Ep 82 - How I Got 12 New Clients in 72 Hours (And How You Can Too!)

Episode Show Notes

Let me tell you a little story about something that completely changed how I think about getting clients. It was a cold, grey Thursday (as they usually are here in the UK), and I was sitting at my desk with a brand-new course idea that hadn't even been created yet.

What happened over the next 72 hours shocked me. I sold 12 spots for that course that I hadn’t built yet, using nothing but a few emails, four web pages, and a small but warm audience. No webinar. No social media blitz. 

Just a waitlist funnel strategy.

This blog is for you if:

• You don’t have a massive following
  
• You want to make sales fast (without selling your soul)
  
• You’re tired of sales campaigns that take over your life
  
  

It was my highest converting launch to date. Let me walk you through exactly what I did.

What Is a Waitlist Funnel? 

A waitlist funnel is essentially a mini-launch. Think of it like an exclusive event behind closed doors. Your offer is only available to those who sign up for your waitlist - not your Instagram followers, not your website browsers, not your email list.

It typically runs over a short window of time (mine was 72 hours), and the key is this: you're only talking to people who are already interested. That means no convincing, no over-explaining, just a genuine, valuable offer shared in a simple, structured way.

The Offer: Social Media Made Simple

I had this idea for a course to help health professionals use social media more strategically - not just posting reels for the sake of it, but actually getting clients from their efforts. It would be called Social Media Made Simple - because social media is actually really quite complicated and I was taking full advantage of my new found passion for AI.

As well as the course I decided to include 8 weeks of implementation support alongside it to make sure my first clients got a VIP experience.

I hadn’t built the course yet. I just had the outline and a Google Doc of what I wanted to teach. 

But I knew my audience needed it. 

They’d told me they were overwhelmed with content creation, unsure what to post, how to get followers and also not seeing any return from their efforts.

So I pre-sold the idea. Here’s how I priced it:

• First 5 spots: £200
  
• All further spots: £375
  
• Full price after launch: £497 DIY / £997 with support
  
  

And for fun, I added a bonus: the first person to purchase would get their money refunded plus a £200 cash bonus. 

I also included a money-back guarantee for anyone who did the work with me over the 8 weeks and didn’t get results.

Low risk. 

High reward. 

And deeply aligned with how I like to do business.

Prepping My Audience First - The Crucial Step Most People Skip

Before I even opened the waitlist, I spent two weeks warming up my audience. And this part is so important. 

I outlined why social media is important for business, but also expressed my personal relationship with it…I don't like social media one bit (although I do love what it does for my business!)

The invitation

After that I sent 3 emails a week for two weeks: one clear invitation to join the waitlist, and two more value based emails with a subtle P.S. mentioning the waitlist. 

I also posted twice a week on Instagram for that fortnight, and once inside a Facebook group where my ideal clients hang out.

I wasn’t shouting or selling hard. I was planting seeds about why social media was important, helping people understand that it can work, and that I had a solution coming.

By leaving their name and email address on the waitlist opt in page, they would get the details when it was ready.

The Funnel: Just 4 Web Pages

This was my entire setup:

1. Waitlist Opt-In Page - Clear, detailed, and included the bonuses and pricing upfront. (so they knew everything before cart open!)
   
   
2. Thank You Page - Included a button to add the ‘cart open’ date to their calendar. Game-changer!
   
   
3. Waiting Room Page - Like a sneak peek of the sales page with a countdown timer that automatically redirected to the sales page when the timer hit zero.
   
   
4. Sales Page - Short, sweet, and to the point. With the ‘Buy Now’ button right at the top and a 3 day countdown ticking away.
   
   

I cannot stress enough how helpful it was to have that add-to-calendar button. People showed up on time because they literally got an alert on their phone and computer.

The Funnel: Email Sequences

Here’s how the emails worked:

• Once someone joined the waitlist, they got a few short emails leading up to the ‘cart open’ date to build anticipation.
  
  
• A few days before the cart opened, they received the link to the waiting room page with a live countdown.
  
  
• Every single email had that countdown timer AND the ‘add to calendar’ button.
  
  

Then, during the 72-hour cart open window:

• Day 1: a 30-minute heads-up email + one reminder later that day
  
  
• Day 2: 1 client story email
  
  
• Day 3: 3 gentle nudges (morning, afternoon, and final call in the evening)
  
  

I wasn’t pushy. I just stayed visible. And it worked.

The Result? 12 Sales. A 55% Conversion Rate. No Burnout.

