Short answer: lead generation for coaches comes down to five steps: work out how many leads you need, get visible in front of the right people, give them a reason to raise their hand, promote it in three places, and have a sales process behind every lead. At a 3% conversion rate you need around 333 leads for 10 sales. Get visible with Build Borrow Buy, then use free live events, free resources, audits, story polls and comment below posts to turn visibility into leads. Map where every lead will come from, track them, and follow up personally.

When I moved into the online space in January 2020, nobody had any idea who Laurie Burrows was. I had no audience, no reputation and a baby on the way. So I made it my job to get as visible as possible, as quickly as possible. I got so visible that I could walk into an event and people would know who I was before I knew who they were.

That visibility, and the leads it created, is what I put my first year down to. Nearly $200,000 in sales as a new mum. Since then I've built a business that's generated multi-seven figures in sales, and lead generation has been at the heart of every single launch. My first ever launch sold one spot. The biggest difference between that and the launches that sold 50 and 75 spots? The number of leads I generated, and what I did with them.

Who is this guide for, and what will you have by the end?

This is for coaches, consultants and online service providers who don't have enough people to sell to, or who get leads in random bursts. It works whether you sell courses, programmes or done for you services.

• Your leads number and a lead map showing where every lead will come from.
• A visibility plan using Build Borrow Buy.
• Six lead generation activities, each with steps and a script.
• A 14 day promotion plan for any free offer.
• A sales process behind every lead, with DM and email templates.
• A lead tracker set up.
• A worked example, a 30 day plan and troubleshooting.

What is a lead?

A lead is anyone who shows interest in something you have to offer. That could be engaging with your content, signing up for a free training, downloading a free guide, voting on a poll in your stories, asking for a free audit or joining your challenge. Someone who opts in for your freebie is telling you two things: they're interested in you, and they have a problem you can help with. Someone who asks about your paid offer is a hot lead. Prioritise them.

Why most coaches don't have enough leads

1. They're not doing anything every day to generate leads. Every day I ask myself: what can I do today to generate a lead, and what can I do today to bring in a sale? If you're not doing something to generate leads, you have no one to sell to.
2. They're not generating enough leads to hit their goal. They work out they need 10 spots at $1,000, but never work out how many leads that takes, or where they'll come from.
3. They think content is enough. Industries are more saturated, there's more competition than ever, and posting and hoping isn't enough anymore.
4. Their lead generation requires them. If they stop being live or present, the leads stop.
5. There's no sales process behind the lead. They get the opt in and then do nothing with it.

The framework: from visibility to sales

Every strategy follows Attract Nurture Convert. I break the lead generation side into four stepping stones: visibility leads to leads, leads lead to conversations, conversations lead to sales.

Some people jump straight from seeing you to buying. Plenty won't, especially for higher ticket offers. Adding the conversation step is one of the biggest things I've found for increasing conversion rates, because people want a more personal way of buying. For a $27 course, I'll often go straight from visibility to the sale. For anything higher ticket, I want leads, then conversations, then sales.

Step 1: Work out how many leads you need

Before you do anything to generate leads, know your number.

• Monthly goal ÷ offer price = sales needed.
• Sales needed ÷ conversion rate = leads needed.

The industry average conversion rate is around 1 to 3%. At 3%, 100 leads gets you about three sales, which is why I say you need 333 leads for 10 sales. If your goal is $10,000 a month from a $997 offer, you need around 334 leads a month. If you're generating 18, the gap is worth over $113,000 a year, purely because not enough people are coming into your world. More in how many leads do I actually need?

The other lever is conversion rate. The better you convert, the fewer leads you need. My own launches convert at around 10 to 12%, which means 100 leads gives me 10 or more sales instead of three. Conversations, live attendance and follow up are what move that number.

If maths isn't your thing, the Strategist inside Ascendia OS does this part for you. It learns your business, sets the goal, maps what to sell and when, and tells you how many sales (and so how many leads) you need.

Time: 15 minutes. Done when: you know your monthly leads number and your gap.

Step 2: Get visible with Build Borrow Buy

You can't generate leads if nobody knows you exist. And here's the reframe: your content is not your visibility strategy. Your content is your nurture. Visibility is how new people find you in the first place. There are three ways to get visible.

Build an audience

Posting content, engaging with ideal clients, attending events, networking and being active in communities. It works, but it's the most time consuming. One of the simplest ways to build is engaging: instead of an evening on Netflix, spend some of it finding ideal clients and genuinely engaging with their posts. They get notifications, click through to your profile and, if your content is good, follow you. Ten to 30 minutes a day.

