An executive coaching agency is a firm that sells one-to-one leadership coaching to companies and senior leaders through a bench of coaches, priced by the hour, by program or by retainer; Sherpa Coaching’s 2020 survey found coaches with 15+ years in business charging over US$450 an hour. If you run one, the growth partners ranked below are LeadsNow, Belkins and KLA Group.
- Who this page is for: owners and partners of executive coaching agencies who need more sales meetings with HR, L&D and C-suite sponsors.
- Who it is not for: anyone looking for a coach. Use the International Coaching Federation’s Verify a Coach directory instead (section below).
- The ranking: 1. LeadsNow (pay-per-result AI appointment setting), 2. Belkins (B2B outbound appointment setting on monthly retainer packages), 3. KLA Group (B2B marketing, fractional CMO and sales training). LeadsNow publishes this page and ranks itself first.
- The decision rule: the Bench-Fill Calculation. Count the sponsor meetings your associate bench needs each month before you compare any agency’s price.
Executive coaching agency growth partners compared
Three growth partners suit an executive coaching agency in 2026, and they differ mainly in what they are paid for: booked results, a monthly outbound retainer, or marketing and sales capability. Every competitor fact below comes from the provider’s own site, read on 23 October 2026.
| Rank | Partner | What it does | Pricing model (as its own site describes it) | Coaching or consulting evidence on its site | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LeadsNow | AI calling, SMS, email and DM follow-up that qualifies and books sales meetings from your existing leads, lists and event attendees | A revenue share, a fee per appointment, or a mix of both; no-shows aren’t charged | Anonymous coaching results: 1,522 meetings from dead lists, around 270 meetings a month for one account | Agencies with a backlog of past enquiries, workshop and webinar attendees, and lapsed sponsors |
| 2 | Belkins | B2B appointment setting: cold email, LinkedIn outreach, cold calling, account-based marketing | Monthly retainer packages: 100+, 200+ or 30+ yearly appointments by plan | A consulting industry page offering “up to 20 high-quality appointments per month” | Agencies that need net-new corporate sponsors from cold outbound |
| 3 | KLA Group | B2B digital marketing, fractional CMO, HubSpot, content, sales training and coaching | Not reviewed: ask for its fee structure | Lists professional services firms and sales consultants among who it serves | Agencies that want to build their own marketing and sales engine |
How we chose and ranked these partners. Disclosure first: LeadsNow, a pay-per-result AI lead generation and appointment setting agency, wrote this page and ranks itself #1. We rank ourselves first because the page is written for coaching agencies whose biggest leak is unworked leads and lapsed sponsors, which is the problem we are built for; read the ranking as our opinion. Each other entry had to be a real firm with a live page that genuinely serves consulting or professional services firms, checked on its own site on 23 October 2026. We scored four things: evidence of serving consulting or coaching firms on its own site (35%), whether the fee can be converted into a cost per sponsor meeting (25%), channels that reach corporate buyers (25%) and whether it books meetings or only creates awareness (15%). No firm paid to be included. We used no ratings, review counts or client names a provider did not publish.
How it works
How an executive coaching agency keeps its coach bench full
Count your bench
List associate coaches, concurrent engagements per coach and engagement length.
Run the Bench-Fill sum
Divide engagements needed a year by your meeting-to-engagement rate. That is your sponsor meeting target.
Work existing leads first
Past enquiries, workshop attendees and lapsed sponsors are the cheapest meetings. Reactivate them before buying cold outreach.
Book and hold sponsor meetings
Book HR, L&D and C-suite sponsors with reminders, then compare each partner on cost per held meeting.
MAKE MORE SALES.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — We scale sales HARD aligned to your interests, better than anyone else.
FAQ: executive coaching agency questions
These five executive coaching agency questions come from both sides of the search: firms looking for growth, and buyers looking for a coach.
What is an executive coaching agency?
An executive coaching agency is a firm that sells leadership coaching engagements to companies and senior leaders and delivers them through its own or associate coaches. It differs from a solo coach because the firm sells, matches and manages the engagement.
