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If your sales calls feel heavy, awkward, or like you’re trying to drag someone across the finish line, this is your wake up call. When you’re spending more time convincing people they need your help than actually delivering your work, burnout is right around the corner. And no, it’s not a sales script problem. It’s a positioning problem.

In this episode of The Real Truth About Business, Michelle breaks down the exhausting pattern of “convincing energy” that so many service based business owners fall into. From over explaining your offers to defending your pricing and chasing lukewarm leads, she explains why trying to create problem awareness and sell the solution at the same time will drain you fast. You’ll learn how to shift your messaging, clean up your pipeline, and focus on ready buyers instead of dragging people who aren’t prepared to invest.

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, OBM, VA, designer, copywriter, or ADHD entrepreneur, this episode will help you stop overworking in your sales process and start attracting clients who are already problem aware and ready to move.

You’ll learn:

1. The five signs you’re stuck in convincing energy
2. Why over educating on the problem slows down your sales cycle
3. How defending your pricing signals a positioning issue
4. The difference between nurturing and chasing lukewarm leads
5. How to align your messaging and pipeline to attract ready buyers

This is the real truth about business growth, especially for neurodivergent service providers who crave clarity, structure, and results without falling for every trend online.

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Here's your Next Steps:

1. Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
2. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads or Facebook
3. Visit my website to learn more and apply for the Focused Visionary Accelerator
4. Sign up for my newsletter - Sunday Morning Brew - delivered every Sunday at 6 am

About the Host:

Michelle DeNio is a business strategist and growth advisor for service-based entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent and ADHD business owners. Creator of the Focused Visionary Accelerator and host of The Real Truth About Business podcast, she helps clients simplify, focus, and grow sustainably. With 15+ years in business operations, she’s known for turning big ideas into simple, profitable action plans.

If you're spending more time convincing prospects that you that they need your help than you are actually, like, delivering the work, then this episode, this one's for you.

Okay?

I am seeing this pattern come up constantly with clients right now.

These exhausting sales conversations that feel like pushing a boulder uphill, right?

Which we all know really is not possible, okay?

The over explaining of your offers, the defending your pricing, following up with someone who seems interested, but then, like, they just never commit.

Here's the truth of that.

You cannot convince somebody that isn't ready.

All right?

And today I want to break down how to recognize when you have gotten yourself stuck in this pattern of convincing energy, because it is a fast track to burnout.

And, you know, we don't do burnout around here.

Okay, so you're listening to the Real Truth About Business with your host, me, Michelle Denayo.

And this podcast is for service based entrepreneurs who are done with generic advice and are ready for strategic clarity.

So if you are ready, let's dive in to today's episode.

Okay?

Let's start off with a little visualization.

All right?

I want to paint a picture for you.

You get on a sales call with someone who seemed interested in your service, and maybe it's just a discovery call, maybe it's a sales call, maybe it's just a conversation in the dms, right?

Somebody is asking about your services.

They seem really interesting, and you spend, you know, 30 to 40 minutes explaining what you do, why it's so important, how it all works, right?

You find yourself answering objections before they even have a chance to.

To give them to you, right?

You're educating them on why they even need you in the first place.

And you, you leave this call, you know, kind of feeling, like, exhausted, right?

A little bit drained.

And they say to you, wow, this sounds good.

Let me think about it, right?

Or I'll get back to you, right?

Does that sound familiar?

Can we all just admit and raise our hands and say, like, yep, been there, been there, done that, right?

The problem with this is this is that energy of convincing, right?

And I'm just gonna say it for what it is.

Like, this is not a sales skill skill problem, right?

This is a positioning and targeting problem from the beginning, right?

Because you can't convince people to buy that aren't ready, right?

And a lot of you are trying to convince people that are not ready why they should hire you.

Okay?

So a few signs that you are in what I would consider convincing energy.

Okay?

I want to talk about, like, how do you know, like, what does this even, what does it even look like?

How do I know if I'm in that?

Okay, so five, these are kind of five signs that you're in this.

Convincing energy versus just selling of the transformation, et cetera.

Right?

So you're educating on the problem itself, not just positioning yourself as the solution.

Right?

So you're kind of like doing two jobs at once.

You're like creating this problem awareness but also selling the solution.

And what do I mean by this?

You see a lot of these posts on social media, especially about like why you need a coach, why you should invest in a web designer, why you should hire a brand designer, why you need to, you know, work on your messaging and all that.

And I'm, I know that the whys and the how tos and all those posts really work.

But like again the difference here is instead of trying to attract the people and educate the people on like why they need a business coach, you want to attract the people that already know that they need a coach, already know the benefits of having a coach.

