Should Coaches Offer a Money Back Guarantee?
“Put your reputation on the line and offer a 100% no quibble, money back coaching guarantee,” suggests Olivia Stefanino in her controversial column for Training Zone.
But wait! Coaching is future-based, correct? Much like doctors and lawyers, eh? Do doctors offer a money back guarantee if you don’t regain your health? Do attorneys offer a money back guarantee if they don’t win your case? Aren’t these services are future based?
Hmmm…and how do we determine coaching success? Stefanino declares that ”..it’s actually quite easy to see whether a desired outcome has been reached, within a designated time frame, or not.” She has guaranteed her coaching for almost ten years and in all that time, not one client has asked for money back. (She also admits that she never takes a client unless she feels fairly certain she can help him or her.)
My favorite point she makes is that coaching costs both money and time, and while the money is replaceable, the time is gone forever. This is a significant consideration for both coaches and clients, especially in a world where, for many busy professionals, time is more valuable than money.
Jump in into this discussion and tell me what YOU think……
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Comment by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 3 March 2008:
I love the idea. My own practice is pro-bono, and as has been noted, there are no refunds of one’s valuable time.
Despite my best efforts to take on only clients who can state their desired outcome and convince me of their willingness to achieve it, a few have surprised me with their unrelenting self-sabotage or failure to keep agreements.
I’m glad Olivia’s never been asked for a refund. However, if a client wanted money back when the failure to achieve the goal is directly attributable to the client’s actions or lack of action, it would seem unfair to me.
Comment by jsibley on 3 March 2008:
A thought-provoking question.
I think one way of looking at the money-back guarantee (granted, not when coaching pro-bono, as Ruth Ann points out) is that it is simply a way to rebalance risk-reward. I would say this is what lawyers and headhunters who work on contingency do. Potential reasons to shift the financial risk from the coachee to the coach could include:
- The coach ultimately makes more money from each client, in exchange for assuming more of the financial risk up-front [although I doubt this usually is the case]
- The coach believes that enough new clients will pay and that this is a cost-effective way of getting these clients as opposed to other marketing and promotional strategies. [this seems more likely]
- The coach believes (hopefully, correctly) that they will be successful enough of the time, and therefore believes this is a non-issue
That said, I personally don’t believe I have control over enough of the factors governing a client’s success. Some of the work is up to the client, after all. For a money-back guarantee to be cost-effective, wouldn’t one be tempted to walk away from or cut short engagements with a greater chance of failing (or not succeeding)? Perhaps that could be a good thing, but I’m not so sure.