Renee Hribar [00:00:00]:

Have you ever had someone ask you questions, see your solutions, get excited, nod along, love the plan, and then hit you with, "We can't afford it right now, but can we start in a few months maybe?" Ergh! I want to like have a car crash sounds. Ergh! Shh! Right? Here's what's not going to happen. Here's what I don't want you to do. Number 1, do not get weirdly sweet and go, "Oh, totally, no worries," and then never, hear from them again. Number 1, do not do that. Number 2, do not do this. Do not discount to help because that is the fastest path to ruin because you will then resent the entire project the entire time and that person, and it doesn't help you and it doesn't help them. Don't do that.

Renee Hribar [00:00:48]:

Number 3, do not chase them for months like a little polite, just following up gremlin. Right? Like, just following up. Hi! So we don't want to just follow up. We do want to have meaningful conversations ongoing with people that we actually want to spend time with. So I want you to say, not anymore. You're not going to do that anymore. Today I'm giving you a clean, non-cringy framework to handle the wait to start objection like the CEO that you are without being pushy, while always preserving the relationship, because waiting is not always a no. Sometimes it's a payment structure problem or a timing problem or a commitment problem, and your job is to sort that out fast.

Renee Hribar [00:01:38]:

So welcome to the Selling Your Expertise podcast. If you haven't been here yet, hi, I'm Renee Rebar, sales coach for service providers and consultants who wanna help people but have never had training on how to package up, sell, and deliver their expertise. I to help you go way beyond just replacing your old corporate income. So whether you've read my book, seen one of my talks like the one I did for TEDx, or you're brand new here, I'm glad you're hanging out with me today. Go to askmecoach.com for all of the freshest ways to stay connected beyond this podcast. Now let's dive into today's episode, shall we? Okay. You're selling a premium offer and those offers require calendar capacity, a real structured process for delivery. Like, you have to spend time away from Zoom, away from your clients, focusing on work that you do for them, thinking, preparing, organizing.

Renee Hribar [00:02:35]:

And it also requires sustained attention, right? So the whole "we'll start later in a few months" is not neutral because it creates risks for you. You lose momentum, right? Of course, you know, we're always up against the law of depreciating intent. Excitement cools. You're up against your calendar. Like, your calendar will fill up and you can't deliver just when they want. Or the other risk is they vanish because life, right, takes them down the river in another direction. Or here's another thing worse, they come back asking you to hold space for free. No, I— if you put anything on my calendar, I want you to think of my calendar like a deli scale, right? You put a thin slice of prosciutto on there, it's gonna take a some space.

Renee Hribar [00:03:23]:

It's going to start to weigh in. It costs something. So even if it's just a little bit, mm-mm, it's not free. So you need a response that does 3 things. Number 1, it protects your schedule. Number 2, it protects the relationship, right? It's not you against them. They didn't do anything wrong. They don't even know what they're doing.

Renee Hribar [00:03:42]:

They're just, they're just asking because they're the customer and they don't know any better. And the 3rd thing we want this to do is protect your, your momentum, right? Like it keeps the client moving forward. We wanna make sure it clears the path for yes, like I always say. So I have a framework for this. I call it Don't Let Momentum Die on the Table. I have a lot of morbid reasons as to why I'm calling it that, but I'm gonna share with you some stories so you can hear how this works in real life. So first we're gonna talk about somebody who we're gonna call Erica for this story. It's not her real name, but she was eagerly awaiting her first grandbaby.

Renee Hribar [00:04:19]:

Oh yeah, I always thought, you know, I don't know if I could be a good mom, but I could be a great grandma. I mean, I figured I was skipping a step. I am a mom. You have to ask my kid if I'm great or not, and he's not ready for grandchildren. So we'll see— or I'm not ready for grandchildren from him. Anyways, waiting a grandbaby is a pretty exciting time. So in this particular scenario, Erica is the customer, and she was awaiting her first grandbaby coming in 3 weeks. And she wanted the project, which in this case was a website redesign, She was excited.

Renee Hribar [00:04:47]:

She was definitely in, but then Erica waps this down onto my client. She goes, "Can we start in a few months?" This is where you do not want to improvise. I never want you to shoot from the hip. No, you can come to the call with a plan already built because confidence in being able to handle this is vital because it's easy to slip into the places we don't wanna go. So in this case, I, I want you to really mo— like mirror the momentum. And so this is what I coached my client through, and I walked her through saying, listen, we're, we're not going to make waiting feel like a cost. So this is how I instructed my client to position this. I literally wrote this script, and I just— replacing the name, but otherwise everything else is exactly as I wrote it.

