The ROI of coaching: how to prove it with a pilot before you scale

Your chief financial officer (CFO) doesn't need convincing that leadership matters. They want proof that coaching will pay back in your organization, not someone else's.

The most convincing way to get that proof is a well-designed pilot: a small group, clear measures, and a fair comparison. Here's how to run one, and how to turn the results into a return on investment (ROI) your CFO will trust.

Step 1: Start with the result you want

Kirkpatrick Partners, home of the four-level Kirkpatrick Model for evaluating training, says it's critical to start with results. Pick one business problem your CFO already cares about, and the group of leaders closest to it. For example:

• First-time managers, if new teams take too long to perform
• Succession candidates, if critical roles have no ready successor
• Leaders in a business unit going through change

Keep the group focused. One problem and one group make the results easier to read and easier to explain.

Step 2: Agree on measures and record a baseline

Choose the measures with your CFO and the business leaders before coaching starts. Kirkpatrick Partners recommends identifying both leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators move first and show whether you're on track. Lagging indicators show the final result. For example:

• Leading: goals agreed and progress against them, feedback from each leader's manager, the engagement scores of each leader's team
• Lagging: retention of high-potential leaders, internal promotion rates, time for new managers to reach full performance

Record where each measure stands today. You can't show change without a starting point.

Step 3: Build in a fair comparison

Other things change at the same time as coaching: a reorganization, a new incentive plan, a hiring freeze. ROI Institute says analysis should begin with isolating the effects of each initiative from other influences.

The simplest way is to coach in waves. Start with half the group and compare them with the half who start later. Your comparison group gets coaching too, just a few months after the first.

Step 4: Measure observed change, without a heavy process

Ask the people around each leader, and use the lightest method that gives you a fair picture:

• Manager feedback: the leader's own manager rates a few agreed behaviors at the start and at each review.
• 180-degree feedback: the leader and their direct reports rate the same few behaviors. It's quicker than a full 360.
• A short team pulse survey: three to five questions to the leader's team each quarter.
• Full 360-degree feedback: from manager, peers and direct reports: worth the extra effort for senior leaders.

Whichever you choose, make it a conversation. As a 2026 Harvard Business Review article put it, 360-degree feedback alone does not improve leadership effectiveness. Change comes from what leaders do with the feedback, which is where coaching helps.

Step 5: Convert the results to money

One established method is the Phillips ROI Methodology, developed by Jack Phillips and taught by ROI Institute. Its formula is:

ROI (%) = net program benefits ÷ program costs × 100

Net benefits are the money value of the results minus the full cost. Count every cost: coaching fees, platform costs, administration, and the time leaders spend in sessions.

Retention is one of the easier results to put a money value on. Gallup estimates that replacing leaders and managers costs around 200% of their salary. To estimate what turnover costs your own organization, try Sama's cost of turnover calculator. For example, with illustrative numbers: if a pilot costs $100,000 and helps you keep one leader on a $150,000 salary who would otherwise have left, the avoided replacement cost is about $300,000, a net benefit of $200,000 and an ROI of 200%.

Not every result needs a dollar value. ROI Institute notes that some can be reported as intangible benefits: better decisions, stronger teams, smoother successions. List them alongside the ROI figure.

Step 6: Report early, decide on the full picture

Plan two readouts:

1. At six months: leading indicators, goal progress and early observed change. This tells you whether the pilot is on track.
2. At twelve months: lagging indicators, the second round of feedback, and the ROI calculation. This is the basis for deciding whether to scale.

We recommend 12-month coaching engagements. A year gives leaders time to set goals, practice new habits in their day-to-day work, and see the results through a full cycle of business planning and performance reviews.

A one-page pilot plan for your CFO

Bring a single page that covers:

1. The business problem, in your CFO's terms
2. The pilot group, and why them
3. The measures and their baseline
4. The comparison: who starts first, who starts later
5. The full cost
6. A conservative range of expected benefits
7. The two readout dates, and what would justify scaling

A modest, well-measured result from your own pilot will win more trust than any figure borrowed from elsewhere. For more on choosing measures, see our guide to how to measure leadership development.

Where Sama fits

Sama's coaching is online, so each leader works with the best coach for them, and matching takes location and language into account. Sama's platform tracks goals, engagement and progress, and gives HR teams a dashboard to see impact across the organization.

What Sama users report

• 74% of users achieve their defined goals
• 43% average performance improvement

Reported by Sama users, as of September 30, 2025.

Book a demo to see how Sama's dashboard can show the impact of a coaching pilot in your organization.