You’ve been around a while and have people who know you’re a pro at what you do.
You’ve got people nodding along with what you say and you can see they need your support.
And then… Tumbleweeds.
A polite “I need to think about it” that slowly fades into the ether.
What on earth is going on?!
Here’s the thing most coaches don’t realise: finding a client at the point of being ready to buy is only part of the job.
The other part?
Making sure what you’re actually putting in front of them is easy to say yes to.
Because here’s a hard truth (said with a big squishy hug): a wishy-washy offer can deflate a sale that was practically in the bag.
Luckily it’s avoidable once you know what’s missing!
So, what makes an offer genuinely easy to sell?
After years of working with coach-shaped-people on their messaging and offers, I’ve landed on three non-negotiables.
I call them the 3 Ps.
Let’s get into them.
P. 1: The Promise
Humans are emotional creatures. Every single purchase decision, even the sensible, grown-up, spreadsheet-justified ones, starts with a feeling.
We buy things to move away from something uncomfortable or towards something we really, really want. (Or often both at once.)
Which means that the first job of your offer is to create an emotional click.
Not a sedate “oh that sounds useful.”
A genuine “OH MY GOD, ARE YOU IN MY HEAD?!” reaction.
That’s your Promise.
And it lives or dies by how well you understand what your ideal clients actually want.
Not what you think they should want. And not what you know they need either.
What they want, in the words they’d use to describe it.
Here’s a Promise that’s misses the mark:
“Being a good leader is essential for high productivity and lower staff turnover, saving money, and creating a better work environment for your employees. Ask me about my leadership coaching services.”
Technically accurate but utterly bland. Nobody’s pulse is racing, is it?
Here’s what happens when you flip it and speak to what they actually want:
“Are you a senior HR professional who’s been given a challenging target for better staff retention this year? Somehow you need to deliver this while staying within budget and increasing productivity…”
Can you feel the difference?
The first version sells what people need. The second speaks to what they want.
Always ALWAYS sell what people want. Then deliver what they need.
The people who give sales and marketing a bad name sell what people want but then aren’t bothered about what the poor sods who buy need!
A quick note on how to nail your Promise:
Talk to your best-fit clients. Not a quick survey, but an actual conversation where you let them ramble about their struggles in their own words.
The phrases they use to describe where they are and where they want to get to are absolute gold dust. You can’t guess at that stuff. AI can’t help you with it either (although you’ll probably be able to spend a few very satisfying hours being led down a path by ChatGPT and it’ll feel like you’re getting close.)
Sprinkle them liberally through your messaging and watch the recognition light up on people’s faces.
If you have a sneaking suspicion that you haven’t nailed your Promise for any of your services, book a call with me by clicking here. This is the stuff I excel at.
P. 2: The Package
Once your Promise has done its job and got people feeling seen and understood, their rational brain will start looking for reasons to back up the decision their heart has already made.
This is where your Package comes in.
Think of it as the logical safety net. The bit that makes someone think: “Right, yes, this makes sense. I can see how this works. I can see what I’m getting. I trust this is going to get me where I want to go.”
Without it, even a beautifully crafted Promise can leave people hovering with their hand over the “book a call” button, not quite sure whether to press it.
Your Package needs to answer a few key questions your prospective clients are quietly asking themselves:
- How does this all work?
- Will it actually work for me?
- Will she make me do anything weird that I’ll hate?
(Yes, that last one is a real concern.)
So whether you take clients through a step-by-step signature process, or whether your approach is more fluid and intuitive, there’s a way to represent it clearly and compellingly.
The goal is to show that there’s a sensible pathway. It needs to be obvious that you know where you’re taking them and you’ve done it before. Even if the client doesn’t know where they want to go yet. (Yes, that does happen sometimes and you can still create a Promise that’ll work with that profile of client.)
Compare these two versions:
“You can buy a package of 6 coaching calls, 12 coaching calls or 18 coaching calls. Includes values audit, personality tests, and quarterly group calls.”
So far, so dull.
Or how about this:
“The Competitive Edge Leadership Programme is based on my 5-part VIPER model:
V: Values and vision alignment – 90 min in-person workshop
I: Individual strengths assessment for all participants
P: Planning and goal setting
E: Edge coaching calls – conducted one-to-one online, fortnightly
R: Reflection and relational progress sessions – quarterly group calibration”
The first feels like a menu at a café where everything’s the same price regardless of what you order. The second version feels like it might be worth the investment.
