Offering a free consultation seems like an easy way to attract prospects. But prospects may view it and fear it as a sales pitch. The prospect may be more responsive to a paid consultation. Between a complimentary consultation on the one hand, and a complete engagement on the other, is something called the “paid service sample.” This allows the prospect to test the service before jumping in.

Here are some reasons to offer paid service samples:

• Prospects view them as more valuable than something they get free. They become more involved in it. Even if they don’t buy it, they retain the sense that it was valuable.
• If your sample consultation has value, that value becomes an expectation in the mind of the prospect. That is what the prospect will expect of a full engagement.
• The prospect, by virtue of having paid you for the consultation, is now a client who may be receptive to other marketing initiatives.
• If you offer a white paper for sale (something that has been researched at a higher level), you will be perceived as an expert rather than as a marketer.
• Selling paid service samples can reduce your marketing costs.

From Rain Today (www.raintoday.com), August 23, 2006. For the complete article, click on the following link: http://www.raintoday.com/pages/1609_buy_before_you_buy_getting_ paid_for_lead_generation.cfm?broadcastID=363&linkID=7138&ID=53753.