Ep 111 How To Make Daily Sales From Digital Products

If you're anything like the health professionals I work with, you've probably had one of those weeks where life feels full to the brim.

You're squeezing client work around family commitments, catching up on notes after dinner, and trying to remember when you last had a lunch break that didn't involve eating a sandwich over your laptop.

Then someone tells you that you should be posting on social media every day, networking constantly, and showing up online 24/7 if you want more clients.

No wonder so many clinicians feel exhausted before they've even started building their business.

The good news is that there is another way.

Today, I want to show you how to build a client enquiry system that runs in the background. A simple automated sales funnel that helps potential clients discover your work, join your email list, and even purchase your offers while you're getting on with the rest of your life.

Because the truth is, your business should support your life, not take it over.

 

What Is an Automated Sales Funnel?

Let's start by demystifying the jargon.

When people hear the phrase "automated sales funnel", they often imagine complicated technology, endless software subscriptions, and enough automation to make your head spin.

But here's what it really means.

An automated sales funnel is simply the journey someone takes from discovering you for the first time to becoming a paying client.

That's it.

If someone finds you on Instagram, downloads a free resource, reads your emails, and eventually books an appointment with you, they're already moving through a funnel.

The difference is that many health professionals are manually managing every step.

An automated sales funnel allows that journey to happen consistently without you needing to be present every minute of every day.

It's like having a helpful member of staff working quietly behind the scenes whilst you're walking the dog, attending clinic, or enjoying a family day out on the beach.

 

Why Dietitians Need Better Client Enquiry Systems

One of the biggest challenges I see amongst dietitians is that they're relying on visibility alone.

They post content.

They hope someone sees it.

They wait for enquiries.

Then they start the process all over again.

It's a bit like filling a bucket with water whilst there's a hole in the bottom.

You work hard to attract attention, but there's no clear system guiding people towards becoming clients.

The result?

Inconsistent enquiries.

Inconsistent income.

And a business that feels like hard work.

A sales funnel for dietitians creates a structured pathway that gently guides people towards the next step.

Instead of hoping someone remembers you six months from now, you're building a relationship that continues long after they've left Instagram.

 

The Five-Part Automated Sales Funnel I Use

Let me walk you through the framework I use in my own nutrition business.

This system has generated thousands of leads and hundreds of digital product sales without me needing to be online constantly.

 

Step 1: Create a Lead Magnet That Solves an Urgent Problem

Everything starts with a free resource.

This could be:

• A checklist
• A guide
• A quiz
• A template
• A video training

The key is choosing something that solves a specific problem your audience is actively worried about.

People don't download freebies because they're bored.

They download them because they want help.

Your lead magnet should answer an immediate question and create a quick win.

The more specific the problem, the more effective the lead magnet becomes.

 

Step 2: Introduce a Low-Cost Offer

Once someone downloads your free resource, they're already engaged.

This is the perfect time to offer a simple next step.

In marketing, this is often called a tripwire offer.

I know that sounds a little dramatic, but it's simply a low-cost product that solves the next logical problem.

Perhaps your free guide helps someone identify a problem.

Your low-cost offer helps them begin solving it.

This small purchase helps build trust and allows people to experience your expertise in a low-risk way.

 

Step 3: Build an Automated Email Sequence

This is where the magic happens.

And yes, I said magic. (Although thankfully without requiring a wand from Hogwarts.)

Once someone joins your email list, they receive a sequence of automated emails.

Each email has a purpose.

One welcomes them.

One deepens their understanding of the problem.

One shares success stories.

One handles objections.

One reminds them of the opportunity to buy.

Instead of trying to sell immediately, you're building trust one email at a time.

That's what creates conversions.

Not pressure.

Not persuasion.

Trust.

 

Step 4: Focus on Relationship Building

One mistake I see frequently is constant selling.

Nobody enjoys being sold to every day.

After your promotional sequence ends, it's important to continue providing value.

Share useful advice.

Answer common questions.

Tell stories.

Take people behind the scenes.

Talk about what's happening in your industry.

Let people get to know the human behind the business.

Many of my clients are surprised when they discover that some subscribers spend nine to twelve months on an email list before making a purchase.

That's perfectly normal.

Relationships take time.

 

Step 5: Create Future Opportunities to Buy

Just because someone didn't buy today doesn't mean they'll never buy.

Sometimes the timing simply isn't right.

Life gets busy.

Priorities shift.

People need more trust.

