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Christine Gallagher: It's really about pricing to a place where you make a really, really healthy profit and still understanding and knowing that you're giving the client tremendous value. It's hard to pin down what that means exactly, but if you were to make this for this offering, would you feel really good about the healthy profit you're making, but also feel totally confident that the people that you're working with are going to get amazing value and that they would've even paid more?
Shawn Hesketh: That's Christine Gallagher, a marketing and business coach for female entrepreneurs, and as an entrepreneur herself, she understands how the tension between profit and self-valuation can become a source of insecurity. Welcome to the Coach Factory Podcast. I'm your host, Shawn Hesketh, and our conversation today touches on a topic that causes a lot of anxiety for coaches, pricing your coaching services. And it's a delicate balance between valuing your expertise and ensuring your clients feel that they're making a worthwhile investment. It's so easy to undervalue your coaching, especially in the beginning. So Christine suggests looking at the results your clients will get from working with you and how they would value that result.
Christine Gallagher: So I think with pricing your offers, it really depends on a few things. I think the first thing to think about is, what are the actual results worth to the client themselves? So it sounds obvious, we need to know that we're getting the client's results, but we need to understand how to pull that out, how to really look at what is the core of what they're getting. The first thing to think about is, as a result of the work that they do with you, what do they get to actually experience? For example, let's say you're a business coach and they get to experience more clients. Yes, that's great, but what is that actually to them? Well, obviously, when you have more clients and hopefully the ideal clients, then they're going to have more money, they're going to have more satisfaction, they're going to be productive.
So really looking at that entire experience and also looking at it in terms of the impact on all areas of their life because even though you're, let's say, a business coach helping them get more clients or make more money, how does that also impact their health, their relationships, their spiritual wellbeing? So I do a lot of work with my clients of drilling down into what is the actual experience, not just those surface results. And also looking at, what are the short-term results and the long-term results? So that's the first place to start, is always, what is it worth to the client? And really drilling down on that.
Shawn Hesketh: And the cost doesn't just include the value you provide. It also involves the opportunities they miss out on from not working with you.
Christine Gallagher: I think the big thing with the cost to them that they don't work with you is looking at, what happens if they stay where they are? So that might be a question you hear people ask on discovery calls often because it is a really good thing to look at. If we were to flash forward 365 days from today and it's a year later and you're still in the same place, what does that mean for your life, relationship, health, whatever it is? What would it feel like if you were still in the same place a year from now? And not only just in whatever you're helping them with, but the whole picture, money, health, spiritual well-being, relationships. What are the short-term costs? What are the long-term costs?
And it really puts the client or the prospective client a place of looking at, if I don't get help with this, where will I be? And a lot of times that's really a scary thing to contemplate because no one wants to be in the same place. So I think it's really looking at, how does their life stay the same or even get worse if they don't get hope with this?
Shawn Hesketh: It's not easy to find that perfect balance or that sweet spot between your value as a coach and the expectations of your client. So while you can definitely start by researching what other clients are charging, it's important to remember that there's a range and plenty of flexibility when it comes to pricing.
Christine Gallagher: So I talk about pricing a lot of times in terms of price elasticity, which is, if you think about elasticity like an accordion, you can stretch it out, and what that means is you can price your stuff at any price point you want. It is totally up to you. It could be anything you decide, but in terms of practical considerations, yeah, but how does that actually translate to numbers? Number one, I'll just mention how I first started understanding how to price my stuff was looking side to side, left and right, and going, what are these other coaches who are doing similar things to me charging? If you need a place to start, it's like looking at, what are other people doing? What's the range? Because there's usually a range there. But in terms of personally for the person, I think that you need to look at, what's the minimum price you are willing to accept for your time?
Because if you really tap in, you know that there is at least some sort of range or number that you're willing to accept. And the way I explain it is, if you charge this to the client and they turn out to be, let's say, a not-so-great client, or it's really frustrating and it's a struggle, are you going to resent what you actually priced that at? Now, I'm not saying you should go into every situation and be like, what if this becomes a problem client? But really looking at, what's going to make me feel good so I don't actually regret charging this? So what is the minimum price you'll accept for your time? And also, are there expenses and overhead to consider? We don't charge by the hour in my world. Coaches charge for packages. We don't necessarily work by the hour, but at least have a number or an idea in your mind, what's the lowest price that you would accept for your time?
