Every appointment clears five gates before it reaches your calendar
This page answers the questions serious buyers ask us before signing: how prospects are qualified, how precisely we can target, what the funnel and show rates actually look like, who controls the messaging, and what happens if the first five calls aren't right.
How a prospect is qualified before you ever speak
An appointment that fails any gate below is rejected by us, not by you — it never lands on your calendar and it never counts against the appointments you paid for.
Gate 1 — Targeting fit (before a single message)
Nobody enters a campaign unless they already match the written ICP: job title and seniority, headcount band, industry, geography, and any disqualifiers you name. The list is built in Sales Navigator, exported, then de-duplicated against your CRM and existing customers so we never message someone you already own.
Gate 2 — Problem confirmation in conversation
The Virtual SDR only moves toward a call once the prospect has said, in their own words, that the problem you solve is real for them right now. No stated problem, no booking. Those replies are stored on the record so you can read them before the call.
Gate 3 — Authority and budget awareness
We confirm the person can decide (or is the budget holder for their own development), and we state the investment range in the conversation before booking. Prospects arrive already knowing this is a paid programme, which is what kills the 'I didn't know it cost anything' call.
Gate 4 — Human review before your calendar
Every booking is reviewed by our team against your written criteria before it reaches your calendar. Anything that fails the criteria is rejected internally and does not count towards your package — you never pay for it and you never sit through it.
Gate 5 — Attendance
Your package only ticks down when someone actually attends. Booked-and-ghosted costs you nothing: we replace no-shows free until the full number of attended appointments has been delivered.
Qualify hard without killing the conversation
Three low-friction qualifying questions we recommend
Asked inside the LinkedIn conversation, one at a time, in the flow of a normal exchange. Three questions is the ceiling before booking rates fall off a cliff — a form or a screening call kills 40–60% of otherwise good conversations.
"Out of interest — is the pressure showing up more in your own week, or across your leadership team?"
Confirms the problem exists and tells you whether it's a personal 1:1 engagement or a team programme, without ever using the word 'burnout' at someone who isn't ready to own it.
"Have you tried anything for it so far — coaching, a programme, time off?"
Separates problem-aware from solution-aware. Solution-aware prospects close far faster and buy at a higher price point, and prior spend is the single best predictor of ability to invest.
"If it were the right fit, is this something you'd be looking at in the next 30 days or is it more of a next-quarter thing?"
A timing filter that feels like courtesy, not qualification. It removes the pleasant, interested, never-going-to-buy calls that clog a coaching calendar.
What we deliberately do NOT ask on LinkedIn
These questions look sensible and cost you meetings. We handle each one another way instead.
"What's your budget?"
Instead we state your investment level ($2,997, for example) as a fact in the conversation. Nobody has to defend a number; they either continue or they don't. Same filtering, none of the resistance.
"Are you the decision maker?"
For personal executive coaching the buyer is usually themselves. We infer authority from seniority in the targeting instead, so the conversation never sounds like a sales script.
A multi-question intake form before booking.
Forms are where warm LinkedIn conversations go to die. We capture the same information conversationally and put it on the prospect record, so you get the intake without the drop-off.
Ten criteria we can filter on — and exclude on
Exclusions matter as much as inclusions. Half of a clean list is telling us who must never be messaged: your clients, your live deals, your competitors, and the titles that will only ever pitch you back.
Job title
Exact titles and title exclusions — e.g. include CEO, COO, Managing Director, VP Operations; exclude Coach, Consultant, Recruiter, anything that would pitch you back.
Seniority
C-suite, Owner, Partner, VP, Director, Head of — set individually, not as a blunt 'senior' bucket.
Company size
Headcount bands (1–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001+) and revenue bands where the data exists.
Industry
Sales Navigator industries plus keyword layers, so you can target 'professional services excluding accountancy' rather than a whole vertical.
Geography
Country, state/region, or metro. Outreach and booking run in the prospect's local time zone.
Tenure & change signals
Time in current role and recent promotions or job changes — the highest-intent window for pressure and overwhelm offers.
Growth signals
Headcount growth, recent funding, hiring velocity — proxies for the exact operational strain an executive programme addresses.
Activity & engagement
Posted or engaged on LinkedIn in the last 30 days, so you're not messaging dormant profiles.
Group & event membership
Members of relevant groups, attendees of relevant events, followers of specific pages.
Suppression lists
Your customers, live opportunities, competitors and any named accounts — uploaded and excluded before launch.
Booking rates, show rates and the maths on a $2,997 offer
These are planning ranges from live campaigns, not guarantees. Your guarantee is the number of attended appointments in your package — the funnel percentages are our problem to solve.
Worked example — a $2,997 programme on the Pro package
25 attended calls
Pro package, $5,625 one-time. Cost per attended, ICP-qualified call: $225.
At a 10% close rate
≈ 2–3 clients — roughly $7,500 revenue against $5,625 spend. Break-even sits at 2 clients.
At a 20% close rate
≈ 5 clients — roughly $15,000 revenue, a 2.6x return before any renewal or referral.
We won't quote you a close rate as though it were ours to promise — it belongs to your call and your offer. What we will do is show you the qualification notes behind every booking so you can measure your own close rate from call one, and tell you straight if calls are landing but not converting.
