What Happens After Someone Completes Your Assessment?

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You’ve put in the effort to create a meaningful diagnostic assessment report which has led to a discovery session with your prospective client. It give them insights into where they stand and where they can improve.

Great win on lead generation!

What next?

For experts such as coaches and consultants, the report marks the beginning of the real engagement with a prospective client. This is when the sales process truly begins. The real value of an assessment comes from what happens after. A static report is just that – static.

Without your guidance, even a powerful Wheel of Life or an insightful business assessment risks being glanced at, misunderstood, or forgotten.

Make Your Assessment Report a Launch Point

Expertise based professional services sales are instead often a ladder. Start with smaller deals / offers, build confidence, and then position a bigger offer.

Assessment results look impressive online or in a PDF – logos, charts, scores, color-coded sections. But they don’t guide action on their own. They’re only as effective as the follow up and engagement structure you build around them.

So how can we make the assessment results a conversation starter.

For example, let’s say you’re a business consultant who’s managed to create a conversation with a mid-sized company that wants to improve operational efficiency. Their assessment showed several gaps but they are not interested in an expensive long term contract just yet. Rather than waiting for a better time, you schedule a quick 20-minute call.
- You say, “I noticed the automation score was a bit low. Would you like to see how to notch some quick wins?”
Similarly, consider an an executive coach hoping to convert a contract with a prospective client on improving executive presence of their sales team. They have an assessment where the team scores poorly on strategic selling. It’s likely that the client is not ready to sign just yet.
- So, you might say, “I suggest you focus on making small but meaningful improvement gains quickly over the next 2 months. One of those could be to evaluate how your team positions themselves – as sellers, or as advisors?”.

By narrowing the focus, you move from insight to action — which is where transformation begins.

And it’s a proven fact that multiple follow-ups and touchpoints are often needed before prospects and even clients start engaging. So using the report to personalize the follow-ups is important.

Set a Small Goal and Offer to Support It

Clients often hesitate because engagement means starting a new relationship and allocating budgets.

Help them see benefits by setting short-term, achievable goals:

It could be as simple as:

A team leader commits to running one feedback session per month
A founder agrees to evaluate 2 tools that could reduce manual reporting
A coaching client takes on a “digital detox” weekend and reflects on it

Record goals in a shared doc, email, or note for follow-up.

Then check in later:

“Hey, just checking in — were you able to explore those automation tools?”
“Have you had a chance to implement that daily shutdown routine we talked about? Any noticeable impact?”

Small nudges build momentum and trust.

Build a Simple Follow-Up Flow

If you’re using an automation tool like MailChimp, HubSpot, MailerLite, or even something lightweight like a spreadsheet, you can create a very simple follow-up sequence for your assessment report:

Week 1: “Let me know how you’re thinking about that insight from the report.”
Week 3: “Have you been able to take the first step? If not, what’s holding you back?”
Week 4 or 5: “Would you like to set a new goal, or revisit the one we started with?”

Even a basic spreadsheet can keep you consistent and become a partner in their transformation..

See this blog on setting up simple marketing automation.

Use the Report as a Baseline for Progress

For existing clients, revisit the report after a quarter to update inputs and track progress.

This quantifies results, aids renewals, and builds confidence for new engagements:

“You mentioned burnout was high when we last spoke. Has that improved?”
“When we started, your tech transformation score was low — now that you’ve adopted two of the suggested tools, how’s the progress?”

Everyone loves tracking. And clients rarely track their own progress systematically. If you do it for them, even informally, you become indispensable.