Borrow an audience

Guest speaking in someone's membership, programme, mastermind, Facebook group, event, summit or podcast. This is my favourite because of trust by association: if someone their audience already trusts brings you in, that audience trusts you very quickly. Guest speaking is one of the reasons I grew so quickly.

Search groups where hosts look for guest experts, ask your network and communities, or offer swaps where you each speak to the other's audience. If you don't ask, you don't get.

And always go in with a plan for the leads. A 20 to 40 minute talk isn't always enough to take a cold audience to buying a four figure offer, so invite them to something that gives them more time with you: a free resource, a free live event or a taster day.

Buy an audience

Ads. The quickest way to get visible, but not essential when you're starting out. Add them once you're generating consistent revenue. My approach is The $5 a Day Ads Strategy: engagement ads with valuable talking head videos to warm people up, then retargeting the people who watched at least 25% to your free offer. See the $5 a day ads strategy.

Step 3: Choose your lead generation activities

Once people can see you, give them something to raise their hand for. You don't need all six. Pick one or two and do them consistently.

1. Live virtual events

Challenges, bootcamps, workshops and masterclasses (they have 100 different names, so I just call them virtual events). They're brilliant for leads, nurture and conversion, because people interact with you live, and live attendees buy far more (I've seen 25% of live attendees buy compared with 2.5% overall). I promote them for one to two weeks.

• Selling in bulk (say 100 spots): a 3 to 5 day event, because three to five sessions is enough to take someone from cold to wanting to buy. Pitch on day three.
• Selling to your warm audience: a 60 minute masterclass is often enough.
• Not enough leads? Run another a week or two later.

Shorter sessions work better than long ones. People drop off after about 20 minutes, which is why I keep my trainings tight. If you want my full webinar framework, The 5-Figure Webinar Formula ($27) has the 10 step structure, slide template and pitch script.

2. Free resources

A checklist, guide, calculator or short 10 minute training on an opt in page. You can promote them any time, every day. In my business we promote a free offer in some way every single day, because it grows our email list, and our email list is where a majority of our sales come from. Your free resource must give an aha moment or a quick result, and the opt in page should convert 40% or more of visitors. Ideas in 9 free resource ideas that actually get opt ins.

3. A pre recorded 5 day experience

This is the lead generation machine I'm using right now. It's The 5 Day Experience: completely pre recorded, so you create it once and rinse and repeat. Each day is a training of around 20 minutes with one aha moment and one action step. When someone takes action and gets a result, it builds trust fast, so by the time you announce your paid offer on day three, they already know what you help with works. Your only job is driving traffic to one opt in page.

1. Create one opt in page for the five day experience.
2. Record five trainings of about 20 minutes. Each one gives an aha moment and ends with one clear action step.
3. Decide how they're delivered: straight to their inbox, by WhatsApp, or inside a group. Whatever suits your audience.
4. Announce your paid offer on day three, once they've taken action and seen it work, then remind them on days four and five.
5. Drive traffic to the opt in page every day with Build Borrow Buy.

The tech is where most people stall on this one. If that's you, the Funnel Builder inside Ascendia OS builds the opt-in page, thank you page and checkout inside your account, and the Launch Manager sets the whole experience up to run again on repeat.

4. Free audits

Offer a set number of audits on the thing your paid offer fixes. People comment or DM a word, you qualify them in the DMs, send a short form (brilliant market research), record a five minute video with a few tips and one action step, then pitch with a bonus for joining within 24 hours. Full process in the free audit strategy.

5. Story polls and lead generation stories

An image or video in your stories with a line of text and a poll where both options are positive. Anyone who votes is a lead, and you send them the link or start a conversation. Quick, simple, and you can do it every day.

6. Comment below (ladder) posts

Short, straight to the point posts that ask people to comment a word for your free training or guide. As people comment, the post reaches more people and the comments stack up like a ladder. Reply with the link (or use an automated DM reply) and ask them to let you know once they've signed up, which keeps the engagement going. If you reply manually, do it in batches of 10 to 15 then pause, so the platform doesn't flag you as spam.

7. Facebook group searches

A nice, quick one. Busy Facebook groups are full of people asking for help. Use the group search bar with keywords for what you do ("looking for a website designer", "social media manager", "business mentor", "copywriter"), sort by most recent, and anyone who has posted is a hot lead, because they're actively looking for what you offer. The downside is that it's competitive: other people will be commenting too, so you have to stand out. I always start with what makes me an authority, then say how I can help. Do it daily so you don't miss posts, and remember that other people read those comments too. More in how to get a client from a Facebook group.

