Ep 116 It Took My Client 4.5 years to Buy From Me. Here's Why That's Not a Problem - It's a Strategy

If you've ever found yourself staring at your email stats wondering whether anyone is ever going to buy from you, I want you to know that you're not the only one.

You've been showing up. Posting on social media. Sending emails every week. Recording your podcast episodes. Growing your audience.

And yet, it can feel like everyone is sitting on the fence.

You might have email subscribers who open every email you send but never click buy. People who message you on Instagram asking thoughtful questions before disappearing into the internet abyss. Or followers who've been quietly consuming your content for months, perhaps even years, without ever becoming a client.

It's easy to assume that something isn't working.

But what if the problem isn't your marketing at all?

Client Buying Behaviour in 2026 Has Changed

I've recently been analysing five years' worth of client data from my own business, and one trend couldn't have been clearer. People are taking much longer to buy than they used to.

Back in 2021, the average time someone spent on my email list before buying was just 1.6 months. Around half of my buyers purchased within their first month of joining my list.

Fast forward to 2025 and that average had increased to 17.7 months. By 2026, around 65% of buyers had been on my email list for at least 12 months before making a purchase.

That isn't a small shift. It's a complete change in buying behaviour.

People aren't making purchasing decisions in the same way they were just a few years ago.

Why Are Clients Taking Longer to Buy?

The truth is that we're all living in a much noisier online world.

There are more businesses, more offers, more coaches, more courses and more AI-generated content than ever before. Your ideal clients are overwhelmed with choice.

Many people have also invested in things that didn't deliver on their promises. They've become more cautious about where they spend their time, energy and money.

Trust matters more than ever.

Particularly when you're a regulated health professional, your clients aren't simply buying information. They're buying confidence in your expertise, your values and your ability to help them.

People need longer to feel safe enough to invest.

That means your marketing strategy needs to reflect the reality of how people are buying in 2026.

Your Content Is Working Harder Than You Think

One of the biggest mistakes I see health professionals making is giving up too soon.

They commit to showing up consistently for three months and then decide it isn't working because nobody has bought their programme or booked an appointment.

But here's something I want you to consider.

The content you're creating today isn't just working for today's audience. It's building trust for the person who will buy from you six months, 12 months or even four years from now.

One of my highest paying Platinum clients spent four and a half years on my email list before she joined Accelerate.

Four and a half years.

During that time, she listened to my podcast, read my emails and quietly watched my business evolve. When she was ready to invest, she didn't choose my lowest priced offer. She joined my highest ticket programme.

The people who take the longest to buy can often become your most committed clients.

Sometimes they're simply waiting for the timing to be right.

Why Email Marketing for Dietitians Matters More Than Ever

If I could encourage every health professional to prioritise one marketing asset in their business, it would be their email list.

Not Instagram.

Not LinkedIn.

Not your latest Reel.

Your email list.

Email marketing for dietitians isn't just about selling. It's about nurturing relationships over time.

Your email list gives people the opportunity to get to know you at their own pace. It allows you to build trust consistently and remain visible without relying on unpredictable social media algorithms.

Think of your email list as a cosy corner of the internet where people can pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and learn from you week after week.

You don't need everyone to buy today. You simply need to remain present when they're ready.

If you're emailing consistently, you're investing in future sales.

There Are Two Types of Buyers in Your Audience

One of the most helpful things I've learnt from analysing my client data is that there isn't just one type of buyer.

Fast Buyers

These are the people who are ready to take action immediately.

Perhaps they've been referred by a trusted friend. Perhaps they've reached a breaking point and desperately need support.

They don't need months of nurturing.

They simply need a clear and easy path to work with you.

Slow Buyers

These are the people quietly sitting in your world for months or years.

They'll download your lead magnet, listen to your podcast, attend your webinar and read every email you send.

They're not saying no.

They're simply saying not yet.

Both groups are valuable.

