Your health coaching business plan is a go, and you're now ready to take on new clients. However, you've been struggling with how to price your health coach packages.
If your rates are too high, you might scare away prospective clients. If they’re too low, they might not think your services are up to standard, or you might end up leaving money on the table.
So what’s the sweet spot? How much should you charge?
This post explores all-things health coaching prices to help you master a few basic strategies you should employ when creating wellness coach packages.
Health Coach Packages 101 – Understanding the Psychology of Pricing
Before getting into how to create wellness coach packages, you first need to understand the consumer mindset. Just because something costs cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean that more people will buy it. Lots of studies show that the higher something costs, the higher its perceived value is.
Suppose you were looking for a swim instructor for your kids, and you came across two people – one charging $15 an hour and the other $50. While $15 an hour sounds like the deal of a lifetime, you might be left questioning why their services are so cheap. You’ll likely opt for the $50-an-hour instructor because you would conclude that they are more experienced, skilled, and professional even if that may not necessarily be the case.
The same concept applies when pricing your packages. There is such a thing as “too low” when it comes to health coach rates. People might avoid you if they think your services are too cheap. They may equate this to being unqualified or inexperienced. When you charge a higher price, potential clients are more likely to take you seriously, and you’ll attract the right kind of “coaches” who are ready and willing to retain your services.
Too high a price, on the other hand, may end up having the opposite effect. Say, for instance, that you spend more than $5,000 putting together what you believe is an incredible health coach package. However, customers are willing to spend no more than $200 on it. It means that the perceived market value of your services is significantly lower than that of your actual product. So you might have to go back to the drawing board.
How to Create Wellness Coach Packages
Before getting into how much you should charge for your services, you need to design and develop your health coach package. Here’s how to do it.
1. Identify Your Niche
This may sound like a no brainer, but you need to identify who your actual target market is, beyond focusing on generic areas like weight loss or diabetes management and prevention. Do you want to adapt a high-price/low volume model or low-price/high volume model?
Create a buyer persona to get an accurate picture of who your customer is. You can do this by identifying what their background is, their occupation, their income levels, their goals, their lifestyle, etc.
2. Give the People What They Want
Next, you want to find a way to grab your ideal customers’ attention. You want to sell them on the benefits they’ll get from your services and not necessarily the features. This is where most wellpreneurs go wrong.
Benefits – not features – is how you grab their attention. This might be something along the lines of:
- Restore your energy
- Get off your medications permanently
- Get rid of brain fog
- Make healthy meals in under 30 minutes
- Etc.
You get the idea. These are all benefits that would grab a potential client’s attention and make them interested in what you have to offer.
3. Offer an Easy Solution
Your ideal client will likely have tried other ways to deal with their problem to no avail. As a result, they’ll be skeptical about your solution and will wonder about how difficult it will be for them to implement it. They’ll doubt that they have the will-power to follow through.
You need to design your package to be as easy as possible. It needs to be easy to learn and to implement. Convey a few tips along the way so they’re not overwhelmed by the process.
For instance, instead of telling them that they need to eliminate sugar from their diet, provide a list of healthy substitutes that will make the transition easier and more likely to be permanent.
4. Develop a Step-By-Step System
Now that you’ve identified your niche, grabbed their attention, and shown them how easy your coaching program is, you’re now ready for the next phase. You need to show them that you have a step-by-step system that is not only effective but works perfectly to minimize feelings of confusion, getting overwhelmed, or fear of failure. A solid step-by-step system gives them the clarity, focus, and confidence they need to believe that they can reach their goals.
5. Demonstrate the Value
Finally, you’ll need to show prospective clients that the service is worth their time and money. Before you ask them to buy into it, you need to convey the value of what you’re offering. Otherwise, they'll lose interest as soon as they hear the price. This is particularly important if you’re targeting high-paying clients.
What's the value of a coaching program? If they can get the same information in a free YouTube tutorial, then there isn't much value in it. But how much is it worth to them to get on a program that makes them feel better, increases their energy, shows them how to manage stress effectively, cuts down on the time they spend in the kitchen preparing healthy meals… Is it worth them paying a couple of hundred bucks a month in health coach fees?
It probably is. Therein lies the value.
How to Price Health Coach Packages
First, you need to get a general idea of what the current health coaching prices are like. The best way to do this would be to do a quick Google search and visit a few different health-coaching websites and compare the prices. Most offer 2-, 3- and 6-month programs.
The average health coach rates range between $200 and $500 per month. Coaches usually charge a fraction of the cumulative amount upfront to “hook” your client and get them to commit to the initial phase of the program. Once they start to see the results, they’re more likely to stay-on.
If you're just starting, you may want to price your services slightly lower than the industry average. This gives you a chance to enroll more clients and get testimonials that you can use in your marketing efforts and build your confidence as you go along.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when pricing your packages.
1. What Support Elements Are Included
Some of the features you can add to your packages to justify the price include recipes, meal plans, workouts, one-on-one and group coaching sessions, email support, daily prompts and alerts, and weekly check-ins.
2. How Will You Package Your Programs
The common coaching program pricing structures you’ll find include:
- Per-session coaching
- Month-to-month coaching with a fixed number of sessions
- One-off packages that are valid for a specific number of months
- Online group coaching
You can consider adopting a one-off 3- or 6-month package for new clients and then switch to a month-to-month structure thereafter once they complete the program.
3. How Much to Charge for One-On-One Coaching Sessions
Most coaches offer two 45- or 60-minute sessions per month. If you're just starting, you should keep your health coach fees between $50 and $75 per session. Once you gain more experience, you can bump up your rate to around $100 to $200 for each session.
If you decide to charge by the package, the industry average ranges between $1,200 and $2,000. Coaches with niched clientele can charge higher-than-average rates since they provide a very specific solution to a very specific market.
4. Should You Give Discounts
You can discount your health coaching prices to incentivize people to pay in full for the 3- or 6-month packages. A suggested discount rate would be 5%. That way, your client would save $60 for a 6-month package priced at $1200, for example.
5. What Are Your Income Goals
Try to base your pricing structure on your target income. Figure out what you want to make in a month and then work backward. For example, you want to make $3,000 every month, and you price your one-on-one coaching sessions at $200 per month. How many clients would you need to have to meet your income goals? Would a mix of group and one-on-one sessions work better to get you closer to your target?
Chart Your Course
Developing health coach packages is a tedious task that requires a lot of research. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. Find what makes the most sense to you and start from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it’s not set in stone either. So, you can iterate as you grow.
While working on your package, try to find a balance between what your audience needs and how much you need to earn on a monthly basis. While you should never work for free, the last thing that you want is to come off greedy.
Are you searching for the best health and wellness coach training programs? Check out our blog for everything you need to know about them.