Lifetime value for coaches: how to work it out on one page
Most coaches know what a client pays up front, but not what a client is worth over time. A one page calculation changes how much you can afford to spend winning one.
· 4 min read
Why the first sale is the wrong number
Ask a coach what a client is worth and you will usually hear the price of the main program. That is the first sale, not the full value.
Some clients renew. Some move into a higher tier, a group program or one to one support. A few refer friends who buy too.
If you judge your marketing only on the first sale, you will underspend on winning clients and undervalue keeping them. Lifetime value, often shortened to LTV, corrects that.
The simple formula
Lifetime value is the total gross profit you expect from an average client over the whole relationship. For a coaching business, you can work it out from four inputs.
- Front end value. What the average new client pays for their first purchase, after refunds.
- Ascension. The share of clients who buy something after that, and what they spend on it.
- Renewal. If you have a recurring offer, the monthly fee and how many months the average client stays.
- Delivery cost. What it costs you to deliver each part: coaches, software, payment fees and your own time if you value it.
Use gross profit rather than revenue. A client who pays $8,000 but costs $5,000 to serve is worth less than one who pays $6,000 and costs $1,000.
Use real figures from the last 12 months, not hopes. If you have fewer than 30 clients, treat the result as a rough guide and update it every quarter.
A worked example on one page
Take a coach selling a $5,000 six month program. Here is how the page fills in.
- Front end: 100 clients over the year, each paying $5,000.
- Refunds: 5 clients refund in full. Spread across all 100, that takes $250 off the average.
- Ascension: 30% move into a $1,000 a month continuation group and stay an average of six months. That is $6,000 each, or $1,800 per average client.
- Upgrade: 5% buy a $10,000 private package. That adds $500 per average client.
Revenue per average client: $5,000 minus $250, plus $1,800, plus $500. That comes to $7,050.
Now subtract delivery. Say coaching staff, software and payment fees come to 30% of revenue, about $2,115, which leaves a lifetime gross profit of roughly $4,935 per client.
Notice the gap. On the front end alone, after refunds and delivery, this client looks worth about $3,300. Over the whole relationship they are worth almost $5,000.
What the number is for
Lifetime value matters because it tells you what you can afford to pay to win a client, usually called customer acquisition cost or CAC.
A common rule of thumb is to keep acquisition cost at around a third of lifetime gross profit. In the example above, that means up to about $1,650 per client still leaves healthy room.
Run it back through the funnel. If you close 20% of calls, each sale needs five calls, so you could spend up to around $330 to get one booked call.
A coach looking only at the first sale might cap that figure far lower. They then turn off ads that were quietly profitable, or never test channels that cost a little more per lead.
You cannot decide what a client is worth paying for until you know what a client is worth.
Three mistakes make the number less useful than it should be:
- Counting revenue you expect but have not yet seen, such as renewals from a group that only launched last month.
- Leaving out refunds and chargebacks because they feel like exceptions.
- Averaging across offers that attract very different buyers. Work out a separate page for each main front end offer if you have more than one.
There is also a caution. Lifetime revenue arrives over months, while ad spend leaves today, so check your cash position can carry the gap before you raise budgets.
Three ways to raise it honestly
Once the page exists, you can see which line to work on. None of these involve pressure selling.
- Lower refunds by improving the first two weeks of onboarding, when doubts are highest and early wins matter most.
- Plan the next step from day one. If clients only hear about the continuation group in their final week, fewer will join. Mention it early and make it a natural progression from the results they are getting.
- Ask for referrals at the moment of a win, not at the end of the program when energy has dropped.
Each of these makes the business healthier without a single extra ad. They also tend to come from clients getting better results, which is the only sustainable way to raise the number.
Fill in the page once a quarter and keep it next to your ad reports. When someone asks whether a campaign is too expensive, it gives you a real answer.
