Executive and leadership coaches

Who is behind this study?

Sébastien TomàsFounder at The Syntoria InstituteLeadership coach at HEC Paris

I have coached young people since 2016, and founders and leaders since 2021, today at HEC Paris.

My take: coaching is one of the most underused levers an organisation has. What a leader carries ripples through their team and into society, yet coaching is still treated as a perk for a few, because what it changes rarely leaves the room.

I founded The Syntoria Institute to change that: to study coaching, make its value visible, and better connect what organisations need with what coaches bring.”

What drives me

At fourteen, I gave maths lessons to a boy on the autism spectrum. The real work was helping him understand his own mind: his needs, his limits, what helped him focus, and a growing self-awareness. It showed me how much can change through one conversation with real listening and care, and I have been coaching in some form ever since.

I worry about the direction the world is taking, as short-term decisions and unchecked egos wear down people, organisations and whole societies, and at the same time, I am hopeful about the impact coaches can have on all three.

A path built around coaching

At 14
A first coaching relationship
Maths lessons for a boy on the autism spectrum
Three years helping him understand how his own mind works.
From 16
Two start-ups, Soundgate and Iris
An artificial intelligence for coaching
Three years each, a first attempt to bring coaching to more people through technology.
Since 2016
Founder of Excellia Education
Coaching teenagers and young adults
Grown from my own coaching practice into a team of about twenty coaches, working with young people on organisation, work methods, emotions and orientation.
Since 2021
Coaching founders and C‑level leaders
Start-ups and scale-ups, and HEC Paris since 2023
At HEC Paris’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute, coaching the directors and teams of its incubators and accelerators, and the start-up and scale-up founders they support.
Today
The Syntoria Institute
Supporting coaching in organisations
Bringing my belief in coaching together with my experience as an entrepreneur, to support coaches and their impact.

Findings

4.1

What is the real struggle?

01What they say

“I need more clients.”

51%32 of 63say the central difficulty is getting enough work

“I don’t struggle with coaching. Like every coach, the struggle is business development.”

Svetlana, executive coach

“Losing those two was a big piece of work that I needed to replace, and I haven’t got there with one of them yet.”

Emily, team and executive coach

“I’m not yet supporting myself financially. The big question is how do I resolve that?”

Peter A., executive coach

02What they want

Better clients, rather than more of them.

92%24 of 26want better-qualified leads

“It’s not about more leads. It’s about more qualified leads.”

Kelsi, executive coach

“The marketers are playing a numbers game, and the coaches want a quality game.”

Jessica, executive and leadership coach

“If the outreach goes to everyone who is a CEO, you’re casting the net too widely.”

Claudia, executive coach

03What it costs

It takes time away from coaching.

72%26 of 36want their time to go to coaching, not to finding clients

“If I wanted a 100% coaching practice, I’d have to spend 80% of my time marketing my coaching services.”

Svetoslava, leadership coach

“It lets me do more of what I love, and that is coaching.”

Juanene, executive coach

“There is this constant business development cycle. It can be a bit exhausting.”

Kelsi, executive coach

04What feels wrong

Ways of selling that don’t feel like them.

100%26 of 26say common ways of finding clients clash with their values

“I don’t want to be a nuisance. What feels quite uncomfortable for me is probably what’s needed.”

Katie, leadership coach

“Everybody’s on Instagram, so I have to be on Instagram. Then you’re just another chocolate, like Milka or Nestlé.”

Eva, executive and team coach

“I’d rather send 10 messages a week that really sound like me than 500 that could be sent by anyone.”

Ayse, executive coach

05What they fear

That it will not last.

87%13 of 15say the worry stays even when they are booked

“It’s this constant worry of not having enough clients in the pipeline.”

Ayse, executive coach

“You always need an inflow of new clients. That’s the problem.”

Svetlana, executive coach

The real struggle

Coaches say they need more clients. Underneath, the struggle is what finding them costs: time away from the work they love, spent in ways that don’t feel like them, and a worry that does not stop once they are booked.

Not every coach feels this way

For 29% of those who talked about it, getting work is not a central difficulty, and some told us they enjoy business development.

4.2

How do coaches look for clients?

We asked coaches which ways of finding clients they had tried, and whether each one worked for them. Then we checked each one against published research.

