As a marketing consultant, one of my mission is to help people to grow their business, either by using networking as a marketing strategy, or helping them to find ways to attract more clients. But I like to show people the way I do it means selling without selling. My technique is to attract people and have them to come to me, instead of chasing them. This works much better than running after people to try to sell them my services.

But how do you attract more clients?

Depending on the products or services that you offer, there are different tactics to use to expand your client roster.

- Ask yourself, why you don’t close more sales?

- Do you make enough sales calls?

- Do you call on the right people? People who are likely to be interested in your products and services?

- Are your prospects afraid to buy from you because of the risk they will take with the product or service itself, or because they don’t know you yet?

Today, people are nervous, skeptical. When you reduce or eliminate the risk of making a purchase from your business, you will create an environment that allows people to buy more from you, and buy more often than they otherwise would have.

It is very important that you build a relationship with your prospects, leads, and customers, so they will trust you, conduct business with you and buy from you.

How can you break their fears?

By offering a sample of your product, you can create a great opportunity for people to test your products and services before they make the decision to buy from you.

Have you noticed companies that advertise on TV?

Very often you will see an invitation to “Call for your free brochure," or “Call to receive a free sample."

Why do you think these merchants pay a lot of money ( I mean million of dollars) to advertise on TV, plus offer to pay more to send you a sample? Because they know that they may give away a certain number of products, but they will earn a high return on their investment.

In other words, by putting the product into the target customer’s hands, they create a relationship with the customer. They provide incentives for customers to test their products, and see the results for themselves. This is a proven way to build your customer base and increase sales.

Probably a number of people will take the free sample only, and never make a purchase, but the merchant also gains the opportunity to sell products to people who would never buy if they didn’t try it for free first. Those people may become repeat customers.

If nothing else, the merchant builds his/her mailing list. This can be especially valuable, since most of the people who request the sample are interested in the product. They are the ideal target market. And, even though a portion of the respondents will not make a purchase right away, they may make a purchase in the future.

What if your products or services can’t be sold as a sample?

Well, be creative. Let’s say you offer a free report, a free e-book or a free booklet, to give your target clients. In your publication, you provide information about your products and services. The result is they will learn more about you, which will position you as an expert in your field, and a good percentage of those people will be more willing to contact you instead of your competitor when they need this product or service.

Take my Free mini E-course at www.TheConnectionQueen.com as an example. Sending 15 Tips in 15 days on networking help people to answer their questions, but also learn more about me, who I am, and how I can help them.

Similar, in one of my other businesses, www.FocusonCareer.com, I offer a 30-minute, free consultation for people who want to start a business. Being able to speak with the potential client and answer all of his or her questions helps me to learn more about their projects. I can give them advice, show them how I can help them and more important build a relationship with them.

This example is the best way to show you how people contact you, instead of contacting them, to try to sell them something.

In this business www.focusoncareer.com, just giving access to lot of information on my website, plus offering a free consultation, I have 4 to 5 people calling me every week. After the Consultation, 80% become client immediately, 10% contact me within few months when they are ready to launch their business and 10% don’t become clients, either because they give up on their project or don’t have the finance to start. But in any case, they still receive my newsletter on a regular basis, and I communicate with them, which means that the day they are ready, I will be on the top of their mind and they will come back to me.

A free report, a free booklet or a free consultation are the best tools to break peoples fear and showcase your expertise. As a result, they will know more about you, which will create a feeling of trust, and chances are that as soon as they will be ready to buy, they will return to you where they already have a relationship.

When people meet you, they will see that you know what you’re talking about, and that you have the expertise and knowledge to help them. They will realize that there is a “real person" behind your brochure or website. And if you can give them some valuable information during this consultation, they will be more willing to start working with you, and buy from you when they are ready.

Implement this strategy on your business and you will be surprised on how you will easily attract more clients.

Still need help to set up you free report or free consultation?

Learn more about

The Marketing Makeover Consultation at www.TheConnectionQueen.com.

Give me just 2 hours and I will help you save time and money putting your business on automatic pilot creating systems.

We will

* Review your actual marketing strategies,

* Brainstorm on new strategies to promote your business,

* Create a newsletter/ezine, the most effective, least expensive and easiest way to build a mailing list of prospects and get more sales,

* Create a follow-up system to attract a constant stream of new clients always flowing into your business, instead of chasing clients?

(c) 2007 Biba F. Pédron

About the author

Biba F. Pédron, also known as The Connection Queen, is a marketing consultant, founder of Biba4Network, that specializes in networking for small business owners in the greater New York area. Biba helps entrepreneurs to maximize their networking results so that they can grow their businesses faster.

Biba is the author of “Start Your Dream Business Today! The Proven 11 Steps to Start and Grow Your Own Business". www.startyourdreambusinesstoday.com

For more information or to receive free tips like this one, please visit

www.theconnectionqueen.com