For consultants and coaches who do the client work and the finding of it.
Get consulting and coaching clients from the enquiries you already have
You're good in the room. It's the enquiry that waits three days, the proposal nobody's chased and the past client nobody's rung that costs you the work.
A client-flow system, diagnosed before it's built, made for a practice that wins work by conversation and proposal, not a phone ringing in a van.
The Survey is £147. Refunded at the end of the call if it wasn't worth it, or credited against anything you buy within six months.
The plain answer
How do consultants and coaches get clients?
Most consultants and coaches do not need more enquiries; they need to keep the ones they already get. When a proposal goes quiet, a conversation is never followed up or a past client is never contacted again, that work goes to whoever stayed in touch, and the Client Flow Survey shows where yours goes missing and what to fix first.
Your week
You sent a proposal on Tuesday. It's still sitting in their inbox, and yours, because chasing it feels like pestering someone who's already busy. A promising conversation with a new contact went well three weeks ago and then just stopped, and neither of you picked it back up. The diary was full for a quarter. Now the last project's finished and there's nothing booked behind it, because the last time you did any proper business development was the last time it was this quiet. Somewhere on a spreadsheet are forty or so past clients, and none of them has heard from you since the invoice went out. None of this is a discipline problem. You deliver client work on time, every time. It's that the finding of work only happens in the gaps between doing it, and the gaps are exactly when you're too busy, or too quiet, to do it well.
What changes
Enquiries in.
A prospect who emails on a Sunday night and hears nothing until Wednesday has usually asked someone else by Wednesday too. Firms that replied to a new enquiry within an hour were nearly seven times more likely to have a real conversation with it than firms that waited even a single hour longer (Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, Harvard Business Review, March 2011). We build the reply that goes out in minutes, not days.
Proposals that become clients.
42% of consultants say the hardest part isn't finding an enquiry, it's converting it once they have one (Consulting Success, Marketing for Consultants Study, 2024). The same study found phone calls and follow-ups were the single biggest source of new clients, ahead of referrals. We build the follow-up that still goes out when you're too busy delivering to remember it yourself.
Clients who stay.
A past client who hears from you once a quarter refers you the next time someone asks who they should call. One who hasn't heard from you since the invoice usually doesn't think of you at all. We build the update that keeps you in front of past clients, even in the months when delivery work has taken over your diary.
How it works
Client Flow works the same way for every trade: a Survey to find where your enquiries actually go missing, a Build that puts the fix in place, and Serve that keeps it running once it's live.
For a consultancy or coaching practice, the Survey is sixty minutes on how your week really runs: where enquiries come from, what happens to a proposal after you send it, and how often you're actually in touch with past clients. You leave with a written Plan of Works, not a sales pitch.
For most consultancies, that plan names the reply that goes out within a minute of an enquiry landing, the follow-up that keeps chasing a quiet proposal after you've moved on to the next job, and the update that goes to past clients whether or not you remembered to write it this month.
How do business coaches get clients?
The same three gaps show up in a coaching practice: the conversation that goes quiet instead of the proposal, and the client roster instead of the client list. The people who have already paid you once are the likeliest to pay you again, and the honest version of that is simply staying in touch. One coach's process shows it well: they led every LinkedIn message with a pitch, so we rebuilt it as a research invitation instead, and the replies changed. Executive and leadership coaches see the same pattern, with a longer gap between projects and more riding on the past-client update.
The plain version
No metaphors here. Just what a Plan of Works usually names for a consultancy or coaching practice.
| Component | What it is | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
 Enquiry capture | Every enquiry, from any channel, lands in one place; a missed call gets a text back in seconds | One pipeline, the contact record, tags, missed-call text-back on one number, web chat on one site. | Migrating an old database, connecting a second business or brand, bespoke software integrations. |
 Instant reply | Every enquiry gets an answer within a minute, and you get told | Automatic acknowledgement by email and text within a minute for each enquiry type in the plan, and an alert to one owner. | Answering the enquiry itself, live chat staffed by us, phone answering. |
 Follow-up that never forgets | A quiet enquiry gets chased, five to seven times, on its own | One sequence of five to seven messages per enquiry type, written and tested, with chasers when it goes quiet. Up to two enquiry types. | A third or later enquiry type (each is an addition), sales calls, bespoke proposals. |
 Stay-in-touch | Past clients hear from you every month, in your own voice | The template and the first issue of a monthly email to past clients, in the owner's voice. Serve writes and sends the issues after that. | A weekly newsletter, print mailers, sending to bought lists. |
 Reactivation and referral | Old quotes and past clients get a reason to come back each quarter, and are asked to refer | One reactivation campaign to old quotes and past clients, and one referral ask, both written and set up. Serve repeats them quarterly. | Paid advertising, cold outreach to strangers, incentives or prize draws. |
 Visibility routine | Your own posts go out on a schedule, and Resolved keeps the daily habit going | Social scheduling set up from the owner's own material, and Resolved for the daily habit. | Writing the owner's social content for them, video production, managing comments and messages. |
How it starts. Sixty minutes with Martin on how your week actually runs and where enquiries go missing. You leave with a written Plan of Works naming what to fix first. £147. If you get to the end of your Survey and don't believe it was worth every penny, say so there and then. We refund the full £147. No forms, no fuss. Otherwise the £147 comes off anything you buy within six months, capped at what you spend. Refund or credit, never both.