Worked for themamong the coaches who said whether it worked

43%10 of 23

Outreach

Cold messages, emails, LinkedIn requests

Starts witha stranger’s message

Behind the %

10 coaches said it worked for them, 13 said it did not.

In their words

“The whole sliding into the DMs thing, it’s a lot of time, and I just don’t want to spend my whole day in people’s inboxes.”

Mark, executive and leadership coach

“Sometimes it works and it’s great, but 90% of the time it doesn’t.”

Adrian, leadership coach

“Initially, most of it came from me soliciting it directly.”

Tracy, executive coach

Research

0.45%

of 7.5 million cold emails got a reply in 2025.

Belkins, 2025 ↗

When a buyer recognises a sales pitch for something they cannot judge in advance, like coaching, their defensive reaction is about twice as strong.

Eisend & Tarrahi 2022, meta-analysis of 148 papers ↗

57%12 of 21

Content

LinkedIn posts, newsletters, podcasts, webinars

Starts witha stranger’s scroll

Behind the %

12 coaches said it worked for them, 9 said it did not.

In their words

“I was posting on LinkedIn consistently. I was building a following, but it wasn’t converting.”

Gary, executive coach

“What worked for me is doing webinars. I always got leads out of that. Always.”

Ayse, executive coach

Research

−47%

in one year: the typical LinkedIn post went from reaching 1,211 people to 636.

AuthoredUp, 3 million posts, 2025 ↗

Among 980 B2B marketers, 56% say they cannot tell what return their content brings.

Content Marketing Institute, 2024 ↗

71%17 of 24

Platforms

Coaching platforms and associate networks

Starts withthe platform’s name

Behind the %

17 coaches said it worked for them, 7 said it did not.

What it pays

One coach told us a 45-minute session booked through a platform pays about $75, against roughly $500 for a private client at the same senior level.

In their words

“I’m in a few talent pools, but it has rarely converted into actual work.”

Katie, leadership coach

“I have good clients and good engagements from one platform that I work with.”

Svetlana, executive coach

Research

11%

of HR professionals find their coaches through a platform. 38% find them through people they trust.

HCI & ICF, 366 HR professionals, 2019 ↗

87%33 of 38

Networking

Former colleagues, HR contacts, other coaches

Starts withsomeone who knows you

Behind the %

33 coaches said it worked for them, 5 said it did not.

In their words

“My first three clients were very easy. I just talked to people about what I was doing.”

Gouri, leadership coach

“I refer clients to other coaches, and they very generously refer clients to me.”

Navid, executive coach

Research

98%

of organisations buying coaching rate coaches they already know as a useful source. Coaches who contacted them first: 13%.

Ridler Report, 64 organisations, 2011 ↗

What we learned

What worked for most coaches started with people who already knew them. The ways that start with strangers worked for fewer of them, and took the most time.

4.3

What do the coaches who are full do differently?

We listened closely to the coaches who no longer chase work. Their answers form a simple chain.

Coaching is hard to judge before it is bought.

92%35 of 38of the coaches who talked about it say organisations do not really understand what coaching brings.

In their words

“The first challenge is the credibility challenge that still exists around coaching.”

Claudia, executive coach

“The market is like: I’ve been struggling with this for six years, what do you mean you can just turn the switch? So they don’t believe you.”

Jessica, executive and leadership coach

Research

71% of organisations buying coaching name this as their greatest concern.

Ridler Report, 64 organisations, 2011 ↗

So it is bought on trust.

94%33 of 35of the coaches who raised it say trust decides. None disagreed.

In their words

“When businesses buy coaching, they usually buy the coach.”

Yee, leadership coach

“It’s such a high-trust relationship. They come to you because they trust you.”

Caroline, executive coach

Research

Credentials open the door: they are the second criterion buyers name (48%). What decides is chemistry, and knowing the coach already.

HCI & ICF 2019 · Ridler 2011 ↗

And trust travels through people.

63%29 of 46of the coaches who talked about it get most of their work by recommendation or word of mouth.

In their words

“The person who referred me has already done the hard work for me.”

Agnes, team coach

“It’s a very hidden market. All the work I got is through referrals, recommendations, my existing network.”

