How to Price a Coaching Program: The Ultimate Guide + Examples
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I’ve worked with hundreds of coaches and consultants over the years, and there is one thing new coaches almost always get wrong: pricing.
Pricing for 1:1 services may seem like the most obvious thing that you can change to grow your coaching revenue, but if only it were that simple! Raising prices feels awkward to handle with existing clients, and I’ve known plenty of coaches who felt self-conscious about asking for a higher hourly rate.
Fortunately, doubling your hourly rate isn’t the only way to grow your business.
Instead of charging more per hour, you can package your expertise into a group coaching program that can be sold as a core offer to those who don’t want 1:1 coaching. OR, even better, you can package it up with some individual sessions and sell it as a high-ticket offer.
In this article, I am going to walk you through different pricing strategies you can use to double your coaching business (without doubling your workload, of course!).
Common Coaching Pricing Strategies
Before we get to the good stuff, let’s look at the most common three ways coaches charge for their services:
Charge Hourly
The easiest way to get started in coaching is to charge an hourly rate, and that’s what most new coaches do.
While this can help you get your initial clients, it doesn’t scale well. If you try to run a business full-time by charging hourly, then you’ll always be trading time for money. There are only so many hours in a day (and you won’t want to spend them ALL working) which means you will likely hit your ceiling quickly.
Then the only way to make more money will be to raise your hourly rate. And as I said at the start of this article, that’s not always the easiest or even the most logical thing to do! Fortunately, you have two other options.
Charge a Retainer
The next step up from charging hourly is to charge a monthly retainer, which gives you some predictability for your income.
This will often involve outlining a deliverable for each month. It could be a set of hours or a mix of live and asynchronous coaching.
Retainers effectively enable you to earn more than if you’re charging an a la carte hourly rate, especially if you include something like email coaching as part of it. Plus, you can set more predictable hours, which allows you to be more productive. But they will still lock you into a fixed number of clients you can take on.
At some point, you will hit a limit and your growth will stall out. There’s one more option though!
Sell a Package/Program
Like a retainer, coaching packages allow you to bundle a deliverable over a set time frame. Unlike a retainer, a coaching program can run as long as you would like (learn more about how long your coaching program should be), and it will usually be structured over a series of weeks to months.
With group coaching programs you can structure your expertise around a defined deliverable and outcome for clients. This makes it easier to serve new clients since they will all follow the same track. If you run your coaching program at the same time for a group (or cohort), this means you can coach multiple clients at once. Instead of working with 10 clients individually (which may take up 10 -20 hours each month) you can condense things down into 4-5 hours each month with your clients all learning from you and from each other at the same time.
Now that’s looking more scalable!
Not only does this save you valuable time, but you can charge a higher fee for a coaching program than you would a retainer and certainly more than you would hourly. I’ll share more on how much to charge for a coaching program later!
What is a Coaching Program?
A coaching program is going to be similar to the one-on-one services you already provide, except there is one key difference: instead of working with each client individually on an ongoing or as-needed basis, you will provide them with a structured curriculum that they follow. You then coach them as a group, preferably in live sessions, to ensure they’re making progress.
You could run a cohort model with groups, or an evergreen model that allows students to join and work through the material at their own pace and come together as a group at set times.
Once you get the hang of creating one coaching program, you can even sell multiple ones on different topics or themes. Check out my primer on creating a group coaching program for a high-level view if you want to learn more of the basics.
How Much Do Coaches Charge by Industry?
While you don’t want to set your prices purely based on what your competitors charge, it’s makes sense to take a look at the industry averages to make sure you aren’t pricing yourself out (or more likely, under-charging).
Most coaches don’t publish their high-end prices on their website, but if we look at sites like Glassdoor we can get a better sense of what coaches can make by industry:
(*Salary data pulled from Glassdoor, actual salaries may vary based on your location. Hourly rates are assuming 20 hours of coaching each week.)
While this table breaks things down by an hourly rate (which we have established isn’t the best way to grow your coaching business), it’s good to have a benchmark of what other coaches in your industry are charging.
Next, let’s look at the factors that can influence the price that you set for your coaching program.
Pricing Factors for Your Coaching Program
Before we dive into the deep end with examples, there are a few factors that can influence the price you set for your coaching program:
With that out of the way, let’s look at some specific coaching program pricing examples
Group Coaching Program Outline and Planner
Request your free copy of the Group Coaching Program Outline and Planner to help you.
Coaching Package Price Examples
To give you a tangible sense of what you can charge for your coaching program, here are three examples to get you started. Use these as a jumping-off point as you plan out your next coaching program (and don’t forget to download my free coaching program worksheet and planner!).
4-Week Coaching Program
This is an entry-level package that will probably be more skill-based due to the shorter timeframe. Maybe you’re running an “intro to social media marketing” boot camp, or an entry-level SEO coaching program. Either way, this is a great package for people looking to learn something and leave with a new skill.
What’s included in the package:
Price range: $500 - $2,000
2-3 Month Coaching Program
A 2 to 3 month coaching program will be more impactful as you will walk your clients through a topic that they need more time to learn and apply.
For example, growing an email list from scratch, learning Facebook ads, or implementing an SEO strategy all require some time to see results. While these topics could be scrunched down to a few weeks, you can go deeper over a longer time frame and clients are more likely to get results.
What’s included in the package:
Price range: $1,500 - $5,000
6-Month Coaching Program
Long coaching programs are transformational packages that can be run over 6-12 months.
Programs like these go deep into a complex topic that requires consistent check-ins and support. For example, starting a business, writing and marketing a book, or becoming a graphic designer. Lengthy programs allow you to make consistent progress with clients over a year while guiding them through any challenges along the way.
What’s included in the package:
Bonus: Full access to specific courses and classes that complement the program topic.
Price range: $10,000 - $20,000 (or more)
These are just starting points, but they give you a decent sense of what you can charge based on the type of program you launch.
Tips to Nail Your Coaching Program Price
Still stumped on what to charge for your coaching program? Read on for a few tips to help you nail it and ensure the best conversions and ROI..
Price Based on Value or Results, not Time
While the three examples above are time-based, in order to maximize your price don’t charge by the hour. Yes, a 4-week coaching program will likely take up 4-5 hours of your time once it’s set up. If your hourly rate is $100, you would charge $400 - $500, but the impact you create for your students could be a greater value than that.
Your students aren’t buying the program for your time. They paying for the outcome you can promise them.
Know Your Worth (and The Market)
Like I said at the start of this article, I’ve worked with hundreds of coaches and almost all of them charge too little. Asking for money can make us self-conscious, but when you are trying to grow a business, there is no sense in underpricing. Know your market, know your worth, and charge accordingly.
Leverage Low-Ticket Offers to Drive More Sales
In addition to raising prices, the next best way to grow your business is to leverage low-ticket offers in your sales funnel. Looked at alongside a $1,500 coaching program, a $500 course or a $49 eBook seem like easy sells. These are great ways to bump up the average order while not sacrificing any more of your time.
Check out my guide to using low-ticket offers in your sales funnel for more tactics and strategies to try here.
Ready to Launch Your Next Coaching Program? Download the Free Coaching Program Outline and Planner!
It’s time to put what you learned into practice!
Download my free coaching program outline and planner and follow along to map out your next coaching program and set a price for your launch.
Enjoy!
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