If you’re getting tons of people on your sales/discovery calls who are heartbroken at the end that they can’t afford your program even though it’s exactly what they need…
…let me ask you this:
Are you using a cold-traffic webinar funnel to get your leads?
After working with dozens of clients who were using that model before they came to me, I’ve come to believe that there is a direct connection between those price objections/shock and the method you’re using to acquire and warm up your leads.
I’ve been through several programs myself that teach this model, and the theory is always the same:
1) Run a Facebook ad that mentions a big result and offers a free webinar that will explain how to get that result.
Don’t say much in the Facebook ad about HOW you recommend people get those results.
2) Create a webinar that gives a really broad and vague overview of how someone can get those results.
Still don’t go into too much detail about that HOW. In fact, spend the majority of the webinar either agitating the pain (for about 1/3 of the time, at the beginning) or pitching your sales call (which of course has a different name to disguise the fact that it’s a sales call) (for about 1/3 of the time, at the end).
If there’s anything particularly mind-blowing or different or elegant about your method that would actually allow people to get results where they haven’t gotten them before from any other method they’ve tried, definitely don’t mention it in the webinar. People might try to do it on their own and you want to protect your ideas.
3) Do sales calls with people who watched the webinar and are curious to know if you can help them.
Here, too, don’t spend too much time on the call actually explaining your method, how it’s different, or how it will help them. Instead, spend most of the time agitating their pain.
If they really want to know more details about your method, you can tell them a little more, but even still, be as brief as possible and shift their attention back to how much they’re in pain and whether or not they want their life to change right now.
Focus on getting them to make a decision about enrolling with you. If necessary, tell them that this is their one chance to decide and you will not accept them after today, or even that the price will go up after today.
4) Wind up with either A) a new client who still doesn’t fully understand how you’ll help them, but signed up mainly because they were scared that this was their one chance, or B) a prospect who DOES see how your method is different and exactly what they need (because you broke protocol and gave more details than you were “supposed” to), but is heartbroken and crying because they had no idea that the price would be that high and they don’t have the money to enroll right that second as you’re telling them they need to.
(And, sometimes, thankfully C) a new client who is similar to B) but did happen to have the money.)
5) Feel horrible in either of the former cases A and B, and lecture yourself about how you need to get your mindset in order because this is just what’s required of you if you want your business to be a success.
Can you see the problem here?
It’s not actually you – it’s the model.
This whole model is based on being deliberately vague about how you’ll help people – in the ad, in the webinar, and in the sales call.
In this model, most people sign up for the calls primarily because they want more information about your method – the information that your webinar didn’t give.
If you finally reveal the details of the method on the call (which you’re not even “supposed” to do according to those who teach this) and it blows the prospect’s mind and they’re finally convinced of how different your offer is, AND you reveal a price that was much higher than they were expecting, AND you expect them to decide and pay right on the call – emotionally, that’s a lot for a person to absorb in an hour.
It’s too much for a lot of people, especially those who have already been struggling with trying to solve a problem for years or decades.
So they’ll tell you that they just can’t do that amount today, or they need to think about it more, or that they need to check with others.
All of which are understandable when you’re overwhelmed with a big decision.
What I’ve realized is that in order to solve this awful recurring problem, we need to be more direct and explanatory about both our price and our methods – and to do so well, well before someone gets to a sales conversation with us.
Prospects understandably want to know more about the intricacies of our methods before feeling really comfortable signing up. A webinar isn’t long enough to explain all of those intricacies.
So my clients and I use a different model:
We write daily posts and emails that each focus on a micro-piece of our method and can be digested in a few minutes.
In this way, people can learn a lot of details about what we do, but they don’t have to consume them all at once.
Occasionally we will do a longer video that explains the full method, but even then, we don’t do it webinar-style with all the fluff at the beginning and end.
We also post direct invitations to our offer/program, including a strong hint as to what the price is (or even, in some cases, the actual price – I’m currently testing both ways with clients) as well as why we believe the results people get are worth that price, so that potential prospects can digest all those details before they reach out to us.
With this method, prospects have time to wrap their minds around the methods you use to solve problems like theirs.
They also have time to get used to your price and start mentally comparing it with the results they think they can get with the help of your expertise.
And, yes, in some cases they have a chance to try some of the things that you’re talking about.
Which isn’t a problem.
In my method we let people know what the results should be if they execute the strategies properly. Since we know our methods backwards and forwards in a way that no one else does, it’s unlikely that people will get as big a result as they could with our help if they don’t have us to help them spot the nuances they’re missing.
If they don’t get the full result from trying it on their own, they’ll know that they need us.
And if a few people do happen to get the full results without our help? Well, with this method we’re actually happy for them, because we are too busy with our thriving businesses to even have time to help more people than we’re already working with.
When I shifted from the vague webinar funnel method to the “put everything out there” method, I went from 0-2 clients per month (usually on the low end of that range) to 5-8 clients per month and $20K-$50K months – even without paid traffic.
I was even able to eliminate sales calls altogether because prospects had been so fully educated by my posts and emails, they hardly had any questions for me.
With this method, it’s typical to be overwhelmed with leads who are so convinced you can help them that they’re almost ready to sign up (and many have even already arranged for the needed funds before reaching out to you).
On your end as the provider, it feels magical.
But it’s really not.
If you ask your leads when they first found out about you and how they became convinced, they will often tell a story of following you for weeks or months, learning more and more about your methods and thought process, realizing that it is what they need and have been waiting for, debating with themselves as to whether they could afford your fee, and finally deciding “yes” and reaching out to you only at that point.
So, in that sense, the heartbreaking sequence from the sales call still does happen, but it’s stretched out over a much longer period, and it happens fully in the prospect’s mind without our involvement.
And, therefore, the end isn’t heartbreaking. 🙂
If you want help to implement this model for yourself so you can finally love every minute of your business including the client-getting process, you can DM me on Facebook about the possibility of working together in my 1-month intensive.
Or, if you just want to learn more, feel free to read more of my posts or check out my videos. I’ll still be here when you’re ready for help.