One Reason You’re Hearing, “I Can’t Afford It” On Sales Calls

The Truth About “Discovery Calls” … And What To Do Instead

If you’ve been in the coaching or consulting business long, you’ve heard all the terms: sales calls, discovery calls, connection calls — all of them names for what is usually an hour-long conversation with your prospective client, to see if you’re a “good fit” to work together.

Sounds good, right? Getting to know each other, and then making an offer for your high-end program (and hearing “YES!”), and signing on a new client!

The problem is … that is rarely the scenario. (At least for most coaches I know.)

Unfortunately, most coaches, consultants, and experts I know end up hearing, “I can’t afford it” (or some variation of that) much more often than they hear “YES!”

A Deep Dive Into One Reason You Hear, “I Can’t Afford It”

There are a few reasons you may hear this … and I’m planning to do a blog post on all the reasons soon.

But let’s look at the most common reason — and that is that, when you present your offer on a sales or discovery call, it’s usually the first time your prospective client is hearing your offer in full.

If the first time your prospective client hears your high-end offer in full is on a discovery call, you will almost 100% hear “I can’t afford it” (or some similar objection).

Too Much To Process Under Pressure

See, your prospective client isn’t naive; she knows that this call with you is a sales call (regardless of what you call it) … and that she’ll likely be asked at the end of it to make a multiple-thousand-dollar decision.

That’s a lot of pressure!

And your offer — no matter how clearly you articulate it — is a lot of information to digest all at once.

Now, your prospective client is likely a nice, polite person, and she may be interested in your program (and likely even has the money for it) — but she needs time to process the information, think long and hard about whether she’s ready to buy … and then let you know at a later date.

(That “later date”, in my experience, may be a month later, or a year later, or a day later. And quite frankly, I’d rather have a customer buy on their schedule — not mine — for a lot of reasons, to be explored in another post. But I digress.)

But you’ve been trained to “get a deposit”, or bring her to a “decision point,” or at the very least, make her commit to a “second call” to give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

You may have even been trained to offer an “early action bonus” if she signs right then and there.

She feels the energy of that pressure (no matter how smooth you may think you’re being on the call) — and she’s a nice person … so she does what nice people do when they are feeling pressure to do something they need more time for:

She tells you she’d “love to” — but she “just can’t afford it” this month; maybe next month?

(Or if not that, you’ll hear some other “objection” that is — in reality — a polite substitute for, “I’m just not ready to buy” … or … “I’m just not yet convinced that your offer will work for me.”)

This is one reason there are so many “sales programs” out there — to help you “handle” objections.

There Is A Much Better (And Simpler!) Way…

I’ve found that a far better way to “handle” objections is to let a simple sales asset handle them for me — before I ever get on a call with a prospective client.

(In fact, this works so well that I’ve actually eliminated discovery calls; I sell my high-ticket programs over email, Facebook Messenger.)

Here’s how it works:

You simply create an extremely thorough, transparent piece of writing called an “Offer Post”.

This post lays bare exactly who your offer is for and what outcome you’ll facilitate (Point A to Point B path) so your ideal clients immediately see that it’s “for them”.

You also explain (in exquisite detail) how you’ll facilitate that outcome — so they understand that your method is different from anything they’ve tried, and why / how it will work for them.

This powerful Offer Post also “telegraphs” the price so they are not at all shocked when you finally connect to discuss the investment level — and it clearly articulates the “ROI” of your offer to your prospective clients so they realize that the price matches the value.

(And YES, even non-business programs have an ROI — but that’s a post for another day...)

Why The Offer Post Is Far Superior To A Sales Call

The key to why the Offer Post works so well is that your prospective client has time to absorb the details, and their mind — consciously or subconsciously — “ticks off” answers to their own questions, mining the information they need from your extremely thorough Offer Post.

They are not under pressure to make a multiple-thousand dollar decision on a call — so they are able to process the information, assure that the program is right for them, and move forward by contacting you when they are ready.

(Yay for a non-icky, zero-pressure, 100% respectful sales process!)

In my experience (and that of my clients), when a prospective client emails or DMs me (as instructed in the Offer Post), she generally only has a quick question or two — and then she asks, “How do I pay? When can I start?”

Of course, the Offer Post only works if you are completely clear about your high-end offer in the first place ... and you know how to articulate all the elements I’ve mentioned so that your ideal client “gets” it, too.