Executive coaches, how do you find new clients, and where does the time go?
I'm building a tool for solo coaches and consultants, and I'd love to hear from executive coaches in particular.
From what I've seen, executive coaching clients rarely come from a cold ad. They come from referrals, relationships, HR and L&D contacts, and being in the right conversation at the right time. The hard part seems to be finding those conversations and figuring out who's a good fit before you reach out.
Here's the idea: it reads your website to learn who your ideal client is, you sign off on that, then it finds people who look like a fit, drafts outreach for you to edit and approve, and helps get the call booked. Nothing sends until you approve it. Longer term, I'd like it to take on more of the business side of a practice, like proposals and invoicing, but right now the focus is finding clients.
A few questions:
- Where do most of your engagements come from right now? Referrals, corporate contacts, LinkedIn, speaking, something else?
- How many hours a week do you spend on business development compared to actual coaching?
- Would something like this be useful at your level, or does exec coaching need a different approach?
- What would it need to do, or never do, for you to trust it with outreach to senior people?
Not selling anything here. I'll share what I learn from the answers.