Ep 43 - Why does business seem slow this month?

Episode Show Notes

Welcome to Beyond the Clinic

I’m Sarah Almond Bushell, and in this episode, we’re addressing a common challenge - what to do when business feels slow.

Many assume that people aren’t spending in January, but that’s not necessarily true. There are strategies you can implement right now to attract more clients, no matter the time of year.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How to effectively pitch your offer to encourage immediate action

• The power of urgency and how to use it to drive bookings

• Overcoming objections before they become barriers to sales

• The importance of audience nurturing to build long-term trust

• How to follow up with leads to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table

Key Takeaways

• Business slowdowns aren’t just seasonal – they often stem from reduced visibility and sales activity

• Are you actively selling? Simply showing up online isn’t enough; you must directly invite people to work with you

• Create urgency – limited spots, deadlines, bonuses, and price increases help encourage immediate action

• Handle objections early – address concerns around time, money, and readiness in your marketing content

• Follow up with potential clients – a simple check-in message can make all the difference

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Book a Discovery Call with Sarah: https://thechildrensnutritionist.as.me/discovery  

• Follow me on Instagram: @dietitiansinbusiness

• Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast?sub_confirmation=1

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

• If you found this episode valuable, take a screenshot, share it on Instagram, and tag me @dietitiansinbusiness. Let me know which action step you’re implementing first.

• Need extra support? My diary is open for discovery calls—click the link in the show notes to book a time.

Next Episode

Join me next time for Why the Algorithm Isn’t Your Enemy—the truth about how social media really works and how to make it work for your business.

Until then, remember: Business only feels slow if you let it. The ones who take action are the ones who thrive.

I'd love to hear from you, click the link to 'text' the show directly

Mindset Programme Waitlist: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/mindset-waitlist

The Master Plan:

Helping you build the business of your dreams. Get your 22 point step-by step workbook here: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

Connect with me:

Website: https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dietitiansinbusiness

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondtheclinicbusiness

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

Episode transcription:

Sarah Almond Bushell: [00:00:00] Have you ever felt like business is just slow? Like no matter what you do, people just aren't booking with you. I'm in a few dietitian focused groups and forums. And in January, I heard this a lot. Maybe you're hearing the same thing from colleagues, Oh, it's just a quiet time of the year, or people just don't have the money to spend right now, but what if I told you that that's not actually true? 

People still buy off season. There's always something you can do to keep your business moving, even when things feel really slow. So in today's episode, I'm breaking down why business really feels quiet, and more importantly, what you can do to change it. I'm going to walk you through the five things that successful business owners do, no matter the time of year, to make sure that their income and bookings don't dry up. 

So by the end of this [00:01:00] episode, you will know exactly how to pitch your offer in a way that gets people to take action, create urgency so clients stop putting off booking in with you, handle objections before they've even come up in conversation, keep your audience nurtured so they want to work with you, and Finally, make sure that you are not leaving money on the table. 

So if you're ready to shift your business out of slow mode, you're in the right place today. Let's get started. 

So let's talk about what's really going on when people say business feels slow. So many of you, my colleagues, my clients, my peers, I've heard the same thing being said recently. January just feels so quiet. I don't know if it's the time of year, people aren't spending very much. Maybe they're just broke after Christmas and I get it, I really do. 

It's unsettling when inquiries slow down, when engagement drops, when new client bookings or [00:02:00] sales just aren't coming in the way they did a few months ago. So initially you might wonder, is it just me? And then you go online or you hop into a business group or you chat with a colleague and suddenly you're seeing that same complaint everywhere. 

Oh, after Christmas, it's just a really bad time for people in business, or no one has the money to invest right now, or actually people are distracted with other priorities. After payday it'll be better. These are the sort of things that you hear, and before you know it, you're nodding along, you're buying into that idea that business is slow, it's out of your hands, that it's a seasonal slump, that no one is spending money right now. 

