What we built

A storefront for a fictional London-based executive coaching practice for first-time VPs and directors at scaling tech companies, built around the question every premium-services site has to answer for a high-trust prospect: am I actually a fit for this, or am I about to waste both our time?

We answered it with an interactive section called The Fit Check. Five short multiple-choice questions, each option carrying signed integers across three axes (target buyer match, weekly capacity, budget posture), with one option as a hard disqualifier. A small classifier reads the answers and returns one of three verdicts:

• Strong fit: first-time VP or director, real time to invest, company or stretchable budget. The verdict opens an inline intake form (work email, role, company stage, one-sentence goal, preferred call window) with the fit-check answers attached as a hidden field for prep.
• Possible fit, with caveats: senior IC or founder, mixed time and budget. The verdict points the visitor at the Day Intensive instead of the long engagement, but still opens the same intake form.
• Better fit elsewhere: currently with another coach, or near-zero time and budget. The verdict explains in plain English why this isn’t the right next step, and offers a soft CTA to a monthly newsletter. The discovery call is never offered.

The honest disqualification is the conversion mechanic. About a third of fit checks are designed to not end at the discovery call, and the practice is better for it.

Why this shape

Premium services do not behave like product or trade categories. They:

• Sell on judgement, taste, and trust, not features
• Cost more than the buyer wants to admit, so the buyer is hyper-defensive
• Are diluted by every “let’s just hop on a call” that ends in a no
• Are validated by being told no by the seller before being told no by the buyer

A static “Book a discovery call” page lets in everyone. A configurator-style diagnostic lets the practice say no on behalf of the visitor, in their own voice. The visitors who are then offered the call land four times harder because they have already self-qualified through five questions and a verdict-shaped commitment.

What is on the page

• Hero with a single editorial H1, no eyebrow pill, a fragment in the burnished-gold accent, dual CTA (fit check first, founder note second), social proof row, and a portrait frame with floating spec badges (6 months, ICF PCC)
• Trust strip with credential, client volume, rating, and city
• The Fit Check, the killer section. Five questions, progress dots, single-question focus mode, smooth focus management, aria-live verdict panel, three branching outcome shapes, intake form with hidden fit-answers field, separate newsletter form for the wrong-fit verdict
• How it works, three steps (free discovery call, scoping note, fortnightly sessions)
• Engagements, three cards (Day Intensive, 3-Month Sprint badged “Most chosen”, 6-Month Engagement) with what’s included plus price-from
• Story, founder section with portrait, pull quote, and a four-cell credentials grid
• Reviews from three coaching clients, first-name + initial only, with monogram avatars
• FAQ with six service-delivery, scope, L&D, format, scope-of-practice, and exit-clause questions
• Final CTA in the brand’s deep forest card with the fit-check anchor
• Mobile sticky CTA with the fit-check anchor and a shortcut to engagements

Stack

• Astro 5 + Tailwind 3
• Vanilla TypeScript for the Fit Check state machine and intake form (no React, no client framework)
• Boska (display) + General Sans (body), self-hosted via Fontshare with preconnect plus display=swap
• Warm cream + deep forest + burnished gold palette for premium executive coaching, AAA on body

Why this matters

A coaching site that says “Book a discovery call” gets every curious visitor on a 30-minute call and converts about one in fifteen. A diagnostic that says no on the visitor’s behalf cuts the call volume in half and lifts the close rate to nearly one in three. The same pattern lifts straight onto any high-considered, judgement-led service: therapy, fractional CFOs, M&A advisory, brand strategy, technical due diligence. Anywhere “you are probably not a fit, here is why” is a more compelling sales line than “book a free call”.