There's a moment most coaches and consultants experience at least once.
You create a service package you're genuinely excited about.
You spend weeks putting it together. You map out the process, decide what's included, work out the pricing, write the sales page and maybe even give it a clever name.
Then you launch it.
And absolutely nothing happens. Crickets.
At this point, most people assume they have a marketing problem.
They start tweaking their website. Posting more on LinkedIn. Downloading another social media planner. Reading articles about funnels and lead magnets and SEO.
But here's what I've noticed after years of watching smart people build businesses.
Most offers don't fail because of bad marketing.
They fail because they were built on assumptions.
Now before you throw your coffee at me, hear me out.
The assumption usually sounds perfectly reasonable.
"I know my clients need this."
"I've seen other people sell something similar."
"I'd buy this if I were them."
The trouble is none of those things actually tell you whether your clients would actually pay for it.
And that difference is where a lot of good businesses get stuck.
One of the easiest things to do when you're building a business is look around at people who seem successful and reverse engineer what they're doing.
You see the package.
The pricing.
The website.
The social media presence.
The polished messaging.
What you don't see is everything that happened before that.
It's a bit like seeing the top of an iceberg and assuming that's the whole story.
Most of the important work happened long before the offer ever appeared on a website.
There were conversations.
Questions.
Testing.
Adjustments.
False starts.
Ideas that sounded brilliant but turned out to be terrible.
That's the stuff nobody posts about.
Instead, we copy the visible part and wonder why we're not getting the same result.
This is where things get uncomfortable.
As experts, we tend to build offers around what we know.
Makes sense, right?
You've spent years developing your expertise. Of course you want to package it up and sell it.
The problem is that clients don't buy expertise for the sake of expertise.
They buy solutions to problems that are annoying them enough to do something about.
A consultant might think they're selling strategic planning.
The client thinks they're buying confidence.
A coach thinks they're selling coaching sessions.
The client thinks they're buying clarity.
See the difference?
People don't buy the thing. They buy what the thing helps them achieve. The best offers are built around that reality.
One of the sneakiest traps in business is confusing interest with demand.
People tell you your idea sounds fantastic. They tell you it's exactly what they need. They tell you someone should definitely offer that.
And then they don't buy it.
Frustrating? Absolutely.
Common? Also absolutely.
The reason is simple.
People are very good at telling you what they like.
They're not always good at telling you what they'll spend money on.
Those are two completely different questions.
That's why surveys, polls and social media comments can sometimes send you down the wrong path. They're measuring opinions. Not buying behaviour.
Before creating your next offer, ask yourself this:
How many actual conversations have I had with people I want to sell this to?
Not conversations where you pitch.
Not conversations where you explain your process.
Conversations where you listen.
Where you ask questions.
Where you get curious.
Where you find out what's frustrating them, what they've already tried, what's not working, and what a successful outcome would look like.
Because that's where the gold is.
Not in another brainstorming session. Not in another Canva mock-up. Not in another pricing spreadsheet.
In the conversations.
This is something I wish more people understood.
The businesses getting opportunities aren't necessarily smarter, more talented or working twice as hard as everyone else. They've simply stopped guessing. They understand their market at a deeper level. They know what buyers care about, how they talk about their challenges, what they've already tried, and what they're willing to pay to solve the problem. That knowledge gives them an advantage because it influences every decision that follows, from the offer itself to the pricing, positioning and marketing.
From the outside it looks like they've created the perfect package.
In reality, they've simply done the work most people skip.
If you're struggling to get traction, resist the urge to immediately redesign your website or create another service package. Start by getting closer to the market. Have the conversations and ask the questions.
Listen carefully.
You might discover your offer is exactly right.
You might discover you've been solving the wrong problem altogether.
Either way, you'll be making decisions based on evidence rather than hope.
And that's usually where things start to get a whole lot easier.
If you're tired of building offers based on what you think people want and would rather know what they'll actually buy, the Be In Demand Webclass will show you how.
Because creating a package is easy.
Creating one people can't wait to buy?
That's a different skill entirely. Save your free seat at the Be In Demand webclass
Learn more about Beyond the Hourly Rate®
Save your free seat at the Be In Demand webclass
Find out in 2 minutes why you’re missing opportunities (online quiz with personalised report)
Here's 3 ways I can support you in 2026 - for FREE
Want to go Beyond Commenting?
Join us for 60 minutes of genuine conversations- you never know who you’ll meet!
Find out in 2 minutes why you are missing opportunities.
Receive a personalised report with action steps.
Discover how to go from being the best kept secret in town to being In Demand and the go to choice in your industry.

© Copyrights by Sweetspot Business Coaching. All Rights Reserved.