I had 22 people on the waitlist. A tiny number, but 12 bought.

That’s a 55% conversion rate - in an industry where 5% is average and 15% is considered very good. And remember, I didn’t even have a course ready to go.

6 of the sales came in within the first 25 minutes! I literally had people queueing ready to buy.

8 on the first day and 4 on the last.

What Made This Work?

Here’s what I believe made this funnel so successful:

1. The offer was clear and essential - I had a real understanding of what people wanted and was able to communicate this clearly. 
2. People were warmed up, excited and eagerly anticipating the cart open day
3. The exclusivity and the VIP experience made people feel part of something special.
4. The short, focused cart open window kept the energy high. Because it was available at this exclusive price for 72 hours, there wasn’t time to overthink or hesitate.
5. The ‘prize’ of getting their investment refunded and a £200 cash bonus!

Since then?

After cart close I’ve sold 2 further spots at full price of £997 and another two self-study at £497 so I know I’ve got the pricing right.

My plan is to deliver the course module by module as it’s created, get feedback from my first buyers, refine and update it ready for an official launch in 2026. 

Want Help Creating Your Own Waitlist Funnel?

If you're a dietitian, nutritionist or registered healthcare professional and you're tired of winging it when it comes to selling, I can help.

This is the kind of thing I support my clients with in my group and private mentorship programme Accelerate, we work together on offers, marketing, sales and even mindset - so you’re not doing it all alone. 

And for Black Friday only, you can work with me in 2026 for 2025 prices.

Applications are open now and close on Thursday 18th December. Click here to apply for a spot.

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/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietitiansinbusiness/

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

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

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

Episode transcription:

In today's episode, I'm doing something a little different. I'm going behind the scenes and walking you through my most successful sales campaign ever. It's called a waitlist funnel. And with this strategy, you can get new clients in just a few days with something as simple as a handful of website pages, a few emails, a very small audience and the idea for an irresistible offer.

So whether you've been thinking about doing a pre-sale, Black Friday, or just need a quick cash injection in your business, this episode is for you. I'm going to break down exactly what I did with my waitlist funnel step by step, including pricing, bonuses, emails, the lot. I sold 12 spots on this waitlist, which was actually a 55 % conversion rate. And just to put this into context, the industry average for a waitlist funnel is usually around 5 to 15%.

So this was massively above average and it was pretty simple and quick to do. So you're going to want to stay till the end of this episode for all of the golden nuggets. I want you to leave this episode knowing exactly how a waitlist funnel works and how you can easily apply this to your business to get more clients. And I promise it is super doable, even if you don't love social media or don't have a huge audience. This is probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to bring new clients into your world. So make sure you grab a pen and paper for this one and maybe a cuppa as well.

Okay, first things first, what is a waitlist funnel and why do you want one? Well, it's basically a mini launch. Usually it runs for just 48 or 72 hours. And the key is there's an exclusive offer, one that's only available to people on that wait list. It's not on your website. It's not on your social media. It's not anywhere else.

So you can use a wait list as a pre-sale for a brand new program or a pre-launch to test an offer, a Black Friday special, or actually really anytime you need a quick cash injection. The beauty of a waitlist funnel is that it's email only. You don't need to run masterclasses, webinars or anything super time consuming. You just need a good offer, a time sensitive discount and some bonuses to make it truly irresistible. Because it's email only, your audience has to already understand the value of what it is that you're selling.

So this works best for offers your audience is familiar with or offers that don't need a lot of explanation and actually offers that are under £500 after the discount.

Okay, now let's run through the actual offer itself. So the offer that I was selling was called Social Media Made Simple. It was a brand new course that I hadn't even created yet with eight weeks of implementation support. So inside, I was going to be teaching healthcare professionals how to use social media strategically in order to get more clients.

So I chose social media Made Simple because I knew it was something that my audience genuinely needed. Over time, I'd done a lot of market research, talking to my ideal clients, reading through comments, asking questions in groups. And one thing was crystal clear, people were really struggling with social media. They didn't know how to find potential clients online or even to post to generate sales.

I knew my audience was aware of the problem and I also knew that they were ready for a solution. So this course was perfect. It gave them clear, actionable steps and the eight weeks of implementation support meant that they could put it into practice right away.

Okay, next up, let's talk about the pricing. So I wanted the offer to feel totally irresistible, but also fair, both to my audience and also to myself. So here's how I structured it. The first five spots I sold at 200 pounds. After those five spots sold, the price went up to 375 pounds. And the full price was 497 for self-study DIY or 997 with the eight weeks of support.

