Can Your Clients Afford You? Should You Discount Your Life Coaching Services to Help Them?

In speaking with potential life coaching clients, you will occasionally bump up against the objection, “I would love to work with you, but I just can’t afford it at this time.”

At first, you may be tempted to discount the price of your services so that your potential client CAN afford to work with you.

This is a predicament that many new life coaches often find themselves in, because they haven’t received training on how to attract their ideal clients who can afford their services.

But even the most seasoned and experienced life coaches will still occasionally hear this objection.

So when a potential client tells you, “I can’t afford to work with you right now”… what do you say? And what do you do?

Each one of us often has access to far more resources than we may currently realize

As a heart-centered life coach, it’s important that you help the people you work with see that they are greater than any circumstance, condition or situation that they may find themselves in — and this includes financially!

Many of us tend to say “I don’t have the money” as a reason for why we can’t do something that we would actually love to do.

But in reality, it’s NEVER a money problem. It’s ALWAYS a thinking problem.

When you respond to a potential client saying, “I can’t afford it” by discounting the price of your services, you are actually supporting your client to live from their conditions and circumstances vs. making welcome the life they would love living.

And so, by reducing your prices, not only do you support your clients’ disempowering way of thinking… you also devalue your services by communicating that they’re not as valuable as you initially stated.

The best way to respond to a client who tells you that they don’t have the money to pay for your services is to:

1. Help your client get present to where else a feeling of financial lack may be holding them back in their lives

Consider this conversation your first coaching session with them. Ask them:

“Where else does the feeling that you don’t have enough money, time or other resources to pursue your dreams show up in your life? What else would you love that you haven’t been able to do, have or give because of this persistent belief?”

2. Remind them that they will always find the money for what’s most important to them

Ask them to remember one or two times in the past when they found the money to do or have something they wanted, even when it wasn’t sitting in their bank account.

Did they find the money the needed to go on a trip with friends or family? To make the down payment on their home? Or to invest in their education?

Whether it’s investments or items they could sell, people from whom they could borrow cash, or the ability to use dream-building principles to attract the money they need, a sufficiently motivated person will almost always find a way to come up with the money for something that’s truly important to them.

Also, remind your potential client that investing in the expansion of their awareness is the most valuable investment that one can make.

3. Task them with coming up with ideas for generating the money

Suggest a fun experiment. Give the person you’re speaking to the challenge of coming up with 5 ways that they could generate the money to pay for your coaching services.

What items could they sell from their home or garage? Could they do some freelancing or moonlighting on the side of their regular job?

Let them know this is a useful exercise in helping them get present to the resources and opportunities that are around them that they may not even realize, whether they choose to sign up for coaching with you or not.

4. Ensure that your potential client understands the value of what you have to offer

Once your potential client has made a list of 5 ideas for generating the money to work with you, congratulate them on stretching themselves in this way!

Next, let them know that this is just the tip of the iceberg… there is FAR more available to them than they may realize in ALL areas of their life, and your speciality is helping them unlock this untapped potential!

Provided you’ve listened for what’s most important to your potential client, address the areas of their life where they’d like to experience the most impact, and how your job as their coach is to help them expand their possibilities in this area.

At this point, it can help to provide an example…

Do you have testimonials you can share from other clients, saying how glad they are that they decided to work with you, and the kinds of results they achieved in their lives?

Sharing what you have to offer in a clear and concise way, including how it will help your potential client powerfully shift an area of their life they may not be completely happy with, increases the perceived value of your services.

What if you have all of this, and your potential clients are STILL telling you that they can’t afford you?

At the end of the day, if your potential client is adamant that he or she just can’t afford to work with you, you can thank them for their time and let them know you would love to help them…

But you can still let them know that your services cost what they cost, because they are well worth the investment, and then some! 

Tell them that you would love to help them generate whatever result it is that they would love, and that when they are in a position to work with a heart-centered life coach who deeply cares about them and their results, to give you a call.

For more step-by-step proven strategies on how to start or grow a successful life coaching business that makes a profound and lasting difference in the lives of others, while creating a life you love, click on here to download my FREE ebook, “Are You Meant to Be a Life Coach?

By Mary