The Health Coach Sales Lab

The Real Reason People Aren’t Booking Calls

• Jamie Jones • Episode 6

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The real reason people aren't booking discovery calls has less to do with visibility or pricing and more to do with psychological barriers and how they experience your content. Understanding these barriers can help close the gap between people loving your content and taking action to work with you.

  • The scroll isn't neutral – when people encounter your content, they're unconsciously evaluating your congruence and whether you can actually help them
  • Hooks aren't bridges – being good at grabbing attention isn't the same as guiding someone through a meaningful conversation
  • Abstract encouragement is emotionally expensive – people who have tried everything need you to name their discomfort, not just their desire
  • Booking calls must feel like an informed step, not a risky leap – be explicit about what happens during the call
  • Let potential clients experience your presence through stories and video content before asking them to commit
  • Speak to the part of them that's jaded – acknowledge the slow, difficult nature of transformation

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Speaker 1:

Hello friends, it is Jamie here. Welcome back to the show. I hope that you have listened to a couple of episodes so far and that they have been helpful for you. I am glad that you're back and today we are going to be talking about the real reason people aren't booking those discovery calls. So you know, there's seems to be this strange gap between reading your content and loving your content, and then let's work together and that seems to be the tricky part, right, we need to close that gap a little shorter and make it easier for that to happen, and I know you want that. I know that your potential clients need that. So how can we do that? Because you're showing up consistently hopefully You're not winging it, hopefully and you probably have a really solid offer. I am sure that your integrity is intact. I'm sure you're a wonderful coach. So why is it that people are circling your orbit and, you know, nodding along to what you're saying? Because they agree and they are thinking, yes, this is exactly what I'm looking for, and maybe they're even sharing your posts, but they're just not taking that next step. So frustrating, right? So it's really easy to assume that the problem is visibility, or the problem is pricing or you know some algorithm thing. We love to blame the algorithm, right, but more often than any of those things, it's none of those things, because the real gap is usually psychological. Or this is what I think and I will talk you through it and maybe you'll agree, maybe you won't, but I really think that a lot of it is psychological, a lot of it is relational, because it's about the lived experience that someone has while passively engaging. Your business, like that, really holds a lot of weight when it comes to how they react and also how either builds, um, how, whatever their lived experience has been, that either builds certainty in them or it accumulates like this subtle friction, right, and so that's what I mean by that. So in this episode we're going to name what's happening in that space and see through a clearer lens, hopefully, because it's great to understand people and that helps us also realize it's not exactly us, because it can really feel like, oh, no one wants to work with me or what am I doing wrong, and we really can make it about ourselves. But a lot of the times that's not true at all. So hopefully that will be encouraging to hear as well.

Speaker 1:

So point one that I want to make is the scroll isn't neutral, it is informational. So imagine someone sitting on a couch scrolling through Instagram. You know, at the end of the day, they're half burned out, they're tired, they just put the kids to bed and they are numbing out, basically. And what they're doing on Instagram is exactly that. They are not actively searching for a health coach, they are just scrolling. So when they see your content, they're not consciously thinking like I should hire this person right now, I should make a large financial decision. They're asking you know, does this person feel congruent? Is this is what they're saying emotionally and logically coherent? Is it understandable? Do I agree with this? Do I believe that they could actually help someone like me? Like, is this an answer to my stress or is this more stress to add to my plate, you know? So that's the unspoken audit happening in the background.

Speaker 1:

When people are scrolling through your content, and you know that's not because your audience is skeptical, it's not because they're not believing what you're saying. It's truly because their attention is expensive in this day and age and I think that we can all agree with that right. So, and I also think that they've just seen enough vague encouragement. They've seen enough polished branding. There's plenty of noise on the internet, you know. So it's that's what I mean by. Their attention is expensive. They're being bombarded at all times, usually for hours and hours a day, like it is alarming to go into your settings and see how many hours a day you spend looking at your phone. You know, and I would be so curious to know what the average is for, like the average person, but I think that we look at our phones more than we think we do and we are being pulled in every direction every moment that we are. So that's what I mean by. It's just so much. Their attention is expensive. They see noise, they are being pulled in all kinds of directions and what they're looking for is steadiness. I would agree that we definitely all need that, and especially in a coach, they need a steadiness. They need to know that there just needs to be a certainty there and they need to feel that when they encounter you. So what does all that mean, right? Okay, so let's move on to point number two, or hopefully that will shed a little bit more light.

Speaker 1:

Point number two is the hook, isn't the bridge, and here's where many well-meaning people get stuck. They have learned how to write a good hook. They've studied content that gets attention. They're great at that, but they know how to evoke emotion or tell a compelling story. That's what they need the most. And being good at starting a conversation is not the same as guiding someone through it. That can be the tricky part, because that's the human part. Like anybody can make a great hook in a post and a post that gets a lot of attention, but that doesn't necessarily lead to anything.

