Boost Your Sales with the Power of Hope
Are you struggling to connect with your target audience and drive sales for your coaching or service products?
If you’re struggling to make sales in your coaching or service business - You’re not alone!
In today's competitive marketplace, standing out from the crowd and creating a meaningful connection with your audience is more important than ever.
What I'm about to say may sound harsh, but stay with me because it's important…
People don't care about your services or packages!
They don't care how many sessions they get, what your training and skills are, or if you've sold 10,000 coaching packages to completely satisfied students.
While providing that information and as much social proof as possible is crucial in marketing your packages and services, those details are not what will have your potential clients rushing to buy your packages or services, happily handing over their hard-earned cash and choosing you over your competitors.
The driver behind people clicking your 'buy now' button is far more nuanced.
Your potential clients are not searching for the 'inclusions.' That's like expecting the T&C's page on your website to do the selling for you. No one ever starts a Google search looking for the inclusions or terms of a product or service.
What they are likely to search on Google is a 'What? Where? or How?' question.
Have a think about that. What's their motivation to start searching? Let's use sleep as an example. If someone has trouble sleeping and thinks their sheets are the problem, what will they search for? Would they type into Google ‘2000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets'… Not likely. Their search would be more like: 'What kind of sheets will give me the best night's sleep?'
Let's take a deeper look. What are they actually searching for? What's their motivation?
They have rubbish sleep. They want a great night's sleep so they can… feel better, get through the day more easily, have more energy, not yawn at 3 pm every day, look younger, or be healthier. They are hoping that sleep will give them all those things. The vehicle to fulfil their hope is sheets.
When they’re doing the search for sheets, they are searching with hope.
Hope is the driving factor in their quest for sheets. They probably don't care if the solution to their lack of sleep is sheets, a sleep mask, meditation, or an essential oil - what they want is the 'thing' (or vehicle) that will satisfy their hope for sleep.
Hope is their driver and motivation.
So, welcome to the wonderful world of selling hope!
It truly is the secret sauce that makes all the difference when it comes to selling your coaching or service products.
Forget about sales pitches and embrace the power of emotion, aspiration, and connection. Because at the end of the day, people don't buy products or services; they buy hope! So, let's discuss why you need to sprinkle a little bit of that special something (aka HOPE!) into your copywriting and marketing.
Hope is one of the most powerful human emotions and is what causes people to take action.
It's the same in your service or coaching business. People come to you because they perceive (believe, think, feel) that you will fulfil their 'hope' and provide the solution to them obtaining their desire, which is the end result, or what they are seeking.
Hope is the anticipation of the transformation they'll enjoy.
Most advice you receive from business coaches, marketers and on social media focuses on how to get in front of people and connect with them. That's super important. But it lacks the key component of hope.
I've found the best connector in selling anything is speaking to the 'hope' within people's hearts and minds and recognising the intrinsic motivation and power it has in making humans take action.
Remember, you're selling to humans, not a robot trained to respond automatically to the latest marketing trends, so you need to keep thinking about the human circling around your services and packages and what they're hoping to receive from them.
Another way to explain this is emotional connection. We, humans, are emotional beings, and delving into the psychology and science of customer emotions is critical for you to get the most from your marketing and sales activities. Being a heart-centred small business or service provider means you are automatically more aligned to embracing the use of hope in your sales and marketing plan. You will be able to do so far more effectively than others because you're highly empathetic and care about the needs and desires of your clients. You want to help them. So, what we’re talking about here is simply connecting with their need to have their 'hope' realised, and that your services are the ‘vehicle’ for that.
It's powerful stuff!
While many brands and small businesses may have huge social media followings and be liked and trusted, most fail to align themselves with the emotions that drive their customer's buying behaviours, particularly hope, which is why they aren’t enjoying growth in their business and sales.
When people make a purchase, they buy your services because they think that by doing so, they will experience a transformation in their life.
By using HOPE-BASED communication, you may touch a dream inside people’s SOULS. You can make potential clients feel that your programs will make them a better version of themselves, solve a problem, satisfy a life-long desire, or move them further along the path they want to travel rather than staying on their current journey, which may not be serving them.
What does that tell you? Are they buying your program or service? No.
They're buying what they HOPE your program or service will bring them.
That is what makes them get out their credit card!
When customers feel hope about what your product will do for them, they are more likely to look to you as the solution to their problems.
Seth Godin says people act if they feel at least one of these three emotions: fear, hope, or love.
An example of fear-based marketing is using 'FOMO' (fear of missing out) with time-based offers. It's highly effective and encourages people to act immediately. But, if you haven't spoken to the elephant in the room and defined the 'hope' driving their desire to purchase, you will most likely miss out on the sale regardless of the FOMO element.
This is particularly true for service-based businesses, which don't sell physical products. You need to focus on the transformation you provide to your clients.
Think of your favourite charity. Charities sell their services based purely on satisfying people's hope for what they achieve in the community. Their marketing is based on making you feel a particular way – hopeful. They focus on hope for the future of our world and community. Without that hope, no one would buy or donate to the cause.
People don't buy products.
They buy better versions of themselves.
Everything people buy is attached to an element of hope.
It's important to remember this when writing the copy for your next product launch, sales page, podcast episode, or Facebook ad or when reviewing your website copy.
You should be subtly intermingling luscious hope into every line. In all client interactions, whether it’s your content writing, on social media, a Zoom call, or your email marketing, focus on your client and how you make them feel. Are you giving them hope? Or are you so focused on the features of your amazing product or service that you've forgotten all about how you make your clients feel?
Peter Zarlenga sums it up beautifully. His product is lipstick - but he connects with his clients through the feeling he gives them. Hope.
"In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope."
— Peter Zarlenga
It's something great marketers and businesses have mastered. Think of your favourite brands and companies and what makes you buy from them. I can almost guarantee that none of them has unique products – there are likely countless other variations available. So next time you see one of their IG ads or emails, look at the emotions they invoke. There's most likely a good dose of hope inside!
By taking the time to analyse the 'hope' driver behind clients purchasing your services, you can then address that straight away in all your marketing. The result will be a more immediate connection with your potential clients, and you'll establish a level of trust beyond just being 'liked'.
Hope is powerful. It drives people to do amazing things in the world.
Remember, people don't buy products or services; they buy hope. They buy the idea that your coaching or services will improve their lives in some way.
Whether you're selling a fitness program or a financial service, the key is to paint a picture of the hopeful future that your product or service can provide. Weaving a good dose of hope into your website copy, sales pages, emails, socials, or podcast – wherever you are in front of people will create amazing results for your business.
By appealing to your audience's emotions and aspirations, you can create a powerful connection that inspires action while being emotionally compelling and deeply resonant.