See all nine components, what each includes and where it stops →
Illustration, not a real client.
A Plan of Works, for illustration
A two-partner HR consultancy, both partners billing three or four days a week, most enquiries arriving through LinkedIn and referral rather than a website form.
Their Plan of Works named three things. Instant reply, because enquiries were landing at ten at night and not getting a reply until the next enquiry had already gone to someone else. Follow-up that never forgets, because proposals were going out and then nobody chased them once the delivery work took over. Stay-in-touch, because the client list ran to nearly sixty names and nobody had heard from them in over a year.
It didn't name Booking or Reputation. Their diary runs on conversation, not an online calendar, and nearly all their work comes from people who already know them, not from Google reviews. No prices here; yours comes from your own Survey.
In their words
Martin worked with myself and my business partner on our business Square One Creative. It is very easy when running your own business to work in the business keeping clients happy but we all are guilty of neglecting the plans to move the business forward. Martin worked with us, he gave us confidence, clarity, helped with direction and was a fabulous sounding board. I highly recommend anyone that isn't quite where they want to be in life but have some idea of where they want to be, but no idea how to get there to speak to Martin — they will not be disappointed, he is a font of all knowledge.
With Martin's guidance I have been able to grow from being a home-based self-employed business, to a company with premises in Pride Park Derby and employing 6 members of staff. He helped me build key performance matrix, management tools as well as guidance with sales and customer service.
Questions owners ask
How do I get clients for my consulting business?
Not by adding a ninth marketing channel. Start by finding where the clients you nearly had actually went: the enquiry that waited too long for a reply, the proposal nobody chased, the past client nobody rang. 42% of consultants say converting an enquiry is harder than finding one (Consulting Success, 2024), and phone calls and follow-ups are still the biggest source of new clients. The Survey shows which of those is costing you work.
How do I follow up with a client after sending a proposal without being pushy?
Agree the follow-up date before you send the proposal, then keep it. A follow-up the client is expecting isn't pushy, it's professional. The Survey's Follow-up that never forgets component is the version that still happens when you're busy delivering and would otherwise let it slide. We won't tell you to wait three to five days, because that's a guess, not a plan.
Can I get coaching clients without social media?
Yes. Most coaching clients come from conversations, referrals and past clients, not posts. The people who have already paid you once are the likeliest to pay you again. The Survey shows whether posting is even the problem you think it is, before you spend any more time on it.
My problem is marketing, not sales. Is this still for me?
If nobody is enquiring at all, the Survey will say so honestly, rather than selling you a fix for the wrong problem. Most consultants who say this actually have enquiries. What they don't have is a system that catches what happens to them next.
Is this only for consultants, or coaches and accountants too?
It's built for anyone who sells expertise by conversation and proposal: management, HR, health and safety and marketing consultants, business and leadership coaches, and accountants and bookkeepers, one to ten people. Same week, same three gaps, whatever the letters after your job title.
What does the Client Flow Survey cost and what do I get?
£147 for a sixty-minute session with Martin and a one-page Plan of Works saying what to fix first, in what order. It's a diagnosis, not a sales pitch, and the fee comes off whatever you buy next, within six months, capped at what you spend.
What if it isn't worth it?
If you get to the end of your Survey and don't believe it was worth every penny, say so there and then. We refund the full £147. No forms, no fuss.
Do I have to buy anything after?
No. The plan is yours to use however you like. If you do take a next step with us within six months, the £147 comes off the price, capped at what you buy. Refund or credit, never both.
Or
Another proposal that goes quiet because chasing it felt too pushy to risk.Another quarter that starts empty because the last one ended and nobody had stayed in touch with anyone by the time it did.
You are here
Survey
Build
Serve
You're at the start of the roadmap.
The Survey shows you exactly where your enquiries are going missing, before you spend a penny putting anything right.
