2. What to do when your dream clients can’t afford you?

EPISODE 2 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

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In this episode, I answer a listener question about effectively marketing one-on-one coaching services when they’re the right fit, but can’t afford to work with you.

The listener question:

“What would you do about having niched into an audience who I can connect with, get in front of, be trusted by and offer valuable help to but they don’t have much money?  My 1:1 coaching programme is £450/month for 4 months. I also have lower cost courses and programmes but I would like more people to sign up for 1:1 coaching.  Those that do, tend to say that they had a great ROI on it but encouraging people who are struggling with money to sign up is a continual struggle.”

If you’re a coach or service provider wondering how to sell high-ticket offers to an audience that hesitates due to pricing, this episode is for you. I share practical strategies to refine messaging, build trust, and position offers effectively—without pushing or discounting.

What we cover:

Is Price Really the Problem? – Understanding the difference between people who genuinely can’t afford your offer vs. those who don’t see the value yet.

The Power of Trust-Building Messaging – How testimonials, case studies, and success stories can do the selling for you.

Reducing Risk & Making It Easier to Say Yes – Using limited-time bonuses, flexible payment plans, and discovery calls to encourage conversions.

Aligning Offers with the Customer Journey – Why timing and nurturing matter more than a hard sell and how to use small-ticket offers as stepping stones.

How to Spot When Someone Is Ready to Buy – Identifying audience signals that show when they’re primed to invest in a one-on-one experience.

Soundbites:

“We need to differentiate between genuinely not being able to afford your offer and working with you one on one, which as I said is probably 10 % off your audience right now. And between not seeing the value in investing in your offer compared to other financial priorities. It’s not about the cost, it’s really about aligning trust with timing and understanding the transformation that’s on the other side and answering the so what, what’s in it for them, why do they need to act now?“

“A lot of your past coaching clients who have worked with you in a one-on-one capacity have seen amazing return on investments. So we need to leverage that in your messaging, in the way you sell and present your offer. So it’s not you doing the hard sell, but it is past clients presenting future clients with their transformation and organically wanting the same for themselves.“

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Episode Transcript:

Hello, hello and welcome to this next episode of What Would They Do? This is the first time I am answering a listener question. Someone anonymously submitted this question from within my audience before I even launched this podcast, which I am super grateful for because it just means, people are interested. People are interested in my thoughts, in my advice.

And I’m here for it. So today we are looking at this particular question. What would you do about having niched into an audience who I can connect with, get in front of, be trusted by and offer valuable help to, but they don’t have much money. My one-on-one coaching program is 450 British pounds per month for four months.

I also have lower cost courses and programs, but I would like more people to sign up for my one-on-one coaching. Those that do tend to say that they have a great return on investment, but encouraging people who are struggling with money to sign up is a continual struggle. First up, you are not alone. In the coaching space, in the service provider space, it is generally struggle to communicate value to make people trust in the transformation that you can potentially help them with and really making people understand that price and the price tag isn’t actually the problem. So the answer and the fix usually comes down to a combination of building trust

in your brand, your offer, in how you support them and in your customer experience. So how you present people with your offer and when you put it in front of them. And where 10 % of your audience probably genuinely have a price problem where budgets are tight and they don’t have the money right now to invest in working with you even if they wanted to 90 % of your audience perceive price as the problem when really the bigger culprit is in accommodation of aspects that we’re going to explore now to help you hopefully tweak your offer tweak your messaging tweak your customer experience to help people make that decision and hit that buy now button.

So the pricing challenge. Let’s begin with that here. Why are people saying that they can’t afford your offer and really we need to differentiate between genuinely not being able to afford your offer and working with you one on one, which as I said is probably 10 % off your audience right now. And between not seeing the value in investing in your offer compared to other financial priorities and it’s not about the cost, it’s really about aligning trust with timing and understanding the transformation that’s on the other side and answering the so what, what’s in it for them, why do they need to act now? So let’s start with some potential tweaks and shifts that you can make to prime your perfect fit one-on-one coaching client to be ready to work with you for four months.

