Published prices are rare in this market, and the range between quotes for apparently identical services is wide enough to be confusing. The variation is not random — it tracks four things, and knowing them lets you read a quote properly.
The single largest driver. A programme built on individual sessions with a senior practitioner costs multiples of one built on group workshops, because the input is somebody's calendar.
A former operator who has held the seat you want charges differently from a trained coach without that background. Both can be excellent; they are not the same purchase.
Twelve months of access is not twelve months of attention. Ask how many hours are inside the term, and what happens to unused ones.
Employer-funded programmes are priced to a procurement process; individually bought ones are priced to you. The same provider may quote differently for each.
The price of a career service is mostly the price of somebody's hours. Everything else in the quote is packaging around that number.
Success fees sound aligned and often are not, because the definition of success is written by the seller. If you are offered one, read what triggers it: an accepted offer at any salary is a very different trigger from an accepted offer above a floor you set.
Hours with somebody who has held the seat you are aiming at, spent on decisions rather than documents. What is rarely worth paying for is access to advertised roles — the part of the market that is already public, where the service adds a subscription rather than an advantage.
Most comparisons of outplacement providers compare brochures. These are the questions that separate a service from a schedule, and the answers worth insisting on.
Read → Executive career coachingFour different kinds of help, four different business models, and one question that explains all of them — who is paying, and for what.
Read → Executive career coachingSeven questions that separate an operator who has done the job from a well-marketed programme, and the answers that should end the conversation.
Read →A short call, your target list, and an honest answer about whether this fits how you are running your search.