Ayse, executive coach

Research

Referred clients are worth more and stay longer: in the first study to measure it (10,000 bank customers), they were at least 16% more valuable and 18% less likely to leave.

Schmitt, Skiera & Van den Bulte 2011 ↗

The coaches who are full

“In 22 years, I haven’t advertised once.”

Juanene, executive coach

For these coaches, referral is not one more way to look for clients. It is how clients find them, carried by someone else’s trust.

What carries trust

Four conditions seem to decide whether a recommendation happens, and whether it carries enough trust to bring a client.

5.1

Four steps to a recommendation

People recommend a coach when they can point to a change. These four steps turn that change into a recommendation.

Each step rests on the one below it. A recommendation climbs only as far as the first step that is missing.

Real impact

Research

Up to 60% more effective, as rated by their direct reports and peers, after six months of coaching and 360 feedback. Thach 2002

01Real impact

The client changes, and the people around them notice: their team, their peers, their organisation. A satisfied client alone is not enough.

In their words

“That last project actually turned into a large 5 million culture change project, because once I did it there, every department wanted to do it.”

Victor, leadership coach

Research

After coaching combined with 360 feedback, leaders were rated up to 60% more effective by their direct reports and peers.

Thach 2002 ↗

Satisfied clients are “a necessary but not sufficient condition” for word of mouth.

Wirtz & Chew 2002 ↗

Made visible

45% of those who talked about it rarely measure or document impact. 15 of 33 coaches

02Made visible

The change is named and measured, not only felt, so others can see it too.

In their words

“None of us has a good way of talking about outcomes and return on investment. It’s super subjective.”

Peter A., executive coach

Research

In 40 of 52 coaching studies, the coachee rates their own progress. Only 3 use an objective measure.

Grover & Furnham 2016 ↗

Something to pass on

69% of those who talked about it lack material showing what their work is worth. 29 of 42 coaches

03Something to pass on

The person recommending you has something concrete to send: a document that shows what changed, not only a good word. Often, they were never coached themselves, like an HR lead or a former colleague.

In their words

“I know I’ve got very highly referenced clients, but I haven’t been able to get good stories out of them.”

Josh D., the first coach to build a case study with us

Research

Buyers trust expertise confirmed by others; self-declared expertise is judged less trustworthy.

Willemsen, Neijens & Bronner 2012 ↗

Safe to share

71% of those who talked about it say clients hesitate to be named or visible. 17 of 24 coaches

04Safe to share

The client can talk about their coaching without exposing themselves.

In their words

“I even have a client who says: don’t tell people I’m taking coaching from you.”

Hooi, executive and leadership coach

Research

Over 60% of coached CEOs keep their coaching progress between themselves and their coach.

Stanford GSB & The Miles Group 2013 ↗

What it suggests

Coaches get recommended when trust travels with an impact that is real, visible, easy to pass on and safe to share.

5.2

A recommendation can take four forms

Word of mouth A written message A testimonial A case study

Word of mouth
A conversation. Warm and trusted, but it carries a feeling, and it fades with time.
“In 22 years, I haven’t advertised once. And it is a curse, because at some point there is not going to be a referral. That’s just life: people exit.”Juanene, executive coach
A written message
An email or a note. It travels further, but rarely says what actually changed.
0 coaches described it as the way they were recommended.
A testimonial
A few lines signed by the client. Lasting, but short, and often anonymous.
“Half of them say very happy for you to use my name. The other half prefer to keep it quiet.”Navid, executive coach
A case study
The whole story, with facts. The hardest to get, because it takes real, unbiased work.
“They always wanted to see proof of past work. And that’s where a case study came in handy.”Patricia, executive coach

Most recommendations travel by word of mouth, and fade when people move on. A case study is the one form that can meet all four conditions above.

Why a case study

“You put the work in once, you write the case study, you can use it for 10 years. It’s not going to fade.”

Peter S., executive coach

Of the four forms, a case study is the one that best shows the concrete impact of a coach’s work, and the one that keeps working the longest.

Executive and leadership coaches Study findings

Why this study?

Who is behind this study?

Methodology

Findings

What is the real struggle?

How do coaches look for clients?

What do the coaches who are full do differently?

What carries trust

Four steps to a recommendation

A recommendation can take four forms

Offered to you first

Your own case study, built with one of your clients

The monthly letter

Thank you.