The Fastest Way to Get Coaching Clients

When I started my coaching business, I made $10,000 in my first month selling a $1,000 program.

I created a free resource my target audience wanted, shared it through LinkedIn posts aimed at those people, and presented my coaching offer on the thank-you page.

The free resource helped with one part of their problem. The paid offer helped them tackle the complete problem.

That’s the approach I’d start with if I needed coaching clients quickly: create something your ideal client actively wants, get it in front of them, and give them a clear next step into working with you.

Although my example comes from my career coaching business, this article is for coaches who want more enquiries and paying clients in their own businesses.

It’s also an approach I’d consider before spending more time posting content without a clear way for interested readers to become paying clients.

A lead magnet is a free resource someone requests in exchange for their contact details.

But having a free download doesn’t automatically mean you’ll attract potential coaching clients. The subject needs to matter to the people who could buy your coaching.

Start with a specific problem they recognise and want help with.

If you coach business owners, “grow your business” might describe the overall goal. Your free resource needs a more manageable starting point.

For example, it could help them:

• Explain their offer more clearly.

• Work out why their content isn’t generating enquiries.

• Prepare a follow-up message to an interested prospect.

• Identify what’s missing from their sales page.

These are possible examples, rather than resources I’m claiming to have tested. The right choice depends on your audience and the coaching you sell.

Think about the person who would download your resource.

Would they also be a suitable client for your coaching?

A free resource about getting more coaching enquiries would make sense alongside coaching that helps someone attract and convert clients. The connection is easy to understand.

A download that attracts a completely different audience might generate email addresses without bringing you closer to a sale.

Before creating anything, get clear on who your coaching offer is for and the problem it solves.

That decision shapes the resource, the content you use to promote it and the offer you present afterwards.

In my career coaching business, my free resource was a proven resume template I’d used for candidates I represented when I worked in recruitment.

It solved an immediate problem for my audience and drew on my professional experience.

I shared it through a LinkedIn post aimed at my ideal client. When someone requested it, the thank-you page introduced my main coaching program.

On that page, I explained that a resume was only one small part of a successful job search. My program was designed to help people work towards getting hired in 60 days or less by putting the wider approach together.

Inside my first month, I hit $10,000 selling a $1,000 program.

The useful lesson for another coach is the connection between the resource and the offer:

• The free resource addressed a problem my audience already wanted to solve.

• My experience gave me a reason to offer it.

• The LinkedIn post reached the people I wanted to help.

• The thank-you page explained how my coaching could help further.

That was my result, rather than a prediction of what another coach will earn. It’s why I recommend building a clear route from your content to your coaching offer.

Your free resource should do what you promised.

If you offer a worksheet to help someone clarify their coaching offer, it should help them make progress with that task.

You can then explain where that task fits into the bigger outcome they want.

Having a clearer offer, for example, doesn’t automatically mean a coach knows how to reach potential clients, generate enquiries or follow up with interested people.

Those may be areas where your paid coaching helps.

The next step should feel relevant to the problem that brought them to you.

Think about the difference between the task your resource helps with and the wider result your client wants.

For a coach trying to grow their business, that could be:

• Free resource: clarify the offer. Paid coaching: develop and implement a plan to attract clients for it.

• Free resource: review a LinkedIn profile. Paid coaching: use LinkedIn to build relationships and generate enquiries.

• Free resource: draft a follow-up message. Paid coaching: improve how they manage and convert enquiries.

You don’t need to squeeze your whole program into the download.

Give them useful help with the immediate task, then explain the additional support available if they want to work with you.

The thank-you page is the page someone sees after requesting your free resource.

I used mine to present my main offer.

By that point, someone had already responded to a post about a relevant problem and taken action to get help with it. It made sense to show them how they could work with me.

You can do the same without assuming every person who downloads something free is ready to buy.

Make the offer available and let them decide.

I’d include:

• Clear instructions for accessing the free resource.

• A brief explanation of what it helps them do.

• Context about the bigger problem they may still need to address.

• Your relevant coaching offer.

• One clear next step.

For a business coaching offer, the transition might sound like this:

“Use this resource to identify where potential enquiries are getting lost. If you’d like help putting the whole process together - from attracting the right people to following up and converting interest into clients - explore my business coaching for coaches and consultants.”

The page should make it easy to understand what happens next, whether that’s reading about your program, applying or booking a conversation.

I shared my resource through a LinkedIn post aimed at my ideal client.

For your business, choose a channel where you can reach the people you want to coach.

The post needs to explain who the resource is for, what it helps them do and how to get it.

For example, if your audience is established coaches who aren’t getting enough enquiries, speak to that situation. A post about building a coaching business from scratch may attract people at a different stage.

This is where using LinkedIn to attract coaching clients needs to connect with your offer. Your content should give the right reader a reason to take the next step.

You may already have something useful within your coaching work:

• An exercise you use with clients.

• A checklist you work through repeatedly.

• A template that makes a task easier.

• A set of questions that helps clients identify a problem.

Start there.

Explain why you created it and how you use it. If you have a relevant result or client example you can substantiate, include it.

Specific experience gives people more to assess than a generic promise that your download will “transform their business”.

Downloads tell you that people wanted the resource. To understand whether it’s helping your business, you also need to look at what happens afterwards.

Are the people requesting it suitable potential clients? Are they viewing your offer, making enquiries or buying?

If you get downloads but no interest in coaching, review the connection between the resource and the paid offer.

If people enquire but don’t move forward, look at the conversations and follow-up that happen next.

Generating interest and converting it into paid work are connected parts of building a consistent flow of inbound coaching enquiries.

That’s also where you can identify what needs improving before putting more effort into promotion.

Create a free resource your ideal client actively wants, share it through content aimed at them, and present your coaching offer on the thank-you page.

That’s how I made $10,000 in my first month selling a $1,000 program. That was my result, not a prediction of what another coach will earn.

A free resource someone requests in exchange for their contact details. To bring in clients, it needs to solve a specific problem your ideal client recognises, one that connects to the coaching you sell.

Clear instructions for accessing the free resource, a brief explanation of what it helps them do, context about the bigger problem they may still need to address, your relevant coaching offer, and one clear next step.

Review the connection between the resource and your paid offer. A download that attracts a different audience can generate email addresses without bringing you closer to a sale.

If people enquire but don’t move forward, look at the conversations and follow-up that happen next.

I’d create a lead magnet that solves one part of my ideal client’s problem for free, then present an offer that helps them solve the complete problem if they’re willing to invest.

Here’s the sequence I’d use:

• Choose the coaching offer I want to sell.

• Identify one immediate problem a suitable client wants to solve.

• Create a useful resource that addresses that problem.

• Build a thank-you page that introduces the paid offer.

• Share the resource through content aimed at that audience.

• Track the enquiries and clients it produces.

That gives your content a purpose and gives interested people somewhere to go.

If you already have a coaching offer but enquiries are inconsistent, explore my Consistent AF Program for coaches and consultants looking to get a consistent and controllable enquiry flow.