Free PDF: Proven blueprint for a profitable online business that replaces your 9-5

How to Design and Price Your First Coaching Package  

Want to learn how to sell high-end coaching programs? Today, I show you how to create a coaching package so that you can get results like these:

Screenshot of client testimonial for LuisaZhou.com

1000+ of my students in 20 industries have all taken these same steps that I share here below.

Ready to learn more about creating transformational coaching packages? Let’s dive right in. 

Chapters
How to sell high-end coaching packages
How do you create coaching packages that sell?
How should you price your coaching package?
What about group programs and online courses?
Examples of coaching packages

How to sell high-end coaching 

What is a coaching package?

An online coaching package is the offer you sell as a coach and that clients use to achieve the results they want for themselves.

And if you want to succeed as a coach, you need to sell the right types of coaching packages that people WANT to buy. 

You see, the value of your coaching isn’t in the number of sessions you offer or any other features. Instead, it’s about the transformation your clients get.

Let me explain: 

Your clients care about the results you help them get. That’s what they pay for, not the time you spend supporting them. 

Yes, in the beginning, you will likely spend more time helping people (while you learn how to coach). 

But the point is: Over time, you will spend less time on client work, while your rates increase. 

Your ideal clients couldn’t care less about whether you spend 5 hours or 10 hours helping them, as long as you support them in getting results.

With that said, what should your online coaching packages look like? Let’s take a look.

Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?

Get Instant Access To My FREE Ultimate Guide Below!

When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

How do you create coaching packages that sell?

Let’s start from the beginning:

How long should a coaching package be?

A great place to start is with a 3-month coaching package. Why? Because three months is long enough to help clients get some type of results (even though the specific results depend on your industry). 

I talk more about it in this quick video:

At the same time, a 3-month coaching package is not TOO long. 

If you offer a 6-month coaching package or a year-long commitment, you might find yourself “stuck” with these clients. 

Think about it: 

What if you’ve overpromise and realize this when you start working with your clients? 

If you don’t like them? 

Or if you just figure out that you don’t like doing things in a certain way? 

Longer coaching packages are also harder to sell because your client needs to commit to working with you for so long. 

How should you structure your 3-month coaching offer?

Wonder how many coaching sessions you should include in your first coaching package?

How much value it should include?

First: The number of coaching sessions and value isn’t the same thing. 

Second: Your time and energy are much better spent getting new clients and supporting them than trying to tweak the “perfect” package. Instead, use the simple structure I recommend here below and get started selling your services. 

(Side note: Want a guide on how to get more coaching clients? Here you go.)

The structure looks like this:

With a 90-day coaching package, you can offer weekly calls that are about 45-60 minutes long. In between these calls, you offer support in the form of emails, texts, or Voxer. 

This structure helps your clients feel supported. Even though not all clients will take advantage of the extra support you offer, they have the opportunity to get in touch with you more flexibly than if they had to wait for weekly calls. 

And supporting your clients in between calls is key.

When you’re new to coaching, you’ll want to learn as much as possible and help your customers get great results fast. This is the time to overdeliver–and not look at your profit margins or how much time you’re spending on each client. There’s a time and place for that.

Instead, focus on offering packages that help people get results. You see, when they get results, you get testimonials. 

Testimonials help you get new, dream clients and charge higher prices.

Win-win!

At the same time, “overdeliver” doesn’t mean “work yourself to death.” 

The smart thing to do is to only offer ONE support channel (such as email) so that you don’t overwhelm yourself. 

(Just think about it… Ever tried to keep up with ALL the social media channels, your email, and your different messaging apps? Of course you have. And you know what a time-suck they can be.)

Screenshot of coaching client accountability thread
Here’s one coaching thread in my own mastermind group. See how you can give a lot of value with the support you offer?

And I always let my clients know that I will reply within 48 hours. Often, I’m much faster than that, but this gives me leeway for when I, for whatever reason, have to take a few days to get back to people. 

Photo of Luisa Zhou in Japan
Like when I traveled to Japan with my family. I could work for about an hour a day because I had these systems in place.

What should be included in a coaching package?

Something a lot of new coaches ask me is, “How do I know what to put into my package?”

The secret “hack” you can use here? 

Let your customers guide you with the questions they most often ask you. 

It typically takes 1-3 clients to figure out what you should include in your coaching package to help them in the best way possible. 

And to know how to initially structure your coaching offer (before you’ve signed on a customer)? Identify this ONE thing:

What’s the big end result clients get after working with you for 90 days? 

This will be different for each industry. For example, maybe you can promise that people will lose a certain amount of weight or that you’ll help them get a specific number of job applications done within the three months you’ll be working together. 

When you’ve identified that end result, map it out to 2-3 benchmarks that you will help your clients hit at the end of the month. These benchmarks should be results-oriented. 

Want to know what this looked like for me? 

When I started selling my 90-day package, I came up with the following benchmarks:

Month #1

Helping clients get clarity, take their job skills to build a coaching or consulting company, find a business idea, and start building an audience.

Month #2

Helping people build and engage an audience of a certain number of people.

Month #3

Helping clients get 1-3 paying clients.

