Who Is Executive Coaching For?

Why Clarity on Audience and Context Multiplies Coaching Impact

Once you’ve defined the outcomes you want from executive coaching, the next question is deceptively simple:

Who exactly is this coaching for, and in what environment are they leading?

Too many organisations skip this step and default to vague populations like “senior leaders” or “sales leadership”. That makes it hard for coaching providers to design something meaningful – and even harder to measure impact.

When you get specific about audience and context, three things happen:

• You focus investment where it will move the needle fastest.
• You give coaching partners the detail they need to be relevant from day one.
• You set realistic expectations about what can and can’t change in the current operating environment.

This article deep-dives into Step 2 of our process for how to choose executive coaching services, with a practical lens on commercial and revenue leaders.

Map Your Executive Coaching Audience Clearly

Start by getting crisp about which roles you are buying coaching for. Avoid generic labels and think in terms of:

• Accountability – what numbers, risks and decisions sit on their shoulders?
• Scope – which regions, segments or functions do they lead?
• Influence – where do they shape culture, priorities and execution most strongly?

For revenue-facing organisations, your initial map might include:

• Chief Revenue Officer / Chief Sales Officer
  Accountable for overall growth, forecast accuracy, margin and the performance of the GTM model.
• Regional VPs or Country Managers
  Own P&L, regional strategy and execution in specific markets or territories.
• Heads of Sales / Sales Directors
  Lead sales managers and teams, run pipeline reviews and QBRs, and translate strategy into day-to-day focus.
• Head of Revenue Enablement / Commercial Excellence
  Orchestrate coaching, training, tooling and process – but often without direct line authority.
• Sales-Adjacent Leaders (e.g. Marketing, Customer Success, Pre-Sales, RevOps)
  Influence pipeline quality, value articulation, adoption and renewal/expansion.

Be as concrete as possible. Name the actual roles, not just levels. If there are specific individuals who will be critical to success (for example, a new CRO or a high-potential regional VP), capture that too.

Understand the Operating Context Around Those Leaders

Executive coaching does not happen in a vacuum. Your leaders are operating in a specific context that shapes what’s realistic and what good coaching should focus on.

Map the context across a few dimensions:

• Market and Industry
  • Are you selling into highly regulated sectors like financial services or healthcare?
    
    
  • Are buying cycles long and complex or fast and transactional?
    
    
  • Is the market maturing, consolidating or being disrupted?
• GTM Model and Sales Motion
  • Enterprise, mid-market or SMB?
    
    
  • Direct, partner-led, or a hybrid model?
    
    
  • Product-led growth, high-touch field sales, or a blend?
• Stage of the Business
  • High-growth scale-up, mature incumbent, or business in turnaround?
    
    
  • Pre- or post-acquisition?
    
    
  • Launching new products or entering new markets?
• Internal Dynamics
  • How aligned are Sales, Marketing, Finance, Product and Legal?
    
    
  • Where does friction regularly show up?
    
    
  • How empowered are local or regional leaders to make decisions?
• External Pressures
  • Economic uncertainty, regulatory change or competitive intensity.
    
    
  • Shifts in buyer expectations or procurement scrutiny.

Capturing this context helps you and your coaching provider avoid “generic leadership coaching” that doesn’t land in the real world your leaders operate in.

Prioritise Who Gets Coaching Now vs Later

Once you know who could benefit and the context they’re operating in, you need to make some choices. Coaching capacity and budget are both finite; you can’t (and shouldn’t) coach everyone at once.

A simple way to prioritise is to look at each potential coachee group through three lenses:

1. Impact
   If this group changed how they think, decide and lead, how big would the effect be on your outcomes from Step 1?
2. Readiness
   Are they open to coaching, self-aware and willing to act on feedback? Or is there significant resistance that may need addressing differently?
3. Timing
   Are they at a critical inflection point – new in role, leading a transformation, taking on new markets or integrating a new team?