But is that really true? Or is that just a story that's easiest to believe? I want to challenge that. Before blaming the economy or the seasonal slump, I want you to ask yourself, what action have you taken in order to sell? [00:03:00] I know, that might have stung a little bit, but stay with me here. I want you to think back to a time when business felt really good, when business felt easy, when people were buying, when clients were coming in, when leads were engaging with you. 

And what were you doing differently then? Were you talking about your offer more frequently? Were you more active on social media? Were you engaging in conversations with potential clients? Were you creating content that directly addressed your audience's struggles and showing them how you could help them? 

Now compare that To the last few weeks when business has felt slow and just ask yourself, have you actively pitched your offer as much as you did back then? Have you consistently put your message out there? Have you been following up with leads and have you created a clear reason for people to buy now? 

Instead of later, [00:04:00] so if the answer to any of those is no, then business hasn't just magically slowed down on its own. What's changed is your level of visibility and the amount of selling activity that you're doing. And I know you might be thinking, but Sarah, I have been posting, I have been showing up, but. 

Showing up and selling, they're actually two different things. You might be posting helpful tips. You might be dispelling myths about the whole January, new year, new you stuff. You might be engaging with your audience, but are you actively selling? Are you asking people to work with you or are you just assuming that because you're visible and creating helpful content that people will naturally decide to book in, because there's one thing that I can guarantee it's this. 

People do not buy unless you give them a reason to buy, now.  

So let's dig a little deeper here. What happens when you [00:05:00] buy into that belief that business is slow because of external factors like no one's got any money to spend after Christmas? Subconsciously, you tell yourself exactly that, people are skint. 

Sarah Almond Bushell: So there's no point in putting your marketing efforts to the test. You actually stop talking about your offers because you think what's the point? So guess what? No new clients come in. There's less money coming in. It's not true that people aren't spending. People are still booking holidays in January. 

People are still spending money in the January sales and people are still buying gym memberships. Yes, yes, yes. It's not the fact that people aren't spending. It's just that they're spending on things that feel valuable to them right now. So let's talk about what you can do to change it, because there's always something you can do. 

I've been coaching people about business for seven years, and I've been running this company for the last five. So I've seen the [00:06:00] difference between business owners who struggle, and business owners who thrive. even during those slow seasons. And the difference is that the ones who thrive take action instead of waiting for things to change. 

I have one client who launches her product, who runs a sales campaign for her product, service I should say, in between Christmas and New Year. You would assume that nobody's buying at that stage, but actually she sells then. And it works. So let's break this down to five things that you can do right now to shift your business and start seeing momentum again. 

So number one, have you actually pitched your offer? So this is the first and the most important question, really. Have you directly asked people to buy from you recently? And I don't mean Dropping hints about your services or mentioning a program you have or posting a helpful tip and assuming people will click on the link in [00:07:00] your bio to learn a bit more about you or just expecting people to land on your website and book in. 

What I'm talking about here is a direct invitation. You might say something like, I've got two spots available this month for one to one clients. If you've been waiting for the right time, this is it. DM me to chat, or you might have something like the doors to my program close on Friday. If you've been thinking about it, now is the time. 

Or it could be, if you want to hit your goals, this is the best way to do it. Let's get you booked in. So if you haven't made a very clear and direct offer in the last week, that's the first step that I want you to take because people can't buy if they don't know what's available to them. 

Number two, have you built urgency around your offer? Here's a big one. If people think that they can buy your thing at any time, they're never going to buy. People need a [00:08:00] reason to act now instead of putting it off. And this is where urgency and scarcity come into play. It's a fundamental part of the sales strategy for all successful business owners. 

So think about it. January is full of urgency driven marketing. Gyms push the whole new year, new you malarkey. Brands push limited time January sales. Travel companies push book now for summer and get a free child place. The reason why they do this Is because they know that if they don't create urgency, people will wait. 

And waiting means lost sales. So how can you create urgency in your business? For us, it's things like having limited spots. I've only got three spaces left this month. It's deadlines. My program closes its doors on Friday and they're not going to open again until October. It could [00:09:00] be bonuses. If you join before Sunday, you'll get a free 30 day meal plan, for example. 