Some people don’t like conjuring up arbitrary acronyms for their programmes like this.
And you don’t have to! The point is that, yes, this P is more about ticking those boxes on the potential client’s rational mental list of ‘does this make sense’. But if you don’t fully make use of the opportunity to present your methodology in a valuable-looking way, then you’re missing a trick.
And remember, the point here is that the client should already be thinking ‘oh wow, I think I’ve found something that will really help me’ by this point, because of the Promise. This is about reinforcement of that. The Package would rarely (never?) on its own without the Promise, because people don’t buy the how, they buy the why.
At the risk of labouring the point, people don’t buy weight loss jabs. They buy finally reversing their diabetes and lowering their risk of heart attacks or stroke. Or someone else could be buying them to be able to fit into their version of ‘beauty’. And someone else could be buying them to reduce hunger pangs when shredding for a body building competition. (I got that last one off the Netflix documentary.)
Same ‘offer’. Completely different Promise and reason for buying.
So, to sum up, the Package paints a picture of the journey you’re taking them on, with a clear structure or view of your ethos and methodologies. It should display a sense of ‘this person has thought about how to get results’.
One more thing: your Package is also where you tick off those other unspoken prerequisites; your relevant qualifications, your experience, your testimonials. These aren’t the most exciting bits, but they matter. They’re more rational ticks in boxes that consolidate the emotional decision your ideal client has already made.
P. 3: The Price
*Takes a deep breath*
Okay. Pricing.
I know, I know. For many this is the bit that makes their stomach do a small, squitty somersault.
But here’s some genuinely good news; the price matters less than you think.
And yet more than you think.
Bear with me…
It matters less than you think because people don’t decide whether they want something based on the price. Not when it comes to high-touch, high-investment services like coaching or consulting.
If your Promise has resonated and your Package makes sense, a client who’s ready to buy will move mountains to find the budget.
The price isn’t what makes or breaks the decision; it’s everything that comes before it.
It matters more than you think because I’ve watched too many brilliant coaches slash their prices in the hope it’ll make selling easier.
And then they find themselves running ragged trying to fit 50 clients into a schedule that could only sustainably hold 10. That’s not a business model. That’s burnout waiting to happen.
Maths time!
If you charge £100 per coaching or consulting call, you’d need 50 to hit a £5k month. Eek! Exhaustion!
If you charge £500 per session, you’d need 10. Ahh, spacious.
N.B. Please DO NOT charge by the session like this. This is for illustration purposes only! People are not buying your time, they’re buying some sort of outcome or change. That’s why the Promise is so important.
Going back to the maths…
Question:
What’s the difference between being able to charge five times more for the same work?
The answer:
Knowledge about precisely who you want to work with and their willingness and ability to pay you.
In other words, your target market aka your dream client needs to be able to pay you.
If your ideal client has no money then no, they won’t be able to buy your services no matter how good your Promise is.
If you’re finding yourself saying ‘oh dear, my ideal clients don’t have any money Janine!’ Then it’s time to change your ideal client or set up a not for profit instead.
If however you’re thinking ‘I know my target market has the money but they’re still quibbling over price’ now we’ve got something to work with!
The sweet spot for pricing is this; once you:
- Are absolutely clear on the full transformation you’re delivering
- Can feel in your bones the before-and-after difference your work creates for people
You can then price from that place.
Price from pride, not from panic. (Ooh, more Ps! I love a P, me.)
And for the love of all things high-protein: don’t ask your friends and family what you should charge. They love you, but they have absolutely no idea what you actually do.
The 3 Ps Working Together
Here’s the thing about the Promise, the Package, and the Price: they’re a team. They need each other.
Your Promise gets the right people leaning in emotionally.
Your Package gives their rational brain the green light.
And your Price, if set with confidence and grounded in the value you genuinely deliver, seals the deal. (It’s a positioning tool too!)
Miss one out and the whole thing wobbles.
A beautiful Promise with a vague Package leaves people interested but unsure.
A clear Package with no emotional Promise feels like a brochure.
And either of them paired with a price that doesn’t reflect your value? Well, that’s a fast track to resentment on your end and confusion on theirs.
Get all three working in harmony, though? That’s when selling stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling almost… easy.
Almost like people are saying yes without you even having to try.
Which, funnily enough, is exactly what we’re going for!Want to go deeper on putting together an offer that gets you more Easy Yeses? Pick up a copy of The Easy Yes® or book a call with me if you want to get going right now.