They're just not sure you are the solution yet.

Right?

Like that's the difference.

They're problem aware, but they don't know what the solution is.

Okay, so that's sign number one is that you're over educating on the problem itself, right?

You don't necessarily want to get stuck in that energy.

Okay.

Number two is that your sales calls all feel like heavy.

You're just constantly working harder than the person on the other side.

You're over talking the person on the other side on a sales call.

Typically the, the prospect should be doing more of the talking than you are.

They should be asking you clarifying questions.

They should have already done their research.

They should kind of already know what you have to offer and what you're bringing to the table.

And they may just come with a few questions, right?

And they just need some clarification.

They need to just talk it out.

They're verbally processing.

But if you're finding that you're the one doing all the talking, then you're probably in this like convincing energy because you're just over talking them, right?

You're overselling it and you're just.

Because there's something off there.

So you just keep talking.

You just keep talking about the value, the benefits and if you don't like this, we could do this and if this doesn't work for you, we can do this, right?

Like you're just constantly just changing things up and like again, talking about the objections before they even Come up and like you leave these calls feeling kind of exhausted instead of energized.

Right at the end of the call, you're, you're feeling like, oh my gosh, that was so much work.

Like, that was so much talking, right?

That's again, that's because you're in this energy of convincing, right?

And then I kind of jumped ahead to the next one that I had on my little list of points was constantly over explaining, right?

You're over explaining everything you're in.

I, I'm not going to lie, I get caught up in this myself because sometimes my over explaining comes from all the things.

Because my programs are pretty robust, right?

And they include a lot of things.

And so I want people to like, make sure they know of all of the things that are included.

But here's the difference between over explaining that and like over explaining about the why, right?

That's the big difference.

It's one thing to talk about like everything that's included.

It's another thing to over explain again why they need this.

You don't want to talk, talk to the people that aren't aware of why they need this.

You want to be speaking to the people who are fully aware that they are in need of help, right?

They are in need of a new website, they are in need of a copywriter, they are in need of a coach or a messaging strategist, branch, right?

You don't want to have what you're bringing to the table.

They should already have some understanding of what you're bringing to the table.

Another one is defending your pricing, right?

And some of us just do this out of default.

There's a lot of reasons why we defend our pricing.

But again, it's this convincing people to join.

You don't need to convince them of the price, right?

They've already done their research, they've already done their due diligence.

If you're not hiding the pricing, they've already done their research on it.

When you're having to defend your pricing, you're talking to somebody that's probably not quite ready and, or they're saying like, well, what does it include?

And maybe they're just like on the edge.

And so you're in this constant state of like, well, I could do this and it also includes this and it also includes that and I've got this and I've got that and it also this.

And if you want that, right, like you're over explaining and defending your pricing and you don't want to get into a place where you're constantly having to defend your position, right?

It's.

Here's who I am, here's what I do, here's the surface, the service I offer, and let's talk about whether or not this is a good, good fit for you.

Not a here's why you.

You need this.

Here's why I think you should consider this.

Here's why.

Here's why I need the price is the price.

Here's the way.

You know what I mean?

Like, there you see the difference in the energy, okay?

And then you're following up with like, repeatedly with lukewarm leads, right?

People who have seemed interested but don't, don't ever follow up.

They're kind of ghosting you.

You're kind of like hoping that one more touch point will help them to commit.

And again, and I think it's in how you're following up, because I definitely have had clients in my pipeline that have taken quite a few touch points.

So I'm not an anti touchpoint person.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't actually, like, really reach out more than one time.

And like, this is a great way to stay top of mind.

And a lukewarm lead is still a lukewarm lead.

And without staying top of mind, they can go cold.

And that's another conversation.

But what you want to do is make sure that you're not touching base with them and following up with a lead that you know damn well is not ready for you.

And that is I.

People get stuck in this.

I see this pattern all the time.

It's like, you know, they're not quite ready.

You know, they're not going to be the best fit client.

But it's like, but I know I can help them, right?

But just because you know you can help them doesn't mean they're ready for your help, right?

And so you kind of get yourself in this position where you're like, always, like, following up, even though, like, you know that it might not be the best fit for you.

And so, like, you've got to listen to your gut a little bit on this one.

All right?

So that those are kind of the five things, right?

Educating on the problem itself, not just sharing the solution.

Your sales calls feel super heavy and exhausting and, like, overwhelming.

And you feel like you're doing all the talking, so you're constantly over explaining yourself and everything that's included.

You're defending your pricing, and then you're following up with these lukewarm leads that you know are not quite Ready?

Okay.

