Ask Bev - Should I charge my coaching sessions by the hour or should I promote them in blocks?

Should I charge my coaching sessions by the hour or should I promote them in blocks?

There is no right or wrong answer here but my advice would be – don’t sell coaching sessions by the hour.

There really isn’t much benefit to having a one off coaching session. It’s a bit like personal training; you wouldn’t see the real benefits from just one meeting. This is the same for Coaching.

Instead, if people have had a 15 minute telephone conversation with you and they’ve decided that coaching is the way forward for them, I certainly wouldn’t at that point start quoting my prices by the hour.

Let me give you an example of charging by the hour, say £75 an hour, versus charging with a block of coaching sessions.

After speaking to a potential client, on your free 15 minute consultation call and having considered their needs and how you can help them move forward, you might say –

“After speaking with you, I would estimate that we’d start off working together for 6 weeks and a 6 week course would be £395. That would be four sessions face to face or over the telephone / skype. This includes some catch up time via email in between so you can update me on your progress.”

The next step is to book the first session and take payment for the course of sessions. 

Imagine if you had charged by the hour at £75. Do the maths - £395 for a 6 week course would work out at £98.75 a session. This is actually more than the original £75 example that I gave.

This way of presenting a bundle or a course of coaching immediately sounds like better value too as opposed to saying it’s £100 an hour or £75 an hour.

Have a play around with packages - You may have an e-book that you have created or something else that you could give your clients to build a good value package. 

See what packages you could create that would give value and give your clients the absolute best chance for success.