So depending on how people joined, they were able to get up to 80 % off. Now to make it even more irresistible, the first person to purchase got their investment refunded plus a £200 cash bonus. Remember, because a waitlist is something that's super exclusive and email only, you want to make sure that you're offering something that is truly, truly enticing.

And then to remove any risk and encourage people to take action, I also offered a 100 % money back guarantee. If someone did the work and the course didn't deliver results, they could get all of their money back. Now this was really, really important because it gave people the confidence to say yes.

So this combination of pricing tiers, the bonuses and my guarantee meant that my audience had every reason to join the waitlist and take action when the doors opened.

Okay, now let's talk about what I did before opening the waitlist because the pre-launch is actually a really, really important step. So before the waitlist even opened, I knew I needed to warm my audience up. So one of the biggest mistakes people make is expecting their audience to buy something that they don't yet understand or see the value in.

So my first step was making sure that people knew why they needed this and understand how it could help them. So that meant by the time my wait list opened, my audience already knew that they needed social media and they wanted this course. I then had a two week period to join the wait list with a combination of email and social media content to achieve this. So I sent three emails per week for those two weeks.

One was just a direct invitation to join the waitlist with a countdown timer for a little bit of urgency. And the other two emails were just subtle mentions in a PS at the end of my usual valuable emails. I also did two social media posts about the waitlist per week for those two weeks, talking about all the amazing benefits of joining.

And last but not least, I did a social media post about the waitlist in a Facebook group where I knew a lot of my ideal clients were hanging out. So just to confirm, the wait list was just somewhere to put your name and your email address. People didn't have to pay for anything. They didn't have to do anything other than that at this stage. Just pop their details on the list.

Okay, let's talk about the website pages because this is where the structure of the waitlist funnel really comes to life. So there was actually four key pages involved. So first of all, there's the opt-in page. Then there was a thank you page. Then there was a waiting room page and then the sales page. And honestly, I think the way that I set these up made a massive difference to the conversion rate. So let's start with the opt-in page. So this is just the page where people joined the waitlist.

People are so much more likely to join if they actually knew what they were joining for. And so my opt-in page had quite a lot of detail on exactly what they were going to get, what bonuses were included, and even the pricing. So some people tend to keep the price hidden until the cart opens, but being upfront really helped people plan ahead and make the decision faster when that sale went live. It also helped to filter out anyone who wasn't really ready to invest. So the people who did join my waiting list were genuinely interested in buying. I also added a countdown timer on that page for bit of urgency.

Next was the thank you page. So this is what people saw right after they signed up for the waitlist. This page had an add to calendar button that meant people could literally click the button and the date and time and link went straight into their phones and calendars. That one simple step can actually massively increase the number of people who actually show up and purchase when the cart opens, because let's be honest, we all forget dates when they're not directly in our calendar. Then I created a waiting room page, which I absolutely loved as part of this setup.

Think of it as like a mini holding space, a version of the sales page that people could visit before the cart actually opened. It also had the countdown timer ticking away. And when that timer hit zero, it automatically redirected into the real sales page. So this made it feel like an event, which again made it feel really quite exclusive.

And then finally, the sales page itself. Now this was a much shorter sales page compared to some of my other sales pages for other things I have in my business. I kept it short, I kept it simple and to the point because the people visiting were already warmed up and they knew exactly what the offer was. There was a buy button right at the very top, a countdown timer underneath that and then all the key information but condensed right down.

It was designed to convert people quickly so people didn't have to scroll and scroll and scroll for ages to find what they needed. Then when that 72-hour window ended, that page automatically redirected to an oops, you missed out message. So each page had a very specific purpose. The opt-in page built anticipation and clarity around the offer. The thank you page reinforced the commitment. The waiting room page created excitement and intrigue and the sales page closed the deal.

I really think having those separate pages had a huge impact on sales because it built a lot of excitement and anticipation and it made it feel like something truly exclusive. Now, one of the most powerful parts of this mini launch was the email sequence that went out to all of those who joined the wait list. Once someone joined, they started getting a few key emails from me in order to build that anticipation.

So I wanted my subscribers to this list to feel genuinely excited for what was coming and to clearly understand why it'd be worth purchasing when the doors opened. So this wasn't about being super pushy. It was about just reminding people because you know what, people live busy lives and they do forget. So a few days before the cart opened, I sent them the link to the waiting room. So basically that version of the sales page with the countdown timer.

