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The behaviors that make for a great coach are pretty basic:

1. Ask great questions
2. Listen
3. Remember
4. Be straightforward
5. Control your conversations
6. Trust your instincts
7. Stay centered
8. Earn trust from others

Around the world, thousands of executive coaches enter the business each year. They all want to become great. Clients who count on executive coaches want them to be great, too. So, what makes a great coach?

In the seventh annual Sherpa Coaching survey, we didn’t ask coaches to evaluate themselves on their greatness.  We did ask questions about their results. That allows us to report on the most successful coaches, and tell you what makes them different.

How do you know a coach is successful?  In part, executive coaches demonstrate success by sticking around, staying in the business for a number of years. Even more important, it comes down to the value clients place on their services, as reflected in their earnings.  As we discover what goes on in the professional lives of the world’s leading coaches, we can take lessons that can make individual coaches more successful.

Hourly earnings for Executive coaches (in US dollars):

As we look at survey responses from top-dollar coaches, we will find things that set them apart. Here’s what we learned:

Technology allows a coach to see more clients, but it won’t take the place of face to face. Top-dollar coaches don’t use the phone any more often than other coaches. They do not depend on videoconferencing to get more client time. In fact, top dollar coaches do slightly more of their coaching face-to-face. They also say cite face-to-face as “the most effective method” for coaching, more often than mid to low earners do.
Having a lot of clients is not the answer, anyway. You can’t ‘make it up on volume’. Big money coaches make more because they charge more for an hour of their time. The top earners don’t see any more clients each week than coaches in the middle earnings brackets. 

Apparently, people don’t buy coaching on price. Coaches who charge the lowest rates actually have fewer clients than the middle and upper tiers. 70 to 80% of them report seeing 5 or fewer clients each week.  Most mid and top-level coaches see 6 or more.

One way to make more money as a coach:  Drag your engagements out, so every client stays longer and generates more revenue. That’s not how the most successful coaches work. Coaches who charge more don’t keep their clients longer. There is no correlation at all between length of engagement and the amount a coach earns.

Success is not about attitude, either. Top dollar coaches are no more confident about their trade than anyone else. At every earnings level, 90% of coaches say the value and credibility of coaching is ‘very high’, and 10% say it is ‘high’. Top-dollar coaches don’t believe in coaching any more than their lesser-paid peers.

So, what works? What’s different about the ‘big money’ coaches?

Coaches’ billing rates by years in business
(10 years plus on top, then 6-10 years, 3-5 years on the bottom)

Percentage of coaches reporting their billing rates by tenure.

Percentage of coaches reporting their billing rates by tenure.

1. Go for the gold. Corporate gold. Top coaches have more ‘employer paid’ clients, fewer private pay. Starting out, new coaches gain experience by working with private pay clients. Nothing wrong with that, but ‘employer paid’ is where the money is.

Percentage of coaches reporting employer-paid clients, by hourly rate:

2. Climb the ladder. Bigger companies, bigger budgets. The most successful coaches have bigger companies as clients. Top line leaders in large organizations affect more lives. They make decisions that move more money. The large company executive is likely to be paid more, due to their increased responsibilities. Consequently, executive coaches who are selected to work with big company bosses will be the most highly qualified, and usually the highest paid. Coaches on the low end of the pay scale work with small companies far more often.

Coaches reporting a typical client’s company size, in employees, by hourly rate

3. Talk to the big dog. High-end coaches work with top level management while others work with mid-level managers or supervisors. We have seen a ‘double dip’  in recent years, in which the amount of coaching dedicated to individuals ‘across the organization’ has declined, and coaching provided exclusively to ‘top line leaders’ is at an all time high. That’s exactly the economic storm that top-level coaches are prepared to weather. The top paid coaches will not find their work going away in tough times.

4. Stay focused on coaching. The most successful coaches spend more of their time coaching, less in training, consulting and other activities.  Almost three in ten top-level coaches spend 80 % of their time coaching. Only one out of ten coaches at the bottom of the ladder spends that much time coaching. More coaching time, more experience, higher billing rates. This is part of a focus on coaching. What else do the top earners do? They spend just as much time promoting and selling their services as any other coach.

5. Be creative. Stay ahead of the curve. In last year’s survey report, we wrote about team coaching and coaching skills training as “the next wave” in executive coaching.  This year, we learn that the top earners in coaching are more likely to offer team coaching and coaching skills programs.

6. Stay proactive. The most successful coaches work on leadership development, grooming rising stars to assume more power. Other coaches are more likely to deliver remedial coaching, designed to address a specific problem in business behavior.

So, that’s what we found in this comparison of the highest paid coaches to their peers.

If you are a coach, or considering a career, here’s what to do: Get experience. Stay focused.  Stay on top of trends. Work your way to the top. That’s what the world’s highest-paid coaches have done. Good luck on the journey.

This page offers information not included in the seventh annual Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey.
The most current research is available at www.sherpacoaching.com/survey.html

This is one of a series of web pages designed to offer additional topics and commentary, beyond the basic report.

Media contact: For exclusive material and interviews: Karl Corbett, Managing Partner, Sherpa Coaching LLC, (513) 232-0002 USA,  kc@sherpacoaching.com

For a library of 60-second videos about executive coaching, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/sherpacoaching.