The problem is that many health professionals build their marketing around just one of these buyer types and unintentionally lose the other.

Long Form Content Builds Long Term Trust

If you've been putting off starting a podcast, writing blogs or recording YouTube videos because they feel like a lot of work, this is your gentle nudge to reconsider.

Long form content is one of the most powerful ways to build trust.

People hear your voice. They learn how you think. They begin to understand what you stand for and how you approach the work you do.

Trust doesn't happen in a single Instagram post.

It's built through repeated moments of connection over time.

And if you're anything like many of the health professionals I work with, you've probably spent years developing your clinical expertise. You deserve the opportunity to communicate that expertise in a way that feels authentic and helpful.

What Should You Be Tracking Instead of Revenue?

I know how tempting it is to judge whether your marketing is working based on how many sales you've made this month.

But if buying behaviour has changed, then the way we measure success needs to change too.

Instead of focusing only on revenue, start paying attention to:

• Email list growth.
• Email open and click rates.
• Webinar registrations.
• Discovery call bookings.
• Lead magnet downloads.
• Podcast downloads.
• Website traffic.
• The length of time people spend engaging with your content.

These are often the early signs that your marketing is working, even when sales haven't arrived yet.

What This Means for Your Business Moving Forward

If you're building an online business as a dietitian, nutritionist or regulated health professional, I want you to remember this.

Your business gets to be built on trust.

You don't need to pressure people into making decisions they're not ready to make.

Your role isn't to convince people. It's to consistently show up, educate, nurture and create opportunities for people to work with you when the timing is right for them.

That takes patience. It also takes strategy.

You might find yourself wondering whether it's worth continuing to send that weekly email or publish that podcast episode when nobody seems to be buying.

Please don't underestimate the power of long term trust building.

The person who joins your programme next year may well be reading your email today.

Final Thoughts

Client buying behaviour in 2026 looks very different from what it did just a few years ago.

People are taking longer to buy. They're doing more research. They're looking for businesses and educators they can genuinely trust.

That's not bad news. It's simply information that allows us to build better marketing strategies.

So keep sending the emails. Keep showing up. Keep creating content that reflects who you are and what you stand for.

Your future clients are already finding their way to you.

And sometimes, four and a half years is exactly the right amount of time.

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:

Does it feel like you're doing everything you're supposed to be doing in your business to get clients? Posting great content, consistently growing your audience, sending emails, and yet people seem to take forever to actually buy from you. Maybe you've got followers who've been watching your content for months and months and months, but they've never bought from you. Maybe you've got email subscribers opening most of your emails you send, clicking on the links, but never take the next step to book in with you.

Maybe you've had people asking you lots of questions in your DMs, clearly needing help with their problem, but they never end up as a paying client.

Now, whilst there can be a lot of reasons for this, one thing that the data shows very clearly is right now, people are taking much, much longer to go from interested to ready to buy. In fact, one of my clients took four and a half years to buy from me. Four and a half years. And before you hear that and think, well, that's not very good, Sarah. It's actually one of the most important insights I've ever uncovered about how people are buying because well,

Firstly, she ended up becoming my highest ticket client ever in my business. And secondly, because the reality behind it all is that buying behavior has changed dramatically over the last few years. People aren't making decisions the way they used to. So in this episode, I'm going to show you what the data says in my business about how long people are actually taking to buy in 2026 and why decision cycles have become so much longer.

But most importantly, we're going to talk about what this actually means for your strategy moving forwards and the practical things you need to be doing now to make sure that your marketing actually works in a world where people are taking longer to make buying decisions. Now, before we dive in, if you haven't listened to part one of this series yet, make sure you go back and listen to that first because this episode builds directly on everything we covered in there.

