Why Coaches Underprice Their Work—and How to Fix It with Peter Lach

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Peter Lach, growth advisor and coach to established B2B service business owners, to explore pricing confidence and building a profitable coaching practice. Peter shares his journey from corporate leadership and business ownership into coaching, along with key lessons on investing in growth, charging based on value, and overcoming the internal resistance that often holds coaches back. He offers practical insights on niching down, lead generation, using AI to accelerate results, and creating scalable systems that drive real ROI. Perfect for coaches who want to grow their business with clarity, confidence, and sustainability.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-lach-180b30/
Website: https://vantagecoach.co.za/

Transcript

Peter Lach 0:00

Absolutely. I think pricing is probably the most difficult thing psychologically for for coaches, certainly was for me as well. The big challenge, I think, in the learning that I had was that the resistance to raising prices is usually in the mind of the coach more than in the mind of the buyer, the you know, the the the client or the prospect. So what I do, and and this gives me a lot more confidence as well, is because I have the profit acceleration tool, I can see what the potential of the business is. You don't need the tool necessarily, but for example, let's say a business is doing a certain dollar revenue, you can see what the net profit is. So I ask for that kind of thing.

Davis Nguyen 0:45

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Win, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro 1:16

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Peter Lack, a growth advisor who helps founders of established B2B service businesses break through growth ceilings without chaos or burnout. He works with owners whose companies have outgrown their positioning and structure and need a smarter way to scale. His focus is on clear differentiation, predicticizing expertise, owner-independent operations, and profit first growth. The result is a business that scales intentionally, delivers real value, and becomes easier and more rewarding to lead. Welcome to the show, Peter.

Peter Lach 2:04

Thank you, Pedro.

Pedro 2:05

Thanks for having me. It's great to have you, Peter. And I like to rewind a bit, you know, get back to the origin story because every coach has that moment where they look at their life, you know, and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you?

Peter Lach 2:20

Yeah, yeah, Pedro, I've always loved business. That's been uh, you know, it's been a sort of a core of uh uh of of the fabric, my own fabric. Um, you know, I've I've owned two of my own businesses previously. I know what it's like to struggle through trying to trying to get a small business going. Very little help um in the process. I've also worked in a corporate, and a couple of years ago, it was about 2016. I was working with a colleague and he was looking after a business division, and he'd promised quantum growth uh to the powers to be. And he was struggling with that. So we spent two days, we sat down, spent two days, and do something that I do these days with with my small business clients is have a look at making small changes in the right areas that can lead to big bottom line results. It's actually quite amazing. It's just a mathematical equation almost, if you want to see it that way. But make some small changes in the right places, and you can get really significant increase in the bottom line. And once we've done that, uh, you said to me, you know, Peter, you've got a real talent for this. You should be helping people. And at that stage, I thought, yeah, I've got to do this. I've got to go out and do my own thing. That was the end of 2017. So I stepped out and moved into coaching small business owners and entrepreneurs of mid-sized companies uh from then onwards. So it's been about an eight-year, uh, eight-year, pretty hard journey. I'll be quite honest with you as well. It hasn't all been uh all been roses, right?

Pedro 3:54

Yeah. Interesting. I love the fact that uh it was more of an invitation, right? Hey Peter, you should be doing this. You know, I love that. That's organic, right? So natural. And also the fact that you mentioned about the small changes in the right places, sometimes it's just that snap that will turn a business around. I like that too. So, Peter, when did it shift from, you know what, I'm helping people, I'm sensing here and how this is going to I'm building a real business around this now.