Step 4: Promote your free offer in three places

Whatever you choose, it needs promoting properly, in three places.

Your own audience and platforms

• Email every day while a live free offer is being promoted, mixed up: one day a promo, the next some top tips with a call to action, the next a story.
• Promo posts: copy straight from your opt in page with a graphic, about one a day. People need to see a message several times before they act.
• Value posts: top tips or a story with a call to action at the end.
• Ladder posts, stories, reels and lives. On Instagram I use the grid mainly for value and lead generation, and the stories for most of the promotion.

Writing an email every day of a promotion takes time. The Email Marketer inside Ascendia OS writes your promotion emails, broadcasts and follow up in your voice, so you just approve them.

Other people's audiences

• Large groups that allow promotion.
• Guest speaking spots where you teach, then invite people to your free offer.
• Collaborations: joint masterclasses, co hosted events, summits (where every speaker promotes, so everyone gets in front of each other's audiences and the host gets the most visibility) and freebie bundles.

Your audience promoting for you

• A prize for people who share your promo graphic and link.
• An affiliate scheme where people earn commission if anyone they bring into your free offer goes on to buy.

Step 5: Map where every lead is coming from

This is Lead Mapping, and it's where most launches fall apart. Once you know your number, write down every source and a realistic number next to it until it adds up. Then you're not playing a guessing game.

On one launch I needed 3,000 leads. My email list would bring around 1,000 and my social media around 500. That's my whole audience and I was only halfway. So I mapped the rest: 10 guest speaking spots at 50 sign ups each, audience exchanges, ads and affiliates. By the time promotion started, I knew exactly where every lead was coming from.

Step 6: Build a sales process behind every lead

A lead on its own isn't a sale. Your sales process is the stepping stones that take a lead all the way to a conversion. This is where most founders leave the most money on the table.

Things have changed a lot. Back when I hit my first six figure month, most of my sales happened through content with barely a conversation. Now people want more personal ways of being sold to. We've tested running masterclasses with no conversations or follow up, relying on content, and then running them with conversations, and our conversion rate was so much higher with the conversations. These days we sell everything from $27 offers to five figure offers through DM conversations, and I can't remember the last time I did a sales call. If you don't want to do calls, you don't have to. You do have to talk to your leads.

For every lead generation activity, write down the answers to these questions before you start:

• How will they raise their hand (comment, vote, DM a word, opt in)?
• What will I say first, and how will I qualify them?
• How will I nurture them (a form, an audit, an event, emails)?
• How and when will I pitch?
• How will I follow up, and how many times?
• What happens if they say no?

After someone opts in for a free resource

1. Ask for their Instagram handle and where they're at on the opt in page. It tells you which offer suits them and doubles as market research.
2. Show a $27 offer on the thank you page, at a price that's a no brainer even for someone who's never heard of you. Aim for 8 to 10% of opt ins to buy, and add an $11 order bump.
3. Check their profile. If they look like an ideal client, engage with a few posts so you pop up in their notifications.
4. Send a personal DM.
5. Nurture by email with five or six short value emails, your story, and an invitation to your next event or offer. Aim for 40 to 50% opens.

Before and after a live event

If someone opts in on day one of a 14 day promotion, they've got two weeks to forget about you. Fill the gap with a short nurture sequence and a personal reminder the day before.

During the event, tell people that if they stay until the end you'll give them a gift, and to get it they DM you a word. That keeps them for the pitch and starts a conversation. Then ask if they're joining. They'll say yes (send the link), yes but (now you know the objection, for example a payment plan) or no (ask why, it's great feedback, and offer something that suits them better). Afterwards, message live attendees for their biggest takeaway, and send everyone else the replay, available for 48 hours.

The personal messages above are worth sending yourself wherever you can. If DMs are piling up faster than you can answer them, the Appointment Setter on Ascendia OS Pro replies to DMs, texts and website chats 24/7 and books calls, so no lead is left waiting.

Step 7: Track your leads and follow up

When you have lots of leads at different stages, you need a way to see who's where. I started with a simple board with a column for each stage: leads, contacted, replied, offer sent, call booked, then won, follow up or lost. Every day, check it. Who hasn't replied in a couple of days? Nudge them. Never delete lost leads: note why they didn't buy and set a reminder for next month, because not now doesn't mean never. Something like 80% of conversions happen on the fifth follow up. Set it up with a simple lead tracker.