Renee Hribar [00:05:37]:

So I said, I'm really glad we're on this call, or— because she had her get back on another call, we talked in the middle. I know you're excited about the grandbaby and the project. Of course I understand. And we've already created real momentum because by this point my client had already done a website mapping session and they were ready to move on to implementation. And so my client, I then said, you know, to put a pin in it for a few months feels a little deflating. Like, we were rolling so well. Do you feel that too? So I wanted her— my client to ask this person if she felt that way too, because this does two things. It validates the life is busy reality.

Renee Hribar [00:06:15]:

It also names the emotional truth, which is waiting Kills energy. And I always teach sales with two pillars in mind: the logistics and the emotional, because they both play a big part. Selling— buying is emotional, and we want to be able to walk people through a careful process, a caring process. So this is when you can ask the key question, and this is exactly what I want you to think about the next time you're in this position. Is this a money thing or is it a capacity thing with the grandbaby coming? Because those are two different objections. So if it's mostly financial, your job is— you could offer a stretch plan, as I call it. This just keeps movement flowing. It's not a discount.

Renee Hribar [00:07:01]:

It's a, it's a restructuring of the deliverable. So you can say something like, if it's mainly the financial timing, I have an option. I've done this with other clients who were excited and ready, but needed the payments to feel lighter. So by saying that, it makes it feel normal, like it's— they're not some special charity case. You're not desperate and you're not necessarily giving them special treatment. It's just a thing you do. And then you offer a longer plan with an acceleration checkpoint. So for example, our original proposal was for a 6-month zero to done plan.

Renee Hribar [00:07:36]:

What I'm proposing is a 12-month plan instead, lowering the monthly payments. We can still start now, not lose momentum, and we'll just have a setup call in May and we can schedule that call to really evaluate our progress so far and see if we want to keep it at 12 months or accelerate the process. You see how it's just so clean? Like you're saying you can start now, you can keep cash flow sane, and you get to have that built-in upgrade of acceleration later if it makes sense. So what changes operationally? The work stretches, the payment stretch, but the stress drops, right? So the payments stretch, the workload stretches out. So you do— instead of working 3 hours a week on it, hypothetically, you'd work 1 hour a week on it, right? And so the stress is released. You're not financing them to the end. You're just adjusting the runway. So here's another situation, subtly different.

Renee Hribar [00:08:37]:

They want it, but they're not really in that much pain. Like, they're not urgently wanting it. So for example, in this case, this other client said she wants to start later, but she was really vague and she was like not clear on exactly when and how and what. So this is where you test commitment with a scheduling move. So you can say to them, if you can truly start in May, don't say, "Okay, just reach out whenever you're ready," right? No, don't say that. You set the next checkpoint immediately. Say this instead: "Totally. Here's what I propose.

Renee Hribar [00:09:14]:

Let's book a call in April to confirm your May start date because I fill up quickly in spring. I don't want to assume May is open and then—" we'd both be disappointed. So again, this is not a threat. It's a reality statement. Like, you're really tr— think about it. You're being truthful. You know that things start to amp up. You know, people come out of the woodwork, you know, you've got some marketing campaigns coming up, so you know you're gonna have more business then.

Renee Hribar [00:09:40]:

And to hope, or worse, to hold space without a commitment is not safe for either of you. It makes you the kind of provider who is in demand, which you are, right? You see the subtle differences here. So again, here's another scenario. Scenario, they want to reserve time, but with no commitment. And this is a sneaky one. They want your calendar held open, but they don't want to pay anything now. And that's a maybe disguised as a later disguised as a tearful, tearful time. Not good.

Renee Hribar [00:10:10]:

So here's where you introduce a third option, or in this case, you just have this third option available because these are really three different subtly unique Scenarios. So this is where you can say something like, listen, I'm gonna hold your spot with a good faith deposit. And this is really specifically when you hear, well, we can't start until May, but we want you for sure. You're like, all right, if that's true, it costs something to reserve your time. Now you don't say that. Here's what you do say. Well, there's one option where you could guarantee a May start and we could hold your spot with a good faith deposit. Because spring gets busy and my May calendar has historically filled up very quickly.