So it all starts with messaging and trust building messaging, which is very important here. I know you said that a lot of your past coaching clients who have worked with you in a one-on-one capacity have seen amazing return on investments. So we need to leverage that in your messaging, in the way you sell and present your offer. So it’s not you doing the hard sell, but it is past clients presenting future clients with their transformation and organically wanting the same for themselves. So how you can do that is by using past client results and testimonials in your marketing. So that can involve written case studies. It can be video case studies where past clients volunteer to record a little video for you. It can be a private case study podcast that you incorporate in your sales funnel.

It can even just be as simple as screenshot testimonials where you had conversations in the DMs in your inbox with past coaching clients about actual results they’ve seen, quick wins, that excitement that in the moment, fresh feedback they’re providing you with. And what’s important here is that your client case study can’t just talk about the transformation. It also needs to go back to the beginning of their journey.

So what were they struggling with when they decided you were the coach to support them? What did their life look like? What were some of the tangible struggles they experienced and how did you fit into the picture? And then obviously finish on where they are now, what it’s meant for them working with you one-on-one, what results it’s meant for them, for their life, for their business, and even going.

You’re not down the path of tangible wins. So if they can give you stats, numbers, tangible results that you can then share with your audience, that’s even better. And the nice side effect of having those conversations with past clients is that you are also getting crystal clear pointers for your messaging that you can include in your sales emails on your sales page in all the right places. And that transforms wishy washy, non-sticky sales messaging into something truly tangible that really resonates with the kind of customer that is going to get the best results from working with you. The other important thing here is as much as people have a rough idea of what it might mean for their life or for their business if they’re working with you one-on-one, it’s often hard to put into concrete terms.

So if you can do it for them on the sales page in your sales emails and really answer the question, what’s the cost of not working with you one on one, what’s at stake if they keep going it alone that will shift everything because ultimately you are, you know, you are asking them to make that active decision you are inviting them to decide and make a call whether they want to take action they want you by their side as they work towards their goals or you know whether they are happy to stick with the trial and error path they’re happy to waste hours researching and still not getting anywhere they’re happy to waste hours and hours of their precious time where they could actually do much more important things in their lives and in their businesses. It really comes down to answering that question.

So have a look at your client case studies, the conversations that you have had with past one among clients and have a look what that would have looked like for them and incorporate it into your sales messaging.

Next up, once you have really tight sales messaging and you’re answering that, so what, you know, why now? then it really comes down to reducing the risk and making saying yes much easier. So that can happen via limited time bonuses for example where you set a little deadline, a genuine deadline. If you join and sign up to work with me one-on-one by that date I even throw in XYZ bonus and that bonus needs to be something really juicy, something really beneficial, something that is going to either fast track their results or amplify their results. And that often can be, the invite that makes them decide whether now is the time. And if money is a problem, they’re not going to join. But if they actually have the funds and they’ve been pushing excuses all along, then this limited time bonus might actually be what gets them to commit and gets them to take action.

Another great way to reduce the risk again, not being aware of your current sales process and enrollment process is potentially introducing a free fit call where rather than just having a buy now button and they’ve actually potentially never really liaised with you one-on-one, you invite them for a free fit call, call it whatever you like, a free discovery call where you share how you can support them and they share with you what they’re hoping to achieve. And in that call, you are going to very quickly find out A, whether you’re the perfect fit and B, whether you can get people that results you’re after. And that means you’re only enrolling people who are actually set up for success. And that means, you know, more case studies, more client results that you can then share in the future with future clients.

You can also look at your customer journey as a way to, again, warm people and present people with the offer at the right time when they’re in the right mindset and actually ready to invest. So often what I see in the coaching space is that, you know, we follow this formula where someone signs up to a freebie, you then send them a bunch of emails and then send them a hard pitch into signing up to work with you one-on-one. Unfortunately, in 2025 and beyond, that’s not how it works anymore. Customer journeys really aren’t linear. People are vastly different. Some people might sign up to work with you as soon as they hear you as a guest on a podcast, while other people need to be on your list, need to see what you have to say for months and months and months before they’re ready to buy. And that depends on the mindset, their current financial situation, what their current priorities are as well. So keep that in mind that hard sell does not necessarily mean converting more people into your one-on-one offers.