Or it could be price increases. This is the last five days at this price before it goes up. So if your audience thinks that they can book in at any time, They're always going to wait for later and sadly later never comes. So you have to give people a reason to act now. 

Number three is about handling objections and whether you've done this in your content. So another reason that people don't buy is because they've got objections. So objections are the reasons why your offer is not going to work for them. So it's the things that make them veer towards a no rather than a yes. 

And if you are not addressing objections, your potential client won't overcome them on their own. So objections, they tend to fall into three categories. You've got your mindset barriers. Which are these [00:10:00] internal objections. So these are things like, I'm not ready enough yet. I'm not slim enough yet. I'm not clever enough. 

I can't cook well enough for this yet. And the best way to handle that is to share client success stories, but of people who are just like them. They also might be thinking things like this method, it just won't work for me. And this is the objection to the actual process or your unique methodology that you use with clients. 

So again, you want to be showing behind the scenes of how you work with people. And particularly in relation to who they are, who your ideal client actually is and what's going on in their day to day lives. The second type of objection that people often have are external objections, so barriers in the outside world. 

So for us, it can often be things like, I don't think my problem is serious enough to need professional help. [00:11:00] And actually, a lot of people wait too long before they see a dietitian or a healthcare professional because they assume that their issue isn't bad enough. They tell themselves things like I should be able to manage this on my own. 

It's not like I've got a serious medical condition. Or I'll just try another diet or another meal plan or buy this supplement and I'll see if it helps. So the best way to address this in your content, again, is through those clients success stories, but showing that earlier intervention leads to better long term results. 

So it could be something along the lines of my client was really struggling with bloating, but didn't think it was bad enough to need help. But after working together, she realized just how much discomfort she was tolerating, and now she feels amazing every single day. It's also worth talking about why waiting can actually make things worse. 

For example, it might be something like, the longer you go on without support, the harder those [00:12:00] habits are going to be to change. Imagine just how much easier life could be for you if you felt good now instead of in six months time. I often have to do this one with my fussy eater clients who parents think that they can just do this on their own, but often the longer it takes, the older the child gets, the harder it is to address. 

Another common one in this category of external Objections is, I need to talk to my doctor first. So many people hesitate to invest in our services because they believe that they either need a GP referral or they need some kind of official medical approval before working with us. They may not understand that AHPs can work independently. 

So how are we going to address this in our content? First of all, we need to educate them on our role as a professional in healthcare. For example, if you're a dietician like me, it could be something in your content that says you don't need [00:13:00] a GP referral to work with me, you can just book in directly, because dieticians are trained to support your health directly and often work alongside doctors for even better results. 

You might need to address common conditions where dietician support is really valuable. So for example, I might say something like doctors are amazing at diagnosing, but they often don't have any training in nutrition. They can't advise you on what to eat, on what to avoid, on improving your gut health, or even on meal planning. 

That's where I come in. And then you want to be sharing examples of how your support has helped people with their. medical condition So, For example, if your doctor has told you that you have PCOS, but left it at that, without a clear action plan, I can help you bridge that gap with tailored nutritional guidance. The third type of objection is always going to be the objection to your [00:14:00] process. 

This is the skepticism that people might have. Will it actually work? Or, I've tried something like this before. And I didn't get the results I was looking for. So the way you handle this is you explain in your content, why your approach is different, what makes it unique and the evidence you have to show that it works. 

So it could be research. That you can explain. It could be a client survey sharing success rates, and of course it could be those past client case studies showing their amazing results. And you can also compare your method with alternative methods, so really highlighting what you do differently. For example, if you work in weight loss, call out the problems with popular diet fads, or even the big slimming clubs, and of course explain why yours is so much better. 

If you're not actively addressing these objections in your day to day content, people are going [00:15:00] to stay stuck in their doubts and your job is to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. So there's two additional universal objections that all business owners have to address and it would be remiss of me if I didn't mention these now. 

