This week, I received an email from one of our members asking how to structure her group coaching program.
It’s a fantastic question–one that we receive often from our members.
That’s because group coaching is a fantastic top-of-funnel offering.
Group coaching allows you leverage your time, grow your pipeline of premium coaching clients, and expand your influence in your target market. It’s a way to give coaching clients a chance to get to know you and to rely on your services as they build community with other success-oriented business owners. Group coaching provides both marketing and bottom-line benefits, and I strongly encourage you to consider adding group coaching to your mix of services.
So let’s dive deep into some of the most common questions about group coaching.
Why would I offer group coaching as one of my business coaching programs?
Group coaching programs are ideal for businesses too small to afford one-on-one prices at $1,000 to $3,000 per month. It’s a great way to establish a coaching relationship with small-ish businesses. Over time, many of these group coaching clients will matriculate into a premium coaching relationship as their businesses grow and they’re able to afford the investment.
Another great reason to offer group coaching is because of the leverage effect: you can generate substantial revenue with a relatively small time investment.
How should I set the price for my group coaching program?
For starters, make it your ambition to earn at least as much (if not a whole lot more) money per hour from group coaching than you do from coaching clients one-on-one. We refer to this method of calculating your earning potential as the Effective Billable Rate (EBR). So your first step is to compute your EBR for your one-on-one coaching programs.
Let’s say that you charge $1,500 per month for one 30-minute business coaching call per week, and you do about an hour of prep and admin per account per month, for a total of three hours. Your EBR is $500/hour ($1,500/3 hours). Using your EBR for one-on-one clients as your standard, your group coaching program should be structured to deliver at least $500 per hour.
Say you decide to keep your group reasonably small so as to 1) be able to achieve a high level of personal interaction with the members, 2) leverage the power of peer-pressure among your members, and 3) encourage a culture of peer-mentoring in the group.
If you have a 1-hour coaching session every other week, plus 2 hours per month of prep time and administration, you need to collect at least $2,000 from the group to achieve your EBR standard ($500 * 4 hours). If you launch a group of four members paying $500 per month, you’ve hit your target! If you put five people per group, you’ll bank $2,500 per month, for an EBR of $625. That’s even better leverage than one-on-one coaching!
How long should my group coaching program last?
I recommend a 6-month experience with sessions every two weeks, totaling 12 total sessions. Why? Two weeks between sessions gives your clients time to apply what they learn and get serious value out of their investment–while leaving just enough room that they’re hungry for more.
How should I structure the content in my group coaching program?
Most of your group coaching sessions will be about 50% new content followed by question and answer time. Of course, every good business coaching program is based on rock-solid content that business owners can use immediately to grow their profits. I suggest taking your clients through the 5 Steps to Freedom and 21 Silver Bullets; these are powerful and effective principles that will supercharge almost any business.
(Not familiar with the 5 Steps to Freedom and 21 Silver Bullets? Take our entire business coach training system for a spin for 30 days and get acquainted with the methodology thousands of coaches have used to successfully work with their clients over the past 15 years.)
