What to Do When Your Client Says YES…
…and then doesn’t pay.
“Vanessa, I’d love to work with you. What’s the investment again? Ok, great.”
You hang up the phone, send them the payment link, and go celebrate with your friends, husband or dog.
You just signed a new client!!
You wait all night, checking your email like a 13-year-old sitting by the phone waiting for their crush to call. Refresh. 30 seconds. Refresh. 10 seconds. Refreshrefreshrefreshrefresh. IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE INTERNET OR WHAT? …No? Just me, then?
You’re starting to get nervous.
“She was so excited. She’ll pay… Hmm, it’s been a few hours. Maybe she had to transfer the money into her account… Did she say something about working late tonight? Oh man, maybe I didn’t coach her around objections enough. No, she was excited. She’ll pay for sure… I hope…”
Refreshrefreshrefresh. Nothing.
Fast forward 16 hours to the next morning, and your heart rate rises as you see the inbox (1) bolded in your email. But it sinks again as you catch the preview line from their email:
“Vanessa, thank you so much for all of the time you spent with me this week…”
F*CK. You know what comes after that.
We spend a lot of time in coaching school learning how to coach around objections.
But no one tells you what to do when a client says “yes.”
That’s not actually accurate. We’re taught stick strategies. Get their first call scheduled, get their CC on the phone, send them a highly enthusiastic email about how they’ve joined an elite group of women that made the brave choice to…
There’s nothing wrong with any of these except… they don’t always work.
What if you didn’t need a stick strategy? What if you were creating clients that were SO committed that when you hung up the phone, there was no doubt in your mind that not only were they going to pay, but you had created a hugely powerful relationship?
What if all you had to do was send them an email saying, “Client, I’m so honored to be a part of this journey. Your world is about to transform. We will confirm your call next week as soon as I receive your payment. Here’s the link.”
Here are some reasons people might say “yes” and not pay:
- They don’t feel comfortable saying “no”
- They don’t want to tell you they don’t think they can afford it, so they pretend the money is no problem
- They’re embarrassed
- They feel like they owe you
- They genuinely were excited, and then fear took over
- It really wasn’t a fit and you shouldn’t have proposed in the first place
So once you’ve already had the conversation with them about money and they’ve said “yes” to working with you, it’s time to challenge their yes.
Here’s how you do it (this video includes specific language to use in your call):