And this was the really, really smart move because it meant that they could see exactly when things were going to go live and even bookmark that page. So every email had that visible countdown timer, which worked brilliantly. It reminded people that there was a specific date and time to show up for. And I also included that add to calendar button in those emails so they could literally pop the launch into their phone calendar with one simple click.

Everyone would then have a notification as soon as the doors were open. The combination of these like small touches meant that by the time the doors actually did open, people were just queuing up and ready. They knew what to expect and they were sitting there waiting for that timer to hit zero.

Right, are you still with me? We are very nearly there and this next part is super, super important. When the cart finally opened, the goal was simple, make it as easy as possible for people to buy. Because the buildup had been so intentional, I didn't really need a big long launch day, just a few well-timed nudges just to remind people. So about 30 minutes before the cart opened, I sent an email with a big clear countdown timer again, and a reminder of the exact link that they needed. Once the cart was open, my focus shifted to staying present in people's inboxes without overwhelming them. Because this was only a 72-hour window, every day mattered. So here's how that email flow looked.

On day one, I sent just two emails. The first was the one I've mentioned already 30 minutes before the cart opened and the second came later in the day with a reminder of the limited spots and the special bonuses. On day two, I sent one other reminder email which included a short story of a client who'd had amazing success with her social media.

And then on day three, I sent three really short and sweet emails, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Now this just gave people a final nudge before that cart closed. And then at cart close, as we mentioned before, the sales page automatically redirected to an oops, sorry, you missed out message. And that was it. I ended up with 12 new sales.

Six of them came in within the first 25 minutes, eight on the first day and four on the last. So I went into this launch with realistic expectations. I know that for most waitlist style funnels, a five to 15 % conversion rate is average. I've been in this game a long time and I know what works. So that was my benchmark. If I could hit that, I would have been thrilled.

I knew my numbers would be really small because as freelance dietitians using social media, well, that's a really very tight niche. And actually I only had 22 people sign up for the wait list. But when I saw the sales pinging inside my inbox, I almost didn't believe it. By the time the three days were up, I'd converted it 55%. That meant more than half the people who joined the wait list actually bought.

And I truly think it came down to actually five key things. The fact that I know my niche so well and what they truly needed right now. People already knew they needed help with social media, so I didn't have to convince them. The second thing was the pre-launch content to educate people first. Also, the exclusivity and the VIP experience made people feel part of something really quite special.

The short focused window kept the energy really high because it was only open for 72 hours. There wasn't time to overthink or hesitate. And then the prize of getting their investment refunded and that £200 cash bonus. So it just goes to show small, well thought out launches can outperform some of these huge ones if you get the structure and the energy right.

So I really hope that this short and sweet episode has given you some insight into just how powerful a waitlist funnel can be and also how simple business can be too. You don't need a massive audience. You don't need long launches with big fancy masterclasses to bring in clients. A waitlist funnel works because it focuses on the right people, even if the numbers are tiny. Those who are already warm, already interested and just need a little nudge to take that next step.

It's proof that you can get new clients in just a few days with something as simple as a few well-crafted emails and a clever, irresistible offer. And so if you're someone who doesn't love the idea of running huge live launches or webinars or master classes or challenges, this actually might be the perfect strategy for you to try next. And yes, it does work with nutrition businesses. I've done this many, many times before in The Children's Nutritionist.

If you need a little help, figuring out how to structure your offers or price them or even decide what kind of sales process is best for your client group, then I'd love to help. Come and say hi over on Instagram and I'll happily give you some pointers. Now, one last thing before we wrap up this episode. Don't forget Black Friday is just around the corner. So this Black Friday, I'm offering three of my most loved offers for 50 % off.

These offers have helped hundreds of health professionals grow their businesses and for Black Friday, they're going to be half price. These offers will go back up to their normal price on the 1st of December. I want to make it possible for you to take action on your business goals before the year ends. Plus there's an exclusive opportunity to join my Accelerate Mastermind at 2025 pricing in 2026.

Normally it's £600 a month, for Black Friday you can lock it in at just £500 per month. To secure this price, you just need to book a discovery call with me before I go away for Christmas on the 19th of December. So Accelerate, that's my business coaching experience. It's designed for dietitians and registered health professionals who want more income, more steady clients and greater confidence in building their business.

It's completely personalized to you with a combination of training, group and one-to-one sessions. And there are either six or 12 month options available depending on what you need. So whether you're full-time in your business or you're freelancing part-time or you're still in the NHS and you want to start your business, this could be perfect for you. You can find all the links to my Black Friday offers in the show notes of this podcast episode. Bye for now.