The six-figure coaches are not better at marketing

Coaches earning above $120,000 a year derive roughly 55% of revenue from existing or returning clients. Coaches earning below $80,000 derive roughly 70% from new acquisition.

The higher-earning group is not better at marketing. It has moved the work: more investment in retention and re-engagement, less in constantly refilling the top of the funnel.

Acquisition is the expensive way to make a sale

A new client costs $0 to $600 depending on channel and closes at 10 to 70% depending on source. A returning client costs an email and closes at a rate nobody bothers to benchmark because it is so obviously higher.

Yet acquisition is where struggling practices spend almost all of their effort, because it is what the industry sells advice about.

What retention looks like in coaching

One-to-one packages renew at 35 to 50%. Executive B2B renews at 55 to 65%. Group programmes convert 20 to 30% of participants into one-to-one clients afterwards, which is the strongest argument for running one.

Coaching has an unusual wrinkle: for many engagements, success and churn are the same event. A career client who gets the job leaves. That is not failure, and measuring it as failure leads coaches to build the wrong things.