I would consider warming these ideal customers with low ticket offers before you push them into that hard sell or you present them with your one-on-one coaching container. So use those low ticket offers and freebies to gradually build trust and warm people to your ideas, your thought leadership, your unique approach to your niche and your industry.

That just means they’re gradually primed to trust you. As I said, they’re going to come across mini wins, mini aha moments along the way, and they’re going to consider you as an expert who, once they’re ready, is perfectly positioned to support them in a one-on-one capacity. Obviously, again, not being across your offer suite, what that looks like, you can also potentially create some mini taste test opportunities for your one-on-one container. So if you usually launch life and try to create buzz for your one-on-one coaching container that way, why not host a live group webinar that people have to sign up for where they can submit one problem, one question relating to their life or business that you’re going to answer for them.

And obviously people signing up for that particular webinar means they’re interested in what you have to say, they value your opinion. And this might just be the touch point they need to consider you as the perfect one-on-one opportunity. So taking their sign up to this live webinar as their expression of interest, then means you can send them through a sales funnel where you present them with case studies, past client wins, and potentially a limited time offer that gets them to sign up and hit that buy now button. You can also do the same in evergreen funnels so it doesn’t necessarily have to be live but again you can create those mini taste tests where you invite people to submit one problem, one question, one headache that you are going to give them a mini solution to to then warm them and prime them and sell them into that one-on-one container because they’ve seen how much value you can bring to the table and they hopefully want more of that.

And if money is a genuine issue, unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about it right now. But I wholeheartedly believe that even people on your list who have never purchased from you, who have only signed up to your freebies at some point in time are going to see the value in what you have to say. And they’re going to be ready to invest if you target them and allow them to join you at the right time.

And the perfect way to do that is to look at those signals that your audience and your subscribers are sending you and use clicks on your sales page for example signups to live opportunities to get your one-on-one opinion as signals and then send them into targeted limited time offer opportunities where you catch them in that front of mind mindset where they clearly

just interacted with you you’ve given them a mini win and this limited time bonus might just be what gets them across the line so really lean into your audience refine your messaging and your one-on-one coaching offer I strongly believe is going to sell if you prime people correctly so what I would love any listener who has experienced a similar situation to do is three things I would love you to start with a closer look at your current messaging.

So how are you currently selling your coaching offer? Are you building trust before you drop the offer on your audience before you’re inviting them to buy from you? Are you really painting the transformation and what’s on the other side of that buy now button in a crystal clear picture, in tangible language that your audience can relate with. And are you answering that what’s in it for them? You what’s the cost of not acting now? why is it important for me to be part of this right now? Next up, I would love you to look at your current customer journey. So are you actually priming people to feel ready to buy? Are you gradually building that trust or are you selling to before people are ready? Are you selling to anyone on your list, anyone who hasn’t even shown any interest in your offer? Or are you waiting for subscribers to send you that signal that shows you, I’m interested, I’m curious to find out more.

So have a look at your customer journey and how you can potentially include more trust building opportunities and really let your audience drive their journey through your offer suite.

And last but not least, how can you reduce some of that friction? Can you work with more flexible payment plans? I know the listener who submitted this question had four monthly payments. Can you make it even more achievable for people? Which bonuses or extra opportunities can you link to a limited time offer to create that genuine urgency to make a decision right now?

Or can you potentially create mini stepping stone offers? So potentially a group program opportunity that gives people access to you and your expertise, but not in a one-on-one capacity as a priming opportunity to then take that next step up once they’re ready, once they’ve seen some wins and once they feel ready to make that higher investment.

So if you have your own burning customer experience question or headache or obstacle that you would love myself or a special guest expert that I’d invite to answer, then you can head to the link in the show notes and submit your question there either anonymously or if you love a shout out in the episode, you can also leave your details for a little backlink to your website.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with your people. So even more savvy business owners like you catch onto this interactive podcast concept.

Thanks for tuning in and see you in the next episode.