Someone’s been in your DMs for a week asking about your program.
You’ve answered every question. Sent the sales page. Offered a call.
And then… “It’s just not the right time financially.”
I see so many coaches struggling with this problem.
Their potential clients can’t afford it, need to think about it, or they want to jump on a call so you can explain exactly why your program is worth the investment.
So you end up DMing people to get them across the line… and answering lots of questions on calls.
Or if they do buy, they need endless hand-holding, don’t actually do the work, or end up asking for a refund.
It’s frustrating. Especially when you know your program gets results, and you’ve put so much time and energy into marketing it.
I get it.
But the problem might not be the price of your program, or the economy.
You might be accidentally attracting these people.
Because the words you’re using to market your program have a huge influence on the type of people you attract.
And if those words are attracting people who aren’t ready, willing or able to invest in your offer, dropping your price isn’t actually going to fix the underlying problem.
Imagine if your marketing drew in the exact right people… people who could afford your program and were excited to do the work.
Your funnels would start converting way better. And your ideal clients wouldn’t question the value of your offer, because they’d know why it costs what it does.
That means less convincing. Fewer DMs. Fewer calls to explain things.
In short, less work for you AND more sales.
How do you make that happen?
Here are three steps I use with my clients to help them attract the right people for their group programs and courses.
Step 1: Choose the people you want to work with
When coaches tell me they’re attracting people who can’t afford their programs, the first thing I look at is their messaging.
Because most of the time, the words they’re using are bringing in people who either don’t have the money, are struggling with mindset issues, or are looking for a saviour.
And that normally starts all the way back with their ideal client.
Most coaches did some sort of ideal client exercise when they first started their business.
Then, over time, their actual paying clients started shaping it. They looked at who’d bought from them, what problems those people had, and what made them decide to invest.
Which sounds sensible, right?
Except there’s a problem with that approach.
If your messaging has been attracting the wrong people, the people who’ve bought in the past are the people you DON’T want to attract. So basing all your messaging on wrong-fit clients is only going to bring you more of those people.
Let’s say you run a business coaching program designed for entrepreneurs who already have an offer and a few clients, but want to grow without working longer hours.
Yet most of the people who’ve bought your program are beginners who haven’t made their first sale.
If you use those buyers to guide all your future messaging, you’ll probably keep talking about beginner problems.
And guess who that attracts?
More beginners.
So getting clear on your ideal client is more than just looking at who’s bought your program in the past.
When I work with clients, we look at their ideal client from three different angles:
- Who needs your expertise? Who has the exact problem your program solves?
- Who gets the best results? Think about the clients who’ve implemented what you teach and experienced the kind of transformation your program promises.
- Who do you love working with? Which clients show up, take action, and make the whole experience enjoyable for both of you?
Where those three things overlap is what I call your Chosen Client.
Now you’re no longer defining your ideal client based purely on who’s happened to buy from you in the past. You’re choosing the type of person you want your business to attract more of.
What does your Chosen Client actually care about?
Once you’ve identified your Chosen Client, it’s time to get to know them better:
👉 What are they struggling with right now?
👉 What have they already tried?
👉 And why does solving this problem matter to them?
You can use previous onboarding forms, client conversations, testimonials, and market research to help answer these questions.
But once again, make the people you’re drawing your answers from actually fit the Chosen Client you defined.
AI can help speed this process up by helping you come up with ideas.
For example, you could ask it how a beginner’s struggles are different from someone who’s already making consistent sales.
Just remember that AI-generated ideas are a starting point, not a replacement for experience working with your clients.
This is the IDENTIFY part of my Designed To Scale Framework, because everything else, from how you position your offer to the words you use to sell it, needs to be built around your Chosen Client.
Step 2: Make your offer an easy YES
Once you’re clear on who you want to attract, the next question is:
Does your offer actually sound like something that person would want to buy?
Because having a great program isn’t enough.
You need to explain what it does in a way that makes your Chosen Client think, “That’s exactly what I need.”
And there are three things I’d look at here.
Is your offer solving a problem that’s top of mind for them?
Your program might solve several problems. But that doesn’t mean every one of those problems will motivate your Chosen Client to buy.
For example, imagine you have a coaching program for established business owners who want to grow their businesses.
You could position it around helping them create a “better content strategy”.