So you might start thinking about, well, if I was charging by the hour, I probably wouldn't charge less than $250 an hour. That gives you a starting point, even if you're not pricing by the hour. And really looking at, again, is there anything that I need to consider that's going to be going out from what they're paying me? Most coaches who have online businesses, they don't have a lot of overhead, which is great. It's not like they have a brick-and-mortar location, but there are expenses, and, of course, there's your time. How much do you want to make for your time? What does that mean for you? What is the minimum that you're willing to accept?
Shawn Hesketh: Measuring the value that you bring to the table as a coach goes way beyond the hours you spend with your client. Your experience, education, and other factors that make you are you uniquely are just as important when setting your rates. But that's sometimes hard to put into words or dollar signs. Becca Tracey is founder of The Uncaged Life and she points to a process that helps when articulating the value of your coaching practice.
Becca Tracey: So the traditional way of pricing coaching is per session or per month. Sometimes I've seen it's $500 a month and you get two 45-minute sessions. The problem with that is that, number one, then clients are really associating the price with the amount of time that they're spending with you and not with the value of the results that they're actually getting. And so an hour of your time is $200, but the change that you're bringing to my life in some massive area is worth way more than $200. So when we start to get away from pricing per session or per hour and setting a price for the entire package timeframe, so let's say your coaching package is eight weeks and normally you would've charged maybe $200 an hour, you just do that math and you just charge the whole amount.
Number one, it gets clients away from just nitpicking for hours. If they want to make it a bit cheaper, they might be like, "Well, maybe we'll just do shorter sessions, or maybe I'll just skip one and do one every second week." It's like you get to be the boss and you get to say, "Here's how I help my clients best. I know that we get the best results when we work for X amount of time, X number of sessions, and here's the price for all of that." Having a set price also helps you budget as a coach and know how much money is coming in. If you're leaving it open to clients to just keep booking and paying per session, when someone is signing up for a program where they're just paying per session, they don't always have the same emotional and financial buy-in as if they're committing to the whole thing. So ultimately you're going to get paid more if you charge for the entire thing as a set price versus charging session per session.
Shawn Hesketh: You're probably thinking, that sounds great, but how do I explain my pricing to my clients? That's where the relationship you've built with your client comes into play. Because coaching is incredibly personal and finding the best way to communicate not only your pricing but also the why behind it is a critical part of how you connect with your clients.
Christine Gallagher: First of all, you need to find out, what would make this valuable and worth it to you? And usually they'll tell you because they're starting by saying, "This is what's not working, this is what's not good, and this is what I'd rather be instead." So having the understanding that your work together, you're able to create the results that they're saying that they want, but also looking at, really, I always tell my clients to do a meditative exercise around what are you bringing to the table? It's not just the results that you create that they're saying they want, that you can say, "Hey, I'm going to create that for you." It's looking at your entire package that you bring to the table. So it's the testimonials you've received before, it's the jobs you've had, the books you've written, if you've done that, it's your degrees, your training.
It's looking at all the things you bring to the table and realizing that this person is getting that whole package from you. It's everything that you're bringing as a professional with your skills, your talents, and your bodies of work and your systems and all of that. And I think that you can start to, really, you can get blinded by that sometimes, but you can think, am I really bringing that value to the table? And, again, just going back into that state of, what are all the things? There's much more to it and a lot of times people forget about that or they discount what they're bringing to the table.
Shawn Hesketh: Remember, your time is only a part of your value as a coach. Setting your value means you have to look at your big picture. Christine advises that pricing should reflect your bigger brand and your goals as a coach.
Christine Gallagher: I think that your bigger vision needs to be aligned with your pricing, which just means, if there's an inner conflict being created between what you're pricing now and what you want to be known for and what you want to price, then look at that and adjust it. So, for example, if you want to be somebody who charges high-end prices for your coaching, let's say you want to charge $15,000 for your six-month program, that's where you want to be, that's how you want to be positioned, well, what are you pricing your six-month program at right now? If your six-month program is priced at $2,000, then obviously there's an issue there. So looking at, where am I not showing up, whether that's pricing or anything else, where am I not showing up as the person who has that kind of business or that kind of income or that pricing or that position? What am I not doing that's in alignment with that right now? And making those adjustments.
Shawn Hesketh: In your journey as a coach, refining your prices is an ongoing process. Becca has developed a unique approach to pricing that's not only shaped her own business, but also helped countless other coaches.
