Picture this: A leadership coach I know — let's call her Sarah — closed a $8,000 executive coaching package on a Thursday call. The client was excited. Ready to wire the deposit.
Then Monday happened.
Sarah spent the weekend at her kid's soccer tournament. No welcome email went out. No intake form. No calendar link for the first session. By Monday afternoon, the client emailed: "Hey, I've been thinking about it and want to hold off for now."
The momentum died in the gap between "yes" and "here's what happens next."
I've talked to dozens of coaches this year. The ones losing clients aren't losing them in the sales conversation. They're losing them in the 48 hours after — the dead zone where excitement decays and buyer's remorse creeps in.
This week: we're fixing your onboarding. One tool deep-dive, a few quick wins, and one thing you can implement before you close your laptop today.
🔧 Tool of the Week
Copilot
copilot.com — Plans start at $39/mo
What it does in one sentence: Copilot gives your clients a branded portal where onboarding forms, contracts, invoices, file sharing, and messaging all live in one place — with automation that triggers each step without you lifting a finger.
| Setup Time | 45–90 minutes for a complete onboarding flow |
| Learning Curve | Low — if you can use Notion, you can use this |
| Time Saved | ~3–4 hours per week (at 4+ new clients/month) |
| Best For | Coaches/consultants with packages over $1,000 |
The Specific Use Case for Coaches
Here's the onboarding sequence I built in Copilot in about an hour:
| Minute 0: Client says yes → I add them to Copilot → they instantly get a branded welcome email with portal login |
| Minute 1: Portal shows them: contract to e-sign, intake questionnaire, and invoice — all in sequence |
| After signing: A "Getting Started" doc auto-appears with session prep instructions, a Calendly link for session #1, and a short welcome video I recorded once |
| Ongoing: All session notes, homework, and resources live in their portal. No more digging through email threads. |
The result: the client goes from "yes" to "first session booked with contract signed and deposit paid" in under 15 minutes. No email chains. No "did you get the form I sent?" No weekend gaps.
Honest Verdict
✓ What's great:
- The client experience feels premium — like working with a firm 10x your size
- Built-in invoicing and contracts mean fewer tools and fewer monthly subscriptions to manage
- The automation isn't "AI magic" that breaks — it's simple trigger-based logic that just works
- Clients actually use the portal (I tested this with 6 real clients — 5 of 6 logged back in within 48 hours)
✗ What's not:
- No native scheduling — you'll still need Calendly or Cal.com (it embeds fine, but it's an extra step)
- The $39/mo plan only supports 10 clients. Most coaches will need the $89/mo tier.
- Customization is good but not unlimited — if you want a fully bespoke design, you'll hit walls
- Mobile app exists but feels like an afterthought compared to the desktop experience
Bottom line: If you're onboarding 3+ clients a month and still doing it via email + Google Docs + Stripe links, Copilot pays for itself in the first week. It's not revolutionary AI — it's smart automation wrapped in a client experience that makes you look like you have an operations team. That's the point.
⚡ Quick Wins — 3 More Tools Worth Knowing
1. Tally + Zapier + ChatGPT
Free–$20/mo total
Use Tally for your intake form (free, beautiful, no-code). Connect to Zapier. Have ChatGPT auto-generate a personalized welcome summary and "session 1 prep brief" based on the client's answers — delivered to your inbox and theirs within 60 seconds of form submission.
Verdict: The budget-friendly option that punches way above its weight. Takes ~30 minutes to set up. The AI-generated brief won't be perfect every time (expect to edit 2 out of 10), but it cuts intake review time by 70%. Best for coaches onboarding 1–3 clients/month who don't need a full portal.
2. Dubsado
From $20/mo
The OG of coaching workflows. Not new, not AI-native — but their "Workflows" feature lets you build a complete onboarding pipeline: form → contract → invoice → canned email sequence, all triggered automatically.
Verdict: Rock-solid if you want everything (CRM, scheduling, forms, invoicing) under one roof. The learning curve is steeper than Copilot — budget 2–3 hours for setup. The interface looks like it was designed in 2019 because it was. But it works, and coaches who master it swear by it. Best for detail-oriented types who want granular control.
3. Loom + Notion AI
Free–$15/mo
Record one 5-minute Loom welcome video (do it once, reuse forever). Embed it in a Notion onboarding page that uses Notion AI to auto-customize the client's name and key details from a simple database entry. Share the link. Done.
Verdict: The scrappy, "ship it today" option. Not as polished as a dedicated portal, but I've seen consultants use this exact stack to onboard enterprise clients at $15K+ retainers. Nobody complained. Best for consultants who already live in Notion.
🎯 Your One Move Today
Write your "Magic 48" email — and schedule it to send automatically.
Before you evaluate any tool, do this one thing. It takes 20 minutes and it will save your next client relationship:
Step 1 (5 min): Open a Google Doc. Write a welcome email that includes exactly 3 things:
→ A genuine "I'm excited to work together" opening (2 sentences max)
→ What happens next, in numbered steps (contract, intake form, first session)
→ One link they should click right now (your intake form or scheduling link)
Step 2 (5 min): Paste it into ChatGPT with this prompt: "Edit this client welcome email to sound warm but professional. Keep it under 150 words. Remove any fluff. Make the next steps impossible to misunderstand."
Step 3 (10 min): Save it as a Gmail template (Settings → Advanced → Templates → Enable). Or set it up as a canned response in whatever email tool you use.
The rule: Every time a client says yes, this email goes out within 2 hours. Not tomorrow. Not Monday. Two hours.
This isn't fancy. It's not a portal or a workflow or a Zap. It's a net that catches the clients who would otherwise slip through the gap between enthusiasm and inertia. You can automate everything else later. Start here.
The coaches who are growing right now aren't the ones with the best marketing. They're the ones who make the transition from "prospect" to "client" feel effortless.
Your onboarding is the first impression of what it's like to work with you. Make it feel like you were expecting them — because with the right system, you were.
Next week: AI tools for session prep and post-session follow-ups — the other place where coaches are silently bleeding hours. I'm testing 4 tools this week so you don't have to.
Hit reply and tell me: what does your current onboarding process look like? (Even "I don't have one" counts — that's honest and that's where most people start.)
See you next Thursday.
— The Leverage Letter