How to change “not right now” into “yes I’m in!” responses

An ideal client has found you. You’ve jumped on a call or been chatting in messages or emails about working together. 

You know they’re a perfect fit for what you offer. You know they’re crying out for help and want to make a change. 

You’ve explained how you work. They’re interested. 

But they say:

• “not right now” 
• “Maybe next time you run it” 
• “I’ll think about it and come back to you” 
• “I’ll be ready for this later in the year” 
• “Will you do this again?”

I know how frustrating this can be. It’s something that’s come up frequently in my community of solopreneurs and so I thought I’d address why this happens and what you can do to change this to a “yes I’m in, when can we start?” response instead. 

Firstly, let’s eliminate a few things your protective inner voice might be telling you is happening here: 

• your price is ‘wrong.’ Your price is not wrong. The fact you are charging for your service is not the problem. Of course there are financial considerations (we’ll cover this more later), but it’s not because of the number you chose. 
• You’re not good enough. You are more than good enough. You’re qualified, you have a great toolkit, you can help people. Someone saying ‘not now’ is not a reflection of your skill or worth. 
• This is never going to work. It’s so easy, particularly if you’re just getting started or only a few months in to your business journey, to take these kinds of responses into a spiral of doom, a sign no-one will ever invest and you’ll never make a sustainable living. That you’re doing something ‘wrong’. It doesn’t mean this, try to pause that spiral. 

So if it’s not the wrong price, you being bad at your job or a hopeless cause – why are people constantly saying “not right now” when you invite them to work with you? 

Because you don’t believe you can help them and it be a fulfilling experience for both of you to work together. 

I know this sounds wild. I know on the surface of it you’re doing everything to attract clients and get them to say yes. Of course you’d LOVE people to sign up! 

But subconsciously? You’re repelling them. 

Why is this happening? 

Because the protector part of you is afraid. Fearful of something on the other side of being successful and getting lots of YES responses. 

Maybe you’re afraid that: 

• You won’t be able to get them the results they want 
• You won’t be able to cope with the workload and will feel overwhelmed 
• You’ll lose your boundaries and feel resentful of your clients when they demand too much of you 
• You’ll attract nasty clients that don’t get your methods and won’t do the work 
• You will disappoint them and they’ll ask for their money back 
• Your advice is ‘too simple’ and they’ll complain about you to others 

Any of these sound familiar? 

Honestly? If you let go of stories like this and actually believed signing clients would be a joy to work with and they’d love being in your programme, you wouldn’t stop talking about it. You’d take all the steps that damn visibility coach is telling you to do, and your offers would whizz out the door. 

So before engaging in any sales training, downloading any discovery call scripts, before assuming you need to rework your offers or (heaven forbid) offer a discount, try looking internally first. 

Work on identifying what you fear about being wildly successful and fully booked with dream clients. And then look for evidence and write down beliefs that support a more helpful way of thinking about taking on these people. 

I promise you’ll see a shift. When you start to truly want and not fear getting “hell yes!” responses, clients will start saying it more often.  

And PS. yes of course, there may also be some practical considerations as to why people aren’t saying yes to working with you. Maybe your offer isn’t clear, maybe your messaging needs work, maybe you’re just not getting seen by the right people. But these are all things that can be fixed, as long as at the root you are excited to work with the clients you’ll bring in if these all slotted into place. 

If you’d like to know how you can work with me 1:1 on deconstructing your self-doubt and rebuilding your mind for more self-belief when it comes to your business find out more.