I used to get annoyed when I answered the phone and the first thing the caller said was, “How much do you charge?”

What a stupid question!

“This isn’t a commodity, it’s not like you’re buying a gallon of gas,” I’d say. “Let me ask you a few questions and get a better idea. What is your name? How did you hear about us? What kind of budget do you have? How many people will be at your event?”

They’d respond, “I just want to know how much you charge – just a rough idea.”

“Well, every event is different.”

“What’s a ball park price range?”

Ugh. This sort of tug-of-war went on and on. Half way through, I’d decide the caller was a penny-pinching jerk. My patience would slip and I’d end up alienating the caller.

One day, I saw the light! I was the problem, not the caller.

I was being evasive and manipulative. I was focused on getting what I wanted first. I wanted the caller’s full name, phone number (this was the Dark Ages, before Caller ID), and mailing address. I wanted to get them chatting and bonding with me. I wanted a chance to impress and intrigue them. I wanted to control the call.

All they wanted was help.

When people call you for information – they’re not trying to be difficult. They just don’t want to be sold. They want information – not manipulation.

Treat your callers with respect and seek to serve them with the highest level of attention and care you can give them. Don’t worry or focus on making a sale.

If you take good care of people and offer what they want, you’ll make the sale. Just focus on really understanding what the customer wants and communicating your offer clearly.

It’s really easy to start doing this – if you have more inbound leads than you need. But if you need to make 10 sales and you only have 5 leads …

That’s why you need a marketing system that generates an overabundance of qualified sales leads.

A fully booked calendar and a waiting list are two things that make clients want to do business with you all the more.  Similarly, when you have a massive backlog of qualified leads and not enough time to call them all – you don’t have to beg or hard-sell. You just focus on trying to help other people and let them decide.

One way to generate a massive amount of sales leads – without spending money – is to take advantage of online marketing tools. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, forums, bulletin boards, LinkedIn, search directories – all of these tools generate leads for those of us who understand them. Want to learn how to generate leads online with free tools? I invite you to download my free ebook, More Clients Now.

Learn how to market your business, generate a massive amount of leads and the sales will take care of themselves.