That's why successful funnels create multiple opportunities for people to engage over time.

Your email list becomes one of your most valuable business assets because it allows you to continue nurturing relationships long after someone first discovers you.

 

How AI Makes Funnel Building Faster

Five years ago, creating a funnel like this felt overwhelming.

You had to write every email from scratch.

Every sales page.

Every freebie.

Every piece of copy.

Now?

Things are much easier.

AI can help you draft:

• Lead magnets
• Opt-in pages
• Sales pages
• Email sequences
• Digital products
• Webinar outlines

The important thing is remembering that AI should support your expertise, not replace it.

Think of it like having a very enthusiastic assistant who works incredibly quickly but still needs supervision.

The strategy comes from you.

The clinical knowledge comes from you.

The lived experience comes from you.

AI simply helps you get your ideas onto the page faster.

 

What Most Dietitians Get Wrong

Many clinicians focus on creating more content when what they actually need is a better system.

More posts aren't always the answer.

More followers aren't always the answer.

More hours certainly aren't the answer.

What creates predictable growth is having a clear journey that guides people from awareness to enquiry to purchase.

When your client enquiry system is working properly, every piece of content has a purpose.

Every lead has a pathway.

Every subscriber has an opportunity to move forward.

That's what creates consistency.

And consistency creates freedom.

 

Build a Business That Works Around Your Life

One of the reasons I'm so passionate about teaching funnels is because they've created so much freedom in my own business.

I don't want to spend my life glued to my phone.

I want to walk Dustin.

I want to spend time with my family.

I want the flexibility to attend appointments, enjoy a beach walk, or simply switch off without worrying that the business stops completely.

An automated sales funnel gives you that breathing space.

Not because it removes the need for work.

But because it ensures your work continues delivering results long after you've finished it.

If you're currently relying on referrals, social media posts, or word of mouth alone, this might be the next step your business needs.

A client enquiry system running quietly in the background can transform not just your income, but the way your business feels.

And honestly?

That's the kind of success I'm interested in.

The kind that gives you more freedom, more flexibility, and more time for the people and things that matter most.

 

Ready for More Support?

If you'd like help building your own automated sales funnel, creating digital offers, and growing a business that works around your life, applications are now open for the waitlist for the new and improved Accelerate 2.0.

Inside Accelerate, I help dietitians, nutritionists, and regulated health professionals create ethical, sustainable businesses with clear systems, marketing strategies, and sales processes that actually work.

You can join the waitlist here:

https://tally.so/r/44AQWY

I'd love to help you build a business that gives you more choice, more freedom, and a lot less time spent wondering where your next client is coming from.

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:

Today's episode is a really exciting one because we're talking about how to build a sales process in your business that sells your low-cost digital offer on autopilot whilst you're getting on with your normal everyday life. So whilst you're out food shopping or walking the dog or spending the evening watching Netflix or even when you decide to take a day off or have a week's holiday.

People can still be discovering your content. They can be downloading your freebie, going through your emails and buying your low cost digital offer without you needing to be online at all. This feels especially relevant to talk about right now because my life personally at home has been well really quite full on over the last few weeks. My daughter has had a lot of medical appointments that we've had to travel quite a distance for.

I recently collected my son from university for the summer and my house is currently up for sale too. So there's just been a lot going on outside of work, which has meant that I've naturally had to take more time away from the business than usual. But because I've built sales processes around my own low cost offers, it means I can still sell passively every single day.

In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through exactly how a sales funnel for a low cost offer works in my nutrition business. And please don't hear the words sales funnel and immediately run for the hills. I promise it's much simpler and far less terrifying than it sounds. So maybe you've been thinking about what kind of low cost digital offer you could create.

or maybe you've already got one, but you're not quite sure how to actually sell it in a more passive or consistent way without you having to be online all the time. Either way, this episode is going to be great for you. I'm going to show you how, with the help of AI, you can realistically build your own sales funnel for your digital offer in around a week, even if you're only working on it for one hour per day.

So just for context, this episode is the final piece in a little mini series that I've been doing on the podcast recently around building a simple content to cash system. In the first episode, I gave you 10 ideas for profitable digital products that would sell daily. The next episode is about my experiences of creating and selling digital products as low cost offers.

Episode three was about automating the process of getting people onto your email list. And then this episode is the final piece showing you how to make sales from your low cost offers. So I'm going to pop the links for those other episodes below in case you missed them and you fancy the bit of a binge.

