One of the most common questions that I hear from clients is “how do I raise my fees and attract clients who are willing to pay?”. Some coaches might raise their fees dramatically, but then become frustrated when their next consult or two doesn’t result in a signed contract, so they go back to their old pricing.  Has this ever happened to you?

This dilemma keeps many coaches from raising the investment for their services in the first place, or makes them fearful of making their fees high enough so that they , and worse yet, from earning the income they desire, and deserve. Understanding the psychology behind the sales-process is crucial to breakthrough the “it doesn’t work” mentality, or what I call, “stinkin’ thinkin’”.

When I help clients deconstruct where their marketing process needs more support, the answer of why clients say “no” to investing usually lies in one of three very important parts of the sales process:

First, understand that clients are interested in investing in solutions, which is a key distinction from “hiring a coach.”  In fact, most people don’t dream about “working a coach someday”, or have photos of famous coaches on their vision boards.  It’s harsh but true, people don’t roll out of bed and think, “today’s the day I’m finally going to find me a coach!”. They also don’t thumb through Vogue, O Magazine or Home Beautiful and see a coach on the O List or the “spring trends” checklist and run to their MacBook and credit card, right?

Here are three fool-proof ways to raise your coaching fees, keep them high, and get clients who are willing to pay them:

1. Be crystal clear about the results and benefits clients receive in working with you: Clients hire coaches to get the results that they are dying to have. They hire us to increase their incomes, save more money, attract more clients, look better, to feel better, to stop worrying about stuff, etc. So unless the client has a very clear understanding of how they will benefit by working with you, and precisely how they will get the solution to with whatever is keeping them up at night, they won’t pay any fee (no matter how small) to hire you.

Therefore, to get high-paying clients, your consultation/break~through session MUST be very clear about how working with you with help them to achieve their goals, desires, dreams, etc. You have to show them how your work will make a difference for them in a very personal way. Explain to your client in no uncertain terms what their end results will be after working together.

2. Become comfortable with your fees: Sometimes it takes a consultation (or five) to get comfortable with saying your new and upgraded fees out loud, and clients pick up on this anxiety and then pass on signing up. To get comfortable with your higher fees, practice saying your fees aloud, to your mirror, and to your family. (Pets are often willing listeners also). Or, make a list of the top 25 ways clients get amazing results from hiring you and refer to it often.

Remember that even IF half as many people decline to work with you at your higher fees, but you’re charging twice as much, that’s half the work for the same amount of income you were making before. So don’t worry that less people are saying yes, another bonus is that you will attract high quality clients who are a pleasure to work with at your higher prices.

3. Have a systemized marketing funnel: There has to be marketing plan for encouraging cold leads to become hot prospects who are ready, willing and able to hire you and pay you what you’re worth. For this to happen, there needs to be a relationship established with your prospective client. This is where the sales process comes into place. Most clients come into the funnel by trying something for free. They might download your freebie from your website, then read your newsletters, browse the articles on your website, and attend a teleseminar.  Then they may buy an entry level low-risk type of product.  They then will become more likely to advance through a series of products and/or programs which become progressively higher of an investment.

Once customers have become familiar with you and like what they have experienced at a smaller investment, then they will become more likely to invest with you at a higher level, such as group coaching program or a product.

Which of these three marketing strategies do you need to implement? Feel free to leave me a comment, I’d love to get your feedback.