Coaches, consultants and advisory practices we've run this for
Every figure below links to the campaign it came from, with the screenshots behind it. Want to speak to one of them? Ask on live chat and we'll arrange a reference call with a client who has agreed to take them.
We write it, you approve it, either of us can change it
We write the first draft
From your brief: offer, outcome, proof, objections, tone and words you never want used. You are not handed a blank page — we bring the framework that has produced the results on our case study pages.
You sign off before anything sends
Connection note, messages 1–3 and InMail variants are shared for approval. Nothing goes live without your yes, which matters if you're regulated or protective of your personal brand.
We run A/B/C/D variants, not one message
Multiple angles run in parallel from day one, so within two weeks we have real data on which promise your market responds to rather than an opinion.
You can change it any time
Rewrites are unlimited and included. Say the word in the portal or on chat and the sequence changes — there is no change fee and no waiting for a monthly review.
The first-five-calls protocol
Nobody gets targeting perfect on guess one. What matters is how fast it is corrected and who absorbs the cost of the calls that missed. The answer to the second part is us.
You score every call in the portal
Each appointment has an outcome and a star rating with free-text feedback. Two clicks per call. That is the input for everything below.
Any call you score as wrong-fit is replaced
If it didn't match the written criteria, it doesn't count towards your package and we book another in its place at no cost.
We diagnose which layer failed
Targeting (wrong people replying), messaging (right people, wrong promise), or qualification (right people, not ready). Each has a different fix and we tell you which one we're pulling.
New lists and copy inside 48 hours
Fresh Sales Navigator segments, tightened title and headcount filters, new disqualifiers and rewritten angles — live within two working days of the review.
Written review at 5 calls, then at 10
A short documented checkpoint: what booked, what attended, what you rated poorly, and exactly what changes next. No waiting until the package is spent to find out.
The ten questions buyers email us before signing
How do you qualify prospects before they book a call?
Five gates: written ICP targeting before any message is sent; the prospect confirming the problem in their own words; authority and awareness of your investment level stated in-conversation; human review of every booking against your written criteria; and finally attendance, since only attended appointments count against your package. Anything that fails a gate is rejected before it reaches your calendar and does not consume an appointment.
What questions should we ask to qualify without creating friction?
Three, conversationally, one at a time: whether the problem is personal or team-wide; whether they have tried anything for it before (prior spend is the best predictor of ability to invest); and whether they are looking at this in the next 30 days or next quarter. We deliberately avoid 'what's your budget' and pre-booking forms — instead we state your price as a fact in the conversation, which filters just as hard without the drop-off.
How targeted can you get on title, seniority, company size and industry?
Exact titles plus title exclusions, individual seniority levels, headcount and revenue bands, Sales Navigator industries with keyword layers, country/state/metro geography, tenure and recent job-change signals, headcount growth and funding signals, LinkedIn activity in the last 30 days, group and event membership, and uploaded suppression lists for your customers, live deals and competitors.
What percentage of people you reach out to book a call?
Planning ranges from live campaigns: 20–35% of connection requests accepted, 15–35% of that accepted audience replying, and 10–20% of repliers booking. Published examples on this site include a 32.8% message reply rate and 35+ appointments in month one (Apogee Consultancy) and 30 appointments in 30 days at a 22.6% connection rate (Connect & Convert). Your package guarantees a number of attended appointments, so the funnel percentages are our risk, not yours.
What show rate do you see?
Typically 70–85% with same-week booking, confirmations and reminders. It is a number you do not need to underwrite: no-shows are replaced free until every attended appointment in your package has been delivered.
What conversion rate from booked call to paying client should a coach expect?
We will not quote you a close rate as if it were ours — it depends on your call, your offer and your price. What we can tell you is the honest planning maths for a $2,997 programme: at a 10% close rate, 25 attended calls produce roughly 7 clients and about $21,000 from a $5,625 Pro package; at 20%, roughly 15 clients. We share the qualification notes and recordings-worth of context so your close rate is measurable from call one, and we will tell you plainly if the calls are landing but not closing.
Have you worked with coaches and consultants before?
Yes — consultancies and professional-services practices are a core segment. Published campaigns include Apogee Consultancy (35+ appointments in month one), Lawes Consultants (28–35 per month), Peregrine Black (40–60 per month) and Find My Adviser (15 qualified appointments, 3 to proposal). Each has a full case study page with the campaign screenshots behind the numbers.
Can I speak to a current or former client before I buy?
Yes. Ask on live chat and we will arrange a reference call with a client in a comparable motion — coaching, consulting or professional services — once they have agreed to it. We do not publish client contact details, and we will not put you on a call with someone who has not opted in.
Who writes the messaging, and can we change it?
We write the first draft from your brief, you approve every message before it sends, we run A/B/C/D variants in parallel to get real data fast, and you can rewrite any of it at any point. Rewrites are unlimited and included — no change fees, no monthly review cycle to wait for.
If lead quality is off after the first five calls, what happens?
You rate every call in the portal. Anything you score as wrong-fit is replaced free and does not count. We then diagnose whether the failure is targeting, messaging or qualification, ship new lists and copy within 48 hours, and give you a written review at 5 calls and again at 10 so nothing drifts to the end of the package unchecked.
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