Should you post your rates on your website?

Should you post private session rates on your website?

It's a great question and there are pros and cons to both options.

I covered this topic during a recent live group coaching call, and you can watch that below.

But let me give you a quick overview because the short answer is, it depends.

There are several factors to consider including your personal preference, your marketing style, the services/products you offer, how well you showcase your teaching style in your marketing, the true value that you offer your students, and more, but here are the major pros and cons to think about.

Making rates available on website:

Pros

• Builds trust through transparency
• People who truly can't afford your session rate won't contact you so you won't be putting in the time to do an assessment for someone who really can’t afford to enroll (though it’s always nice to give some guidance and tips for improvement to anyone seeking help, whether they can afford it or not, and the assessment really helps with speech self-awareness)
• People who know they want to work with you will wait until they have budgeted the money, so are more likely to schedule immediately

Cons

• Higher prices may scare off some people before they can get all the information about how you can help them
• Potential students may not realize how much value you offer (i.e. you might provide extra communication between sessions, others may charge for materials and you include them, etc.) 
• Potential students may choose a cheaper service/provider because they don't really know how to compare services

If you do decide to post your rates, you need to be really clear about all the value that you offer (communication between sessions, included practice materials, discounted packages, etc.) so potential students get a clear picture of everything that you offer.

It’s also important to have some great video lessons on your website that showcase your teaching style, so potential students have a solid example of how much you can help them.

Not Posting Rates

Pros:

• Interested students have to contact you to get pricing info. That initial contact starts a conversation and through this communication, you can explain exactly what you offer.  If you know how to handle these conversations, a potential student is more likely to enroll/schedule because they are getting to know you and trust you as a coach or teacher.
• People get a better idea of how you can help BEFORE considering price so are more likely to schedule because they understand the value/how you can help, rather than basing their decision on price alone.

Cons

• Some people believe that if price isn't listed, it's too expensive and they will not contact you at all
• Some people just want to know price upfront before they "waste your time" with the assessment, so again, they may never contact you.  (I am one of these people, btw. I’ll do anything to avoid the awkwardness of telling a real person that I can’t afford or don’t see the value in their service so I would never set up an appointment without knowing the pricing.)

I recommend that you test and see what works best for your business. I have always posted my rates on my website but as I said above, that's kind of because of my own personal preferences.

This lesson also gives you an idea of just some of the things that we talk about during our Live Group Coaching Sessions. 

Other topics we've covered include:

• Specifics for working with actors
• Different dialects of English and how to teach them
• How much feedback is too much feedback?  How to prevent overwhelm in our students
• Identifying a customer’s journey through our business to make sure that we are sending the right messages and making the right offers at the right time
• How to film, edit, and create video lessons on a tight budget
• Systems to run your business more efficiently
• Social Media vs. Email Marketing:  Which is more important?
• Creative ways (beyond private sessions) to increase revenue and grow your business. 
• What goes into a Facebook/Google Ad (with my template)
• What you REALLY need on your website when you are just starting out
• What to consider when working with a student with a very mild accent (i.e. you don't think they need your services)
• Steal my template for a perfect Sales Page
• Crafting emails that get engagement and make sales
• Optimizing your email welcome sequences
• What to do with students/clients who just want to talk (and not work on sounds or anything specific)
• Affiliates as an extra stream of income
• How to ask for testimonials without making it awkward
• Improving client retention
• How to easily create an online course for passive income

  And so much more...

  Replays are available and all students may submit questions whether they attend live or not.

If any of they sounds like it would help you grow as a speech coach and expand your business, why not join us?  I'd love to welcome you into the program.  

You can read all about the program here.

Talk to you soon,

Jessica