You hang up from that Q&A call thinking you really connected with that person. They’d be so great to work with. You know you can help them. The conversation went great.
And then it’s crickets.
They didn’t give you an answer on the call. They said they’d think about it and get back to you. But then that person ghosted you or just fell off the face of the planet.
Does this sound familiar? It’s so frustrating, and you’re really left wondering what went wrong. Why didn’t they say yes? Did you miss something?
This keeps coming up in our Facebook group and mastermind: coaches saying the exact same thing. They had this great Q&A call that got booked, but afterwards, nothing. The person just disappeared.
Let’s break down what’s actually happening and how you can turn these calls into confident yeses instead of dead ends.
Mistake #1: You’re Actually Coaching on the Q&A Call
This is one of the most common mistakes I see happen. It’s very easy to accidentally fall into coaching mode when you’re having a conversation with a potential client. You genuinely want to understand what’s been happening with them and their money, but if you aren’t careful, you can find yourself very easily dropping into coaching mode.
You start asking them more questions to learn about their life and their money, what’s been happening, what they’ve already tried, and before you know it, you’ve given them half a dozen little suggestions along the way.
What Happens When You Coach on Q&A Calls
When you do this, one of two things happens:
First, the client feels like they have a list of things that they need to go and try on their own. You may have dropped hints like, “Have you done this? Have you done that?” and they’re writing all of this down, thinking they need to go try these things first.
Second, they’re hearing you say all of these things, and they have actually tried those things, and now they feel as if coaching isn’t going to help them because they’ve already done all the things you just suggested. They think there’s nothing more, that you don’t have more value to offer them.
In either instance, the client doesn’t book because they don’t see the need for a paid session anymore. You’ve accidentally created a situation where they’re either certain there’s no hope for them, or they’re happy you just gave them a bunch of things to try on their own.
The Mindset Shift You Need
The mindset and approach on a Q&A call is entirely different from what it is on a coaching call. We are wearing two very different hats:
Hat #1: In a coaching session, we are brainstorming and problem-solving and strategizing.
Hat #2: On a Q&A call, we are simply there to identify if we can help this person, yes or no.
It feels very hard to turn off the coaching instinct when you hop on that Q&A call, but that is exactly what needs to happen.
A Practical Solution
One thing that helped me early on was scheduling all of my Q&A calls at a different time from coaching. I would specifically have a time block on my calendar that was on a day that was only for Q&A calls, or I didn’t have a coaching session right before it, so I wasn’t coming into that call in the mindset or flow of coaching.
Try to create some space. At the very least, a buffer of time between a coaching session and a Q&A session. Or create a whole block of time where you take all of your Q&A calls in a three-hour period on Tuesday afternoons, so that you are in the mindset of doing Q&As and not coaching.
Why “Demonstrating Your Coaching” Doesn’t Work in Financial Coaching
We hear from a lot of newer coaches who say, “But I was taught that I’m supposed to demonstrate my coaching on the Q&A call, because most people haven’t experienced it before.”
This philosophy may be true in other coaching spaces, but in the financial coaching space, it typically does not work the same way.
In financial coaching, most people have reached out because they’ve already researched everything they can. There’s so much financial information out there that they’ve likely tried a lot of things on their own. They’ve maybe been trying to overcome this specific challenge for years already.
By the time they reach out to seek help from a financial coach, they really are seeking understanding and validation. They are looking for someone to say, “I know how to help with this.”
They typically don’t really know that what they’re looking for is coaching, and they don’t really care either. What they want is to know that you can solve their problem. They don’t typically care how you solve it or what the process looks like. They just want it to be solved, and they want to find a person that can help them do it.
The entire purpose of a Q&A call is to help them determine whether you can help them solve their problem.
Mistake #2: You’re Overselling or Over-Explaining
The second mistake is that when a client starts asking about your coaching, you start talking about everything you can do. You give them way too many details, way too much information. You talk about all sorts of things that don’t actually relate to their specific situation or specific question.
This results in the client disengaging from you. They feel very unheard, uncertain that you’re the correct person to help them, and they usually say, “Oh, I don’t know. I need to think about it,” and sort of disappear.
An Example of Overselling
Let’s say someone tells you they really need a plan to get out of debt. Maybe they get bonuses from work, and they always wind up needing to use their bonus to pay off the credit card debt they’ve accrued over the last several months.