And so here's the thing about it, is that in nine years of doing this, hundreds of clients working, myself being the client on the receiving end, you cannot convince somebody who is not ready to buy or somebody who is not showing interest in your offer.

Right?

And I again, it's not up to us to make decisions for other people.

But think about this in so many different ways.

We get fed so many commercials and sales and offers and everything else.

If you are not interested, you are not interested, right?

Like there's not, not a single ad in the world that's going to change your mind if it's not something you're interested in.

And I'm going to give you an example of this personally right now for myself as I am nine years into this business and I know I am very, very clear in what and who I need to help me get to that.

What I am considering my next level and it is not a coach in this way right now.

Okay?

Like I do not feel as though I need a coach right now.

I know what the strategy is.

I am focused on being my own best client.

I know what that looks like.

I'm not saying never.

I'm saying in this season right now I don't need a coach.

What I need is accountability.

What I need is other people's perspectives.

Mastermind.

I need some verbal processing.

So I need somebody that I can just bounce ideas off of.

Right?

A peer to peer, more mastermind situation, accountability situation.

That is what I am in need of and what I have found.

The best coach in the world is not going to convince me that I need them right now because I don't want it.

I'm not interested.

Right.

I'm not searching for that solution.

Right?

So why would I?

And I am very open and honest with that.

It's not to say I will never be ready.

So I'm not saying don't stay in touch with me.

I'm not saying don't, you know, keep me top of mind.

I'm not saying don't nurture me.

But what I'm saying is, is you're not going to sell me because I don't want that service right now.

Okay?

And again, that's just being honest.

That's being very clear.

And so that's what I'm talking about is knowing you need to speak to the people who are problem aware.

I know that my problem is follow through accountability.

Tenacity is not my working genius, which means follow through and all of that.

Okay.

You can't, you know, think about this in other respects.

Like you can't get somebody to sign up for a personal trainer if they don't want to work out.

You know, you're not going to sell somebody a course if they know damn well that they're never going to do it as a DIYer, right?

Like you could have the best course in the world.

It doesn't matter if somebody is not a DIY type person.

That's not how they learn.

It's not how they take action.

You are not going to sell them a freaking course, right?

So stop trying to convince them why they need the course.

Because there's people out there that need a course or want a course.

You need to be selling to those people, not to the people that are never going to watch the freaking course, right?

Like that's the thing is that when you get yourself into this convincing energy, you're doing double the job is that you're trying to create this problem awareness.

You're trying to get people to a point where they are aware of a problem that they don't currently see, right?

That they're not currently willing to deal with or change because they don't see it as a problem.

And you're trying to sell a solution.

And those are two very different places in your pipeline.

They are two separate jobs.

And this is where the exhaustion comes in.

This is where the burnout comes in.

Is trying to do both.

Convincing takes 10 times the energy of serving someone who already knows they need help.

Okay?

That's the biggest difference.

Remember, it's that you are trying to sell to the people who are already aware that they are in need of the service you provide.

Not the ones and they just don't know that you're the solution yet, right?

Not the ones that are trying that have no idea that they are in need of your service, Right?

They're still in the DIY phase.

They're trying to hire somebody else right now.

There's always room for education.

But again, like, I just don't want to see people get into this, this convincing energy when there are other people out there ready and waiting who are already ready and waiting, right?

So why are you trying to drag somebody along that you're having convince is a good, you know, that you're a good fit versus just working with a person who's saying, hey Michelle, I think I need you.

Right?

Think about that.

Like you could follow up over here with somebody who's like, I don't know, I'm kind of on the fence.

Let me ask you this question.

Let me ask you this question.

Or you could follow up with the person that says, michelle, I think I need you.

I. I'm ready.

Just, I've got a few questions.

Can you answer them?

Like, the, the energy that goes into saying, like, yeah, absolutely.

Let me answer those few questions.

Does that help?

Yep, that's everything I needed.

I'm good to go.

Sign me up.

Right?

The energy that goes into this convincing, that's what leads to the burnout, right?

So that's what I want you to really remember, is that when you are working in this convincing energy, you end up with clients who are not fully committed.

They were, they were convinced, right?

They were not compelled.

They did not make this decision out of like, it wasn't necessarily a lot of times a hell yes, right?

It was kind of a yes.

But instead of like that, hell yes, I am so ready.

And so a lot of times they're slower to implement, they're quicker to question the process.

They don't show up fully, and they don't always get the best results because they weren't ready.

And that can affect your confidence.

That can be very draining on you.

And then you start to get that pit in your stomach.

You start to wonder, like, is this worth it?

Is this offer wrong?

Did I price this too high?

Did I?