Speaker 1:

And so we really need to focus on that second part and that gap between, like, the interest and the initiation, and that's usually where things break down. So people don't go from a place of curiosity. They don't book from that. They don't. You know, when they're curious, they read more, they learn more. But people book a call from a place of clarity, and clarity is harder to do than curiosity, because there are so many. You know, like I've said, we've been taught to write these great social media posts and these hooks and these things that will gain attention. But we really need to focus on the clarity and the stability and what comes next. So if your audience is intrigued but they are unsure, like they're not clear, they don't have that clarity, they won't do anything. They're not looking for more hype, they are looking for something that is internally consistent and stable and something that feels like this person you know really gets the shape of my problem, not just the outline of it. They really understand.

Speaker 1:

And point number three is abstract encouragement is emotionally expensive, and what I mean by that is there's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes with hearing people say like you're worthy of support and all of those platitudes, because sometimes our lived experience doesn't feel like that, it doesn't feel like we're worthy of it, because there's so much shame behind. We've tried so many times and just failed every time. And then someone saying you deserve all of this support. And honestly, truthfully, we can think that's not true, because I'm not good at this, and obviously we know that every human being deserves support and deserves love and deserves to feel supported and to be supported and to take those steps to become healthier in the way that they want to. But what I mean is that's not landing with them, because they don't believe that themselves yet and that's a really huge gap, right?

Speaker 1:

So your audience doesn't need more inspirational language. They need language that really attaches on to their actual experience. So think of the person who's tried like six different coaches or practitioners or whatever they've tried in the last couple years and they're exhausted, they are over it. They've spent so much money and nothing has worked and they're starting to wonder if they're just going to be like this forever. Right, because everything they're trying just isn't working. And they're not scrolling for hope, they're scrolling for something that cuts through the fog, that is fogging everything else over, and that means you just can't name the desire. You have to name the discomfort, and I don't mean that in like a dramatic way.

Speaker 1:

We don't need to really, you know, cut them with a knife, with our words, but I think it's important that, in the texture of how we speak, they feel that in a way that wakes them up, in a way that no one else has yet, because everyone else is speaking in the inspirational, flowery language that they aren't believing, because that's not where they are yet. So I think that if we can really dial into that, speaking straight to them and speaking to the things that I've been you know, I'm not going to rehash it again, but what we've been talking about just now I think that that will really make you stand out and that also helps them realize like this voice is not just here to sell me something. They have been in the room that I'm in and they are not there anymore and I would like them to pull me out with them because they've already been there. Like it really helps them understand that you really get them and that you also can help them. And that is so different than just like scrolling and seeing a list listicle post. You know what that is. It's like those lists that are like 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. That's called a listicle, but a post about like the top breakfast on a busy morning and those things are important. But we can't only be talking about those things if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

So, moving on to the next point, booking a call with you needs to feel like an informed step and not like a risky leap. So think about how vague most call to actions are, and a call to action is exactly that. It's something that is usually at the end of a post or an email or any form of content that you have, and it's just leading them to the next step. So you're calling them to action, whether that's booking a call or joining your email list or checking out the sales page or whatever that is. But if you think about how vague they usually are, it's usually like let's chat. Or you see the buttons on people's webpages like let's chat, book your free consult, ready to feel better, or things like that.

Speaker 1:

And when you imagine what that actually sounds like to someone who's already overwhelmed and has a bad taste in their mouth with practitioners and coaches because nothing has worked yet, they don't know what that conversation entails and they don't know what kind of energy it will require. Most importantly, they don't know how they'll feel if they realize, like on the call, that it's not a good fit, like there's so much discomfort and people these days just don't like talking on the phone. Honestly, it's hard to even get someone on the phone and that's a whole other conversation. But asking someone to book a call without giving them, taking the guesswork out of it and helping them understand what that call will actually be like, can really be the determining factor, with them not doing it right. So we need to let them know what actually happens during the call. What decisions are they expected or not expected to make? Like, what kind of relief or insight can they expect even if they don't hire you and move forward with your program or whatever it is that you are pitching.

Speaker 1:

And this isn't writing a better like call to action. It's not about that. It's about closing that loop on all that quiet, unsaid objections that keep people from clicking. Like I am personally like that. I instantly if someone says book a call, if I have a question, I instantly think I'm going to be on a sales call and it's going to be pushy and it's going to be uncomfortable because I just naturally am a people pleaser and I'm not good at saying no, and so there are so many people like me, I know that. So these kinds of things are uncomfortable, especially when there's not a clear outline of what to expect. So I think that's important.

