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How coaches and consultants get clients: a 90-day plan

How your buyer buys: Nobody is searching for you. You go and find them.

A coaching client is made by a moment, not a search. Someone has just been promoted, inherited a team, or had a bad quarter, and a colleague or their HR lead says you should talk to someone. They look you up on LinkedIn that evening, read the last five posts, and decide whether you understand their situation before they read what you sell.

The website then has a minute to answer three questions: who you work with, what a programme costs, and how to book a first session without a sales call. A page that explains what coaching is, with no prices and a contact form, loses the buyer who hates asking. A pricing page and a paid intro session they can book and pay for in one sitting keeps them.

So in week one the person and the moment go into the LinkedIn headline, and the three-tier ladder gets a price on each tier. The people you know hear who you are looking for the same week. Then the paid intro session, the pricing page and two posts a week. Then the written answers to discovery-call questions, the workshop for someone else's room, and the nurture sequence for those not ready yet.

Step zero

The free checklist, before the plan.

The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.

The Coach's DIY Growth Checklist

The free checklist for coaches and consultants: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.

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Where they look

Where your customers actually look.

  • LinkedIn(opens in a new tab)

    The only directory that matters for most coaches and consultants. The headline names the person and the moment, the last five posts are about the one problem you solve, and the featured section holds the intro session link.

  • ICF credentialed coach finder

    The International Coaching Federation's public search for credentialed coaches. HR teams buying coaching for a leader often require an ICF credential, and the finder is where they confirm it.

  • EMCC

    The European Mentoring and Coaching Council accredits coaches and mentors and lists accredited members. The same HR buyers check here when a coach cites EMCC accreditation, so keep the entry and your LinkedIn profile in agreement.

  • Podcasts and event stages

    Not a directory, and the place a buyer first hears you. A guest slot on a sector podcast or a 40-minute workshop for an HR network is listened to by the people who are deciding, and each one ends with the intro session link.

Your year

When the phone rings, and when to start.

Budgets and fresh starts open in January and September; August and December go quiet.

  1. Jan: peak
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun, start the visibility work
  7. Jul
  8. Aug: quiet
  9. Sep: peak
  10. Oct, start the visibility work
  11. Nov
  12. Dec: quiet

Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.

  • January peak: start by October, because local search takes about three months to move.
  • September peak: start by June, because local search takes about three months to move.

Coaching follows the budget year. January opens new budgets and new year intentions, and September brings the fresh start after the summer. August and December sit just before them, and nobody signs in either. LinkedIn, the articles and the pricing page take a quarter to show, so the work for January starts in October and the work for September starts in June. The quiet months suit the slow jobs: the package ladder, the nurture sequence, the workshop outline for an HR network. In the last week of August and the first of January, write one at a time to the people you know and ask who has just been promoted.

The 90-day plan

Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.

Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.

Week 0

  1. Sharpen the offer

    Name the person and the moment, such as newly promoted operations directors, in your LinkedIn headline and on every offer page

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

  2. Sharpen the offer

    Build a three-tier package ladder with a price on each tier

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  3. Tell everyone you already know

    Write one at a time to former colleagues, past clients and old managers, asking who has been promoted this year

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

Month 1

  1. Sharpen the offer

    Sell a fixed-price intro session people book and pay for in one sitting, credited against the programme

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Published prices or bands

    Publish a pricing page with every package and its price

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  3. LinkedIn, posting and conversations

    Post twice a week on the one problem you solve, and turn each comment into a conversation

    • Medium effort
    • About 2 hours a week
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

Months 2 to 3

  1. Answer buying questions in writing

    Write up one discovery-call question a month, each article ending at the booking page

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • About 1 hour a week
    • First result in 12 to 26 weeks

  2. Teach in public, borrow audiences

    Run a 40-minute workshop for an HR network, a trade body or an accountant's clients, closing with your intro session link

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

  3. An email list, emailed each season

    Send leads who are not ready yet a short nurture sequence that ends at the intro session

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

Month 3 onward

  1. Cold email to limited companies

    Email limited companies with a visible trigger, such as a new managing director, offering a fixed-price half-day team session

    To limited companies only: identify yourself, give an opt-out address, keep a suppression list.

    • Cost: ££
    • Medium effort
    • About 2 hours a week
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
    Limited companies only

  2. Reciprocal trade partners

    Agree two-way introductions with an accountant, an HR consultant and a recruiter who serve the same size of firm

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks

  3. Ask for the referral at the high point

    In the final programme review, ask who else they know who is where they were six months ago

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
The cost of waiting

What doing nothing costs coaches and consultants.

The leaks below are the ones the coaches and consultants page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.

Industry estimates, not client results

Industry-typical ranges for a solo coach or consultant: a first package in the low thousands, about three in ten discovery calls converting, and half of clients buying a second engagement within the year.

Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.

Your numbers

Further purchases per won customer in a year

Baseline revenue on these figures: £5,625 a month, counting this month's new customers and a twelfth of their repeat business.

Where it leaks

  • Drains enquiries

    No prices online, so buyers who hate asking simply leave

    Leaking now
    £1,406 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £563 a month
    The fix
    Package and pricing design (about £700 one-off)
    Pays back in
    5.4 weeks

  • Drains close rate

    People who are interested but not ready disappear forever

    Leaking now
    £1,875 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £562 a month
    The fix
    Nurture sequence (about £600 one-off)
    Pays back in
    4.6 weeks

  • Drains close rate

    Scheduling happens over email, four messages at a time

    Leaking now
    £625 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £313 a month
    The fix
    Self-serve booking and payment (about £700 one-off)
    Pays back in
    9.7 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Your website lists what coaching is instead of what you sell

    Leaking now
    £1,875 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £750 a month
    The fix
    A website that sells one clear offer (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    10.1 weeks

On these figures

£5,781 a month leaking

Fixing every leak above gets back about £2,188 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline.

The Self-Selling Practice System (£1,995)
Pays back in 4.0 weeks
The Coach Growth Kit (£49)
Pays back in under a week

Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for coaches and consultants.

What matters most

The levers that carry the most weight here.

Four steps carry a coach's plan. Narrowing who you serve to one person and one moment, because newly promoted operations directors in their first 90 days is a sentence someone can repeat, and leadership coaching is not. The paid first step, an intro session booked and paid for in one sitting and credited against the programme, which replaces three discovery calls with one decision. Teaching in public, a 40-minute workshop for an HR network, a trade body or an accountant's clients, because a borrowed room of the right people beats a year of posting. And telling the people you already know, one message at a time, since the first three clients almost always come from there. Cold email, to limited companies only and on a visible trigger such as a new managing director, follows from month three.

See every lever for coaches and consultants in the register

Reading for coaches and consultants

All insights

If you would rather we did this for you

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