Understand the importance of allowing people enough time to give a “slow-yes" to your offer

I’ve written about how important it is to give people enough time to make decisions on your promotional offers. Most people have a lot going on in their lives, and when they see your offer, yes, it could be an immediate yes - especially if they’ve been following you for some time or the investment in terms of time or money is not that large.

However, it might not be.

It might take a little longer for some people - I’d argue many people - to get to a yes.

Many of the people I work with are not slow-yes people. They’re building their businesses, and they have made a commitment. They’re on it. They’re doers. They’re go-getters. They make decisions and move on.

Other people I work with are super connected to their intuition – they can know something almost immediately. So many times when they see a resonant offer, it’s a fast yes. I once had a client tell me the minute she got on the phone with me to talk about working together, she knew it was a yes. I have another client who made a million dollar real estate decision in under an hour.

And of course, there are just people who like to have and try the new things – the early adopters. The ones who like to try out the new restaurant the first week. Who’ll buy the new brand of electric truck or the new software platform.

You might be like one of these people yourself.

But, for you and your marketing, it’s important to remember that not everyone is like this. In fact, I’d argue that most people looking to buy coaching, healing or creative services are not like this at all.

What Does a Slow-Yes Look Like?

In 2016, my coach training program was a nine-month intensive program with an organization founded by someone who’d been writing and doing this work for well over 15 years at that point. The training was a significant time investment and had a five figure price tag.

There was one person in my cohort who made the decision to jump into the program who hadn’t heard of the founder or program three months prior.  

She was an anomaly though.  

More common were people who took longer to decide to join. There was someone in my cohort who had been actively thinking about studying in this program since 2010 – six years! And while I wasn’t thinking about becoming a coach even six months prior, I had been following the owner/founder’s work since 2009, so when the idea came to do the training, things felt right.

Well, you might say, I’m not trying to sell a five-figure training program. Or something that requires hours of time and months of investment. I just want someone to sign up to my coaching package or purchase my healing program.

Nevertheless, your potential customer still needs to trust you.

What’s Trust Got to Do With It?

Everything.  

When many people say yes to buying a brand new car, let’s say, they’re saying yes to something that’s been around for a while. That’s been tested by the company. Vetted by the NHTSA in this country or other regulatory bodies elsewhere. That’s been reviewed. Written about. Discussed.  

And they’re saying yes to a company that has a track record. 

All of these factors help build trust. 

When you ask people to say yes to your offer, you’re asking people to trust the fact that you can help them with what they’re struggling with.

One hurdle is that many people don’t yet know what coaching, healing or other creative entreprenurs do exactly. You might be in a newer industry. One that’s unregulated, or only loosely monitored. People often don’t know what “they get,” which is why having your marketing well clarified and written is such a big help.

If you’re newer, you’ve helped some people of course, and have likely helped them a lot. Even changed their lives. But at a smaller scale.

And your company’s brand hasn’t been established long enough to build that level of trust quite yet, which is why having resonant content you’re sharing on a regular basis is so important.

And then there’s more

The trust factor is the biggest hurdle your potential buyer needs to overcome to say yes, but there are others too. These can look like all kinds of things:

Do I have time to do the work in this course? Work’s been really busy with the end of the quarter coming up. I’m afraid I’ll get behind.

Or 

It meets on Tuesdays at 2. But I’d have to get someone to pick my child up from daycare. Do I have time to call and arrange a barter with someone?  

Or 

It’s not an outrageous financial commitment, but I talk to my partner about our expenses when anything is over $250. She’s out of town this week and busy at work. When can I have that conversation with her?

Or even some basic questions about the offer: What if I can’t attend every class or have a conflict with my child’s school? What if… 

These are legitimate questions, and your potential clients deserve the time to sort through the answers.  

Of course, there are coaches out there that will say “If they want it badly enough, they’ll make it happen.” That logic, by extension, has it fall on you, as the business owner, to “make them want it badly enough.”  

Not only does that invite manipulative energy into your marketing, it shows a lack of respect for your clients. As if having busy lives or questions from their heart that need answers makes them somehow deficient.  

Getting to Yes

When my girls were little, sometimes they’d hound me about something they wanted me to get for them or agree to on their behalf, and I’d felt pressured. I always said “If you want a fast answer, then it’s a no.” 

Some of your clients might be feeling the same if they see your offer and only have a week to make a decision or hear about it and then lose sight of it. 

What would it look like if you honored the fact that everyone makes decisions differently? You could take care in crafting the offer to answer questions that might come up. You could help with giving a generous deadline and send good frequent reminders.  

In short, you could give them a bit more time and space to consider your offer.  

That way, if the offer lands in their heart and it’s right for them at this time, they have the spaciousness to access their own inner yes, and then give you yours.