The first one is time and the second one is money. So we know that people are always going to say, Oh I haven't got time to do your program right now, or the classic one, I just can't afford it. So these usually pop up at the buying stage when they are mulling over that decision. So it's really useful to have some solutions ready for them in your back pocket. 

when they start bringing them out and telling you. So for example, when people tell me they haven't got time to do my fussy eating fixed program, I tell them not to worry. There's no rush. It's self paced. They can do it in their own time. They have forever access, and so they can really [00:16:00] take their time with it. 

And for the money objection I've always got a handy payment plan option for them. Okay. So that was step three and that was a biggie. So let's just recap where we're up to now. So step one, have you actually pitched your offer lately? Step two, have you given people a reason to act? Now, and step three, have you been addressing their objections consistently in your content? 

Think your social media posts, your emails, even podcast episodes and YouTube videos, if you do them. Okay, moving on to step four, 

have you been nurturing your audience? If you're getting engagement, but no sales, it could be that your audience just isn't . Warmed up enough yet, because buying isn't a logical decision. It's emotional. So people need to trust you before they invest. So ask yourself, what have I been doing to build relationships? 

[00:17:00] Have I been chatting in the DMs on Instagram? Have I been responding to comments on my social media posts or on my blog? Have I been answering people's questions? Have I been showing up consistently and delivering high value content? So not just when I want to sell something, but have you been consistent with your weekly emails, your weekly podcasts, your videos, your blogs, your live sessions? 

This needs to happen continuously in order to build those connections. And have I been creating content that truly connects with people? So have you been sharing personal experiences, behind the scenes, engaging storytelling? Because remember, people don't buy from businesses. They buy from the person that they trust and engage with and connect with the most. 

And trust comes from consistent value driven engagement. 

And then [00:18:00] number five, are you following up with leads? Now, this is a big one because so many business owners literally leave money on the table by not following up with people who've expressed an interest. Not everyone is ready to buy straight away. Sometimes they're about to, and then they just got distracted. 

Sometimes they were waiting for payday and then forgot. Sometimes it's just the wrong time in their lives. So if someone has inquired about your service, but didn't book in, follow up with them. If someone expressed an interest, but said, maybe later, follow up with them. Did someone engage with your content and ask all the right questions, but they just didn't take the action that you were expecting them to do? 

Just follow up. Many people just need that little extra nudge, and it's just a simple message like, Hey, I know we chatted about this a couple of weeks ago, but I just wanted to check in and see if you had any questions. No pressure, [00:19:00] but if you're still interested, I'd love to help you. Just a little gentle reminder can make all the difference. 

Okay, so now that we've covered all the ways that you can take control of your business, I want you to take action right now. I want you to make one direct offer today. That means actually asking people to book in with you, not just hinting at it, but explicitly inviting them to work with you. So whether it's posting on Instagram, Sending an email, that's my preferred option, or even messaging someone who's already shown interest, just take one bold step today that moves your business forward. 

And if you want to take this even further, go ahead and DM me on Instagram and tell me what action you're taking, because I would love to support you with this. All right, I think that's enough for today's episode. We have covered a lot, from why business really feels slow, to the five actions you can take right now to [00:20:00] start seeing momentum again. 

If this episode has helped you see things differently, I'd love to hear from you. Take a screenshot, share it on Instagram, and tag me, dietitiansinbusiness. I'd love to know which of these five steps you're going to implement first. And if you're thinking, OK, Sarah, I do need a bit more support with this, Then I'm delighted to let you know that my diary is open for discovery calls. 

You can head to the show notes and choose a time in my diary and let's chat about how we can move your business forwards. Remember, business only feels slow if you let it because The ones who take action are the ones who thrive. So come on, let's go and make that happen. So that's it for another week, but join me next time, where I am going to be talking about my nemesis, social media. 

It's an episode called Why the Algorithm Isn't Your Enemy. The truth about how social media works. It's a good one. See you then.