Becca Tracey: So I have a very specific pricing method, and this works no matter what stage you're at in your business. It's still how I tend to price things in my business. So this is called the Gut Feeling Method, and it's super technical. The way that it works is, and I'll explain after why this is the way that I still recommend pricing no matter where you are in your business, but the way that it works is literally pricing based on what feels like a good amount to you. When I do this with my students, we always start with a lowball number and a vomit number. So the lowball number is like, what's the first price that comes to mind? It's usually pretty low. You know you're underselling yourself. What's your lowball number? We write that down. And then we go, what's your vomit number? What's so high that you just would never be able to say it out loud without throwing up? Don't say $1 million, but what's realistically too high for you right now?
And then you have a low number and a high number. And then I will just call out numbers to them and I'll chip away on either end until we get to somewhere in the middle where they're like, "Yeah, that actually feels good." So they'll be saying, "Yeah, too high, too low," as I'm calling out numbers and somewhere in the middle, they're usually, "That feels pretty good. I could own that. I'm not going to throw up when I say it. It's exciting, but it's not so over the top that I'm not going to be able to sell it." And that is always higher than what their gut feeling number or their initial low number was. So I already gave them a raise. And the reason it works is because I personally believe that no matter what anybody says, you should be selling high-ticket, you should be selling low-ticket, I think you should be selling based on a price that you can show up and you feel like you can over-deliver and you can sell it with confidence.
You're not terrified that you're charging so much that, oh my gosh, what if I can't get results? You can own those results and you can own that price. And the reason I love this pricing model is that, that can shift every single time you work with a client. It can shift every year in your business. And so you might work with five people at that middle price, and then you might just do the exercise again and go, okay, that's my low number. I'm feeling called to raise my prices. What's my new vomit number? Where's the wiggle room till we get to somewhere in the middle where it feels like, yeah, I can own that?
Shawn Hesketh: Finding the number you're comfortable with can take some time, and because your business will continue to grow, the process never stops. That's why as your coaching business grows, it's important to also grow in your own confidence and your value.
Christine Gallagher: It's a day-to-day process. It's not like you get there and you're like, "Woo. I believe in myself forever and all as well." It's really an ongoing thing. So, for me, I think two big pieces have come into play. One is always having my own support network, whether that's a mentor or coach, a mastermind, like-minded colleagues. So we as entrepreneurs go through a rollercoaster. It's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be great. Me having my own mentors and coaches and support network has been invaluable because, especially when I first started my business, there were people in my world who didn't understand what I was doing. They were like, "Why are you giving up this great job where you have these benefits?" And if I had just listened to that, I would've just started spinning and probably wouldn't be able to believe in myself.
I had to go seek out outside help and support to keep me going and to keep me believing. I've almost always had a coach or mentor. And so there's that piece. But I think that the other piece is just really taking self-concept work seriously. And I actually didn't do this as consistently before as I have in the past, I'd say, year or so. Again, it's a day-to-day process. I will look at my habits and be like, is this really supporting me and who I want to be? So, for example, if I'm waking up in the morning and the first thing I'm doing is grabbing my phone and I'm scrolling social media, and here I am saying that I want to be this person who makes this money or be this type of coach, is that really supporting me? For me, it wasn't because it would put me into a place of looking at what everyone else is doing and comparison.
And so now self-concept work comes first, meaning I get myself out of bed, I make my protein shake, and usually if I'm doing well, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down and I'm going to write my affirmations out. I'm going to read inspirational material. I'm going to do some visualization work, seeing myself already in the place I want to be as if it had already happened. And we can get really woo-woo and esoteric there. But really just looking at, what are your daily practices to keep you in that place? And so I will literally take a look at, what are my beliefs right now that are not supporting what I want? And I'll find out, what is that belief? What is it saying? And I will flip it and create an affirmation out of it so that I can start training my brain to see that as opposed to the limiting belief.
So even just having some sort of routine or some sort of concentration where you're looking at, what are my beliefs and how are they serving me, or not, and what can I do about that, has been huge. And it's an ongoing process.
Shawn Hesketh: Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process, so don't be afraid to make mistakes when you're setting your prices, especially in the beginning. Most of those mistakes come from a misalignment between your vision and your profit, whether it's too high or too low.
Christine Gallagher: So I think it could be looking at anything, really. It could be looking at your pricing. It could be looking at how you're showing up, how often are you showing up? Who are the kinds of people that you are aligning yourself with, like collaboration-wise or joint venture-wise? How often are you showing up in the inboxes of your subscribers in social media? Really just looking at, if you have this ideal vision and version of yourself and your business, how are you not doing that right now? And it reminds me of that saying, "Dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have." Start doing the things now that will step you into the person that you want to be.