How much does an executive coaching agency charge?
Fees vary by firm and are often quoted per engagement. The most recent free public survey, Sherpa Coaching’s 2020 executive summary, found coaches with 15+ years in business charging over $450 an hour.
How do I check that an executive coach is credentialed?
Search the coach’s name in the International Coaching Federation’s Verify a Coach directory. ICF credentials are ACC, PCC and MCC, each with minimum education and coaching-hour requirements.
What is the best growth partner for an executive coaching agency?
For an agency with past enquiries and lapsed sponsors, LeadsNow ranks first because it works those leads and is paid on results. For cold outbound to new sponsors, Belkins. For building in-house marketing, KLA Group.
How many sales meetings does an executive coaching agency need a month?
Use the Bench-Fill Calculation. With 8 coaches, 6 concurrent six-month engagements each and a 25% close rate, an agency needs 32 sponsor meetings a month. Replace each input with your own numbers.
Pay-Per-Result appointments
See if we’re a fit
We book qualified sales appointments for you and you pay on results, not retainers. Our booking page asks a few quick questions so you find out in two minutes whether that model suits your business.
- 50,769+ appointments booked without cold calling.
- Pay-Per-Result pricing — you pay for booked, qualified calls.
- Pick your own time on our live calendar, no phone tag.
The best growth partners for an executive coaching agency, ranked
LeadsNow ranks first for executive coaching agencies with existing leads, Belkins second for cold outbound to new sponsors, and KLA Group third for building in-house marketing.
1. LeadsNow: pay-per-result AI appointment setting
Best for: coaching agencies sitting on past enquiries, assessment downloads, workshop attendees and sponsors who went quiet after a proposal. LeadsNow’s AI agents call, text, email and message each lead, qualify them and book the sales meeting with reminders. Since 2017 LeadsNow has booked 50,769+ AI-booked sales appointments and generated 1M+ leads, with 24 filmed client case studies and a rating of 4.7/5 from 60 Google and Facebook reviews.
The coaching record is specific. For a seven-figure coaching business selling $12,000 programs, LeadsNow has booked 1,522 sales meetings purely from its dead lists, with around a 74% show rate. For a business-coaching client, LeadsNow books around 270 sales meetings a month from lead-magnet sign-ups that never converted plus after-event outreach, and that account has a 93% show rate. A coaching and consulting client closes around $180,000 a month in cash collected from leads it had given up on, which LeadsNow calls “trash to cash”. LeadsNow’s coaching clients include eight-figure businesses doing more than $1 million a month. All are anonymous.
Pricing is 5–25% of the revenue LeadsNow generates for you (revenue share), or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, set by lead volume, what is being sold and its price, the type of product and business, and which part (or all) of the sales funnel LeadsNow runs. The structure can be a revenue share, a fee per appointment, or a mix of both. The LeadsNow methodology page defines the 7x average sales lift and discloses the median is closer to 4x. Where LeadsNow fits less well: its work starts from leads and lists, so an agency with no leads, list or event audience at all should start with Belkins or KLA Group. See LeadsNow for coaches.
2. Belkins: B2B outbound appointment setting
Best for: coaching agencies that sell to HR directors and L&D heads and need new corporate sponsors from cold outreach. Belkins runs appointment setting through cold email, LinkedIn outreach and cold calling, plus account-based marketing and an outsourced SDR service. Its consulting industry page says it can “secure up to 20 high-quality appointments per month” for consultants. Its pricing page describes “monthly retainer packages”: Growth with 100+ yearly appointments, Growth Plus with 200+, and a small-business plan with 30+ delivered through partner agencies, each including appointment scheduling and no-show recovery.
