And, importantly, I want you to make money by selling your expertise, not your time.
For today’s post I’m gonna dive into the top 3 coaching monetization strategies.
In other words, these are the offers that time and time again make the most money for coaches in both the short- and long-term.
Let’s get to it.
1. Long-Term Development / Programming
We've talked about it before and we'll certainly talk about it again: it’s vital that all coaches know how to effectively sell long-term development programs.
Before reading on, check out our highly popular blog on the topic: Getting Started with Long-Term Development Programs (LTD) - 3 Key Components.
When designing LTD programs, assume you’ll be selling your coaching in blocks of 3 months, 6 months, or, ideally, a full year.
That is, you’ll want to sell your potential athletes on what they can accomplish with you if they stick to your program for a pre-set period of time.
If you want a stellar example of a rockstar coach who recently switched from selling lessons to selling annualized LTD programs, look no further than Nicole Fougerousse.
In our recent interview with her, she explained in detail how making this switch enabled her to make a $100k+ income, while only coaching in person for 16 hours a week. Trust me, this is a convo you don’t want to miss – Listen to the full conversation and/or read the interview highlights at this link.
When it comes to monetizing programming, you’re gonna wanna charge at either a monthly or annual cadence.
A lot of coaches are having success collecting an upfront payment on an annual plan, so that could be thousands of dollars, all upfront.
Or, if you’re hesitant to jump to that model too abruptly, you can always sell your annual plan, but then only bill it monthly. I.e. they’ll be committed and “locked in” for the full year, but pay in affordable monthly installments
That being said, I want to encourage you to do everything you can to collect those dollars upfront so you aren’t chasing it down the line. There is a psychological effect when your clients pay in advance - it communicates that you aren’t just charging for a one-off lesson, you’re here to help your athletes reach their goals over time and your LTD offer needs to reflect that.
Of course, with any program be sure to offer a mix of live and asynchronous communication styles, leveraging CoachNow for all communications. Read more about our guidelines for ConnectedCoaching in these posts: What’s the ConnectedCoach Pathway?, Using Video Recaps to Increase Retention, The Power of Asynchronous Communication, Why You’ll Quit Your Coaching Job.
2. Digital Products
As you’re reading this, we are working diligently to launch the Level 2 ConnectedCoach Blueprint, which will be included free of charge for all CoachNow PRO members.
In recent years, we’ve put lots of effort into Digital Products, because they are possibly the best way to make extra revenue while you sleep.
In most cases, they take a bit of work to get up and running, but once they launch they require very little effort to keep them going.
For coaches, there are 3 types of digital products that see the most success: Courses, Communities, and E-Books.
For Courses, it’s as simple as filming a series of modules and publishing them to a CoachNow Group. With CoachNow PRO’s advanced group controls, you can design full courses that are hosted within the platform, and control exactly how members of the group interact with your content.
Interactive Paid Communities are memberships where you manage a discussion forum and drip exclusive content on a regular cadence (e.g. new techniques, curated drills, challenges etc). Like Courses, these are super easy to set up and manage in CoachNow.
eBooks are simple educational guides you can use to communicate your coaching programs. You can sell eBooks that focus on drills, mindset shifts, specific training plans, meal plans, etc. With these, try to make them as visual as possible, and leverage free tools like Canva to give them a professional polish.
When monetizing these products, you can opt to charge a one-time fee or monthly subscription.
Whatever you decide, I recommend keeping the price pretty low. Think of digital products not as the end goal, but as a vehicle to demonstrate value and build trust before upselling athletes to a higher ticket coaching offer.
The real value of digital products comes from how far they can reach. When you’re conducting live coaching sessions, you are time- and location-bound. With low-cost digital products you can cast a much wider net that you can then leverage down the line.
With modern software, it’s super easy to create digital products and make them available on your site with a simple checkout flow. Do yourself a favor and give it a try - there’s no harm in diversifying your revenue streams where you can!
3. Affiliate / Partner Monetizations
Lastly, try implementing referral partnerships and/or affiliate programs.
They are an incredibly simple and leveraged way to add value to your customers and your business.
Getting started on this path is super easy. Just ask yourself: is there a product that you already use and genuinely love?
If you use training aids or equipment that helps your athletes get better, faster, why not reach out and ask if you can partner up with them? In today’s day and age, it’s likely your favorite products and services have an affiliate program that will pay for each referral you make.
At CoachNow, we take this idea to heart and recently launched an all-new partners program for members of CoachNow+ or CoachNow PRO.
If you’re an existing member and you refer a coach or trainer to CoachNow, we commission you 30% of that sale in CASH. And, to sweeten the deal, we also pay you each year they renew.
Helping you make more money is part of my personal mission, and this new program is a key piece of that puzzle.
Leverage CoachNow as much as you can! I’d love to provide you with an additional revenue stream myself - I’d much rather pay our members than Facebook or Google for Ads!
To learn more about how easy it is to get paid with our new Referral Partner Program, click here.
Take Action
Ready to put this into play?
This week I want you to outline a Digital Product you could add to your offer stack.
It could be a free eBook to collect leads for your coaching program, or a short course you could add to your webpage.
Whatever it is, put pen to paper and tease out what such a product COULD look like.
Not asking you to design or launch anything just yet. Have some fun dreaming up a big-picture view of something that might make all the difference in giving you alternative revenue streams.
Let me know how it goes! I’m always here to provide feedback and another set of eyes where I can.
Here’s to you monetizing your coaching, saving time, and improving your quality of life!
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