I didn’t know the exact details, but I knew that these were the results I wanted my clients to achieve during our time together. 

And before this business, I was running a digital advertising consulting company (which made me 6-figures in 4 months). The same thing applied:

Month #1

I helped my clients set up their assets, landing page, and ads.

Month #2

Clients started to test ads, establish benchmarks, and get their first results.

Month #3

We optimized ad campaigns by creating better ads and improving metrics (like costs for leads). 

Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?

Get Instant Access To My FREE Ultimate Guide Below!

When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

How do you deliver your online coaching package?

When I got my first client, I was happy for the money I had just made… But then reality hit me: How could I, who had never coached anyone, get through our coaching calls?

I’ve always been something of an over preparer, so I did what I always do: I prepared so much that NOTHING could go wrong.

I spent three hours preparing a one-hour call and wrote down every single word I would say during the call.

Then, I did the same thing for the second and third call. 

Now, I’m not saying that you need to prepare for three hours for your coaching calls (I just love to feel prepared). But do whatever it takes for you to be confident when you’re first starting out.

For example, before your first call, map out what you’ll cover during the call.

At the end of your coaching session, you know what people will need to work on for the second call. Then, you prepare for that call in the same way you did for the first call.

After about three clients, you will start to see patterns in client questions, which will decrease the time you put into preparing for sessions.

By then, you’ve already created all the material, like PDFs and worksheets, for your clients–you’ve essentially gotten paid to create material for your coaching business.

Your clients feel supported and you get raving testimonials that help you get more clients.

And by client #5-6, you will most likely have an efficient process in place.

With your system in place, you can decrease the number of calls you offer during your 3-month coaching package (because by now, you know your client base intimately). You might go for 45-minute long calls instead of an hour or modify the length of your services. 

How do you name your coaching offer?

Your coaching package doesn’t really need a name. 

Instead of finding the “perfect” name (which you can anyway change later), it’s MUCH more important that you focus on getting your first clients.

Instead of risking that you use a “clever” (but confusing) name, you can simply say:

“Private coaching to get (result)” or “Bootcamp to get (result)”

One of my bestselling offers was called “Business Bootcamp.” The name didn’t sell my offer–the relationship I had with my audience did. So don’t overthink your name and go for whatever explains your offer the best.

Other words you can use are:

  • Consulting
  • Framework
  • Method
  • Blueprint
  • Program
  • Transformation
  • Strategy 

How do you create boundaries for your coaching?

At one point or another, you will most likely have a client who refuses to pay or asks you to give them more support than what you’ve agreed on. 

How do you create boundaries for yourself in these situations so that you can continue serving your clients, but doing it in a way that you enjoy? 

First, create a contract with clear rules on what types of refunds you accept. Do you give any refunds (in accordance with your local legislation) and in which circumstances? 

Personally, I recommend that you don’t give refunds for your services. Services are not products and you won’t get the time you’ve invested back. 

Want to learn more about refunds? I talk more about them here: 

And remember: You’re a coach. You’re not supposed to do your clients’ work for them. Treat them with respect by keeping in mind that they’re adults who are responsible for their own actions. 

How many clients can you take on?

How many high end coaching packages can you sell before you reach your limit? 

After all, there are only so many coaching sessions or so much email support and overall coaching work you can schedule in a certain period of time.

I reached my limit at 10 clients. I would say this is the industry standard.

After that, your business becomes difficult to manage.

At this point, you can start selling other offers such as group packages (which we talk more about below).

But what should your high end coaching rates look like?

Let’s take a look. 

How should you price your coaching package? 

We’ve covered how you structure and create your coaching package. 

Now, let’s talk about your price. 

There are pretty much three ways in which you can do this:

  • Package rate
  • Monthly rate
  • Hourly rate

My personal favorite is to charge per package

The reason is simple: 

Monthly and hourly commitments don’t set out a tangible goal for you to hit. The pricing will inevitably be more about the time you spend coaching someone rather than the results you help them get (which are WAY more valuable to your clients). 

At the end of the day, you can price as you want if you can show that you help your clients get results. 

That’s why we talked about overdelivering to your first, few coaching clients. With those testimonials, you have a lot of room to increase your prices. 

But when you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t overthink your rate. Instead, focus on getting clients, helping them get results, and then increasing your rates. 

The best price point? Start with $1,500 paid-in-full and $550 paid month-by-month for a 3-month coaching program. The reason you’re charging more for monthly payments (about 10-20%) is that it’s increased convenience for your clients and more risk to you. 

Image of coaching offer examples

And remember: People are paying for results, not your time. If you position it like that, you’re offering a high-value trade. 

Feel like you’re not worth it?

You might be thinking, “Who am I to charge this much?” 

The first coach I ever worked with told me flat out, “That’s too much” when I said I wanted to charge $5,000 for a 6-month coaching package. 

That made me second-guess my price. Was I asking for too much? 

But you also have to realize this:

First, I don’t subscribe to people saying, “Charge your worth.” What does that even mean? Nobody pays for someone’s worth, they pay for the transformation they get.

Second, if you’re confident in the value you bring, what you’re charging should be a great investment. 