You can score each segment (e.g. CRO, regional VPs, Heads of Sales, Enablement) against these lenses and build a simple prioritisation matrix:

• Tier 1 – Immediate focus (e.g. CRO and regional VPs in strategic growth markets)
• Tier 2 – Next wave (e.g. high-potential Heads of Sales and Sales Managers)
• Tier 3 – Future focus (e.g. broader leadership population once foundations are in place)

This approach helps you build a coaching roadmap rather than a one-off initiative.

Decide on 1:1, Team or Group Coaching by Segment

Different parts of your leadership population may need different coaching formats.

• 1:1 Executive Coaching
  Best for roles with high visibility and complex, high-stakes decisions – CROs, CSOs, key regional leaders, heads of critical functions.
• Team Coaching
  Suits leadership teams that need to improve how they decide, debate and align together – for example, the revenue leadership team, regional leadership teams or a cross-functional GTM council.
• Group or Cohort Coaching
  Works well when a group of leaders share similar challenges – for example, new Sales Managers, recently promoted regional directors, or a cohort of high-potential future leaders.

As you map audience and context, note which format feels most appropriate for each segment – and where combinations might work (for example, 1:1 coaching for the CRO plus team coaching for the revenue leadership team).

This will make later conversations about programme design and investment much more concrete.

Align Sponsors and Stakeholders Around the Target Population

Executive coaching lives or dies on sponsorship. Once you’ve shaped your view of who coaching is for, you need to socialise and refine it with the people who will approve, support and feel the impact of the work.

Typical stakeholders include:

• C-suite sponsors (CEO, CFO, CRO, CHRO).
• HR / People / L&D leadership.
• Regional or functional leaders whose teams will be involved.

Share a simple one-page summary covering:

• Who you’re proposing to include in the first wave.
  
  
• Why these leaders, based on impact, readiness and timing.
  
  
• How coaching will be structured at a high level (1:1, team, group).
  
  
• What you expect sponsors to do (e.g. attend kickoff, support coachees, participate in reviews).

This is also the moment to ask for reality checks:

• Are we missing anyone critical?
  
  
• Are we including anyone for the wrong reasons (for example, as a perk or a “fix”)?
  
  
• Are there political or organisational dynamics we need to navigate?

Getting alignment here reduces friction later and gives your eventual coaching partner a stable, supported population to work with.

Create an Executive Coaching Audience and Context Profile

To bring all of this together, capture it in an “audience and context profile” that sits alongside your outcomes brief from Step 1.

A simple structure might look like this:

1. Target Population Overview
   • Roles and levels (e.g. CRO, regional VPs, Heads of Sales, Enablement leaders).
     
     
   • Number of leaders in scope for the first wave.
     
     
   • Locations and time zones.
2. Accountabilities and Stakes
   • Key metrics they own or influence (e.g. revenue, margin, retention, pipeline health).
     
     
   • Major programmes, transformations or risks they’re leading.
3. Operating Context
   • Market realities (regulation, competition, buying cycles).
     
     
   • Internal dynamics (friction points, cultural strengths, decision-making style).
     
     
   • Stage of the business (growth, consolidation, turnaround).
4. Coaching Format by Segment
   • Who receives 1:1, team or group coaching.
     
     
   • Any planned phasing (pilot cohorts, regional roll-outs).
     
     
   • How coaching connects to other initiatives (sales training, enablement, leadership programmes).
5. Stakeholder Map
   • Sponsors, approvers and key influencers.
     
     
   • Their expectations and success criteria.

This profile becomes a core artefact you can share with potential coaching partners to help them design relevant proposals and match the right coaches to the right leaders.

How Step 2 Connects to the Overall Decision Process

Deciding who coaching is for and in what context isn’t just an early admin step. It directly shapes:

• How you select coaching providers and individual coaches.
• How you structure pilots and phased roll-outs.
• How realistic your expectations are about pace and depth of change.

Combined with a clear outcomes brief, this step gives you a robust foundation for everything that follows – methodology, governance, pricing, pilots and, ultimately, proof of impact.

To see how this fits into the full nine-step process, read our pillar guide on how to choose executive coaching services, then use this article to sharpen your view of who you’re buying coaching for – and why.