Alice wants to hire a personal trainer. She’s a busy paramedic and is fed up of being a stone or two heavier than she’d like. She’s frustrated with going to her wardrobe and finding nothing she likes to wear; she avoids beach holidays because she can’t bear to wear a bikini and she won’t go back to her home town and see her old friends because she doesn’t want them to see she’s bigger now.

She tried going to the gym and that worked for a while but it’s quite a drive from her house, plus she feels self-conscious exercising in front of people. She spent a fair amount on an exercise bike but it’s become somewhere to hang clothes; there’s a set of dumbbells languishing under her sofa, gathering dust.

So, she thinks personal training might be the answer. And in her city, there are several trainers who look pretty good, one of whom is even personally recommended to her and who she has emailed.

But she hasn’t hired anyone yet. (And this is a big deal for your business, as you’ll see.)

Alice could be the focus of viable business niche because she ticks the key three criteria:

1. She knows she has a need. (Acutely so, uncomfortably so.)
2. She’s prepared to take action towards meeting that need. (As well as spending time on previous purchases, she has recently spent hours Google-searching for local gyms, boot camps, trainers and exercise classes.)
3. She’s prepared – and able – to spend money to meet that need. (She earns a decent wage as a paramedic – about £27,000 per year – and has a good amount of disposable income.)

So, with these in place, why on earth hasn’t Alice hired a personal trainer already? She’s aware, she’s in action, she has the money – why not just commit and get moving?

Because Alice doesn’t want to look silly.

Alice is not silly. She’s a highly intelligent woman, excellent at her job and respected by her colleagues. When it comes to fitness, though, she can’t seem to crack it. And she’s not convinced that these slim, toned, smiley women in lycra are going to understand why it’s so hard for her. She’s got a sneaky suspicion they might actually laugh about her with their other slim, toned friends when they go out for drinks.

She’s also anxious about their recommended diet regime. They all say to eliminate coffee but she can’t imagine surviving her busy work day without her regular cups. She also wants to be able to celebrate a pending promotion by getting drunk, but all the trainers seem to insist on no alcohol.

She’s happy to exercise in her home but she’s worried a trainer will want to take her running outside; she gets on with her neighbours and doesn’t want them to see her red in the face and panting and to think differently of her.

Alice is a very ready buyer. She’s an easy-spender in many areas of life (when buying DVDs, books, holidays, art for her house) but with this area, she has a whole backpack of concerns. She’d need a massive dose of empathy and reassurance that she’s normal before she parts with her cash, but when she receives that, she’ll happily part with hundreds or even thousands of pounds to address this issue once and for all.

What does Alice have to do with your business?

Everything. Whatever your line of work, there is a large percentage of your potential ideal clients who really want what you’re offering, the price is fine for them (do not automatically drop it! Price is often a red herring) but who won’t reach out to you – and certainly won’t hire you – if they think they’ll look silly.

So, it’s very worth knowing the “silly” concerns that your prospective clients have. Do they feel too fat (or old, or inflexible, or pregnant, or recently out of cancer treatment) for yoga classes? Are they embarrassed about releasing wind while on your massage table? Are they worried coaching will get them even more confused than when they started? Are they unsure whether they can have reflexology because they have a verruca?

It’s 100% worth knowing these concerns. Your prospective clients think they’re silly and unusual; you know they’re quite normal and easily addressed.

In the group business-building teleprogramme I lead (Turn Your Passion To Profit), we tackle this. For example, in Classes 2 and 3, we identify those people you’d love to help who are ready to take action and spend money and we figure out how to find them. I’ll teach you a beautiful soft-sell way of getting into conversations with them and hear their concerns so that you can package what you do to meet their needs (Class 4). And in Class 5, we look at how to use empathy, understanding, reassurance and hope in your marketing so it’s easy for potential clients to say “yes” and pay you.

My people think they’re silly too

I’ve had so many conversations with women who are keen for business guidance, like-minded community and accountability, yet have concerns before committing to group programme support. Here are just a few (see if you can identify…):

• She doesn’t want her partner to say, “Hey, you just spent thousands of pounds of our family budget on training as a coach, osteopath, speech therapist [fill in the blank] – shouldn’t you earn some of that back before spending out again?”
• She worries she’s too far along the self-employment path (or too much of a beginner) to benefit fully
• She has no idea what a “teleprogramme” is (or she knows and dislikes technology, or fears she won’t get the hang of dialling in, or can’t understand how 12 people can all be heard on one phone line)
• Although she craves it, she’s nervous about group accountability. What if she can’t follow through and her group mates think she’s feeble?
• She’s seen there are fortnightly group calls and can’t make all the dates and times

I’ve been helping women go successfully self-employed for years and I’ve heard all these concerns plus dozens more. They’re not silly and they’re not unusual. The group programme is now running for the fifth time and if you want to speak with me about enrolling, please know: you won’t surprise me and I won’t think your concerns are “silly”.

Instead, when we chat, we’ll be able to discern which are valid reasons for not having this group support right now, and which questions I can quickly answer (for example: it doesn’t matter if you can’t make all the dates and times because each of the 12 group calls is recorded for you to download at any time.)

Make it your mission

Beautiful Alice wants to lose weight and she has a sneaky suspicion personal training is the way forward. But until she gets to see that her concerns are normal and can be easily answered, she’s going to stay where she is: stuck, carrying more weight than she’d like, not feeling as good about herself as she could.

Likewise, your potential clients want something that you can help with. So make it your mission to find out what they want, what concerns are getting in the way of them hiring your help, and reassure them that they are normal and their concerns are not so silly after all.

Over to you

When have you wanted to hire someone, or buy a product, but didn’t get your concerns answered? Did you part with your cash anyway, go elsewhere, or did your needs remain unmet?

How do you (or could you) reassure your prospective clients that their concerns are normal? How do you (or could you) show you understand and empathize with them?

Leave a comment below, let us know…

Want step-by-step business guidance?

If you love the idea of doing marketing in a way that’s about connection and hope and empathy and if you were intrigued (and relieved) by the idea of “soft-selling”, then check out the details of the group programme, fill out the form and let’s have that conversation > > (NB There are only 4 places left and we start in a few weeks so if you feel this might be what you’ve been looking for, do fill out the form now so we can speak as soon as possible. I’d love to connect with you.)

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© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2012