097 5-Step Checklist to Get More Clients

If you’re wondering why your private practice isn’t getting clients, this episode will help you figure out exactly where things are going wrong.

In this episode, I walk you through a simple 5-step self-audit that will help you diagnose where your client-getting process might be breaking down. Whether you’re a dietitian just starting out or you’ve been running your private practice for years, there are always small bottlenecks that can quietly stop clients from booking with you.

Instead of guessing what’s wrong, this checklist helps you step back and look at the full journey from stranger → lead → paying client so you can spot exactly where to focus your energy to get more clients as a dietitian.

In This Episode We Cover

• The real reason you might not be getting enough clients in your private practice
 • The 5 stages of the client journey every dietitian business needs
• Why more Instagram posts won’t fix a broken client pathway
• How to check if you’re getting enough traffic and visibility
• Why traffic without lead generation creates a major bottleneck
• The often-overlooked step that builds trust before someone books
• What to look at if people are clicking but not booking discovery calls
• How to identify if your issue is marketing, offer positioning or sales
• The simple way to diagnose exactly where your client pipeline is stuck

Book a free 20-minute discovery call with Sarah to discuss Accelerate
 https://thechildrensnutritionist.as.me/discovery

Enrollment in Accelerate closes at the end of March!
Accelerate is my 12-month business mentorship programme for dietitians and registered health professionals who are ready to build a private practice that brings consistent clients, a real income, and the freedom to work on your own terms.
Book a free discovery call before we close to new applicants if this is your year.
BOOK HERE

Lets keep in touch!

Website:  https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietitiansinbusiness/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dietitiansinbusiness
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

FREE Workbook - The Master Plan

Discover the 22 steps you need to take (in the right order) to build a successful business so you can earn enough to live the freedom lifestyle you dream of. https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan 

Work with me:

• Business Coaching: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/mastermind
• Sarah AI: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/offers/AYjozgYc/
• Book a discovery call: https://thechildrensnutritionist.as.me/discovery

Transcript

Sarah Bushell (00:00)
Do you need more clients for your private practice? Then sit down, relax and grab a cuppa and maybe a notepad and a pen too, or have your notes app on your phone to hand. Because in this episode, we're going to go through five simple self audit checks that you can do in your business to find out where things might be slipping through the cracks when it comes to your process for attracting and converting clients.

So whether you're new to business or you've been in business for a while, this episode will be relevant to you because no matter how long you've been running your private practice, there are always parts of the client getting process that need to be tightened up. You might be in a position now where you feel like you're doing everything you're supposed to be doing and yet you're still not seeing the results in your business. You know that people need your help. You know that you could make a huge difference to their lives.

And yet the clients just aren't there. And the worst part of all of this is you don't actually know why this is or what you're doing wrong. The thing is, if you're not getting enough clients, it isn't because you're bad at business or that you're not cut out for any of this. So this is your reminder firstly, to stop telling yourself that it's usually because something in your process isn't quite clicking somewhere between people seeing you for the first time and actually booking.

In other words, parts of your client journey need a little bit more attention. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through a five self audit steps to help you spot exactly where things are getting stuck. I'm going to help you notice these bottlenecks in your process so that you know where to focus your time and your energy. And you can start finally moving people from strangers to leads to paying clients. So are you ready?

We're going to dive straight in. The first check in the self audit, we are calling traffic. So this traffic check is the very first step because if people aren't finding you, nothing else in the client getting process can actually happen, can it? You can have the best programs or services in the entire world, but if nobody is there to even find you online, you're just not going to get the clients. So this first check is all about visibility.

and making sure that the people who need your help can actually find you. So let's take a look at this traffic check a bit more closely. The first question I want you to ask yourself here is, are you getting in front of enough people? Now, of course, having a huge audience isn't everything. You do not need a massive audience to get clients. However, of course, the more people you have in your audience, the more people you ultimately have to sell your stuff to.

The second question to ask yourself is, are you getting in front of the right audiences? So are these people who are finding you actually your ideal client? You always want to make sure that your traffic is intentional, not just visitors to your website or random followers on Instagram, but actually people who would benefit most from your services and are looking for what you offer and would likely become clients if they see value in what you do.

So what I find happens a lot of the time is people's followers on Instagram are either full of other healthcare providers or other people, but not those who are their ideal client. Now it's totally fine to have a few of these on your follower list. In fact, you can't prevent it, but you want to make sure that you have mostly ideal clients on this list.