Here’s what overselling sounds like:
“I can absolutely help you with this. The first thing I’ll do is teach you my budgeting system, but then we’re going to really want to get you clear on your why and your vision for the future. I have an exercise that I can take you through so we’ll get really clear on that, because any plan we create won’t work unless we have this clear vision of where we’re headed first. Then I’ll do this in-depth look at all of your spending, and I’ll provide you a list of all the places where you can cut costs and reduce spending so we can free up as much money as possible to put towards your debt. And then, once we have all this figured out, if you want more help, I have a three-month coaching program, and in it, I can really help you to get this entire system set up and implemented, and we can start working on some of those bigger picture things like your net worth and planning for your kids’ college, and even coming up with your plan for financial independence.”
Whew!! Talk about overwhelm!
What’s Wrong with This Approach
Everything in that example had nothing to do with what they actually were talking about. I was talking about all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the information they shared with me. Some of the things I mentioned were based on assumptions I don’t actually have answers to.
I’m talking four and five and six steps ahead, when all this person really needs is to know if I can help them with the problem they are struggling with today.
This is why you get a lot of people who say, “Oh, I think I need to think about it,” because they don’t know with certainty that you can help them with the problem they have presented you with today. You talked more about everything else you could do than about that one very specific thing.
A Better Approach
Instead of going down the rabbit hole of describing all the details about how you can help over the next three or six or twelve months, here’s what would have been more impactful:
“I can absolutely help you with this. It sounds like we need to come up with a plan that allows you to feel confident with your money, so you don’t need to rely on credit cards between your bonuses. This can be really exhausting to feel like your bonus only ever gets to be used to pay off debt. I have no doubt I can help you with this.”
Notice how I said twice, at the beginning and at the end, “I can help you with this.” I talked only about the problem they expressed. I validated their feelings and their experience. This is how you let the client know that you are the right person to help them.
Your Real Job on a Q&A Call
When someone tells you their biggest concern, it is not your job to tell them every possible thing you can help them with in the coming three to six months, but simply to reassure them that yes, this is a problem you can solve.
Your job on the Q&A call is not to sell yourself. It is not to convince the client. It is not to prove your value. Your job is to:
- Learn about the client and what they’re experiencing with their money
- Hear what their major problem is that they want solved
- Clearly communicate yes or no, this is something you can help them with (or not)
That is all they want. This is why they took time out of their day to hop on the call with you, to find out if you can help them with this problem.
How Long Should a Q&A Call Be?
I really believe that the Q&A call should only be about 15 minutes. I hear from coaches all the time who tell me theirs is 30 minutes, or 60 minutes, or sometimes an hour and a half.
If it’s taking that long, you’re either not leading the call, you’re coaching on the call, you’re overselling, or you’re over-explaining. You’re not confidently leading them down a path.
The only thing you’re there to do is to tell them yes or no, you can help them solve that problem or not. If they agree that sounds good, then you want to book the session with them. It should not take more than 15 minutes to get to that point.
How to Structure the Time
I recommend having a time block on your calendar for probably 30 minutes, but set it up as though the Q&A call is 15 minutes. When you hop on the phone with them, say, “Hey, I have you on my calendar for a Q&A call today. Do you still have about 15 minutes free today?”
That way they are prepared that this is a brief call, not an hour-long conversation about their money. If they are a yes, then you will move into actually booking the call with them at that point.
Two Major Shifts to Make
Here are the two big changes you’ll want to make on your Q&A calls:
- Stop coaching on the Q&A call. No more coaching. We’re not going to offer strategies or solutions. You are there to assess their fit and not to fix the problem on the spot.
- Stop overselling or over-explaining. Focus only on the specific problem that they have communicated to you. You’re going to reassure them that you can help them with that and not talk about everything under the sun.
Final Reminders
Your Q&A call is not a coaching call. They are two very different things. You can practice learning how to approach them differently by using your time strategically and blocking out different sets of time where you do your Q&A calls so it’s not intermingled in your coaching time.
Remember that you’re not there to impress them. You’re not there to sell yourself or show them all that you can do. You are really there on the Q&A call to assess their fit, and if you can help them or not.
You want to confidently reassure them that you can help with their biggest problem and stay focused on what it is that they need to hear, not on everything that you know how to do.
Don’t leave the call open-ended. Keep it to 15 minutes. And if they are a yes, book the session right there. Keep it short. Fifteen minutes is plenty of time to get to the yes or no.
If you make these simple changes, your Q&A calls are going to convert more effectively. You’re going to get through to those prospects to let them know they’re in the right place, and they’re going to be much more excited to take action, rather than leaving you hanging in limbo.