Peter Lach 4:22

Yeah, so yeah, Pedro, I think that was um that was quite a wake-up call for me in my journey. You step out from employment, you're now a coach, right? Business coach. And I had some, you know, formal uh accreditation, ICF accreditation and coaching, that kind of thing. But it quickly dawned on me that there's a big difference between being a coach and building a coaching practice. They're fundamentally different things with different skills. And although I thought I could coach, I didn't really know very well how to put a coaching business together, a coaching practice. How do you market? How do you sell? How do you generate leads? How do you deliver? How do you track progress? How do you retain class? All of those things you've you've you've got to learn. I had none of those, you know, none of those skills. So I very quickly had to go and find out how to do this. So I started doing a little bit of investigation and I found, well, there are there's uh uh a couple of franchises out there, business coding coaching franchises, which you can join. They generally tie you in for about seven years, you know, it's difficult to get out of them. Um I I really didn't have the answer, so I met with a local partner in a local, pretty, pretty successful coaching firm. And he pointed me in the right direction. He said, Listen, there's this company, coaching company in the US. Why don't you go and approach these guys and have a look at whether they can help you? And that was the best thing I ever did. That was the best advice I ever received because they provided me with a complete framework to get started. How to set yourself up, how to set up your website, how to generate leads, how to close sales, how to coach, and a complete framework for coaching. And that was, I think, essential. You know, I see so many coaches out there that maybe step out of corporate world or employment. They're really, really knowledgeable and so on, but they struggle on the business side, right? Don't know how to get leads, they don't know how to generate business, etc. Um, so for me, that that was a a real game changer. Um, and that's where I got my first coach as well. I've had a coach ever since, different coaches at different times. Uh, but I believe in coaching, and I've still got my own coach. This is basically an Ireland at the moment, but I've had a number of coaches that uh that have helped me through this, through this journey.

Pedro 6:47

I love the fact that you, Peter, in the way you practice what you preach, right? You different coaches, different times. It's not about just coaching, but being coached as well. So I love that. I love that, really love that. So after you got rolling, right? You set up with the the the consulting firm, you got the leads and you got the website, all of that. Who are the people that cap showing up? You know, the ones you realize, okay, this this is my crew.

Peter Lach 7:15

You mean in terms of of clients? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, um that that was also quite a difficult uh process. When you start out, you often you want to try to be everything to everybody, right? And and I think a lot of coaches feel that pressure. You know, you need to get business in. So you want to keep the keep the domain as wide open, the door as wide open as possible. But actually, that's the wrong thing to do. You really should niche down and narrow down as as much as possible. So initially I got a whole variety of of um you know people showing up, mainly through my networks. That's uh you know how I started, putting the word out through friends, networks, etc. And yeah, I I kept on getting people that were really in need of coaching, but not necessarily the ideal client that uh you know that I can uh can help. And it's been a been a bit of a process of realizing that by focusing on a specific group of people with a specific type of problem that I can really serve well, maybe better than you know others, because I can offer them unique things that can really help solve their problem, I could position myself to be far more competitive than than you know other coaches in the in the domain. And once I started doing that, I started attracting the right kind of people into my world. That was uh, you know, it was a it was a scary thing to do, but I think it was actually an essential thing to do. So, you know, I I'd say any coaches that are maybe starting out there, you know, think about what your strengths are. Number one, do an inventory of your own strengths, what you're good at, what skills you have, what knowledge you have, what networks you have, then have a look at who do you want to serve, you know, whose whose problem can you help solve very, very well? And then the third thing that I would say is then hop onto Google and have a look at competitors or people that you believe are your competitors, that these clients of yours, potential clients would be buying. Go onto their website and have a look at what they are saying and what they are offering. And the chances are most of them will be saying the same thing. Just blah, blah. We do coaching, we do this, we do that. It's not niche down. We specifically for this group of people with this kind of problem, this is how we can solve this really, really well. I'd I'd do that kind of three-step process and then hone in on you know who you who you want to really fake your message out. So I don't know if that answers your question.

Pedro 9:56

No, it does, it surely does, because uh I love the counterintelligence tactic, right? It's not like you're trying to reinvent the wheel, it's just getting that ideal framework that resonates with you and then add some flavor to it. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. So that's the coaching side. We're talking about now marketing, right? Let's say how do people usually find you? Let's say they went to your website or resonated with your work or all of that. How do they find you?