And in that episode, I shared data from 120 clients over a five year period, including where they came from and what steps they took before they bought. I'll pop the link in the show notes for you. I recently went back and I did a full data analysis across my business. And I knew I had to share the results with you because they weren't just interesting stats for the sake of it. They were real patterns that evidenced what people were saying and what I had been feeling.

for a long time. They directly impacted how we should all be trying to run our businesses and attract clients in order to grow our businesses right now in 2026. And because their numbers, well, numbers don't lie. So let's start with the first and most important finding. The time it takes people to buy has completely changed. When I look back over my data over the last five years,

That was super abundantly clear. In 2021, the average time someone spent on my email list before buying was 1.6 months. And around 50 % of people were actually buying in just a month of joining the list. So at that point, things were moving relatively quickly. People would join my email list, build trust fairly quickly and convert soon after. Brilliant. But by 2023, that average had jumped from

had jumped to 12.8 months and only 27 % of people are what you would call fast buyers who bought within that first month. Then fast forward a couple of years by 2025, that average had increased again to 17.7 months, almost a year and a half. And at that point, only around 12 % of people were buying within a month. Over half had now been on my list

for a year or longer before they made a decision. And in 2026, I know we're only halfway through the year, but that percentage has shot up even more with around 65 % of buyers on my email list for 12 months or more before they made a purchase. So as you can see, this definitely isn't a small shift or a one-off pattern. It's a fundamental change to how people buy.

And just to be really clear, this isn't unique to my business. This is something we're seeing across all industries, but it is especially noticeable in the coaching world, education world, and professional development spaces like ours. People are taking longer to decide. And when you zoom out and you think about why, it actually makes a lot of sense. There's more people starting online businesses, which means there's more options for people and a lot more noise out there.

But people are so much more cautious nowadays when making these decisions. And this is partly because a lot of people have had bad experiences investing in the past and partly due to the huge rise of AI generated content, which has made it harder for people to know what and who they can trust. The bottom line is people

need longer to feel safe enough to invest. And this is a really important lesson to learn and to keep in mind for your content strategy. People need more trust and more reassurance before they invest. So you've got to show them who you are, what you stand for and why they can feel safe when working with you. OK, I've got some good news for you. If people are taking, let's say on average, 12 to 18 months to buy from you.

That actually means that your content that you produce now is working much harder than you probably think it is. So every post you write, every email you send, every webinar you run, every talk you do, it isn't just for today. It's actually doing a lot more long-term work for you than you might realize. The mistake most people make is that they expect immediate results.

They post for a few months, maybe they don't see the clients coming in straight away, and so they just assume that nothing is working and they give up on posting consistently. But chances are your content is working. You just can't see the payoff yet. And I know this because I've seen it play out in my own business. One of my highest playing platinum clients inside Accelerate has been on my email list for four and a half years before she signed up.

So she spent four and a half years watching my content, listening to my podcast episodes, reading my emails, following along before she ever took action. And when she finally did decide to invest, she didn't go for the small cheapest way to work with me. She went straight in at Platinum, my highest ticket offer. My data shows that the people who take the longest to buy often become your best and most profitable clients because when they're finally ready,

they're ready to go all in on themselves. So this is just a reminder that your marketing has a much longer tail than you think.

Now, because it takes people longer to buy from you, that means you would need to be really focusing on email in your business. I'd go as far as saying that email is your most valuable business asset, not your Instagram following or your website traffic, your email list, because email is typically where that long-term 12 to 18 month buying journey actually plays out. This is when someone moves from discovering you to slowly building trust.

to eventually being ready to buy when the timing is right for them. And in my business, the data definitely backs that up. 46 % of buyers attended a webinar before they purchased from me, and I haven't run a webinar since April, 2025. And yet 47 % of 2026 buyers still had a webinar in their history. So this shows that trust built from a live event pays out for way over 12 months.

And the reason why email is so important here is because email is the thing that keeps you in people's world long after that initial webinar or touch point has happened. So email is absolutely essential in a world where people are taking longer to buy. First of all, keep emailing consistently, even when it feels like nobody's reading your emails or acting upon them. I promise you they are.

