There’s a secret objection that keeps people from buying online courses and coaching programs. It’s this:
They’re afraid to fail.
For some people, it’s not that they don’t trust you or your product/service. It’s that they don’t trust themselves.
They see the big claims about the person who used your program to lose 100lbs, make $1,000,000, or whatever it is.
But they worry “What if I don’t have success like that?”
Deep down, they know that if the don’t have that same success they will feel like crap.
Your program will just be yet another thing they can’t do right. Another reason they’re not good enough.
So even though they trust you and your product, they don’t buy because they’re afraid to fail.
I know this because I talked to a woman who bought a $2,000 course on how to start a business. I asked her what kept her from joining and she said she was afraid she would fail.
A lot of the stories and testimonials made the program look like a magic bullet — that she’d go from nothing to making $10,000 a month in a snap.
But she had never done anything like that. So she didn’t believe she could. Even though she thought highly of the product and person selling it.
So, how do you help people overcome this fear?
You’ve got two options:
First, you can share an “Ordinary Hero’s Journey Case Study”.
This is a story about one of your customers who used your product to achieve something totally reasonable.
They lost 6 pounds over two months.
They made an extra $1,000.
It’s not the big, dramatic story everyone else shares. It’s smaller and believable. People can wrap their head around it. And the reader thinks “Oh I can at least do THAT!”
The second thing you can do is share a Dramatic Hero’s Journey Case study.
This is the story of that massive “rags to riches”/”ugly duckling to prom queen” transformation. BUT with a twist…
See, most case studies and success stories go like this: The person was struggling, they found this course/program and because of that THEIR LIFE BECAME AMAZING FOREVER! THE END!”
Trouble is, people read this and think it sounds like BS (because it is.) Or they worry they won’t have success like that and therefore will feel bad about themselves.
That’s why a key part in the Hero’s Journey Case Study is to include a mini customer failure story.
This is the struggle they had AFTER they bought your product.
For example, I just wrote a case study for a woman who built a bookkeeping business.
In it, we talk about how her first paying job was a total disaster. We have the woman share how she completely screwed up the books and had to redo them for her client.
Why do we share that? Because the readers are terrified this will happen to them! Most don’t have bookkeeping experience so they are scared they will do it all wrong.
Now, we could go on and on how the course teaches them what they need to know to do a great job. That’s true, and we do.
But there are going to be people who continue to doubt themselves and their ability no matter what we say.
That’s why we tell the story showing their worst nightmare coming true. So they can see that even if that happens, they won’t die. And they can still go on to be successful.
Another example: I did a Hero’s Journey Case Study for a weight loss coach. So I made sure to talk about how the client fell off his diet plan and “binged” on junk food a few weeks into the program.
Why? Because 100% of dieters have had this experience. They know it’s only a matter of time until they do this get off track with their diet.
So we tell a story of someone who did exactly that, but then got back on track and had big success.
When you show someone struggling with your product, your story becomes more believable. It also takes the pressure off of your potential customer. They realize they don’t need to be perfect and it’s okay if they mess up along the way. So they feel better about buying.
Remember that person I mentioned earlier who bought that $2,000 course?
She told me that what ultimately inspired her to pull out her credit card was seeing a case study where the person failed multiple times early on but went on to have success.
That proved she could fail and it would be okay.
So she bought. And she became a top success story who has inspired hundreds of other buyers.