September is the most valuable month in a Practitioner’s year – and most Practitioners let it slip straight through their fingers. This article provides you with actionable strategies that will help you attract more clients, and you’ll also learn about our spectacular upcoming webinar on exactly how to get and keep those valuable clients – so that your practice grows on autopilot!

Right now, your future clients are back from their holidays, back at their desks, and back in planning mode. The children are in school, the diary has structure again, and that powerful “fresh start” energy – the same instinct that drives January’s resolutions – is in full flow. This isn’t just a feeling: research published in Management Science documents a genuine “fresh start effect”, showing that people are measurably more likely to commit to health and self-improvement goals immediately after temporal landmarks such as the start of a new week, month or season. People are actively deciding, this very week, how they’re going to look after themselves this autumn. The question is simple: when they go looking, will they find you?

After more than three decades supporting Practitioners at every stage of their careers, we at The CMA have seen exactly what separates the practices that flourish each autumn from those that drift into a slow winter. If you genuinely want to attract more clients, the types that are ideal for you will thrive on your recommendations and will spread the word about you to their friends and family, do read on:

These are the accidental mistakes that practitioners make:

Mistake 1: Waiting until things “settle down” to attract more clients

It’s the most natural feeling in the world: September arrives in a rush, and you promise yourself you’ll get your practice-building sorted “once things calm down” – which usually means October. But by October, the fresh-start window has largely closed. The people who were actively searching in September have found someone – and it’s remarkably hard to win a client who has just committed to another Practitioner. As we explored in The Autumn Client Surge: The 5 Essential Steps to Be Ready!, this season rewards those who are visible and ready while it’s happening, not afterwards.

Mistake 2: Relying on word of mouth alone

Word of mouth is wonderful – it may well be the highest-quality source of clients you’ll ever have. But it is also passive, unpredictable and entirely outside your control. A thriving, sustainable practice needs referrals and a dependable way of being found by people who’ve never heard your name. If your entire client pipeline depends on other people remembering to mention you, your income will always be at the mercy of chance.

Mistake 3: Trying to appeal to absolutely everyone doesn’t help you to attract more clients

“I help with stress, sleep, pain, energy, digestion… really, I can help almost anyone.” It feels safe to cast the net wide – surely more potential clients is better? In reality, the opposite is true. When you speak to everyone, no one feels you’re speaking to them – and the Practitioner down the road who clearly, confidently addresses one person’s exact situation wins the booking every time. Understanding precisely who your ideal client is, and how to speak so that they instantly recognise themselves, is one of the most transformative shifts a Practitioner can ever make – and it’s a central theme of what we’ll be teaching on the 16th.

Mistake 4: Losing the people who nearly booked

Here’s the heartbreaking one. For every client who books, there are others who found you, liked the look of you, thought seriously about it… and then hesitated. Life intervened, doubt crept in, the moment passed. Most Practitioners never even know these almost-clients existed – yet they represent the single easiest source of new bookings you have. Understanding why people hesitate at the point of booking, and how to gently remove that hesitation, can change a practice’s fortunes almost overnight.

Mistake 5: Trying to work it all out alone

You trained to be an outstanding Practitioner – not a marketer. Yet so many gifted therapists spend years piecing together client-attraction advice from random corners of the internet, much of it written for entirely different industries, and blaming themselves when it doesn’t work. You don’t need to figure this out by trial and error. The path to a fully booked practice is well mapped – you simply need someone to show you the map. Supporting you on that path is precisely why The CMA exists – it runs through everything in our Membership benefits, and it’s the whole purpose of what’s happening next Wednesday.

The one hour that fixes all five issues!

On Wednesday 16 September at 1pm (UK time), The CMA is hosting a live online webinar: How to Attract Your Ideal Client and Get Fully Booked, presented by CMA President Jayney Goddard and Business Development Consultant Angie Litvinoff.

In one focused hour, we’ll show you how to identify your ideal client and speak so they instantly know you’re for them, how to introduce yourself in a way that feels completely authentic (no cringe-worthy sales patter – we promise), and how to remove the hesitation that stops interested people becoming booked clients. It is everything we wish every Practitioner had been taught at college – distilled into a single lunchtime.

Two things you should know before you book:

• This is a one-off, live-only session. There will be no replay and no recording distributed afterwards. If you’re not in the room at 1pm on the 16th, the opportunity is gone.
• Places are genuinely limited. More than 370 Practitioners just like you have already booked, and our platform holds a maximum of 500. Fewer than 130 places remain – and the final week is always the busiest for bookings.

Save your seat now – click here to book your place

Already booked? Do these two things today to attract more clients

If you’re one of the hundreds who have already reserved a place – wonderful. Now make sure you actually receive the value you’ve claimed. First, put 1pm on Wednesday 16 September in your diary this minute, exactly as you would a client appointment, and protect that hour. Second, keep an eye out for your joining link by email and have it ready the night before. Remember: with no replay available, being booked isn’t the same as being there. The Practitioners who show up live will be the ones filling their autumn diaries – so don’t miss out!

September’s window is open right now. One hour, one Wednesday lunchtime – and an autumn that could look entirely different. We would love to see you there.

About the Author

Jayney Goddard MSc, PG Dip Ed, FCMA, FRSM is the Founder and President of The Complementary Medical Association (The CMA), the world’s leading professional body for complementary medicine. With more than three decades at the forefront of complementary and integrative healthcare, Jayney has dedicated her career to raising professional standards across the sector and to championing rigorous, evidence-based natural approaches to health and longevity. She is the author of several best-sellers, including Rewind Your Body Clock – the Complete Natural Guide to a Happier, Healthier, Younger You (Watkins/Penguin Random House), which debuted on the Amazon charts at No. 1 among ALL books on the platform. Jayney is a sought-after international speaker and a passionate advocate for the safe, ethical integration of complementary medicine within mainstream healthcare. Through The CMA, she supports a global community of Practitioners, Fellows, and Approved Suppliers committed to the very highest standards of practice.

Reference

Dai H, Milkman KL, Riis J. The fresh start effect: temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science. 2014;60(10):2563–2582. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901