Peter Lach 10:26

Okay, yeah. Lead generation, the biggest challenge for every new coach, right? On the block. Yeah. Look, what I like to like to do is I present three webinars, masterclasses, which covers B2B service businesses, how to break through that ceiling, how to get rid of the chaos, how to lift the profitability, and so on. It's generally a 90-minute kind of kind of webinar, which I have almost monthly. The key question is how do you fill the room with with people? That's always the big challenge. What I found helped a great deal is normally within your network, you will find that there are people that have got access, it could be other business owners that could access to your ideal clients. So, for example, a good friend of mine is um is the CEO of a large industry association with 13,000 members. Some of them are really large companies, captains of industry, etc. They're not my clients, my ideal client, but there are many smaller businesses in that grouping. So because I'm offering this for free, he's willing to pump this to 13,000 people in the database. That fills uh my registration up, that fills up the webinar, and then at the webinar, I would then offer them a uh a free profit acceleration assessment. Right? It's a couple of hours, I'll actually 90 minutes or so. I'll help them find double their existing profit in their business. And uh haven't failed to do it yet using our proprietary software, specifically software that helps. So it's a it's a process, a strategy, finding people who have the problem, making them an offer, free offer, low-risk offer, get them to my webinar, come out and look at the webinar, they can see what it's all about, and see me, they can hear me, so they can understand who I am, and then make them a low-risk next step offer where we can actually demonstrate the kind of profitability that they that they could gain. And if they want you know, want help after that, yeah, we can we can talk about if they're a good fit or whether I take them on to onto the program. So that's in a nutshell is you know the best strategy or the most profitable strategy for me at this at this point in time. A couple of others as well, but they're all you know around that uh that is that is that yeah, of course.

Pedro 12:57

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I would like to know tap in the business uh part for a second. So let's say people went to your webinar, right, and they went through that that process, the assessment process. They resonate with your work, Peter, and eventually they want to know what working with you actually looks like. So everyone builds their coaching business a bit differently. So when someone actually becomes a client, you know, what does that experience look like right now?

Peter Lach 13:24

Right. Okay. So there's a process that we that we go through. Firstly, we do a bit of a diagnostic of the business and weaknesses and finances, marketing, sales, operations, all those kind of things. Just get a get a good feel for that, as well as the individual, the the CEO or the or their business owner. What's their profile, a personality profile like, strengths, weaknesses, uh, and and and so on. We've then got the profit accelerator as well. We then do a little bit of vision work and strategy work first. So, Pedro, where do you want to be? Where do you want to what do you want to do with your business? Where do you want to be in three years' time? You know, what's it gonna look like? What's your life gonna look like? What do you want it to look like, right? So get a bit of an idea of where they want to go, what they want to do. And from that, we then build out a systematic roadmap to get them to that point, broken down firstly into one year, then two years, three years, right? But one year is the main the main focus. And within that, break it down into quarters, into 90-day or 12-week sprints almost. Each 90-day block, we set goals for that. We look at the systems and the processes that are missing in the company that they need, that'll give them good uplift, good growth opportunities, and we start to focus systematically on that. At the end of the quarter, and we do a quarterly review. So we look at everything that you've done, you know, and often people are so busy with their work and implementing everything that's that's needed that they kind of forget what they've done. But once we do the review, they actually realize, wow, we've we've actually covered all of this ground. And then we look at so what impact has this had on your business? What impact has this had on your thinking and the way that you operate? What are the results that you are seeing? What would you like to do next quarter? And then we plan out the next quarter. We work week by week. So I you know get together online and I talking right now, and we work through each of those modules week by week. I've also got, you know, an entire framework, online system where we keep track of all the conversations, we record all the meetings, and all the tools, how-to videos, strategies are all housed there as well. So the person has got access to all the tools that they need and templates and everything that they need. And we use the the weekly sessions to work through challenges, look at next steps, look at where they need help, and just guide them, guide them through the process.