Now, I know when people hear phrases like automated funnel or sales funnel, it can sound really techy and a bit complicated, but you know what? A sales funnel is basically just a journey that someone goes on from first discovering you exist to eventually becoming a paying client. And what you probably won't realize is many of you've already got a funnel to some extent. You're just not calling it that.

If people are finding you on Instagram and they're downloading your free resource and then they're reading your emails and they're booking a discovery call with you, well, you know what? That's a funnel. It just happens, but in quite a manual way. An automated funnel simply means you don't have to be present at every stage and it converts clients for you in the background. With an automated funnel, you have a pre-written email sequence.

your low cost offer is introduced at the right time and follow up emails are already set up and it's all actually has strategy behind it. As you'll see with my own sales funnel in a moment, everything is timed and structured in a particular way. So it encourages people to take action within a very specific window.

Now in this episode, I'm going to show you how to set up the majority of this in just one week, working around one hour per day with the help of AI. Now, of course, the strategy behind it is going to take a little bit longer by one hour a day. That really is the implementation stage once the strategy is clear. So using AI to help you speed up the process of writing your pages and your email sequences.

and even your lead magnet.

So let me actually walk you through what this looks like in real life using one of my automated funnels as an example. So you can see how all the pieces connect together. There are five key steps here and I'm gonna break down each one so you can see how exactly it works from start to finish.

So step one is my free resource or lead magnet, whichever you want to call it. So this is a free quiz that I've got called, is your child a fussy eater or a problem feeder? And it was designed to speak to a really specific problem that parents worried about. I don't know why my child isn't eating and I'm not sure if I should be concerned. Most people downloading this quiz tended to come from Instagram.

So for instance, they might see a simple call to action on a post like comment this word for the link. And then that triggers the connected tool many chat, which automatically sends the quiz opt-in page link straight to their DMs. Then they enter their email, they take the quiz and they're on my list. Step two is then what we call the tripwire. And all that really means is a simple low cost offer.

is introduced at the moment that someone downloads your free resource. So in my funnel, as soon as someone gets to the results page of the free quiz, they're immediately shown a really simple next step on the thank you page. So for me, it was my 9.99 portion size guide for one to five year olds. So this tripwire offer has to feel like a really natural strategic next step because it helps answer the next big question.

that parents usually have, well, is my child eating enough? It's a really low friction way to start turning a lead into a paying customer.

After that, step three, everyone enters a short three day or 72 hour automated email sequence, whether they purchased that 9.99 guide or not. This is where my low cost offer is introduced in the funnel. It's a meal planning subscription for Fussy Eaters and it's available at a special introductory price, but only for 72 hours.

Now this whole sequence is pre-written, it's scheduled and it runs automatically in the background. So here's how it's structured. In that first email, I welcome them, I deliver value from the free quiz and then I gently introduce the subscription offer. In the following email, I go a bit deeper into the core problems that they're experiencing with feeding and meal times, showing that I understand where they're at.

In the third email, I share some of my best client wins to show them that I can help them get results. Then I address the common concerns and objections in the following email. And then in the fifth email, they get a reminder that they've got 24 hours left to join at the special introductory price. And then the last email is just a final reminder that this price is going away soon. The key thing here is this all runs completely automatically.

Every single person goes through the same journey in the same order, irrespective of whether they take the quiz on a Monday in January or a Friday in June. OK, now step four happens once that 72 hour window closes. So for the next few days, there's no selling at all. It's just emails from me giving really valuable advice. So here I'll focus on

genuinely giving helpful

tips, guidance, deepening the relationship with people who didn't buy straight away, because not everyone will be ready to jump in straight away. Some people need more warming up. So the aim here is to keep these people interested and engaged and build trust so that when they are ready to take the next step, you're the first person that they think of. Now for the last step in this system, step five.

This offer comes back once more, except this time it's for a much, much shorter window. It's basically a second chance for the people who weren't quite ready the first time around. Maybe they needed a bit more time to think or build more trust with you before they felt ready to invest.

So instead of losing those people completely, I give them another opportunity to join. So this is a separate short email sequence with another countdown. Now, I want to share with you the actual numbers behind my digital goods funnel so you can see how it performs when everything works together. So at the time of recording, 5,102 people have taken the quiz.