Speaker 1:

So you could say, like, in this call we will unpack. You know three patterns. I typically see blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and I'll walk you through what I'd looked for next or what I would do next. And you know, just make it about them. Make it about they're going to walk away with an idea, whether they hire you or not, and if that idea sounds like the answer they haven't gotten yet, then why wouldn't they hire you? So it needs to be informative. They need to know what they're walking into and needs to feel no pressure, like even if you know on your end is there's no pressure, they don't know that by just saying let's hop on a phone call, usually that means a sales call and that can be really difficult for people. So just think about it in that way and make it as low pressure as possible and as clear as possible of what they're jumping into when they hop on the phone with you.

Speaker 1:

So the next point, the next point, is to let people experience your presence. So this is really important as well, especially if you were going to be like an intimate part of their life as a health coach, because that is a really intimate job to have in someone's life. So this part is really subtle and often missed, I think. So if someone's never heard your voice, if they've never felt your pace or sensed you, the way that you respond, like in real time, it would be harder to book. So it's an energetic decision to work with someone right. So especially, like I said, this really important job of a health coach. So it's not just a logistical decision, it is energetic, it is we need to be person to person, human to human. So I think that that's really important for them to experience your presence. So, yeah, I think a lot of that can be just showing up on social media.

Speaker 1:

Like I hired my coach from social media because I followed her long enough. I saw her stories every day of her talking to the camera. I appreciated her point of view more than anyone else I had seen Just the way she thought. I was like yes, that makes more sense to me than anything else has before. And I hired her and I lost 40 pounds for the first time ever because I had tried all the other things and nothing else worked, because nothing clicked with me like she did. So the way we can do that is by showing up on social media and storying. Like I followed her on her stories every day on Instagram and that is so different than all the curated posts on your feed, right? Those are informative and those are educating the people that are coming to your page to learn more.

Speaker 1:

But to see how someone is one-on-one, human to human, that's what happens a lot in the story. So if you're in the content club, that's a really big, important part of the content club is the um, the story selling framework that I have in the members area, and that's exactly why and I go through explaining like that those were the reasons I hired a health coach, and I think that that's a maybe a missing part. That is really important, because that's where you become human and you they really see like, oh okay, this person is the right person for me. So I could also go on and on about that, but I will move on to the next step, which is speaking to the part of them that's jaded, which can feel a little uncomfortable. But your audience isn't naive. They're likely worked with someone before and maybe it helped, maybe it didn't. Either way, they're not looking for a savior. They're looking for someone who can help them make sense of what they need to do.

Speaker 1:

Like I was just talking about that my coach did, and you know they don't want to be sold on, because health and wellness and all of these things that are holding us back from that are so personal and so psychological and so many other things that it can feel a little sterile that if you say, like this method is the missing piece or this program it's just different, like even if that's true, they need to be spoken to in a different way. They want to be shown that you understand what it's like to try everything and still feel stuck. They want to know that you won't make them feel like a failure for needing help again. So really speak to that and really speak to the slow and the hard parts of transformation, because you know, in this day and age we really like things instantaneous and that's not true for a health transformation. So we really need to make sure that they obviously it sounds silly, but like that they understand that, because if something's not working in the first week or two, a lot of times people will say, oh, this doesn't work either.

Speaker 1:

But so what I mean by that is we really need to speak, to consistently be speaking to the fact that transformation is slow and it's difficult and it is an everyday one foot in front of the other transformation, and each step leads to where you want to go. So you have to keep taking the steps right. So some weeks nothing changes, some weeks you gain a little more and then it's just an everyday thing, it's not something. If this doesn't work immediately, it's not working. And I failed again, right?

Speaker 1:

So this really isn't about doing more, it's about saying it better, and I think that if we dive into all the things I've said today, it is going to lead us down a path of really connecting with our audience more probably because your presence is already consistent, I hope. If it's not, I hope that you take this encouragement to be more consistent because of the things I've said. It's really important to and I've explained why. So if you haven't been, even if you're only doing stories, like I know it sounds so contrary to what you've been taught in social media classes or things like that, but that's really where the one-on-one stuff is, and if you're a one-on-one coach, that's you know what I mean. It makes perfect sense that the people that are watching you one-on-one they're going to feel like you're talking to just them and that's going to lead to a one-on-one relationship more than just someone reading your static posts on your feed, if that makes sense. So hopefully it does.

Speaker 1:

I would love to chat more about this. I talked a little longer than I thought I would, but I got a little into it, so hopefully this was helpful. Again, at the end of the episodes, I always say please hop into the Facebook group. You can find that in the show notes or you could go to jamiesgroupcom. That'll take you straight to our Facebook group and you can join there. I would love to talk to you more about all of this there and anything else that you are encountering on your journey of building a health coaching practice. I'd love to help with those things. So please come, let us know where you are, what's going on, what you need help with, what we can celebrate and all of those things, and I will talk to you next week.