Renee Hribar [00:10:53]:

So a deposit of $1,000 is all we need right now. And then when we meet in April to confirm the start date, we can map out what we'll do in the first 2 weeks of May. So everything is totally smooth. And this gives you the commitment, cash to hold the commitment, and calendar protection. And it gives them peace of mind, a clear path. And professional experience, not text me in 3 months, right? Like, it really gives them that professional feel of like, this person knows what they're doing, they've crossed this bridge before, they can handle whatever I throw up at them. So all the different 3 scenarios that I gave you today, they all follow 5 rules that I want you to follow. Number 1, don't wing it.

Renee Hribar [00:11:39]:

I said this already, don't shoot from the hip. You come with these proposals ready. So having alternates for every one of your proposals is easy because it's not the whole proposal. It's just the price and time and deposit parts. So it's different ways to get to the finish line, different ways to pay. Like, remember back in the day, you'd go to Kmart and you're like, I really want that parka. And Kmart's not even around anymore, right? I really want that parka. This is before the days when everyone had credit cards, before the days even that we didn't have checkbooks.

Renee Hribar [00:12:16]:

I mean, as a kid, you didn't have a checkbook. And so you had cash or you had layaway, right? And I remember many a times putting something on layaway for like 3 months. And by the time that winter parka was finally paid off, because you just kept going back and paying a little bit and paying a little bit, I mean, it was like spring. I didn't need the parka anymore. Oh, but I wore that thing anyway. It was white, by the way. God help me. I don't know how my parents let me leave the house.

Renee Hribar [00:12:43]:

Oftentimes they were like, Renee, that coat is too dirty for you to wear. I was like, I don't care. I paid for this. I paid for this on layaway. I wanted this for months. Oh, layaway. Let me know if you know what I'm talking about. Okay.

Renee Hribar [00:12:55]:

The second rule that I want you to follow is don't discount. You can stretch time. You can adjust phases or adjust scope. But don't cheapen it. Don't say, "I'll give you the same thing, but for $5." That's not okay. Don't do that to yourself or them. Third thing: keep momentum going. Waiting is where sales go to die.

Renee Hribar [00:13:20]:

Waiting is never the right path. Always keep momentum going. Number 4: Give them 3 clear paths, right? People relax when you present options. Right? So they know what to expect. Well, we can do it as I presented initially. We can have a later start date with a good faith deposit. We can start right now and just stretch out this 6-month plan to a 12-month plan. See? So it's not that different and it's all continuing the path.

Renee Hribar [00:13:49]:

All right. Fifth and final rule: Always book the next date. If they leave without a next step, the deal is floating. And floating deals sink. I mean, if I had one rule and one rule only, if all you ever learn from me is book the next call before this one's over, you will make more money. Just that one thing alone. I don't even care what it's for. You will make more money just with that one rule.

Renee Hribar [00:14:16]:

So there you go. You're welcome. Here's a plug and play script bank, and I want you to steal these. Okay, so script number 1, the momentum mirror. You can say, listen, to pause until May feels a little deflating because we've built momentum. Mm-hmm. Don't you feel that too? Script number 2, the I've done this before. I've done this with other clients who wanted to start later but needed the payments to feel lighter.

Renee Hribar [00:14:40]:

Script number 3, the stretch plan offer. We can do a 12-month plan now and schedule a review call to decide whether to keep it or accelerate it. Script number 4, the spring recheck. Let's book a call in April to confirm your May start date. May fills up fast and I don't want you to lose out. Script number 5, the good faith deposit. If you want to guarantee May, you can hold the spot with a $1,000 deposit and confirm details in April. All right, you ready for your weekly challenge? Let's do this.

Renee Hribar [00:15:10]:

You know, I'm all, I'm all about action steps, keeping things simple and sustainable and full of momentum. So here's your challenge. You're going to build a wait to start response kit. Okay, so it's hard to say like Sally sold seashells down by the seashore. The first thing you do is What does your 6-month offer look like at 12 months? The second thing is, what does your good faith deposit look like? The third is have alternates drafted with payment links ready to go. So you're ready. So you're never shooting from the hip. And that's it.

Renee Hribar [00:15:43]:

Because when you're prepared, you're calm. And guess what loves calm? Cash. Cash loves calm. It doesn't like stress. So if you want to keep— tightening your offer and presenting these options cleanly, and you want my help to do that, go to askmecoach.com for all the different ways to continue the conversation and get support beyond this podcast. See you next week.