Most NZ SMEs Are Already Planning Christmas. Most Are Planning the Wrong Thing.

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Nearly half of NZ SME owners are planning Christmas trading changes, MYOB research found, and most of it is a discount. Here's how to build memory before you build the offer.

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A widely cited MetrixGlobal study found executive coaching returned $7.90 for every $1 invested, and the International Coaching Federation's own global client research found 86% of organisations reported a positive return, with 96% of people coached saying they'd do it again. Big numbers. The honest question for an SME owner weighing up a coach is whether they transfer to a business with thirty staff and no analyst department.

Where the Big Numbers Come From

The enemy here is the Fortune 500 case study dressed up as a universal truth. A review of the coaching ROI research shows figures like the $7.90 multiplier and Manchester Inc's often-quoted 5.7x return were built on corporate executive-coaching programmes, not SME owner-coaches working one-on-one with a founder. The research itself is upfront that outcomes depend heavily on the type of engagement and how committed the individual actually is — which, for a business owner spending their own money rather than a corporate training budget, is a very different starting position.

What Actually Transfers to an SME

The ROI an SME owner should actually expect isn't an abstract multiplier. It's recovered in three specific places:

  • Pricing decisions reviewed before they're made, not after a full quarter of underpricing has already been banked and can't be clawed back.
  • The owner's time redirected to the business's highest-value work, not just its busiest work — the gap most owners can't see from inside their own week.
  • A second set of eyes that catches, in the first session, the blind spot a decade inside the same business makes genuinely invisible to the person running it.

"One of the highlight presentations during OMP. Really enjoyed your wisdom and insight — thanks Kevin!"

— Liz Wotherspoon, Director, The Icehouse

The Execution Gap

The ROI only shows up if the owner acts on what gets found. That's why the real test of a coach isn't the multiplier they quote in their marketing — it's whether next quarter's numbers actually move. Across Kevin's 30 years in business and nine companies of his own, the owners who got the biggest return were never the ones most impressed by the pitch. They were the ones who did the unglamorous thing the following Monday.

Key Takeaways

  • Question any coaching ROI figure built on Fortune 500 data before applying it to your own business.
  • Expect the real return from pricing decisions, time redirection and blind-spot detection — not an abstract multiplier.
  • Judge a coach by whether next quarter's numbers move, not by the number quoted in their marketing.
  • Commit to acting on what's found. The research is clear: the individual's own follow-through decides the outcome.

The real test of a coach isn't the multiplier they quote you. It's whether your next quarter's numbers actually move — and that's the conversation worth having before you sign anything. Be the owner who chose the help that moved the numbers.

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