But if your Chosen Client already knows how to create content and is simply exhausted by how much time it takes, a “better content strategy” might not sound particularly exciting.
What they really want is a way to keep attracting clients without spending hours every week creating content.
Same area of expertise. Different way of speaking about it.
The more closely your offer speaks to a problem your Chosen Client actively wants to solve, the easier it becomes for them to see why they need it.
Is it clear what your program actually helps them achieve?
Sometimes coaches are so close to their work that they forget their potential clients don’t have the same understanding of what they do.
So they talk about their methods, modules, and everything included in the program without making the overall result clear.
Your Chosen Client shouldn’t have to read through an entire sales page or book a call just to figure out what your program is going to help them do.
They should be able to understand who it’s for, what problem it solves, and what they’ll walk away with in just a few minutes.
Does your offer stand out from everything else on the market?
This is a big one.
Especially now that AI has made it ridiculously easy for just about anyone to put together a semi-decent-looking course.
If your offer sounds like every other program in your niche, people have very little reason to choose yours.
And when they can’t see a difference between your program and a cheaper alternative, price becomes one of the easiest things to compare.
One of the ways I help my clients stand out in the market and show their expertise is by helping them create (or refine) a signature framework.
A signature framework is your way of doing things, turned into clear steps people can follow.
For example, rather than simply saying you help business owners attract better clients, you might show them the step-by-step process you use to make that happen.
It helps potential clients understand not just what you help them achieve, but how you approach the problem.
And that matters because people aren’t just paying for information.
They’re paying for your expertise, your guidance, and a process designed to help them get from where they are now to where they want to be.
The clearer you make that value, the less you have to rely on convincing people that your program is worth its price.
This is the PACKAGE part of my Designed To Scale Framework, and how I help my clients attract clients who appreciate their expertise and value.
Step 3: Check your words are bringing in the RIGHT people
Now that you know who your Chosen Client is and how your offer should be positioned, it’s time to look at the words you’re using to market it.
Because even if you’ve got the right offer for the right person, the wrong messaging can still attract people who aren’t a good fit.
Here are the 3 mistakes I see coaches making when they’re attracting people who can’t afford their programs, or people who don’t do the work.
Mistake #1: Your messaging is too vague
When you’re trying to appeal to everyone, it’s tempting to keep your messaging broad.
You don’t want to exclude anyone who might be interested in your program.
So you talk about general problems and promise general results.
Things like:
“Grow your business with confidence.”
“Take your business to the next level.”
“Finally achieve the success you deserve.”
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with those statements.
But they don’t tell a potential client much about who you help, what makes your approach different, or why your program is relevant to them.
And with AI making it easier than ever to create a half-decent sales page, watered down just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Instead, think about the specific situation your Chosen Client is in.
For example, rather than saying:
“Learn how to grow your coaching business.”
You could say:
“Already have a group program that’s getting sales, but tired of spending hours in DMs convincing people to join? Let’s fix the messaging that’s attracting the wrong buyers.”
See the difference?
The second example speaks to a much more specific person with a much more specific problem.
Someone who’s just starting a coaching business probably won’t relate to it.
And that’s a good thing.
Because you’re not trying to attract everyone.
You’re trying to attract your Chosen Client.
Mistake #2: You’re using disempowered language
This is something I see a lot in online marketing.
Coaches are told to really dig into their audience’s pain points.
To show people how difficult things are.
To make sure they understand just how much they’re struggling.
And yes, your messaging needs to show that you understand your audience’s problems.
But there’s a difference between acknowledging someone’s frustration and constantly reinforcing the idea that they’re stuck and can’t help themselves.
For example:
“You’re completely stuck. You’ve tried everything. Nothing’s working, and you have no idea what to do next.”
Some people will relate to that.
But if that’s the main message you’re putting out, you may find yourself attracting people who are looking for a saviour.
People who expect you to provide all the answers, make every decision, or somehow guarantee their results without them having to do the work.
They’re not going to take charge of their results and be empowered enough to move forward without a huge amount of hand-holding.
Instead, try speaking to your Chosen Client as someone who’s already capable and motivated, but needs the right guidance to move forward.
Something like:
“You’ve already built a successful coaching business. You know your program gets results. Now it’s time to make sure your messaging is attracting the kind of clients who are ready to get those results.”
And if your program relies on clients taking action and implementing what you teach, that’s exactly the kind of person you want to attract.