Now, if you're running ads to try and grow your audience that way, it's important to also ask yourself, are these ads actually getting a good amount of clicks? If not, chances are that the creative. your images, your videos, and the copy, the captions, words are just not appealing enough and they need a little bit of work. But even if they are getting clicks, it's important to check who is clicking and whether they're the right type of potential client, because high click numbers don't always mean high

quality traffic.

So the question you're probably asking yourself now is, how do I know what enough traffic looks like? Now it's not about hitting a magic number. will look different depending on lots of different factors, including what stage your business or your practice is at. The first step is just to look at the numbers that you currently have. How many new people are finding you each week or each month?

Are you consistently reaching new people or is it mostly the same small group that see your work over and over and over? How many website visitors did you get each month for the last six months? And is this growing? How many new followers have you had each month for the last six months? And is that growing? Now, if these numbers feel low, that's your sign that you need to focus on increasing your traffic and your visibility. Another reason why traffic is important is

that it not only does it mean more people to sell to, it also gives you the foundation to see what's actually working in your process. So it's important to have a sample size big enough to see results. So for instance, if you only get a handful of new people who are finding you each month, it's really hard to tell whether your client getting process is working or not, because there just isn't enough data. So step one, take a look at your numbers.

You don't need to obsess over the exact numbers, but you do need a consistent flow of people seeing your work. The bigger and the more intentional your audience, the more opportunities you'll have to turn any interest you get into bookings. Okay, we're now going to move into the second of the self audit checks. And this second check is called leads. So this next step.

Really important because once people are noticing you and you're getting the traffic, the next question is, are those people taking a step forward to show some interest? In other words, are they becoming leads? So this could look like signing up for your email list, downloading a free or reaching out to ask you questions after finding you online. Having leads consistently coming into your business is 100 % crucial because traffic without leads

It's like casting a net into the ocean but never catching any fish or like planting seeds in the garden and then never watering them. Pretty pointless, right? You could have plenty of people noticing you, but if they're not moving closer to working with you, your process is hitting a bottleneck.

The moment that someone takes that first small step with you, whether it's signing up to a free resource or reaching out to you after finding you online, then you've got a chance to nurture that relationship, to provide more value and to guide them towards becoming a paying client. So for this step in your self audit, take a careful look at your numbers from traffic to leads. In other words,

How many people who are finding you are actually taking that next step with you? So for instance, opting in for that free resource or reaching out via an email. If these numbers are low, it's a sign that something in your lead process needs attention. Maybe your free resource isn't clearly showing the value that it provides. Maybe the sign up page for your freebie needs a bit of tweaking, could be clearer. Or the free resource itself,

isn't actually hitting the problem that your ideal clients care about enough. So some small tweaks here can make a really big difference. Okay, now let's move on to check number three. And this next part of the self-audit is called consumption. And it's another really important stage. This is all about whether your leads are actually engaging with the content and the value that you're putting out.

because getting traffic and turning them into leads is great, but if those leads aren't consuming your content, they're not actually moving closer to booking a call with you or purchasing your services. So ensuring that your leads are actively consuming and interacting with your content is essential to moving them through the client getting process. So what does consumption mean in practice? Well, it's all about how your leads interact with the content that you're sharing.

So for example, you might host a webinar, so an online training session where you teach or explain something valuable about your area of expertise and your leads might register to attend live or they might choose to watch a recorded session. Consumption here means they actually attended, watched most of the session and stayed engaged with what you were teaching. Or say you might do a...

Five day free challenge. So five days of giving a small amount of free value or tips or mini lessons each day to your audience. So for example, it could be a five day gut reset challenge or five day keto challenge, whatever your area is. Consumption here means that participants actually showed up for the tasks each day and interacted. Or you might send weekly emails.

And consumption here means that people are opening your emails. They're watching your videos. They are clicking on the links. All of those count as engagement. So the key question here is, your leads engaging with your content? If they're not, this is a bottleneck.

So how do you spot the bottleneck? Well, again, we look at our numbers. How many people are actually opening the emails? How many people are clicking on the links in the emails? How many people are showing up to your webinars or your five day challenges? If these numbers are low, it tells you that something isn't landing. And then of course, the next step is to look at why. Maybe the topic of your webinar didn't resonate or your challenge wasn't addressing a real problem for your audience.

or your emails haven't been enticing enough to make people want to open and read them. Some small adjustments like making the content more practical and actionable or relatable or clarifying the outcomes can significantly improve consumption. Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, my gosh, I don't do any of this type of stuff. I don't send emails. I don't write blogs. I don't record videos. don't host.

webinars, then this is an indication to you that you've got a big bottleneck in your client generating.

pathway.

