The following is taken from David’s interview with Leza Danly in 10 Super Coaches.
When did you first increase your fee, to what did you increase it, and why?
I increased my fee when my practice was full and I felt I could “hold” an increase. What I mean by that is that I felt I could include it within my self-image. I could imagine people saying yes to the new rate. If I couldn’t imagine it, I didn’t raise my rate.
First I raised it to $200, then $250 then $300 over the first two years. Then I went to 3 sessions a month for the same $300, then $400. A couple of years ago I went to $400 per hour, and my clients split that up in a few different ways-three half hours, two 45 minute sessions, one session a month for $400, or some work with me in groups of three.
What advice would you give coaches about charging clients?
Don’t make up a rate you think you should charge and wish you could get, but don’t feel willing to receive. I think it’s better to coach 20 people at $100 per moth than having a rate of $300 or $400 and only having a few clients. You need to coach. Coaching will develop your self-image as a coach, and as you witness your impact you will naturally increase your rate. Of course, this is only true if you are a GOOD coach. So make sure to develop your skills and your personal depth.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Andrea Molloy in 10 Super Coaches.
What advice would you give coaches about charging clients?
Don’t undervalue your services, do your market research. Find out what other coaches are charging locally and position yourself well. Don’t apologize for your rates either, be confident in stating your fees so the client appreciates your worth – they need to feel they are getting good value for their investment.
Do you recommend offering free coaching?
We offer potential clients the opportunity to chat with a coach for half an hour, to answer any queries they may have about the coaching process and so the coach can learn more about the client’s specific requirements.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Michael O. Cooper in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
Sample Sessions: I find that offering sample sessions is the best way for people to experience my coaching ability and style. I offered coaching sessions to people in networking meetings, at the Chamber of Commerce, associations I frequented, friends, family members, colleagues, etc. I mastered the Complimentary/Sample Session with the help of Michael Charest and Michelle Schubnel in their “Coach and Grow Rich” program. I still find this the easiest and most effective way of landing new one-on-one coaching clients.
Networking: I prefer to network with people I already know frequently and have generated dozens of referrals this way. In the early phase of my business, I spent 5-8 hours a week at networking meetings, and I have to say I was horrible at it! Or at least horrible at attracting clients this way. I did generate some interest, but my “elevator speech” wasn’t strong enough to attract clients because I was too generic (prior to establishing my niches). I took networking classes and now rarely attend general networking events, because I personally do not find it as effective as other methods of attracting clients, although I know dozens of coaches who are experts at it!
Internet: I built my website very early on in my business growth cycle. I believe I hid behind it for a while, but many other coaches and clients know me because of that website – many coaches copied much of the material from it. It took over 18 months to attract a client just from the website alone.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Marcia Reynolds in 10 Super Coaches.
What were the biggest doubts you had in your early months?
Why would people pay out of their pockets for coaching, especially when I hadn’t completed my training? And then when they paid me, would I really be able to help them shift and create new lives? I suffered from the “fraud factor” as I have now found that almost all new coaches experience.
To overcome this, I just “acted as if”, knowing that if I gave 100 per cent to my clients, really listened and cared about them, I would know what to say. Since coaching is more about facilitation than having answers, I found that I could “be a good coach” faster than I realized.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Leza Danly in 10 Super Coaches.
What was most disheartening for you while building your practice?
I built my practice quickly, reaching my goal of 20 clients in less than 6 months. It was my goal for the end of my coaching certification, to have a full practice before the exam. I got my 20th client on the day of our last group call. I never really had a major block, but I remember the first time I lost a lot of clients in a short period of time and I went into some scarcity about that.
How I dealt with it was to take a deeper responsibility for why I created them leaving. I discovered I was hungry to make a deeper commitment to coaching clients who wanted to do really deep work, and that the clients I lost were not fulfilling for me. It was a shout from the universe telling me to raise the bar on my standards.
What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?
Well, the most exciting thing was watching the dream come alive. The idea that I could create a professional life for myself by loving and supporting people and building intimate relationships was a revelation. It was my dream career, and I was creating it magically. It was a total high! And I was giving it to myself.
The following is taken from David’s interview in 10 Super Coaches.
Do you recommend offering free coaching?
I do recommend offering a free initial session, I think that’s quite smart. This isn’t like the profession of being a doctor where people are looking for you already and they’ve been to a doctor twenty times in their life.
This is a profession that a lot of people don’t know about and they may not trust yet until they’ve experienced it, so I think offering a free session makes a lot of sense. A lot of businesses give a free consultation, so whether or not you call it a free coaching session, or a free consultation, at least have a ten-minute chat to find out what their goals are and to explore ways that coaching could help them.
If you can help them find their goals, if you can help them get clear on what they really want to have in their life, then that’s going to inspire them. They’re going to be excited when they get present to that. The next thing they need to see is that working with you is going to help them get that. So if you get those two things covered – that they get inspred about their goals and the could see how coaching could help, then chances are you’re going to have a client.
