All sales start with a simple conversation. It may be a conversation between you and a potential client, between one of your clients and a potential referral, or between one of your colleagues and a potential referral.

The Trust Factor

An effective sales cycle is based on turning these simple conversations into relationships of trust with your potential clients over time. We know that people buy from those they like and trust. This is never truer than for the professional service provider. But as Sir Winston Churchill once said, "It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."

If you don't have trust, then it doesn't matter how well you've planned, what you're offering, or whether or not you've created a wide variety of buying options to meet varying budgets. If a potential client doesn't trust you, nothing else matters. They aren't going to buy from you—period. If you think about it, this may be one of the main reasons that so many professional service providers say they hate marketing and selling. They may be trying to market and sell to people with whom they have not yet built trust.

So, where do you start? By using the most effective marketing strategy on the planet for the professional service provider—the always-have-something-to-invite-people-to-offer.

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