If you think through the reasons why you typically hesitate to buy something big when you're a potential client yourself, it can give you clues on what you need to do in your own marketing.

Let's say I was looking to hire a personal trainer.

I'd want to know if the trainer was good at their job, of course, and had successfully helped people like me get fit.

But at the back of my mind, I'd always be worrying: “maybe it worked for them, but I'm different.”

Maybe I won't be able to do the exercises. Or stick to the plan. Or find the time. Or a whole host of other reasons why it won't work for me specifically.

If you perform a service for people, or coach them or advise them or train them then they're likely to have similar concerns.

“Will this service work for me? Am I coachable? Will I be able to follow this advice? Will I be able to implement what I've learned in the training?”

Normally, of course, we call those things objections and salespeople learn techniques to overcome them.

But overcoming objections is tough.

It means being persuasive enough that the person with the objection ignores it or overrules it.

And that's not easy when the objections are primarily about the person themselves being unsure if they'll be able to do something. How do you persuade someone of that?

A much better approach is to get the person to take action that will prove to them – at least in a small way – that they can do this.

If the personal trainer sent me a video with a couple of simple exercises and got me to do them every day for 5 days, then that would give me much more confidence that I'd be able to do the full program than any amount of clever persuasion techniques.

And it's why, in your marketing, you should be trying to get your potential clients to take action.

A lead magnet is a great place to do this.

Normally with lead magnets we focus on them being attractive so that potential clients sign up to get them. And we focus on them delivering value, because that raises our credibility.

But ideally, we should also use our lead magnets to get our potential clients to take action. 

Even if it's a small action, if it gets results for them it will significantly raise their confidence that they too can do this. And that will go a long way to getting them ready to buy something from you.