Why am I getting the wrong fit people in here?

And the reality is, and like, that can cause you to spiral and start changing up your offer, changing your pricing, changing your positioning, changing who you're talking to, all of those things.

And like, quite honestly, there could be absolutely nothing wrong with your offer.

It's just that the person that you convinced to buy it wasn't the right fit client.

And that's what leads to this inconsistency.

It leads to this burnout, it leads to this exhaustion.

And then this pattern in this cycle just kind of repeats, repeats, repeats.

And that is so freaking difficult.

And so you end up with this, you know, lower close rate, you end up with a longer sales cycle, and you're spending all of this energy for a fraction of the results and then wondering why you're burned out.

Right?

Raise your hand if you've ever been there.

I've been there.

Remember?

I'm nine years into this.

I've made that mistake.

I've gotten myself caught up into this convincing energy.

So what do you do instead?

What do you do instead is you focus on the people who already know they have this problem, right?

Your job is to show them that you specifically are the solution, not to convince them that there's a problem in the first place.

And this happens through two things, positioning and pipeline.

All right?

So on the positioning side, you, your messaging, your conversations, the way you introduce yourself, the way you talk in networking, the way you show up online, right?

Needs to be speaking to the people who are already problem aware, right?

They know something is wrong.

They just don't know how to fix it, right?

They're exploring options.

They're feeling this agitation.

They're feeling like, okay, something's up, something's wrong, I need help, right?

They're on.

They are already feeling that.

They are already saying, sensing that, right?

So this is why, like in my own marketing, I often talk to people who are hitting a revenue plateau, right?

Because oftentimes they've either outgrown their pricing, their pricing is not in alignment, right?

And so the problem is like, I'm working so hard and I can't get my revenue to grow, right?

They're already aware of this.

They are recognizing that they are plateauing, that they keep coming up against this wall and they just don't know why, right?

So again, I'm not trying to convince somebody who's brand new in business, right.

That they're coming up against a revenue plateau, right?

That's not.

Because that doesn't make sense, right?

And that I'm not trying to convince somebody who's brand new about all of these things, about why it's so important to have this and that and this and that.

And I mean, I could, I could.

But I also know that ideally I want to work with those who are like, okay, I already can see the writing on the wall here.

I can already see that my pipeline's drying up a little bit.

And I don't necessarily know where I need to go from here.

I can already see that sales are a little bit inconsistent.

I have a good month and then a slow month, right?

Like, they're already noticing these patterns within their business and I'm presenting the solution, okay?

So that's the difference, right, Is that you've got to make sure you are speaking to the people who are already aware that something is adrift, right?

That something is off in their business, okay?

So that's on the positioning side.

On the pipeline side, you've got to know again, where in your pipeline do people become problem aware, right?

When all of a sudden, when do they start to realize that they are aware they have this problem?

So, you know, I talk about pipeline all the time, and I speak about it from a place of, like, awareness.

People are just becoming aware of you to interest, consideration, decision retention.

Right?

So those are kind of my pipeline.

I'm not going to try to sell to somebody who literally just became aware of me, right?

Not saying it doesn't happen.

There are people that listen to this podcast, they found me through somewhere, we're listening to another podcast, searching, whatever and they love what they hear.

They binge it and then they sign up for Back Pocket Insights or they book a strategy call or.

Right.

So again, that's their journey.

But when I'm speaking to in my messaging and I'm looking at it on my pipeline from my pipeline perspective, I am speaking and following up with the people that are in that interest to consideration phase.

Right.

They've already shown interest, they have already made some action that has told me they are considering and they're just not sure if my offer or which program might be the best fit.

Right.

And so it's my job to like help them to decide and help them to get to a decision.

But again, it's not about convincing them, is about saying like, hey, here's the problem you came with, here's the situation, here's the solutions that I offer.

Which one do you think is the best fit?

Okay, so again, I'm not spending 30, 40, 50 minutes convincing people that they need help.

I'm not convincing them trying to say, yeah, but if you do this or do you realize this is happening, do you really, you know what I mean?

I'm not in this place of like, I'm trying to convince you why you want to jump into the focus visionary accelerator.

Right.

You're already aware that it is a solution.

Right?

We just have to talk about whether or not it's a good fit for you.

Okay.

That's.

There's just a different energy there.

There's a different energy.

So you've got to look at it both from the positioning side and on your pipeline side.

Like first and foremost, are you even bringing people into your pipeline that are problem like that are aware that you are a solution.

Right.

Are you even drawing in the right clients to begin with?

And then the second side of it is like once they're in your pipeline, where do you help them to make a decision?

Okay.

