Acquisition Ace had a Skool program and a couple of fractional coaches when we arrived. Nobody owned whether clients got the result.
The coaching was there. What was missing was everything around it: no SOPs, no client success managers, no structure, just a pile of information. The client success rate was unknown. Once client success managers and tracking went in, it moved to 20% and up.
Why not make your best coach head of client success?
Because it is a different job. A coach is hired for what they know, and that knowledge is the product on the one-to-one and the live group call. Client success is the work around the calls: chat, the support inbox, the onboarding call, check-ins, the overdue list and the numbers on the board.
Moving your best coach into that seat takes coaching hours out of the offer. It also puts a person hired for knowledge into a role that runs on data, check-ins and short messages. Coach hours are the expensive hours in fulfillment, and that work does not need them.
| Coach | Client success manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Hired for | What they know | Emotional intelligence, calm, confidence, communication |
| Main work | One-to-one and live group calls | Chat, inbox, onboarding, check-ins, the overdue list, the board |
| Clients per person | Full time with calls and chat, maybe 200 to 300; most are fractional | Up to 200 to 300; busy at 300 |
| What breaks the number | The count of one-to-one calls and chat in the offer | How the role is structured and how much is automated |
What does the owner of client success do all day?
They work the board. Morning is every chat, then the support inbox, then prep for the day's calls. Then the client dashboard in Monday.com, and the five clients who are priority today. Then the overdue clients, by DM and voice message.
Chat comes in waves: morning, lunch and evening, when most clients are active. Calls go in the afternoon and evening. Every meeting has a note filled in beforehand, so no call is random. None of that list needs coaching knowledge, and all of it decides whether a client reaches the result.
Who should own the client success number?
A client success manager with clear KPIs, who understands the data. The person responsible for client results has to read the board and improve it. That means the client success rate, the on-track rate and the share of winners who give proof. The target is a number, the share of clients who reach the result.
Once tracked, success rates run 15 to 50% depending on how complex the promise is, around 20% typical. The KPIs start after the first month. Every person has a learning curve, and early KPIs are pressure for no reason.
The point of a CSM is to help people get further without expensive coaches doing work that does not need a coach. On fulfillment, spend as little as possible. The one place to spend is client success managers. A CSM team can cost under $20K and generate far more than $20K, because more results means more people upgrade. No brainer.
What does a coach do once the client success team exists?
Coach. At Acquisition Ace the one-to-one and live calls go to Ben and to fractional coaches. Everything around them goes to three full-time client success managers, and 600 to 800 active clients run on that split.
Clients book their own one-to-one calls, and not everyone books, so a big offer needs far fewer calls. The people who take action get the most out of it. Group fits the lower high-ticket offer, around $7K. One-to-one belongs in the premium offer, priced like it.
Result from a named client with written permission. Typical clients of this cohort saw a range of outcomes; nothing here is a guarantee. How we handle claims.
What goes wrong when coaches carry the back end?
When coaches carry the back end, coaching becomes a cost instead of a source of revenue. The coaches carry the support work themselves, and nobody tracks progress in a way you can measure. Nobody's job is the number.
The reflex is to hire more coaches. Some coaches spend tremendous money inside fulfillment on random hires and complex software. In one program we took over, almost the whole delivery team was let go: toxic, not doing the work, most of them unnecessary. Client complaints went from many a week to almost none in two months.
Watch out. Do not load one-to-one coaching onto the client success manager's week. The number of one-to-one calls is what breaks the clients-per-person count, and the overdue list is the first thing to slip.
Further reading: Hiring more coaches vs building a client success team · The interview questions that find a real client success manager
Diego Miescher
