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What Doing Nothing Really Costs an Online Coach or Consultant
An online coaching or consulting practice is usually built one conversation at a time, and much of its lost revenue sits in two quiet places, the discovery calls that ended warmly and went nowhere, and the programs that finished without anyone discussing what came next.
At a glance
- The cost of inaction in a coaching or consulting practice is the revenue given up when a natural decision point passes without a next step: the discovery call with no written proposal, the program that ends without a renewal conversation and the past client nobody checks in with.
- Coach practitioners in North America averaged $67,800 a year in coaching revenue from about 13.5 active clients, according to the International Coaching Federation's 2023 study of 14,591 respondents, which works out to roughly $5,000 a year per active client.
- Research on habit formation found that a new behavior took an average of 66 days to become automatic, longer than many six- and eight-week programs run, so the end of a program is often the moment a client most needs a next step.
- For an illustrative coach who converts one more discovery call a month and renews a few more clients each year, the added revenue comes to about $49,500 a year.
Part 1 | The practice is built on decision points, and many of them pass quietly
A solo coaching or consulting practice has fewer clients than most service businesses and a much higher value per client, which makes each decision point matter. The International Coaching Federation's 2023 Global Coaching Study, based on 14,591 responses from 157 countries, put the average North American coach's annual coaching revenue at $67,800 and the average number of active clients at 13.5, about $5,000 a year for each active client, with an average fee of $272 for a one-hour session.
The owner's inner voice at the end of a good discovery call is usually If it's a fit, they'll reach out. Research on asking suggests that voice is too pessimistic. In six studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people underestimated by as much as 50% the likelihood that others would agree to a direct request, which may help explain why many calls end with a friendly goodbye and no proposal, no price and no date to decide.
Part 2 | Programs often end before the habit they were built for
The second quiet place is the end of a program. Coaching packages are often sold in blocks of six, eight or twelve weeks, while research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, which followed volunteers as they tried to build a new daily habit, found that the behavior took an average of 66 days to become automatic among participants whose data fit the model.
That gap makes the final session a natural time to talk about what comes next, framed around the client's progress rather than the coach's calendar. A coach can say: "Over eight weeks you went from no morning routine to four mornings a week. Research on habits suggests a new routine usually takes longer than eight weeks to become automatic. I'd suggest a lighter plan, two sessions a month for three months, at [price]. Would you like to keep going?"
Part 3 | Four moments, and what each one is worth
The cost of inaction in a coaching practice gathers around four moments. The first is the discovery call that ends without a written proposal, the second is the program's final session with no renewal conversation, the third is the client who misses two sessions in a row and is never contacted and the fourth is the past client who finished a year ago and would welcome a check-in. A short follow-up after a discovery call can be as simple as: "Thanks for today. Based on what you said about [goal], here is the plan we discussed: 12 sessions over 3 months for [price]. If you'd like to start, reply by Friday and I'll hold the Tuesday 9 a.m. slot."
| Discovery calls per month (Assumption) | 12 |
|---|---|
| Calls that convert without a written follow-up (Assumption) | 3 (25%) |
| Added conversions per month with a written proposal and decision date (Assumption) | 1 |
| Package price (Assumption) | $3,000 |
| Revenue from added conversions per year (Calculated (1 × 12 × $3,000)) | $36,000 |
| Clients finishing a program per year (Assumption) | 30 |
| Added renewals when every final session includes a next-step offer (Assumption; calculated (30 × 15%)) | 15% of finishers (4.5) |
| Revenue from added renewals per year (Calculated (4.5 × $3,000)) | $13,500 |
| Total added revenue per year (Calculated ($36,000 + $13,500)) | $49,500 |
Illustrative example; replace every assumption with your own numbers.
Keeping a finished client costs far less than finding a new one; a summary of retention research in Harvard Business Review puts the cost of winning a new customer at five to 25 times the cost of keeping an existing one.
How you compare
- Revenue per client: the ICF's North American averages work out to about $5,000 a year per active client. If yours is well below that, renewals and follow-on work are the first place to look.
- Fee: the study's average one-hour session fee was $272 in North America and $244 worldwide, a reference point for anyone pricing by the hour.
- Your own baseline: count last quarter's discovery calls, how many received a written proposal within 24 hours and how many became clients, and do the same for programs that ended and how many renewed.
Questions to ask this week
How many discovery calls last month ended without a written proposal? Each one is a client deciding without a price or a date.
What happens in the final session of every program? Write the next-step offer once and use it every time.
Which clients have missed two sessions in a row? A short, specific message the same day helps keep the program on track.
Which past clients finished more than six months ago? A check-in that asks about their progress can turn into a new engagement.
Send a written proposal with a price and a decision date after your next discovery call, and add a next-step offer to the final session of every program that ends this month.
About this research: This article draws on the International Coaching Federation's 2023 Global Coaching Study, a self-reported online survey of 14,591 respondents, research on habit formation published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, studies on direct requests published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and HBR's summary of retention research. The habit study followed volunteers building simple daily habits, not coaching clients. The worked example is illustrative.
Sources
- International Coaching Federation. 2023 ICF Global Coaching Study: Executive Summary. 2023. Online survey, 14,591 valid responses from 157 countries, October to December 2022.
- Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W. and Wardle, J. How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the Real World. European Journal of Social Psychology 40(6), 2010; summarized in How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit? University College London, 2009.
- Flynn, F. J. and Lake, V. K. B. If You Need Help, Just Ask: Underestimating Compliance With Direct Requests for Help. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(1), 2008. Six studies.
- Gallo, A. The Value of Keeping the Right Customers. Harvard Business Review, 2014.
Related reading: What Doing Nothing Really Costs a Small Service Business · How to Write a Service Proposal Customers Say Yes To (With a Template) · How Service Businesses Turn One-Time Visits Into Monthly Memberships · Why Customers Don't Come Back (and How to Find Out Which Ones Left) · What Doing Nothing Really Costs a Law, Tax or Bookkeeping Office
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We help online coaches and consultants turn discovery calls into signed engagements and finished programs into lasting client relationships, with written proposals sent the same day, a next-step offer built into every final session and a simple list of past and quiet clients to check in with, so the practice grows steadily from the people it already knows.
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