What Executive Coaching Costs, and What Drives the Number
$2,000 to $3,000 per month. Six-month engagements, billed monthly.
Most coaching websites won't tell you that, which I've never understood. If executive coaching costs more than you want to spend, we both want to know now rather than twenty-five minutes into a call.
So: the number is above. Here's what's behind it, what makes an engagement land at the top or the bottom of that range, and how to think about whether it's worth it.
What you're actually buying
Every engagement includes the same structure:
- Twelve sessions over six months, every other week, in person in Sarasota or over Zoom
- Check-ins between every session, by text or email, against the specific commitments you made
- Direct follow-up when something slips, the conversation most people are quietly hiring me for
- Access between sessions when something urgent lands and you need a read before you act
There are no tiers, no packages, no upsells. One structure, priced by scope.
Why the range
Three things put an engagement toward $3,000 rather than $2,000:
How often we're in contact. The standard cadence is biweekly sessions with check-ins between. Some clients, usually CEOs mid-decision or leaders inside a compressed transition, want weekly touchpoints. More contact, more cost.
How much sits between sessions. An engagement where I'm reviewing documents, sitting in on a difficult conversation by phone beforehand, or working through a live negotiation takes more of my week than one that runs on the session rhythm alone.
Complexity of the seat. A CEO carrying a company through something structural is a different engagement from a director working on delegation. Not more valuable. More demanding, with more between-session weight.
If you want the bottom of the range, the standard structure is the bottom of the range. Most clients are there.
Is it worth it?
I can't answer that in the abstract, but I can give you the comparison I'd use.
The market rate for executive coaching in North America runs roughly $300 to $800 an hour, and credentialed coaches working with senior leaders sit in the $300 to $600 range. Twelve sessions plus six months of between-session accountability priced at $2,000 to $3,000 a month is squarely inside that market: not the cheapest available, not close to the most expensive.
But hourly math is the wrong frame, which is why I don't sell by the hour. You're not buying twelve conversations. You're buying six months of external expectation attached to the commitments nobody else in your life is checking.
The comparison I'd actually make is to the cost of the thing not changing. The conversation you've been avoiding for the better part of a year is costing you more than this engagement, and you already know roughly how much.
So is the hire you haven't made because you won't hire above yourself. Executive coaching is cheap relative to one bad hire, one lost senior person, or one more year of the pattern.
If none of that is true for you, if nothing expensive is currently stuck, you probably don't need a coach right now, and I'd say so on the call.
Common questions about executive coaching cost
- Why won't you do a single session?
- Because it doesn't work, and selling it would be taking your money for a nice conversation. A single session produces insight, and insight without a structure attached to it fades inside a week. That's the entire problem my clients arrive with. Six months is roughly how long a new pattern takes to survive its first real test and stay intact. I'd rather lose the sale than sell the version that doesn't work.
- Can I pay for the whole engagement upfront?
- Yes, and some clients prefer it for budgeting reasons. It doesn't change the price. I don't discount prepayment. A discount for paying early would mean the monthly price was padded.
- What if it isn't working?
- Tell me, early, and we'll fix the structure or end it. I don't hold anyone to a contract for coaching they've stopped getting value from. That's rarely come up, but the answer matters more than how often it's used.
- Does my company pay, or do I?
- My clients pay for their own coaching. Employer funding can work and I'll put the terms in writing first, but I think self-funded engagements go better. People show up differently to something they chose and paid for themselves. It also keeps confidentiality simple: no sponsor, no report, nobody sees anything.
- Is there a discount for a longer commitment?
- No. Six months is the engagement; there's no twelve-month rate to upsell you to. If we both want to keep going at the end, we do, at the same monthly rate.
- How does this compare to a peer group like Vistage?
- Different products, different prices, and plenty of people do both. A peer group buys you a room of other executives once a month. This buys you a dedicated partner focused only on you, with accountability every two weeks. If you want peer perspective, join a group. If you know what to do and keep not doing it, that's this.
- What happens on the consult call? Is it a sales pitch?
- No, and you've already seen the price, so there'd be nothing to pitch. Thirty minutes, free. Bring one thing you've been meaning to do and haven't. You'll leave with a read on why it hasn't moved whether or not we work together.
Know the number, still curious?
Then the next step is thirty free minutes. Bring the commitment you've made to yourself three times and haven't kept. We'll find out what's actually stopping it.