My name is Mike Weisman, and I’m the Coach Engagement Manager here at CoachUp. I double as a part-time baseball coach on the CoachUp platform, so I also understand what it’s like to be a real coach using CoachUp.
Something I get a lot of questions about is how to set appropriate price points for your sessions and packages. Pricing strategy is an important part of any business, and being a private coach is no exception.
Whether you are coaching for your full-time business or trying to leverage your passion for some extra income, the typical goal for coaches is to maximize revenue while attracting the right volume of clients. Below are some tips for setting your pricing and packages, based on my experience on CoachUp, combined with some insights from data points we collect at CoachUp HQ.
1. Limit your listed package offerings.
It is a fairly widely accepted concept in pricing strategy that you want to keep options for customers limited. They are already deciding if you are the right coach for them – don’t make them decide which of your 15 package offerings is right for them too. Keep it simple and if a unique situation comes up, you can always offer custom pricing using CoachUp’s custom package tool.
2. Don’t be afraid to increase your rate.
Our data shows that increasing your rate does not have as strong of an impact on your ability to attract new customers as you might think. Every $10 increase is only a couple of percentage points difference in individual coach profile conversion rates.
3. Take a look around the CoachUp market you’re in and use price to differentiate yourself.
This is slightly counter to the above, but pricing can help you stand out. The biggest factor for clients choosing a coach on CoachUp is positive reviews, so we have seen many new coaches use discounted pricing to gain an edge in a competitive market where other coaches have an advantage. I did this myself when first starting and have heard anecdotally from other coaches that it helped jump-start them on the site.
4. Remember the fee structure when setting your rates.
We all know that CoachUp makes a percentage of the rate we set, so make sure you are not in for any surprises when you complete that first training session. Use the tool in the packages tab that projects your earnings based on the rate you choose.
5. Establish your value by avoiding free sessions or trial rates.
My goal is to develop a long-term relationship with any client I work with. A small part of this is the fee structure. I’m incentivized to complete those later sessions over starting a new relationship. A much bigger part of this is why I coach in the first place. A kid is going to regress back to their previous point in development after a couple of sessions if they don’t stick with it. Nobody can really experience significant development in a few hours of practice. Offering discounts and free trials is asking for someone to come in, just to learn to learn a couple quick tips. This is bad for business and bad for athlete development while making people pay for your service gives them the impression that it is valuable right away – which it is!
6. Use CoachUp discounts to your advantage.
Use variations of three, five, and ten session packages when creating package sizes. These are almost always the levels CoachUp uses on promotional discounts. (i.e. save $25 on a 5+ session package)
7. Don’t overcompensate a change in your rate because of the fee structure – plan for the long term.
When anticipating the fee structure, don’t set your price so you have your ideal payout on the first session, it gives an unrealistic price-point moving forward for a client, just so that you made what you wanted to make for the first session or two.
The most accurate price point comes from blending the rate over all the sessions you are projecting to do with your clients and increases the chances the client is going to see a rate they are comfortable with for an extended period of time.
The fees fluctuate, but you don’t want to fluctuate what you charge, so it’s smoother to anticipate the total sessions completed and think about what your average rate should be. You can view your sessions per client in your account to help.
8. Tie your pricing more to time than the number of athletes in the package.
As a disclaimer, this very much my opinion, but adding an athlete to a session does not necessarily change the amount of work or effort I am putting in and the more kids I can coach, the more of a positive impact I have, and the better my chances for gaining future referrals. As the size of the group increases, you can increase the amount of time needed for the session. In order to make sure everyone there gets enough reps, add time to the session and increase your rate based on this.
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