01-08-2025
Why Smart Coaches Are Selling Access, Not More Offers
Andrew Dunn has scaled 450+ companies over 10 years and writes about marketing, systems and scaling small businesses into big ones.
Let me tell you about the biggest mistake I see coaches and consultants making in 2025. They're building what I call "offer suites"—multiple different products, courses, masterminds and done-for-you services. On the surface, it seems smart. More products equals more revenue streams, right? Not always.
The problem with offer suites is that when you improve one product, the others don't benefit. Your course gets better, but your mastermind stays the same. You refine your done-for-you service, but your group coaching remains unchanged. You're essentially running multiple businesses under one roof, each requiring separate marketing, delivery and optimization.
I learned this the hard way. After helping drive trackable revenue for clients and building multiple successful companies, I discovered something counterintuitive: The most successful coaches aren't selling more offers—they're selling different levels of access to the same expertise.
This proximity-based model is exactly how I scaled my last company.
The Proximity-Based Model
Here's how it works in practice, with some sample pricing:
Start with a newsletter and free community. Beyond simple lead generation, this is how you build your foundation. Share your best insights, case studies and frameworks. Build trust at scale.
Offer focused workshops that solve specific problems like video sales letter (VSL) scripts, ad funnels or funnel set-up. These aren't separate products—they're concentrated doses of your expertise. A business coach might turn a $100 VSL workshop into a $30,000 one-on-one client using the same frameworks.
This is where the magic happens. Group coaching provides accountability, community and regular access to your expertise. Here's the key: Everyone in group coaching gets access to all the same workshops and content as higher tiers. The difference is the level of access to you, accountability and proximity.
This level includes private access to your expertise with maximum accountability and personalized application. Customers get the same workshops and content as group coaching members, but with direct access to you—such as your DMs, private phone number, unlimited Zoom calls. You don't need to deliver different content here; you're just providing the highest level of proximity to your knowledge and experience with a completely tailored experience.
Create equity deals and retainer arrangements where you're essentially becoming a strategic advisor. This represents the ultimate proximity—ongoing access to your expertise with aligned incentives.
The beauty of this model? Every improvement you make benefits every layer. When you develop a new framework or workshop, it enhances your free content and gets added to group coaching and one-on-one consulting simultaneously. Compare this to traditional offer suites where improving your course doesn't help your mastermind or done-for-you service.
A Self-Liquidating Marketing Model
But here's the real game-changer: This model enables you to sell without sales calls (if you want to). When you're running weekly pricing models, the "buy now" number is small enough that people are willing to take action through a cart rather than jumping on a sales call. Monthly or annual pricing typically still requires calls.
Traditional high-ticket coaching requires endless discovery calls. You may be constantly jumping on video calls, qualifying prospects and delivering sales presentations. It's exhausting and doesn't scale. With the proximity model, your lower tiers serve as natural qualification and trust-building mechanisms.
Someone joins your newsletter, attends a workshop, experiences results, then naturally ascends to group coaching. By the time they're ready for private consulting, they already know your methodology works. The "sales call" becomes a strategy session about implementation, not convincing them you can deliver results.
This creates what I call a self-liquidating marketing model. Your workshops and group coaching generate immediate revenue while funding the marketing that attracts higher-tier clients.
The psychological advantage can be profound. Clients understand they're getting the same valuable knowledge—they're just choosing their level of access and accountability. This eliminates the confusion and decision paralysis that comes with multiple offers.
Leveraging Proximity
Complexity is often the enemy of scale. The most successful coaches I work with understand that people don't buy products—they buy outcomes. And outcomes come from expertise, not from having more stuff. When you sell proximity to your expertise instead of more offers, you can create a business that scales with your knowledge, not your time.
Your expertise could be your most valuable asset. Stop diluting it across multiple offers, and start selling different levels of access to it. That's how to build a coaching business that actually gives you the freedom you may have started your business to achieve.
The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.
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