Coaching Software: How to Pick the Best One for Your Needs

Picking the best coaching software online can be a dream or a true nightmare. Many coaches go down the ‘must try every single tool before I make a decision’ rabbit hole. This is an unproductive and ineffective way of picking your coaching online software. So for starters pick software that’s online. Not an App or a template set or a number of tools connected to each other. Let’s just pick 1 tool.

This narrows it down a little but still, there are a few tools to pick from that allow you to administer a business online. So make sure you narrow it down further to software that is only for coaches.

Before you go ahead and start assessing the quality of the online coaching software options, you need to pause and assess your needs first. If you fail to do this you could waste a lot of time exploring different packages only to find out that they’re missing the important flexibility you need for your own business.

So think about what your priorities are...

What tools do you need for each feature when choosing coaching software online?

Think about these aspects for each feature....

how you’d like it to work;

the level of flexibility,

and then add a letter next to each feature to label each one with priority A, B and C. A - non-negotiable and crucial for my business

B - would make life easier - simple functionality would be enough

C - nice to have - but I can work without it

There is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ tool. You’ll want to pick a tool that gives you the core functionality you need at the right price. So your list of functionality and features with priority marking will really help. 

After all, why would you pay more for all the bells and whistles that you don’t need? For example, some online coaching software includes a website as part of the package. However, there are so many affordable or free website builders out there that do a much better job of creating professional websites which would make the basic website builder in an online coaching software look amateurish in comparison. 

The price you’d pay for a tool like that could be in the range of $150 per month, which doesn’t justify what you get!

The software you choose should have all of the features you labelled A (the must-haves), some B features (the good-to-haves) and none of the C features (the nice-to-haves). 

Yes, none! Because your luxury features are a distraction and a complication.

Here’s an example of a priority list:

Once you’re clear about what is a priority, you also automatically have a list of what needs to be implemented first (all your A’s) what will go second, (all your B’s) and later what you’ll add in the long term if you still want to implement them (your C’s).

It’s important that the platform you choose reflects what you want from your online coaching platform. Therefore analysing your business needs should always come first.

Once you’ve got your own list of A, B and C priorities, you’re ready for the next step to shortlist your coaching software online

Register for the CoachVantage Free Trial if it’s a good fit with your priorities.