Posted on March 2, 2011 by Kurt Shuster

Happy March!

In last month’s message to coaches, I described 10 things you could do to improve your profile to attract more client leads. One of those suggestions was to consider upgrading to one of Noomii’s paid plans.

Many of you have since emailed or called us (we love calls from coaches, by the way!) wondering what, exactly, is the difference between the various plans, and why you should upgrade when there’s a free option available. So I thought I’d clear the confusion by writing a short post about what our paid and free plans offer in terms of what matters most to coaches: client leads.

Two ways of matching coaches with clients

The first thing to keep in mind when considering Noomii’s pricing plans is that we offer two separate ways for matching coaches with clients. The first is our directory of coaches, where clients can directly contact coaches after browsing them by location or specialization. The second system is our coach matching service, where clients describe their specific goals and then coaches recommend themselves to those clients. Your choice of monthly plan affects both of these services, which I’ll describe next.

How our pricing plans affect your directory leads

Our directory of coaches lists hundreds of coaches in over 30 countries and more than a dozen coaching specializations. Every month, we get thousands of client visitors who browse our directory looking for the perfect coach for their specific goals. When a client finds a coach they’re interested in talking to, they can directly contact them to set up an initial consultation. There is no limit to the number of clients who can directly contact you through this service.

What’s the benefit of the paid plan, then? There are several. First, the coaches on our paid plans are listed above those on the free plan (ordered by plan type, with the highest paying coaches listed first). This gives paying coaches more exposure to prospective clients, since clients tend to click on coaches near the top of the listing (think about when you search for something on Google or Bing – you probably click on the results near the top of the first page).

The second feature we offer paid coaches is more contact options. Free coaches can only receive contact from prospective clients through email. Paying coaches, on the other hand, can be contacted via email, directly by telephone, or they can link to their own personal website.

Finally, coaches on our paid plans are featured more prominently throughout the site, for example, as “featured coaches” on our home page and the pages that list information about coaching.

How a paid plan helps you get more clients through our coach matching service

Okay, so I’ve talked about the directory of coaches, and the difference between free and paid plans there. What about Noomii’s coach matching service? In short, this service is available to paid coaches only. While all coaches (including coaches on the free plan) are able to view the client leads each day to see if any prospects seem like a good fit, you need to upgrade to one of our paid plans to recommend yourself as a prospective coach. That way, you only need to upgrade when you begin to see leads that are likely to be a good fit for you.

Putting it all together

What’s the bottom line about paid vs. free plans, then? Is it worth upgrading? While that’s a question that only you can answer definitively, our internal metrics show that due to the differences described above, coaches on one of our paid plans receive about 4 times as many client leads as coaches on our free plan. But this doesn’t mean that we think all coaches should upgrade. For some coaches, the kinds of clients we get on the site may not be the kinds of clients you want to work with (say, because you have a very specific coaching niche), or you may find that you don’t really need many new clients because your coaching practice is full, or you may simply feel that the number of leads you’re getting doesn’t justify the cost. We certainly don’t want coaches to keep paying for our service if it’s not providing value (which is why we offer the free plan), so if that’s the case for you, by all means feel free to downgrade until we’re able to get enough high quality leads to make it worth your while. We’re working hard to keep getting more and better leads every month – and slowly but surely we’re getting there!

Happy coaching,

Kurt Shuster