And, again, with coaching and with offers, a big part of that is going to be pricing. But it's really just looking at the rest of your business and how you're showing up and saying to yourself, how far off am I from being the person that I say I want to be right now? What am I not doing? How am I not showing up? How am I not going after certain opportunities? I'm really looking at making the adjustments and tweaks in those things.
Shawn Hesketh: As a coach, you probably find it easy to help others evaluate where they are, but it can be a little more tricky to evaluate yourself. In fact, that can be one of the most difficult hurdles in setting your prices. But in order to align your coaching with your price tag, Becca says you've got to trust your gut, which gets easier to do over time.
Becca Tracey: I don't care if people underprice, I don't care if people charge premium rates. What I care about is that you can show up and you feel good about that price when you're selling it to someone, when you're coaching someone, that there's never any weird feelings like you've charged too much and, oh my gosh, or you're charging too little in your resenting your clients. So finding that sweet spot always with pricing. Regardless of what any coach tells you, I will never tell my clients what price they should put on their offers ever because it really doesn't matter. It's not my decision. They need to be able to sell it. So throwing out anything you've learned about pricing and just really coming back to this gut feeling method of pricing and making sure that you can really own it every time, I think is really important.
Shawn Hesketh: It may not be easy at first to trust your gut when it comes to pricing, but remember, your clients are paying for your expertise. They trust you. And whether you're just starting out or feel like you're plateauing, Christine points out, that your confidence is the key to making that price sell.
Christine Gallagher: I think that when I look back, in fact, somebody had put a post on Facebook the other day and they were like, "Veteran business owners, what is the biggest thing that has allowed you to have longevity in your career?" And I've been doing this almost 15 years, and my answer to that question was self-belief. Truly, it was believing that I could do it and actually believing that there's people that are going to pay this and who are willing to work with me and willing to pay this and see the value. So I think that the self-belief, which goes back to the self-concept and how you're showing up and how you're being, I think that's a huge piece of this, and that's probably one of the first places that I would look, because even if you are doing all the marketing and you've hired the best marketing coaches and you've gotten all their strategies on a silver platter, if you don't truly believe that you can do it and that the people are there and that it's worth it, what you're charging, then you're not going to be able to sustain that.
I think that one of the things that's important to look at, if you're facing a plateau, and this has happened in my business a few times where I had to look at, why am I not busting through this, first of all, it's being really honest about your current situation. What are the facts on the ground? What are you pricing at? How many people are on your email list? What's the reality? So get out of illusion, be in reality. What's the current situation? And then I think it's also important to look at, is there resistance there? What's the story? Do you have a story going on in your mind about why you're not where you want to be? So get in reality, looking at the facts. Also, look at, what am I resisting? Is there something that I'm telling myself that's not supporting? And what support can I put into place?
Maybe I do need a coach right now. Maybe I do need somebody to help me with my marketing. Maybe I do need a mindset mentor, that kind of thing. So really looking at, what support can you put in place? And also, what stuff can you do to fortify? Which goes back to what we were just saying, what personal inner work are you doing or not doing that may be keeping you where you are? So looking at current situation, what needs to be true in order to get you to where you want to be? What's holding you back and where are you getting in the way? What support can you put into place, both practical and the magical side, the woo-woo tools as I like to call them? So looking at all of those things and where there might be deficiencies right now, and then putting a plan together to move forward.
Because I think a lot of times when we're stuck, we don't necessarily want to look at that or we avoid that, or we just feel like, I can't go there. And I think that just being really honest is the place to start, really being honest about where you are and where you want to go and what's getting in the way there.
Shawn Hesketh: Thank you to Christine Gallagher and Becca Tracey for sharing some of the challenges and practical steps for pricing your coaching services. What's worked for you? Got any tips or tricks for setting your prices? Or maybe you still have questions. Either way, let us know. Go to CoachFactory.chat, and let's start a conversation. Until then, thanks for joining me on this episode of the Coach Factory Podcast. I look forward to hearing about your experience with pricing your coaching services. This episode of the Coach Factory Podcast was produced with the support of Come Alive Creative. To hear more episodes, get the show notes, and learn how to start, run, and grow your coaching practice, visit CoachFactory.co.