Most advertising and promotion is a waste of money. Instead of applying tried and true direct response advertising methods and asking prospects to take a series of baby steps, most advertisements ask prospects to take a giant leap of faith and call for a free consultation.

To your prospect, this is a risky ordeal. They think that if they do call, they’ll end up sitting through a long, high pressure sales pitch to buy or sell their home now – and they might not be ready for that.

How Marketing Is Like Dating

When you decided you may be interested in someone romantically, you don’t jump from first date to marriage. Instead, you take the time to get to know the other person – what are their likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, goals and fears. If both of you value the relationship, you may consider taking the relationship a step further – to engagement and then marriage – but likely, several months (or years) have passed before the relationship progresses to this step.

Like successful romantic relationships, business relationships also require a period of time to get to know the other person – are they trustworthy? Can they do what they say? Are they likable?

People don’t feel comfortable doing business with someone they’ve never met – especially if they have no idea what to expect when they meet with the person. Yet by offering a “free, no obligations consultation” in your promotions and then expecting to close the deal at the meeting, you’re basically asking your prospect to marry you on the first date – you’re expecting them to take on faith that you’re a trustworthy business person. You completely bypass all the “getting to know you” stages of the relationship.

Ask Prospects to Take Baby Steps

Working with a service provider is a big step, so instead of asking prospects to take a grand leap of faith, it’s best to offer a series of steps. It’s far easier to ask prospects to take a baby step like calling for a free report or downloading a tip sheet from your website.

From there, you follow up with them through email, mailings, and other useful information to build a relationship with them. As they receive more personal communication from you, they can evaluate how helpful the information you provide them is, and over time, get a sense for who you are and how you work.

If you keep up the communication, eventually, they’ll start to know and trust you just by your marketing materials. And at that point, when they’re ready to move forward, they’ll contact you.

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