Glossary
The words of the back end, defined.
40 terms, each defined in one paragraph for a coaching business, with how it is used in practice. Most coaches can define every word on the marketing side and none of these. That is usually where the second-sale problem starts.
Start here
The eight words that decide the back end.
If you can put a number next to each of these for your own program, you are ahead of nearly every coaching business we audit. Seven link to their full definition.
Client success rate, or CSR, is the percentage of clients in a coaching program who reach the specific result the offer promised, within the program term.
How fast a client reaches the promised result. Tracked per client, next to client success rate and resell rate: the KPIs beyond revenue.
A resell is any sale made to an existing coaching client after the first purchase: a renewal, an upsell, a downsell, a continuity offer or a new offer built from the program.
A downsell is a lower-priced offer made to a coaching client who is about to leave, cancel or decline a renewal.
A client health score is a single number or colour that combines a coaching client's attendance, completion, check-in responses and progress toward their result into one at-a-glance risk rating.
Clients per FTE is the number of active coaching clients served by each full-time equivalent member of the delivery team.
Fulfillment cost as a percentage of revenue is what a coaching business spends to deliver its programs, divided by revenue.
Performance-Based Fulfillment is Scale With Fulfillment's method for running the back end of a coaching business.
Delivery13
How the program reaches the client: formats, onboarding, support, the training itself.
- Fulfillment (coaching)
- Fulfillment in a coaching business is everything that happens after the sale: onboarding, calls, training, support, accountability, results tracking and renewals.
- Client success
- Client success is the function in a coaching business that makes sure each client reaches the result they paid for.
- Back end (coaching business)
- The back end of a coaching business is everything that happens after a client pays: onboarding, delivery, support, results tracking, and the renewals, upsells and continuity offers that follow.
- Onboarding (first 30 days)
- Onboarding is the first 30 days after a client joins a coaching program.
- Delivery model
- A delivery model is the structure a coaching business uses to get clients to a result: who the client talks to, how often, in what format, and what happens between sessions.
- Group coaching
- Group coaching is a delivery model where one coach works with several clients at once, usually on scheduled live calls with a shared chat or community in between.
- Cohort
- A cohort is a group of clients who start a coaching program at the same time and move through it together on a fixed schedule.
- Live call
- A live call is a scheduled real-time session between a coach and one or more clients, run over video.
- Accountability check-in
- An accountability check-in is a short, scheduled touchpoint where a member of the client success team asks a client what they committed to, what they did, and what is blocking them.
- Chat support
- Chat support is asynchronous help given to coaching clients between live calls, through a community platform, Slack, WhatsApp or a support inbox.
- Video training portal
- A video training portal is the on-demand library of recorded lessons that a coaching program's clients work through between calls.
- SOP (standard operating procedure)
- A standard operating procedure, or SOP, is a written, step-by-step description of how one recurring task is done in a coaching business, such as onboarding a new client or handling a refund request.
- Performance-Based Fulfillment
- Performance-Based Fulfillment is Scale With Fulfillment's method for running the back end of a coaching business.
Revenue12
What a client pays after the first purchase, and the model that makes it happen.
- Resell
- A resell is any sale made to an existing coaching client after the first purchase: a renewal, an upsell, a downsell, a continuity offer or a new offer built from the program.
- Renewal
- A renewal is when a coaching client whose program term is ending pays to continue for another term, at the same or a higher level.
- Upsell
- An upsell is an offer made to an existing coaching client for a higher-priced or more intensive level of help: more access, a smaller group, one-to-one time, a done-with-you or done-for-you tier.
- Downsell
- A downsell is a lower-priced offer made to a coaching client who is about to leave, cancel or decline a renewal.
- Continuity offer
- A continuity offer is a recurring-payment offer that keeps a coaching client paying month after month after the core program ends: a membership, a mastermind, ongoing group calls, a community with support.
- Money model
- A money model is the deliberate sequence of offers a coaching business makes to one client over time, from the first purchase through upsells, downsells and continuity.
- Lifetime value (LTV)
- Lifetime value, or LTV, is the total revenue a coaching business earns from one client over the whole relationship, from the first program through every renewal, upsell and continuity payment.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the total cost of winning one new coaching client: ad spend, setter and closer commissions, sales salaries, funnel software and content production, divided by the number of new clients in the period.
- LTV to CAC ratio
- The LTV to CAC ratio is lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost.
- Payback period
- Payback period is the time it takes a coaching business to earn back the cost of acquiring a client from that client's own payments.
- Fulfillment cost (as % of revenue)
- Fulfillment cost as a percentage of revenue is what a coaching business spends to deliver its programs, divided by revenue.
- Performance-based pricing
- Performance-based pricing is a fee structure where a service provider is paid on the results it produces rather than a flat retainer or hourly rate.
Metrics9
The numbers of the back end. Most coaching businesses track none of them.
- Churn rate
- Churn rate is the percentage of coaching clients who leave in a given period, usually a month.
- Retention rate
- Retention rate is the percentage of coaching clients who are still active at the end of a period, measured against those active at the start.
- Client success rate (CSR)
- Client success rate, or CSR, is the percentage of clients in a coaching program who reach the specific result the offer promised, within the program term.
- Client health score
- A client health score is a single number or colour that combines a coaching client's attendance, completion, check-in responses and progress toward their result into one at-a-glance risk rating.
- Completion rate
- Completion rate is the percentage of coaching clients who finish the program or a defined module within the intended time.
- Attendance rate
- Attendance rate is the percentage of enrolled clients who show up to a scheduled live call, averaged over a period.
- Refund rate
- Refund rate is the percentage of coaching sales that are refunded, by count or by dollars, within a period.
- Chargeback rate
- Chargeback rate is the share of card transactions that a client disputes with their bank instead of asking the business for a refund.
- Net promoter score (NPS)
- Net promoter score, or NPS, is a survey metric that asks clients how likely they are to recommend a coaching program on a scale of 0 to 10, then subtracts the percentage of detractors (0 to 6) from the percentage of promoters (9 and 10).
Team4
Who does the work, and how many clients each person can carry.
- Client success manager (CSM)
- A client success manager, or CSM, is the person in a coaching business responsible for a set of clients reaching their result: onboarding them, checking in, tracking progress, flagging risk and running the renewal conversation.
- Community manager
- A community manager is the person who runs the online space where a coaching program's clients gather, usually on Skool, Circle or a Facebook group.
- Clients per FTE
- Clients per FTE is the number of active coaching clients served by each full-time equivalent member of the delivery team.
- Fractional coach
- A fractional coach is a subject-matter coach who works with a coaching business part-time, paid per call, per client or per hour, rather than as a full-time hire.
Platforms2
Where the community and the training live.
- Skool
- Skool is a community platform, run by Sam Ovens, that combines a discussion feed, a course area, a calendar and gamified leaderboards in one free or paid group.
- Circle
- Circle is a community platform that coaching businesses and membership sites use to host discussions, courses, events and live streams under their own brand.