Once a month, score every lead source so you know where to put your time next month:

The source that brings the most sales for the least time gets more of your time next month. That's how you stop doing everything and start doing what works.

Step 8: Do one lead generating thing every day

You don't need 100 different ways to generate leads. You need one or two clear ways, done consistently. It might be a story poll, a ladder post, a guest spot pitch, a DM to someone who downloaded your guide, or an audit offer. Small and daily beats big and occasional.

Which lead generation strategy should you start with?

• Small audience, need clients this month: free audits and story polls. Quick to set up, personal, and they start conversations straight away.
• Want to sell a lot of something (50 to 100 plus spots): a 3 to 5 day live or pre recorded event, with a proper lead map and plenty of borrowed audiences.
• Selling high ticket to people who already know you: a masterclass for your warm audience, with personal follow up.
• Want leads every day without being live: a free resource or pre recorded experience on an evergreen opt in page, with a $27 offer on the thank you page and an email sequence behind it.

If you sell services rather than courses, the same methods work. I use exactly the same lead generation activities to sell our done for you services as I do for programmes. Whichever you choose, give it time. Pick one, run it, look at the numbers, improve it and run it again.

Worked example: a coach who needs 10 clients

Example (illustrative numbers): a career coach selling a $997 programme wants about $10,000 next month, so 10 sales. At 3%, she needs about 333 leads.

She DMs every sign up a reminder, uses a stay until the end gift, and follows up five times. Live attendees convert at a much higher rate than the average, so if a good share of her 340 sign ups show up live, she can comfortably pass 10 sales. If she only hits 3%, she still gets her 10. The point is that she knew where every lead was coming from before she started.

Your 30 day lead generation plan

What mistakes should I avoid?

• Guessing your number. Fix: do the maths and the lead map before you promote.
• Relying on content alone. Fix: add at least one borrow activity a week.
• Leads that depend on you being live. Fix: add an evergreen free resource or a pre recorded 5 day experience.
• Getting opt ins and doing nothing. Fix: thank you page offer, nurture emails, DMs.
• Long trainings. Fix: around 20 minutes with one aha moment and one action step.
• Jumping strategies every few weeks. Fix: run one long enough to get data.
• Deleting lost leads. Fix: note the reason and follow up next month.

Troubleshooting: if it's not working, check this

Your action plan

Today

• Calculate your leads number and your gap.
• Post one comment below post or story poll.
• Set up your lead tracker.

This week

• Build your lead map with a number next to every source.
• Pitch five guest spots.
• Add a $27 offer to your thank you page.
• DM everyone who opted in or voted this week.

Next 30 days

• Run one free event or audit round with the 14 day promotion plan.
• Do one lead generating action every single day.
• Follow up every lead five times.
• Review which source worked best and update next month's map.

If you want ready made guides to get started, head to my free resources.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way for coaches to generate leads?

There isn't one best way, but the most reliable is a free offer (a live event, a free resource or a pre recorded 5 day experience) promoted to your own audience and other people's audiences, with a personal sales process behind it.

How do I generate leads without paid ads?

Promote your free offer on your own platforms every day, borrow other people's audiences through guest speaking, collaborations and summits, and encourage your audience to share your freebie with a prize or an affiliate scheme.

How many leads should I generate each month?

Divide your monthly goal by your offer price, then divide that by your conversion rate. At 3%, a $10,000 goal with a $997 offer needs about 334 leads a month.

Is content enough to generate leads?

Not on its own anymore. Content is mainly your nurture. To generate new leads you need visibility in front of new audiences too, plus content with a clear call to action.

What should I do after someone opts in?

Have stepping stones ready: a $27 offer on the thank you page, an email nurture sequence, engaging with their social media and a personal DM to start a conversation.

How long should my free training be?

Around 20 minutes. People drop off on longer trainings, and one aha moment plus one action step builds more trust than hours of content.

How do I keep track of my leads?

Start simple with a spreadsheet or a board with a column for each stage of your sales process. Check it every day and follow up with anyone who's gone quiet.

Do these methods work for service providers?

Yes. I use the same lead generation activities to sell done for you services as I do for programmes. A masterclass or a free audit can sell a service just as well as a course.

Laurie Burrows is a revenue growth strategist for coaches, consultants and online service providers, with 15 years of experience in marketing and sales and a business that's generated multi-seven figures in sales. She's the founder of Ascendia OS.