I had a potential client ask me recently whether the payment for my coaching package was required upfront. I told him, yes, that it’s a policy I have which I found has my clients way more committed to the work than when I used to allow split payments. He told me he prefers this.
This is a client I’ve worked with before who previously paid me in equal instalments, one month at a time for a year. In reality, we didn’t have a one-year agreement, we had a one-month agreement which he renewed every month.
Now, is getting up-front payment something all coaches should do? Not necessarily.
When I’m working with a new coach, the first thing I work with them on, that is, if they’d like to make more money, is filling up their practice. When a coach is starting, to get full, it could be helpful for them to allow clients to pay in instalments rather than all upfront. This is something I did in my earlier days as a coach.
However, what I’d always suggest is even if you allow split payments from clients you also get paid proportionally up front for your work. By that I mean if your year-long package is £12,000, which works out to £1,000 a month, you don’t want to deliver month three of the coaching agreement without being paid at least £3,000 by that stage. So even though the payment terms are split, you never get paid after the services are delivered.
I had a situation a few years ago where I had a client who was on payment terms and they struggled to pay according to our agreement. I thought I was doing them a favour by allowing the payments to be pushed further and further back without slowing down the coaching, but by the time we got to the end of our agreement, he owed me a couple of thousand pounds.
It took me a few months and continual chasing to receive the money for the work I had already delivered – which he said he’d been happy with. This not only took time from my end, but I realised this didn’t serve my business or the client, and I decided never to do this again moving forward.
Having strong coaching agreements is one of the most potent ways to create impactful work with clients and make sure your business is looked after. In my online course with Dr Mark Howard we have a whole section about agreements and we share a written template of the very document I use with clients, which you can find here.
With love and appreciation,
Ankush Jain
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You