Remember this step is crucial because it's about making sure that your audience actually experience the value that you provide. And this is how you build trust. So it really is essential for moving them forwards along the client journey towards becoming a client. Okay. We are now moving on to the fourth check-in of the self-audit, which is your sales event.

This is where people take the next step to consider working with you. So whether that's booking a discovery call, clicking a link in your sales emails or staying to listen to the pitch in your webinar. Now, if the numbers are low here, that's a sign that there's a bottleneck in your sales event. To identify whether this is the stage where people are dropping off in the process.

Again, you need to look at your numbers. So what percentage of people are clicking the link to your sales page? What percentage of people have been sent your discovery call link who are actually going forward and booking that call? If these numbers are low, then you need to identify why. Could the problem be the offer itself? You always need to make sure that your offer solves a real pressing problem for your clients and delivers a clear, tangible outcome that they actually want.

Or it could be the offer positioning in your sales emails. People need to see the value in the offer. It needs to be positioned as a total no-brainer in a way. If the results of your offer feel vague or more of a nice to have than a need to have, then people won't feel motivated to take action. Or it could be that the right audience isn't actually coming through the pipeline.

So you need to make sure that the people reaching this stage are genuinely your ideal clients, people who recognise the problem, they want it solved and they are ready to invest in support. And then last but not least, the final and fifth check-in in the self audit is called conversions. And this is where someone moves from being interested to actually becoming a paying client. So the question here is, are people converting?

And by this, mean, are people clicking to buy your programme after reading your sales page? Are people saying yes and joining your offer after a discovery call? If people are reaching the sales event stage, meaning they're booking calls, they're reading your sales page, they're staying on the webinar till the pitch and they're showing interest, but they're not actually saying yes, then the bottleneck is likely to be in your conversion process.

And this is important because if they're interested enough to get on a call or stay and listen to the pitch, that means your traffic, leads, content and offer are likely doing their job. The issue probably isn't visibility. It's what happens at the point of decision. So now you need to look at how you're handling that final step. So for instance, on discovery calls, are you confidently guiding the conversation?

Are you clearly explaining the outcome of working with you? Are you handling objections properly? Are you actually making a clear invitation to work together or are you ending the call with something fairly vague? And actually, is your sales page enticing enough? Are people interested? So they're visiting it. You can see traffic on your Google Analytics report, but they're not actually converting.

might be time to brush up on your sales closing skills.

And if you're someone who does do discovery calls in your business and you think that they're possibly not converting as well as you want them to, then I'd love for you to listen to last week's episode, episode 96.

called Say This on Discovery calls for more yeses because I guide you through exactly what you need to say.

So that's it. We've gone through the five key checks in your client getting self audit. So here's what I want you to remember from this episode. If you're not getting the number of clients you want right now, it doesn't mean your business isn't working. It usually just means that part or parts of the process need a bit of tightening up. So when you look at your business through this lens, it becomes just a system. The second thing to remember is that

every stage builds on the one before. So if something isn't working, resist the urge to jump ahead and tweak the final step before checking in on the earlier ones. Because great sales skills will not matter if not enough of the right people are coming through to find you. So if you've been feeling frustrated about not getting enough clients, I want you to use this self audit as a reset point. Take a little bit of time after this episode.

sit down with your numbers and be honest, identify the bottleneck and focus your energy there. Now, if you want some support actually figuring out where your client getting process is breaking down and fixing it properly, well, that's exactly how I can help you inside Accelerate. So you're not trying to work out on your own or guessing what to change.

Accelerate is my business coaching program designed specifically for registered dietitians, registered nutritionists and registered healthcare professionals who want a clear structured plan to get clients consistently. There are different tiers of support inside the program depending on your budget and how much hands-on support and accountability you need and you can find all the details in the show notes.

including the link to book a free 20 minute call with me so we can have a proper chat about your specific needs and your business goals. This call isn't about trying to sell you into something. It's about making sure that this is genuinely the right fit for you. I don't just let anyone join Accelerate. That's why we have the discovery call. The link just isn't there on my sales page.

It has to make sense for where you're at, your goals and the kind of support you actually need. So this conversation gives us both a chance to explore that properly. We'll look at what's currently happening in your business, where things might be stuck and what would realistically move the needle forwards for you.

There's absolutely zero obligation. And even if we decide it's not the right time or not the right program, you leave with clearer direction and a better understanding of what needs to shift in your client getting process. So if that sounds helpful, I'd love for you to book your call today using the link in the show notes. Bye for now.