Sell The Destination Pretty Please!
Picture two coaches. Both help their clients lose thirty pounds. One says, “I teach a twelve week program with weekly check-ins, sixty minute sessions, a custom macro plan, and accountability calls.” The other says, “I help women lose thirty pounds so they can wear whatever swimsuit they want to the pool.” Same result. Two completely different sales conversations. Only one of those coaches is signing clients.
In part two of my Sell Like You Mean It series, I’m teaching you how to sell coaching services by talking about the destination your clients are chasing instead of the process you use to get them there. I watch this one shift change everything for coaches who commit to it, because a confused mind says no. If your selling is confusing, your prospective client shuts down. So today we tighten it up.
Nobody books a flight for the turbulence
Nobody books a flight because they love turbulence, airplane bathrooms, or bad snacks. They book the flight because it takes them somewhere they want to go. Justin and I just got back from our twentieth anniversary trip to Saint Lucia, and I did not want to travel that far. I wasn’t buying two flights and a layover in Miami. I was buying seven nights on a beautiful island.
Your clients work the same way. The flight is the vehicle. It is never the sale. Yet no matter how often I teach this, coaches keep selling their flights: the framework, the modules, the call cadence, the worksheets, the Voxer access. All of that matters, and it matters to far fewer people than you think. None of it is what makes someone say yes. What makes someone say yes is a picture of themselves standing in the success they’ve been chasing. That vision is the destination.
Try the cross-out test on your offer
Pull up your current offer description and cross out every word that describes how you work with people. The calls, the frequency, the WhatsApp access, even the framework name. Then look at what’s left.
If what remains doesn’t paint a picture of what your client desires, why they’re hiring you, and how their life changes after working with you, that’s a red flag. Before you rewrite anything, ask yourself one question: three months after someone starts working with you, what milestone have they hit? Where are they that’s different from where they started? Sit in that answer. Most coaches overcomplicate this, and the fix starts with making it simpler.
Why you sell the plane ride instead
I did this too, so no shame here. When I started, people kept telling me to work on my messaging, and I didn’t understand what the hell that meant. I felt clear in my own head, so I assumed I was projecting that clarity outward. I wasn’t. Two things keep coaches stuck in flight-talk when they sell coaching services.
First, process feels safer. Your program structure is concrete and provable, while outcomes feel bigger and riskier. Clients ask me about this constantly: “But I can’t guarantee those results.” Right, and neither can I. I can’t guarantee you’ll make six figures, and I’m not coming to your house to check your work. What I can guarantee is that my coaching takes you there if you execute the process. Selling the destination means letting go of over-attachment to results and treating the outcome as a two-way street with your client.
Second, you’re too close to your own work. You’re reading the label from inside the bottle. You know your framework is gold, but your clients don’t care about the mechanics. They’re surrendering their trust to you because you get people where they want to go. Can you get them there? Great. They’ll follow.
Specific beats vague when you sell coaching services
When coaches first learn to sell the destination, many swing into intangible territory: feel empowered, feel purposeful, feel rekindled. That’s a different kind of vague, and it loses people just as fast.
The target is specific and simple, so clear that anybody can understand it. Compare “I help women over forty get healthy” with “I help women over forty lose twenty pounds without giving up wine.” That wine detail is what makes the right person go, “Oh my gosh, that’s me.” The people who don’t want that? It’s not for them, and that filtering is the point. So play with your destination statement, then cut it in half. Fewer words, more specificity. Then check it: would you be excited if you read it? Does it paint a picture?
One caveat: stop chasing the perfect one-liner. Nobody hired me because of a flawless single sentence. Mine stays fluid depending on who I’m talking to and where I’m speaking. Your client says yes because of the aggregate effect of everything you do to build trust and speak to the dream they’re chasing.
Copywriting is the skill underneath everything
If I had to name the one skill almost everything in my business boils down to, it’s language. Copywriting is the red thread connecting your sales pages, your LinkedIn posts, your Instagram content, the way you talk on podcasts, and every opt-in you create. This isn’t a one-and-done exercise. It’s a skill you keep sharpening, and the faster you build it, the faster you sell your coaching services to amazing clients. Today’s episode is meant to get your creative juices flowing, and I built something to take you the rest of the way.
Join the Sell It Like You Mean It Challenge
After months of repeated questions from my live cohorts and BDC students, the pattern was obvious: coaches struggle to sell coaching services with confidence, and it bleeds into everything else. So I created a twenty-one-day challenge running September 1 through September 21. It costs twenty-one dollars. A dollar a day.
Every day, you’ll get a teaching under five minutes in your inbox plus one baby action step. Week one is entirely dedicated to nailing your destination so you always know what to say about your services. You’ll also get a challenge community where you can see each other’s homework and swap feedback, plus a live kickoff call on September 1 where I’ll share research I pulled from over six hundred articles on what actually blocks female coaches from selling.
Could you ask AI to fix your sales messaging? Sure, but you ain’t doing that. What you need is proximity, accountability, and daily implementation. Sign up at amanda-walker.com/sellit.