Pedro 15:54

I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on, right? We're talking about diagnostics, we're talking about weekly sessions. Um, and I love the fact that you had some milestones to cover, right? So sit down with your uh client. So how do you think about capacity? So you don't stretch yourself too thin.

Peter Lach 16:13

Yeah, yeah. So that's always a that's always a challenge, right? So a couple of ways to do this. Uh the one is what I do at the moment is the one-to-one coaching. So uh, you know, as a boutique uh kind of firm, I have a limited number of people that I can work with and that I want to work with. So generally about 10. I don't work with more than more than that. In terms of scaling up, which I've given a lot of thought to as well, the obvious way is you know the one-to-many. So group coaching to put people into into into groups and so on. However, at this point in time, I'm getting so much satisfaction out of the one-to-one coaching process that I I rather limit my capacity, still have the lifestyle that I want, the time, etc. that I that I want. But for me, it's it's more about managing the result of the clients. So I pick I pick them very carefully, the clients or prospects. So people who are committed, who are gonna stay the course, who are gonna put in the effort, hungry for the results. Yeah, those are the kind of people that I like working with. And then yeah, I I limit the capacity. It's as simple as that. And then drive for those results, take them through the process, make sure they get the results. I prefer that to having a much bigger group, which might be a lot more revenue, but you might not get the same results. I like seeing people.

Pedro 17:36

I want to tap into your experience a little bit because one thing we see coaches wrestling with at some point is pricing, right? I know you mentioned it's more sort of a boutique firm, but I know you didn't start there, right? So the thing is about pricing with coaching, especially in the early days, it's because it's sometimes a self-worth path of hey, am I worth it? Um, am I charging too much or am I not charging enough? You know? So how do you think it about today? And were there any lessons along the way that shaped how you landed where you are right now?

Peter Lach 18:10

Yeah, absolutely. I think pricing is probably the most difficult thing psychologically for coaches, certainly was for me as well. The big challenge, I think, in the learning that I had was that the resistance to raising prices is usually in the mind of the coach more than in the mind of the buyer, the you know, the the the client or the prospect. So what I do, um, and this gives me a lot more confidence as well, is because I have the profit acceleration tool, I can see what the potential of the business is. You don't need the tool necessarily, but for example, let's say a business is doing a certain dollar revenue, you can see what the net profit is. I ask for that kind of information. If it's pretty low, two, three percent, and I know the kind of business that it is, a service-based business, I know we can get that up to 10, 15, maybe even 20% over time and and high. So there's huge potential there. That's the value that we're gonna be creating for that company. What's the you know, what's the um the the price that they're gonna pay to get that value? So there's gotta you've got to be able to demonstrate a return. The bigger you know, the bigger the value is, the higher you can push up your price as well. From a coach perspective, that gives you confidence that hey, what I'm charging, I'm actually giving you a good deal here. You're getting a great return on on on on the program. Um but from also from a I think from a pricing perspective, when you start out, so you often don't have that kind of thinking, that framework. So it's here's my coaching, here's the program, what am I gonna charge? Right. And there's you Huge psychological pressure, if you want to put it that way, um, undervaluing ourselves and the value that we can produce for others. So we're undercharge. And generally, then we spend a great deal of hours, you know, working ourselves to the bone, uh, and and not making the kind of money that actually we should be asking for because the benefits are being being reaped. So uh pricing, you've really got to spend a lot of time thinking about what's the benefit to the client? What are they getting out of out of this? And it could be tangible, like numbers and intangible the values as well. And then given that, what is a a fair value that I could charge? Given that I'm giving this value away. And I'm trying to make sure there's a good multiple in that, right? So that it's attractive to you know to the prospect. You know, base the pricing, I'll base my pricing on it.