And even if $1,500, $5,000 or $10,000 can sound like big numbers, they aren’t necessarily. When I first sold a coaching package and wanted to figure out what I wanted to charge, I did the math. 

I figured I would be doing weekly calls, which would end up at 12 hours over a six-month period. And I factored in the time I would spend on supporting my clients through email, as well as preparing for calls, all that type of work. Ultimately, I calculated that my hourly rate would be around $60. 

$60/hour is actually not that much, especially when you factor in taxes and other expenses (internet, the resources you use to educate yourself, and so on). 

This was a bit less than what I was making hourly at my 9-5 and having done this calculation, my rate felt fair in terms of the value I offered.

(To compare, Harvard Business Review reports that the median hourly cost of coaching is $500.)

You can test different prices!

Remember: 

Your prices aren’t set in stone. 

When I got my first client, I had initially given a lot of free support. For two weeks, I basically coached her for free. She happily agreed to my $5,000 price tag.

Screenshot of client payment
My first sale! While my first client said “YES!”, I had to test different price points to sell my offer. 

But when I tried to sell that same coaching offer to other people, who I hadn’t helped for free for so long, they said, “That’s too much.” 

No wonder: At the time, I didn’t have any reputation online and no social proof.

I decided to lower my rate to $1,500 for a 3-month package to get a few quick wins. That’s when things started moving again and people were happy to pay my rates. After three clients at this price point, I shifted back to $5,000.

The point is: Your prices aren’t set in stone. You can change your price and test different prices for different coaching packages. 

Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?

Get Instant Access To My FREE Ultimate Guide Below!

When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

What about group programs and online courses?

Once you’ve reached your limit with your individual services, you might want to create offers that are easier to sell to more clients. These offers include online courses and group programs, as they help you sell your packages to more ideal clients without taking on more sessions. 

Online courses

After you’ve worked with a number of customers, you have a process in place that you can leverage as an online course. Online courses, as digital products, is all about creating an asset you sell profitably and flexibly. Use your process and package them into a course.

Group programs

If you want to create group coaching programs, you basically take the same content you develop through your individual coaching. You can set up weekly group calls instead of private coaching calls and offer a price close to your private coaching offer. The value is still the same if not greater, as people are able to learn from other group members.

Examples of coaching packages 

Now you know how to create coaching packages that sell. Want a few examples of what they can look like in real life? Here are some of the offers that my own clients have put together and are selling successfully.

Life coaching package

Claudia Parada, Energy Coach

My student Claudia, an Energy Coach, offers a 3-month energy coaching package and a group program. 

Screenshot of a client website

Health coaching package

David Alsieux, Health Coach

David helps his clients get healthy with herbs. He started out offering a 3-month coaching package and has since then transferred to online courses.

Screenshot of a client website

Career coaching package

Emily Liou, Career Coach 

Emily started out offering a career coaching program. Today, she offers group coaching packages, courses, and accelerators.

Screenshot of a client website

Adunola Adeshola, Career Coach

Adunola is a career coach for millennials. She offers private coaching, as well as group programs and courses. 

Screenshot of a client website

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about coaching packages

How do you create a life coaching package?

Create life coaching packages in the same way you would any other type of program. However, make sure you niche down and offer a clear result. After all, life coaching is a very vague concept and instead of offering just that, life coaches should create packages as a health career, or mindset coach.

How do you structure a life coaching program?

Just like other coaching packages, your own life coaching packages should start at three months. Once you have a clientele and you know what your ideal clients look like, you can prolong your offer (and with that, your rate).

What is a fair price for a life coach?

To create high end life coaching packages, you need to offer transformation. The trap most coaches fall into is to offer hourly rates and so they never build a truly sustainable business. Instead, offer a specific result, like mindset coaching (depending on what your experience is), and price it at $1,500. There’s no “right” price for coaching–it all depends on the results you help people achieve.

Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?

Get Instant Access To My FREE Ultimate Guide Below!

When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

Over to you!

That’s it, now you know how to put together a coaching package that sells. What it comes down to is remembering that you’re selling a transformation and that you shouldn’t overthink your coaching packages or pricing. 

Now, I’d love to hear from you:

What will your coaching package look like? 

Let me know in the comments below.

About Luisa Zhou

Luisa Zhou has helped thousands of students build and scale their own profitable online Freedom Business. Fun Fact: She used to work as an engineer for the Space Station and holds a B.S.E. from Princeton. Click here to learn more about Luisa.

Hope you enjoy this blog post.

Want to know how to build a profitable, meaningful business to replace your 9-5?

The proven blueprint for building your own online business - that frees you from the 9-to-5

When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

6 Responses

  1. Coaching packages can sell easily and you can sell them for higher prices too. It is the best type of business to have these days.

  2. Great information! I loved he straight and to the point information you shared! Getting ready to do my website.. it helps immensely

  3. Luisa, I absolutely love your candor and clarity. Thanks for keeping the info solid, power-packed and practical. I’m on my way to nailing my 1st few clients and your article helped me immensely! Thanks again!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

1.4K Share 41.4K views

This website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies

Agree