charging for it.
Her response:
“Cool. Can I pay you cash?”
I almost fell off my chair.
There I was, fresh off the coaching truck, no clue what I was doing, and I was shocked someone would fork out $1500 to work with me. Of course, at that point in my life, I considered $1500 a lot of money.
I also felt insecure about charging because I had no proven track record of success.
14 years later, when I talk to new coaches that I train, they often report the same feelings: An overarching lack of self-worth and self-confidence when asking for money.
Or they feel bad charging people because they love to simply, “be in service.”
And while nothing beats experience when it comes to building confidence, and unfortunately we can’t “be in service” 100% of the time, because frankly we would then starve, there are definitely tips I wish I had been told in my first few years of coaching that would have helped me progress a lot quicker than I did.
5 TIPS ON HOW TO VALUE YOURSELF AS A COACH AND DEMAND YOUR WORTH
1. MONEY IS ENERGY
There’s no doubt, I would love to give out all of my services for free, uplift others, and help heal the world.
But that will not keep the lights on.
Plus, when people do not pay for your products and services…they also do not pay attention.
Over the years I have gifted friends and family my courses, lovingly and unselfishly…and you know what…they don’t show up! It actually becomes a dis-service to them when you give it away for free. There is no value there for them.
Money is energy and there needs to be an equal exchange between you and your clients. It is vital for their transformation that they actually have “skin in the game.”
Now that being said, I do give students who are going through financial hardships partial scholarships from time to time. As a single mom…I have been there, and I know the struggle is real! But it is important that they still pay even a little something.
2. DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS:
Another one of my first clients,—Sarah was her name—was a young, attractive blond girl in her 20s. I assumed the moment I told her it would be $1500 for the program, would be the moment she’d run out the door. I assumed she didn’t have the money for it simply by the fact that she was young. Boy, was I wrong! Turns out her father had recently passed and had left her a hefty inheritance.
Another time, a guy walked into one of my introductions who looked homeless. He was literally carrying a black garbage bag, his hair was in dreadlocks, and he smelled far from fresh. Turns out, he had just come back from five months of tree planting with $30,000 in cash and was excited to spend some of his money working with me to figure out his next steps!
So you never know.
How I combat this issue, still to this day, is I watch my internal dialogue begin to say, “Oh no, this person is never going to be able to afford my coaching.” Then I quickly catch myself and shift into letting go of all my expectations, judgements, and instead concentrate on being present and open with them.
And…I always remember Sarah!
3. SELL SOMETHING YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN
It was hard for me to be 100% confident in myself as a coach when I first started out, but I made sure that I was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, super confident in the program I was selling. Instead of worrying if I was qualified enough to help a potential client, I focused instead on the track record of success that the program I was develivering had.
When I would start to literally almost throw up in my mouth before asking for $1500, I would change my thoughts to, “Jen, they are paying for a program that has been around since 1979, 41 years! It’s from Stanford University and it has, to date, changed the lives of tens of thousands of people!” I would focus on my belief in the tools and the program I was selling rather than trying to sell myself.
4. CHARGE EVEN MORE, NOT LESS
Coaches often get scared of charging more or raising rates. But when you’re expensive… people only take you more seriously, not less, and often you start to attract a higher quality client.
By not “haggling” with people on your price and purposefully setting yourself near the high end of the market, you attract people who want to work with the best, which are often much more enjoyable clients to work with.
I now charge $5000 for the same eight sessions.
My confidence has grown because I have the results to prove it. This took time, but each year I have raised my prices.
You can too.
5. REMAIN HUMBLE AND PATIENT AND BE WILLING TO ADAPT
No matter how educated you become and how much you believe in what you’re selling, there’s still a practical experience component to the job that takes time and requires being humble, patient and open-minded.
We, as coaches, are never done learning, and we should be constantly looking for ways to continue to learn. Being open to feedback from others shouldn’t hurt our confidence; it should only help us grow stronger in developing into the best coach we can be.
Constantly receiving feedback from my fellow coaches, my business coach, and constantly learning through the process, with each of my clients, has improved my ability to sell my services.
Charging and demanding our worth as coaches is a process, but it is something we all have to tackle eventually if we want to have a healthy, successful, and abundant coaching business.
I hope you enjoyed. 🙂
To Your Success,
Jen