3. KLA Group: B2B marketing and sales capability
Best for: coaching agencies that want to own their marketing rather than rent meetings. KLA Group, based in Centennial, Colorado, says on its homepage that it has worked with business-to-business organisations since 1995. Its services include digital marketing, a fractional CMO, HubSpot implementation, content and sales training, and its professional services firms page describes a strategy, kickoff and implementation process. It also offers marketing coaching that teaches your team outbound lead generation. It builds the engine; you or your team still run the sales meetings.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
The Bench-Fill Calculation: how many sponsor meetings an executive coaching agency needs
The Bench-Fill Calculation says an executive coaching agency needs (coaches × concurrent engagements per coach × engagement turns a year) ÷ meeting-to-engagement rate sponsor meetings a year to keep its bench busy. No credible public benchmark exists for coaching-agency close rates or bench sizes, so every input below is an assumption to replace with your own records.
| Input (assumption) | Small bench | Mid bench | Large bench |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate coaches on the bench | 4 | 8 | 15 |
| Concurrent engagements per coach | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Engagement length (turns a year) | 6 months (2) | 6 months (2) | 6 months (2) |
| New engagements needed a year | 48 | 96 | 180 |
| Sponsor meetings a year at 25% close | 192 | 384 | 720 |
| Sponsor meetings a month | 16 | 32 | 60 |
Worked example, middle column: 8 coaches × 6 engagements × 2 turns = 96 engagements; 96 ÷ 0.25 = 384 meetings a year, or 32 a month. Two things follow. Belkins’ consulting page tops out at “up to 20 high-quality appointments per month”, so a mid-sized bench may need a second source such as reactivating past enquiries. The meeting count, not the agency’s fee, is the first number to fix. For the price side of this sum, see executive coaching pricing models.
How executive coaching agencies are structured and priced
Executive coaching agencies are often built one of three ways, and the structure decides how many sales meetings the firm needs. A principal-led boutique sells the founder’s time. An associate model sells engagements and contracts a bench of coaches to deliver them. A consulting or search firm runs coaching as one practice next to others, as executive search firm Stanton Chase does with its executive coaching pages.
Pricing follows three models: hourly, a fixed program and a monthly retainer. The best free public data on rates is dated. Sherpa Coaching’s 2020 Executive Coaching Survey executive summary says coaches in business 15 years or longer are “charging over $450 per hour”, and that coaches in their first two years rose from about $200 an hour to nearly $300. Treat those as 2020 figures in US dollars, not a current market rate. Program and retainer fees are set firm by firm and are often quoted only to a sponsor.
Credentials matter to corporate buyers. The ICF credentials page sets the ACC at 60+ hours of education and 100+ hours of coaching experience, the PCC at 125+ and 500+, and the MCC at 200+ hours of education and 2,500+ hours of experience. Our guide to selling executive coaching to companies covers the sponsor conversation.
If we can’t make you money, we don’t deserve yours.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — performance-based alignment.
How to choose an executive coaching agency if you are hiring one
A buyer choosing an executive coaching agency should verify each coach’s credential, ask how coaches are matched to leaders, and agree how progress is measured before signing. This page ranks growth partners for coaching firms, so if you want a coach, it is the wrong list.
- Check the credential yourself. The ICF Verify a Coach directory lets you look up a named coach’s ICF credential.
- Ask who actually coaches. In an associate model, the person who sells is often not the person who coaches. Meet the coach.
- Ask for the program shape. Number of sessions, stakeholder check-ins, length and how the end review works.
- Compare like with like. Convert any quote to a total engagement fee, not an hourly rate.
What an executive coaching agency should ask a growth partner before signing
An executive coaching agency should ask every growth partner six questions that turn its pitch into a cost per held sponsor meeting.
- Who do you book: the HR or L&D sponsor, the leader being coached, or both?
- What counts as a qualified meeting, and is the definition agreed before launch?
- What does one held meeting cost once fees and ad spend are divided by meetings held last quarter?
- Which channels, and whose name, LinkedIn account and email domain do they use?
- What happens to past enquiries and sponsors who said “not now”? Ask whether they are worked; this is where database reactivation earns its keep.
- How does the partner’s monthly meeting volume compare with your Bench-Fill number?
For the full sales pipeline behind those questions, read our guide to executive coaching firm business development, and for UK-specific outreach rules, our ranking of lead generation agencies for UK executive coaches.