Pedro 20:54

I like that. I mean, that's a solid look into how you look at pricing and structure and the path you went for, right? Everything that you learn along the way. Now, I'm curious about where you're taking all this. You know, you already mentioned the group coaching towards uh potentially being able to scale the business, right? So looking ahead, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

Peter Lach 21:21

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, over the next kind of three years, a couple of things that I'm looking at at this stage. The first one is not necessarily going group coaching, but scaling the number of people and having a number of coaches with different capabilities. So not duplicating each other, but having a client giving them access to multiple coaches with multiple different skills that makes sense sense to you. I think that enriches the experience that you know the that the client gets, the business owner gets in the process. At the same time, you're able to scale up um actual number of coaches and in a specialist field, that B2B service-based business, so we can give the owners even better, um, you know, better experience, better quality, better impact. So that's the that's the first thing that I'm I'm looking at at the moment. The second thing that I think is quite uh quite important is how to give clients results quicker and faster. And I think AI is starting to play quite a big role in that. In other words, let me give you an example. One of the things that uh that I work with with clients on is their positioning in the market. So take any, let's take somebody like an accounting firm as an example. You go onto the website of 10 accounting firms in the same area, they're all saying the same things. We do accounting, we do payroll, we do tax, we do, yeah, we do all these things, right? Um, they're all saying the same things. They've got to differentiate themselves. So they've got to go through a process of thinking about their strengths, thinking about who the competitors are, thinking about who they want to serve as clients so that they can get a great position. Now, they have to work through that process. And these days, you can create, you know, AI modules where instead of working through paper and thinking and so on, you can input all your information, your research into you know this AI, and it can help you then to think through the options that you have and help to refine that. That can speed up the process like phenomenally, right? Because it's all about the results. You know, people come to you for for results, uh at least in in small business and medium business coaching. It's about how can I get the results I want with my company. So the sooner we can give them those results, you know, the the better. So I see that as a tool that requires development, obviously, as well in the process. But I think a combination of multiple coaches with multiple skills, good AI tools to support the the growth process can lift the business to the next, you know, to the next level. Without becoming a generic coach of a large coaching company where we pick you know whole groups of people together.

Pedro 24:15

Right. And I I I love the fact that you're so experienced in the game, but you're also embracing this stuff, right? I love that because sometimes we see people, how can I say this? Nothing's gonna change, and this is working just fine, and you're always trying to improve, you know. I like really like that. And you know, of course, whenever we're aiming toward the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the present, right? Peter. So what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business?

Peter Lach 24:40

Yeah, yeah. Well, the AI is one. I think that's uh you know, that's a whole new field that's opening up. And I think uh if you're not if you're not on that wagon, you're gonna be uh you're gonna be left behind quite quickly. So that definitely is the one. The second one that I have is um that I'm working on is my coaching platform. So I use Trello. I don't know if you're familiar with with Trello. Trello is a Trello Square platform. It's like can, I don't know if you're familiar with Can Band, but yeah, you you you got these columns, and then you can put cards on there, and on the cards you can input data and so on. So my entire coaching framework is based on on Trello. So I give you access to that. Every session that we have is there, the recordings are there, your actions are there, which you can tick off, all all the tools, frameworks, they're all there. So I'm refining that as well so that it is giving the clients the highest impact with the least amount of information. We often overwhelm clients with too much information. You know, we've got so much, right? Directing what really works, just the essence and no more. Give that to them to implement so that they can get the impact without the overwhelm. That's that's uh you know, I think those are the two things that I'm busy refining at the you know, at the moment.

Pedro 26:06

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because when we're talking about why coaching, right? We're talking about accelerating the curve, right? We're trying we're talking about helping them save time so they can get the results as fast as they can because you've been there and done that. So that makes perfect sense. So I want to tap into your experience for a second, you know, because people listening can really benefit from this. It's been so long and in the game, you know, and to hear all kinds of business advice, like some that sticks, some that really doesn't. So, what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think is, I don't know, overrated or misunderstood?

