More on Value Based Fees – A Guest Post at Coaching Commons

Posted by Melinda on May 30, 2009 · 5 Comments

change_sand1 Last month I wrote a post about Value Based Coaching Fees – allowing the client to decide the value and to pay that amount rather than having a set fee schedule. Quite to my surprise, my post was picked up by the Harnsisch Foundation and discussed at the Coaching Commons – and they requested a guest post on the subject.

That guest post is up today at The Coaching Commons – Featured Post I’d love you to hop on over and have a read.

In that post, I have said that I’ll be trialling this in June with three clients. If you would like to be one of those three, please email me using the Contact Form and I’ll get back to you within 48 hours.

Filed under Marketing · Tagged with fees, Marketing, Useful Tools, value based, WAHM, Work At Home Mum

Value Based Coaching Fees? Thinking Out Loud

Posted by Melinda on May 14, 2009 · 17 Comments

change_sand What does a vegetarian community restaurant “Lentil As Anything” in Melbourne, Australia, have to do with my coaching fees? Simple. The restaurant uses Value Based Fees rather than setting prices for their dishes. “Our Philosophy is that the customer decides what they want to donate for the food they’ve eaten – they decide what it’s worth and give as they feel.”

I’m thinking of trying this.

It’s taking a huge risk, I feel like I’m stepping off a cliff, jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

Coaching without being paid in advance. At present my business model is set up so clients pay me in advance, using Paypal monthly subscriptions.

What if – I stopped that?

What if – my clients paid after the session, and set their own rates?

What if – my clients paid the amount that they believed they got the value of?

What if – no-one pays?

What if – unscrupulous nasty people took advantage of me?

What if – I tried it and no-one was interested?

What if – it was a huge success and my clients loved it?

So what’s holding me back? (Apart from the fact that the first thing my husband is going to ask is “What about the mortgage?) Fear, it’s different, it’s out of left field, no-one that I know of does this. It’s totally out of my comfort zone.

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, I guess I’d do a lot of coaching for little or no money. We live off my husbands wage (done that before). I decide I don’t like this way of doing business and go back to setting fees and requesting payment in advance.

I could get taken advantage of. Yes, that’s possible. However I believe that people are inherently good and honest. That’s a risk I am quite prepared to take.

What’s the best that could happen? I could end up with heaps of extremely satisfied clients who have fantastically profitable businesses because of my coaching, and they pay me well because they are receiving great value from the Coaching.

What’s the advantages of this? Wow, I would have to be an amazing Coach who gives great value in every session. Oh, wait… I already do that…

Clients who would normally not be able to afford the current set coaching fees would be able to access quality coaching, based on how much they can afford and the value they receive. This is one of the big advantages for me, I know what it’s like to not be able to afford what I needed to grow my business. To be able to help those who really need it is really important to me.

What have I got to lose? I already offer a 100% money back guarantee so in effect I already have this happening in a way. I’ve never been called on to give a refund, so that suggests that my clients are all really happy and profiting from my coaching.

Thinking about this…. What do you all think? Who would take me up on this?