Secondly,

Prepare your email with live events like webinars because that combination can help really speed up trust.

Now it's worth reminding you here that there's definitely two different buyer types in all our audiences right now. There's the fast buyers. So those who are ready to buy within, you know, an hour to maybe up to three months, these people arrive ready. So maybe they've been referred to you. Maybe they've seen a social post or an ad that hit at exactly the right moment. Maybe they've hit a breaking point and they just need help right now.

These people don't need long nurture, they just need a very clear path to purchase.

And then you have the slower, nurture buy later buyers. So those are the people who buy within maybe a six to three year window, four years even, like that client who was on my list for four and a half years before she purchased. These people just need time. They download your freebies, they attend your webinars, they read your emails, they listen to your podcast, they watch your YouTube, they read your blogs for months or even years.

Now, if your business is only set up for one buyer type, you're going to lose the other. So ideally what you need is something for fast buyers, your buy now buyers, a direct path that places an offer in front of them straight away.

And those offers need to be really clear in your email, simple, easy, yes, ways to work with you and content that openly shows people how to take that next step. And then you also need a nurture path for the buy later, slower buyers. So things like your email sequences and multiple lead magnets and the longer form content where people can feel connected to you. And of course, those live events that keep building trust over time.

Now, from my experience of working with lots of different healthcare professionals, most don't have either of these two pathways built well enough. So I'd really recommend that you take a step back and look at your current setup and ask yourself whether you're actually giving both types of buyers a clear way to move forwards.

Now I know throughout this episode and the last episode, I've thrown quite a lot of information and statistics and numbers and data at you, but this just, but this isn't just interesting data. It's something you should really take seriously in your own business. If you want to consistently get clients and actually keep up with how buying behavior is changing. So here's a reminder of what you need to start doing. First, start tracking.

If you're not already recording why your clients come from and how long they've been in your world before buying, start now. Even a simple spreadsheet is enough. Make sure you're asking all your clients who buy from you where they first found out about you and what made them buy because you can't improve what you're not measuring. And if you don't know how to track this data, come and talk to me because we need to make sure we get this spot on for you.

Secondly, play the long game with your email list. Commit to emailing consistently every single week, regardless of what's happening in your business right now. The data is crystal clear on this. This is what builds trust over time and leads to sales later.

Thirdly, run live events like webinars and challenges. Give people a way to experience you live because my business shows that this can be one of the strongest ways to build trust and people will come back to you long after you've run those events. Fourth, stop measuring success only by this month's revenue or inquiry numbers. Start paying attention to other things like your email list growth.

like your email clicks and open rates and the amount of people booking those discovery calls from those emails. Those are the early signs of clients who will come in months down the line.

Fifth, consider creating more long-form content if you're not already. So things like podcasts and videos are incredibly powerful for long-term trust building because people can hear your voice, they can see your face, and they'll feel connected to you in a deeper way than short-form content alone. And then finally, be patient, but be strategic because this isn't about sitting back and just waiting for people to eventually buy from you.

Instead, you want to be actively doing things like answering objections in your content before they come up, showing social proof in different ways that people like them have gone before them and had success, and giving people multiple entry points to your offer, delivered in different new and refreshing ways. And this will all pay off in the long run.

So that concludes my big data analysis across my business. There's definitely tons to learn from all of this, but if there's one thing I want you to take away from this, start treating your content, your emails, your visibility as long-term trust building system, not a short-term conversion tool, because the people who are going to become your clients in six, 12 or 18 months plus time are probably already watching you right now.

And if this little series of a couple of episodes had made you start wanting to look at your own data so that you can spot patterns in your specific business and client journeys, but you're not sure how to set this up, feel free to send me a message. I'm always happy to point you in the right direction. You can contact me on Instagram. I'll put my handle dietitians and business in the show notes of this episode or drop me an email. Hello at saraharmanbushall.com. Bye for now.