4,600 of those have gone all the way through the funnel and received the email sequences. Yes, some people have unsubscribed. That is just a fact of business. 188 people purchased during that first 72-hour flash sale sequence window. And then a further 122 people purchased during the 48-hour second chance sequence. And that gives a combined conversion rate of 6.5%.

Now, to put that into context, most email funnels sit somewhere around the one to three percent conversion. So this is more than double of what you typically expect in our industry. And this just goes to show the power of a really well-built funnel that's got a lead magnet that attracts the right people, a sequence that builds trust step by step by step and an easy

to say yes to offer that actually solves a real urgent problem for that particular audience. Now, of course, none of this happened overnight. When this funnel first went live, the numbers weren't anywhere near like what they are now. It's been tested, it's been refined, and it's been improved over time to get to this place. And that's a big part of what I help you with inside my coaching, building systems like this and knowing how to actually refine them so that they do perform.

Now, once that second chance offer closes, the funnel doesn't just stop there. This is where it moves into long-term nurture. So from there, people go into a regular email rhythm. Usually people email their list about once a week. I actually send three emails per week.

where the focus is consistently building a relationship with your email subscribers. So I will share more useful guidance. I would send them to my blogs or recipes or answer FAQs, take them behind the scenes of my business or what's going on in the child nutrition space and actually what's going on in my life. Well, the bits I wanna share anyway. Essentially just keep showing up in a really helpful way.

The reality is some people will stay on your email list for months, actually even years before they ever buy anything. And that's not unusual in the industry right now. New leads coming into my world used to take a matter of days or weeks to become clients. Now it's not unusual for that to be around nine to 12 months. So when you have those nurture emails working for you in the background, there's eventually a natural next step for those who want even more support.

Without going into too much detail here, the nurture sequence eventually leads into an automated webinar, which is essentially a pre-recorded session that introduces my signature program. And for me, that's my Fussy Eating Fix program, and it's my highest ticket offer at £1,500. So again, all these emails are completely automated and a predictable percentage of people buy, which is great because it allows me to forecast income in my business.

but this is a more advanced piece of the funnel and something I will go into more detail but in another episode.

Now you might be thinking, my gosh, Sarah, that sounds like a lot of work. For most health professionals trying to do this alongside a busy life, it's exactly the kind of thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the list. And yet once it's up and running, it's the very thing that brings you freedom. Sales on autopilot. And this is why so many dieticians have created a lead magnet, but it just sits on their website doing nothing. It's not guiding potential clients through the funnel.

And you know what, this is where AI makes your life so much easier. Nowadays, AI can help you write everything you need for your funnel because the tools are so much more refined. Now this includes writing your freebie in the first place, your opt-in page copy where people download the freebie, all of the emails in your various sequences, your sales page copy for your tripwire and your low cost offer, and even your digital product itself.

I've actually built a set of prompts designed specifically to work with actually either ChatGPT or Claude that guide you through writing each part of this funnel step by step by step. Everyone inside of the new and improved Accelerate gets access to this when we reopen to new clients. For example, these prompts will tell AI exactly what structure each email needs to have, and then you simply fill in the gaps with your clinical expertise.

So you open your AI tool, you choose the prompt from the email that you need. For instance, write email one of my 72 hour flash sale sequence for whatever your offer is and whoever your audience is. And then you review what it produces to make sure it sounds like you. And you drop that into your email service provider. And then you just repeat it for each email in the sequence. You'll be shocked at how quickly you can get.

everything created and up and running with these prompts. So that's it. An automated sales funnel isn't anywhere near as complicated as it sounds, or in fact, as it used to be, not even five years ago, especially now we've got decent AI and trust me, it's well worth setting one of these up in your business, especially if you want a business that can still bring in money, even on the days when you're not working.

And with the help of AI and specifically engineered prompts, once you've got the structure and the strategy of your funnel crystal clear, you can realistically build the whole thing in as little as a week by spending just an hour a day or so on it. Now, before you go, if you're thinking, I want to build this, but I need someone to show me how, I want to tell you about a live class I'm running.

It's called Create and Sell Digital Goods and it's a masterclass that's running on Wednesday the 1st of July at 12 noon. And you definitely don't want to miss this. I'm going to walk you through exactly how to create a simple, low cost digital offer that's actually based on demand, positioned properly and built to convert. And the best part is you'll also be able to ask questions live and get direct feedback and guidance on your own digital product ideas.

specifically for your niche. So just DM me masterclass on Instagram for all the details or you can reserve your seat straight away using the link in the show notes of this episode. Bye for now.