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What Your Prospects REALLY Mean When They Say They “Can’t Afford You”
If you have a great process or program to help a client achieve a specific goal thenthe money will seldom be the REAL reason they don’t move forward with you. The fact is that most people can come up with the money if they are ready to commit.
What REALLY prevents people from working with you is their lack of confidence that they can actually achieve what it is that they want to achieve. Sometimes people have been burned before or maybe they’ve struggled their entire life trying to achieve this goal without any success.
As the coach or trainer it’s up to you to alleviate this fear and lack of confidence.
Here are a couple things that you can do:
Be honest and let them know that REAL work is involved in achieving their goal. You aren’t offering some “get rich quick” scheme or the promise to safely lose 100 pounds without having to exercise or improve their diet. The fact of the matter is that a LOT of people have been sold into believing all of this before and there is a good reason that they are unwilling to really invest in achieving their goals. Unfortunately, a lot of these people continue to invest on the low end with the same results they’ve always gotten…NONE!
Offer to work with them until they achieve their goal…provided that they DO THE WORK! Your clients MUST be responsible for their own actions. My good friend and colleague, Suzanne Evans, told me once that you are responsible TO your clients, not FOR them. Provide your services with the utmost integrity and you are doing your part. The client is responsible for putting what you share into action. If you truly believe that your clients can achieve great things by working with you then there should be NO fear in offering this type of guarantee.
So the next time a prospect tells you “I can’t afford that” be sure that they know what the price is for NOT doing anything and let them know that they CAN achieve this goal; but they won’t do it by doing what they’ve been doing in the past.
Now, go Charge What You Deserve.
Peace
Tom
14 Responses to “What Your Prospects REALLY Mean When They Say They “Can’t Afford You””
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Great point, Tom. Knowing your prospects will give you the insight to what they really want and what their hold backs truly are. Great article.
Thanks Tom for this blog post.
It is so true what you say. Its not they can’t afford you, its that they don’t believe in themselves enough to get er done.
Great blog and so so true information Tom – I was once told – “it’s never about the money” and that is Absolutely right – it is always about something else and the majority of the time as you say it is about the lack of confidence.
Another problem often-times though is the lack of confidence in the practitioner who wants to help someone change their lives, they don’t do the work to create powerful visions, rock solid inner foundations for themeselves and their business and don’t value themselves which vibrates lack of value to their clients too.
I always believe that to charge what you deserve you ahve to first ensure you believe that you deserve it and create those inner foundations
Carol Dodsley
http://www.specialistguildofexcellenceandsuccess.com
Tom,
Fabulous post, great suggestions & reminders!! You are so right on why prospects hestite, I have been on both sides myself.
Also, I really appreciate this advice you shared:
“Provide your services with the utmost integrity and you are doing your part. The client is responsible for putting what you share into action.”
I’ll be sure to share this article, thanks!
“I Can’t afford it” means you haven’t shown me the value in what you have to offer.
You haven’t connected all the dots between what your potential client wants, what their challenges are, and how as a you coach can help them get what they want by overcoming their challenges.
Hey Tom
So true. However, the coach has to be prepared to have the “tough conversation” with the prospect and be prepared to coach the prospect through their objections. From my experience, too coaches many stop at the first or second hurdle and don’t push through. Too often I have seen the coach go into colusion with the prospect… they have assessed the prospects environment and formed an opinion that the prospect can’t afford them almost before they have put their fee out there and when that happens it’s all over rover.
Rob.
Interesting perspective, Tom. Thank you. I will have to give some thought to what I can say to the potential buyer of my book in relation to goas they are trying to reach…
Carolyn CJ Jones
http://www.gatelady.com
Thanks Tom. This is exactly what I needed to hear today
GREAT article!
Good points Tom.
Regarding the statement:
“….REALLY prevents people from working with you is their lack of confidence that they can actually achieve what it is that they want to achieve.
Before we get into the REAL STUFF, my clients spend time discussing and seeing the ease of Gaining that Confidence.
Achieving is not a complicated process..
And it doesn’t require taking out a “mortgage”
Great article, Tom! Totally can be applied to my clients.
Peace.
Kayla
Thanks for raising this topic.
When a prospect says “I can’t afford it”, I challenge them with this question, “So, how much do you value yourself?”.
It stops them in their tracks with their story about how money is tight etc.
I then ask, “Would some finance coaching be of use to you, like in the area of organizing and sticking to a budget to improve your cashflow?”.
Thanks for this article, Tom. It’s so easy to get hung-up on the fear of rejection, but, as coaches, we provide our clients with the opportunity to completely transform their lives – if they are willing to take it. It is up to us to help our prospects not only see how much happier and more meaningful their lives will be by working with us, but also the consequences of NOT valuing and investing in themselves.
Might you also add in something about ’stop selling yourself’?
I don’t want to hear about your wonderful clients, your amazing track record, your prestigious training. Don’t care, really.
I do need to know that you can work with ME and will stick through the whole feast without offering a mouthful of excuses when things get tough or when one of your ideas tanks.
I do need to know that you can see the potential in me and can rub the lamp to bring out the genie.
If you can’t – I can’t afford you. (It hurts too much.)
Tom
Thanks for a great post.
These time or a money objections are common and I’ve used them myself to easily deter untrained sales people.
The comparative reference frame is a great leveller –
“You mean to say that you can’t afford $1000 to increase your net profit by $10,000?” or
“You really can’t find a day so you can have, if you choose, an extra day a month off for the rest of your working life?”.
The other comparative is to refer to the value of the product they have, for example “I’d say you’ve got about $1 million in stock here on the floor,that you say is slow moving, so a $5,000 sales boost program that I guarantee will increasing closing by 20%,seems a very small investment”.
Another great response is “that’s exactly why you do need our help”.
Most of all these types of objections really mean you haven’t asked enough questions to find the underlying reason for the objection. You need to find the burning issue beneath and deliver the solution in terms of their beliefs, behavioural patterns and language.
Remain professional and if you cannot provide them with a solution never sell services that are not in the clients best interests, even if you have the persuasive skills to do so. In the end it will be your reputation that suffers.
A wonderful piece of advice you received from Susan Evans about responsibility “to clients and not for clients”. It can be very easy to allow yourself to carry their burdens.
Thanks again and thanks to those who have commented before me. Some interesting comments.
Take care and keep safe healthy and happy.
Chris