In an ideal world, all coaches work with clients who value their services and pay them what they’re worth. However, this might not be your reality at the moment. Many coaches gain some traction in their business but eventually struggle to secure higher-paying engagements. We’ve outlined the six crucial steps you can take to land your ideal clients.
Step 1: Price yourself as a high-value coach
We still see top-notch coaches pricing themselves as a bargain because they believe that lower fees will get them more business. However, clients naturally connect low-cost to low-value and high-cost to high-value. By recognizing this truth, you take the first step towards commanding higher rates. Be the coach who delivers immense value and therefore deserves to be paid generously.
Step 2: Define your niche
Going after a broad audience is often not the best strategy to secure high-ticket clients. This type of clientele is looking for specialists who can solve their specific problems. Therefore, they are less likely to pay attention to generalist coaches. When you get clear on what niche you’re serving, position yourself as an expert in that niche and show up consistently, you’ll get their attention.
Step 3: Partner with a powerful coaching brand
By getting a formal certification from a trusted and credible coaching organization with a well-known brand, you can leverage two key advantages. First, the trust that this brand has built with executives over decades will be immediately transferred to you. And second, big companies prefer to work with big brands. You’ll gain instant access to clients that seemed unreachable before.
Step 4: Differentiate yourself with results
Typically, coaches try to differentiate themselves through their tools, methodology, and coaching philosophies. Clients, however, care about results more than coaching technicalities. By communicating which outcomes you can achieve, you can stand out among your peers and command higher fees.
Step 5: Focus on the ROI
Executives have been trained to look for one key variable in every investment decision: the ROI. If you can show them a positive ROI for your coaching engagement, they’ll be sold. Start by digging deep into the problem with the decision-maker and determine how much this is costing them. From there, position your coaching services as the solution.
Step 6: Be selective in who you take on
Top coaches who charge premium rates don’t take on every engagement that comes their way. They only work with leaders who are committed to improving. Our tip is to insert a qualification process into your first meeting with a prospect. You’ll be able to assess the success of the engagement before you start and reduce the chance for failure.
Taking your coaching business to the next level is a challenge that’s well worth undertaking. When you follow our six steps, you’ll be rewarded with high-paying and high-quality clients who value your work and the results you bring.