And so I want to now I want to just shift really quickly to close this episode out.

I'm going to give you like a few questions to give yourself a bit of a self assessment here.

Okay.

So here's kind of how to audit your current situation.

I want you to look back at your last, maybe three, five.

However, I don't care how many you want to go back on.

Maybe even just your last two.

Right.

Your last.

The conversations and the inquiries.

Right.

How much time did you spend explaining the problem versus positioning you as the solution?

Okay.

Right.

So here's the question.

How many times did you.

How much time did you spend explaining the problem versus positioning you as the solution?

Okay.

If it's more than 20ish percent of the conversation, you're likely talking to people that aren't ready.

Right.

Remember, the prospect should be doing most of the talking, not you.

Okay.

How many of those conversations converted?

And I don't mean like eventually they converted.

I'm saying like you had the conversation and they were like, yep, I'm in.

Okay.

I just had this happen when I did the FBA price increase.

Right.

I had several conversations and five or six of them, I can't remember exactly would like Michelle, tell me a little bit more about fda.

And we did, we jumped on a call, some of us, we just did email.

Some of them were in boxer and it was like, yep, okay, I'm good.

And within a day they were signed up.

Right.

That's what you're trying to like, how many of the conversations were you having that were like a hell yes from the beginning?

Okay, so if you're closing less than 30%, then you want to really look at like where your pipeline is off.

All right, Number three is where are your leads coming from?

Referrals from past clients obviously tend to be more ready because they're coming with context.

Are you doing cold outreach?

Are you like casting this massively wide net and hoping anybody and everybody comes in?

Right.

Like really thinking about that of like, where are you actually finding your leads and are they the right people?

And then what is your follow up sequence look like?

Right.

If you're sending more than three to four follow ups and they're not booking like you're kind of chasing.

So I would start to space out your follow up.

I would re.

Approach.

I would really not again.

Is it just that they're not ready.

Now I'm going to give you an example.

I am a problem aware, solution aware client for somebody right now.

And I have been pushing her off since, I don't know, December maybe before that.

Just because I just haven't been in a space where I could concentrate on it.

Like there's just been a lot of things going on.

But again, she's not chasing me.

She knows you know how to find me.

I've given you all the information.

Right.

Like she's not Chasing me because she's not trying to convince me.

I'm already aware that she is the solution to the problem that I have, it's just on me to buy.

Right?

But she's not trying to convince me and she's not chasing me.

And that's the difference.

Right?

It's like, right.

Really looking at like, is somebody just saying to you, quite honestly, like, I'm in.

I'm just, I have this, this and this.

Or is it that they're asking you a million questions, well, what am I actually going to get?

And what if I wanted to do this and what about this?

Right?

That's the difference.

Okay, so again, I'm just going to wrap this up and here's what I want you to take away from this episode, if nothing else, is that you cannot convince someone to buy that isn't ready, okay?

And trying to do so is the like fastest track to burnout in a service based business.

And we do not want to get to burnout.

So your energy is much better spent finding and serving the clients who already know they need your help.

Okay?

It's not about having better sales tactics, it's not about having a better marketing strategy.

It's not about sales psychology, whatever.

This is a clear strategic positioning and creating a pipeline of ready buyers.

Okay?

And also just remember, if you are finding yourself, if you're nodding your head and you're saying, yeah, Michelle, you know what, this is me, I'm in this convincing energy, right?

It's just not that you're, you're not doing anything wrong, right?

It's one, nobody's probably ever pointed this out to you, right?

Two, it's the people that are in your world.

So of course they're coming to you and you feel like you need to serve them in this way, right?

But they're not ready and it's fixable, right?

Like you can fix this very, very easily.

This is an easy fix.

This is something that we fix all the time.

Inside of the Focus Visionary accelerator or inside of a missing piece Intensive.

This is one of the main things that I work on with people.

Inside of the missing piece intensive is really looking at this strategic positioning, really understanding where in the pipeline are people falling off.

What is actually causing this energy of where you're working so freaking hard and not getting the results that you are looking for.

Okay?

So if this episode resonated with you and you are ready for a little bit of clarity, you are more than welcome to book a free CEO strategy call.

The link is in the show notes.

We're going to spend 30 minutes.

We'll diagnose, like, what is actually happening, where there's a little bit of a disconnect, where this is all kind of falling apart.

Is it on the positioning side?

Is it on the pipeline side?

Really, we can look at that and map out and really figure out what needs to happen next.

So the link is in the show notes.

If you are ready, book the call.

It's completely free.

No obligation.

All right.

And I will see you in the next episode.

I love you.

I believe in you, and I will talk to you soon.