Mistake #3: You’re speaking to people who are too early in their journey
This is another common reason coaches attract people who can’t afford their programs.
They’re talking about problems their Chosen Client has already moved past.
Let’s go back to our example of a business coach whose program is designed for business owners with an existing offer and paying clients.
Imagine their marketing constantly talks about:
“Not sure what to post on Instagram?”
“Struggling to come up with content ideas?”
“Don’t know where to start with your marketing?”
Those are real problems, but they’re often problems that beginners are more focused on.
An established business owner might already know what to post.
Their problem is that they’re tired of having to create all that content themselves.
So instead of talking about not knowing what to post, you could talk about:
“Spending hours creating content every week when you should be focused on growing your business?”
The difference is small, but now you’re speaking to someone at a completely different stage of their business.
How to spot this in your own marketing
Here’s a simple exercise you can try.
Go through your latest social media posts, your welcome email sequence, and your sales page.
As you read, ask yourself:
- Would my Chosen Client read this and think, “That’s literally me”?
- Am I talking about the problems they have right now, or ones they had two years ago?
- Am I talking to them like they’re capable?
- Could they explain what my program does after reading this?
Wherever you hesitate, that’s where to start.
You don’t necessarily have to change all the messaging across your entire funnel though.
Sometimes changing the way you describe a problem, the examples you use, or the outcome you focus on can make a big difference in who feels drawn to your offer.
This is the ATTRACT part of my Designed To Scale Framework.
It’s where I help clients look closely at the language they’re using across their marketing and make sure it speaks to the people they actually want buying their programs.
“But what if my audience genuinely can’t afford my program?”
Well, then something is off.
If your audience can’t afford your program, either you’re targeting the wrong people or your program is too expensive. Otherwise your business isn’t viable without people to pay for your programs.
But before you put your prices down, I’d just question whether it’s REALLY your audience that can’t afford it.
Or whether your marketing is simply attracting the people who can’t.
Do some market research. What are your competitors charging?
If people are already investing at a similar price point, there are buyers in your market who can afford it.
Now, some markets are more price sensitive than others.
For instance, the mom market is notoriously price sensitive in my experience. They’re trickier to get to spend money on themselves.
So you might need to drop your price a little here if you’re B2C. Or offer a membership at a lower price point with less support, instead of a group program.
But even there, by changing your messaging to something more empowering and calling out the moms who are tired of the cycle of putting themselves last, you start finding the moms who ARE willing to invest.
I’ve seen this work.
A coach whose niche was the mom market was struggling to attract moms who could afford her.
Then she changed her messaging to talk about moms who were tired of putting themselves last.
And all of a sudden, she started attracting the right people… and selling out her program.
Same market. Different messaging.
So before you decide your program is too expensive, make sure you’re giving it the best chance of reaching the people it’s actually designed for.
So where do you start?
If you’re having to convince people to work with you, or that your program is worth the price, more marketing isn’t going to help.
The problem is probably further up.
And fixing it normally starts with who you’re attracting in the first place.
First, get clear on your Chosen Client. Not just who’s bought from you before, but who needs your expertise, gets great results, and who you love working with.
Next, look at how your offer is positioned. Make sure it’s solving a problem your Chosen Client actually cares about right now, it’s super clear what they’ll get, and it doesn’t sound like every other program out there.
Finally, go through your content, emails and sales pages. Are you being specific enough? Are you talking to them like they’re capable? And are you talking about the problems they have now, not the ones they had when they were starting out?
Get these right, and instead of attracting anyone who happens to relate to your content, you start attracting people who are a better match for your program.
People who won’t question the value of your offer, because they know why it costs what it does.
People who are ready to invest and do the work.
And people who don’t need you to spend hours personally convincing them.
Want to attract more of the RIGHT people (ones that can easily afford your program)?
If you’re tired of DMing people to get them across the line, or explaining on yet another call why your program is worth it, that’s exactly what I help coaches fix inside Designed To Scale.
Designed To Scale is my 3-month, 1:1 program for coaches who want their marketing to do more of the selling – so you can attract the right people to your group program without personally convincing every buyer.
Together, we’ll:
👉 Get clear on your Chosen Client (the people you actually want MORE of)
👉 Make your offer an easy YES for them
👉 Fix the messaging that’s bringing in the wrong buyers