Peter Lach 26:44

Okay. Uh piece of business advice that's overrated. Perhaps, excuse me, perhaps, at least for business owners, the they're saying that look, it's all common sense, just go and do it. But common sense is not that common, number one. Number two, right? Number two, the world's changing and it's changing rapidly. How people learn, the expectations in the digital environment is different, the way they search for information is different, the expectations are different, the tools that we have as coaches are different, right? So what I would say is go get yourself an expert who's done what you want to do. Um they will teach you a lot of the new tricks that you need to be successful. Don't assume it's just plain old common sense and that's that's all you need. The game today is is is different. And certainly that's been to my benefit. Is I've had a coach since I've started, I still have a coach, different coaches at different times to fill gaps that I had uh that I felt I needed to get to benefit my clients. And the common sense that I try to apply was often not good enough. Because there's often some techniques, some secrets, some ways of doing things that really work and others that don't that look like common sense. So that's probably the one that I would I would uh I would say.

Pedro 28:15

Mm-hmm. Okay. And on the other side, what's a piece of advice you wish people actually took seriously?

Peter Lach 28:25

I think particularly for coaches, it's not just about doing things to build your practice. It's about doing things consistently over time that start to make an impact, whether it's lead generation, sales, whatever, right? It's about and sometimes these things are not sexy, right? They they sometimes grind work or well, not necessarily grind work, but they're repeatable work, they're not necessarily exciting work. But consistency, you know, is the key to unlocking, you know, un unlocking growth in a in a in a coaching practice. Yeah, you can't be jumping from one thing to another thing to another thing. Gotta find something, put it down, and then apply it consistently to give you results.

Pedro 29:14

I love that, Peter. And if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, where can people find you and connect with you?

Peter Lach 29:22

The one is LinkedIn. So, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn. Uh, you know, Peter L A C H. Just have a look. Also my website, advantagecoach oneword.co.ca. Um, you know, my email addresses are on there, etc. Reach out by all means. You know, I'm happy to happy to speak with other coaches or uh, you know, business owners. Always love to be introduced to a new awesome coach or business owner. It's it's always a great experience um meeting others and learning from others as well. So yeah, feel free to to reach out. Uh I'd be delighted to to connect with you.

Pedro 30:00

You know, there were a few things you shared today that they really stuck with me. I I would say the small changes in the right places that you mentioned, that's so powerful, you know, because sometimes we see people grinding and they're like trying to put my more work in, but they're not really adjusting the right tool at the exact right time. And that's such a huge payoff to do that. And also, you know, uh the difference you mention, like being a coach and building a coaching practice, that's an enormous difference because we see people that they romanticize the fact they're coaches, but they don't actually have a business. So, and being able to have a business will allow you to impact more people. I think that's the key word, you know, about the impact. Because that that's at the end of the day, that's what coaches want to do. They want to help people and impact more people. Also, I want to pinpoint the fact that you are so open about the counterintelligence, you know, take a look at what other people are doing, find your your your tune, your own key way to do things, but take a look at competition, you know, and we don't see people often enough talking about that. They're trying to reinvent the wheel, but actually the success leaves clues, right? So sometimes you see people doing X, Y, and Z, and you're like, hey, you know what? That's a good idea, but I'll add a twist because this is Peter's coaching practice, right? So that that's such a good way to remember people. I love that you did that. And also the common sense, you know, is not that common. I love that sentence. I'm gonna steal it from you, okay, a little bit. And you know, and the reminder, you know, for other coaches, do things more consistently. I know sometimes it's not that exciting, and changing projects to another project sounds more exciting, but sometimes you just gotta do your homework, right? Do it more consistently. Uh, and and that's a a nice reminder for audience. And Peter, I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on.

Peter Lach 32:06

Well, thank you, Pedro. Um, it's been wonderful being on your podcast as well. Thank you. Thanks for the invite.

Davis Nguyen 32:12

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.