This is a continuing article of a series on  Key Revenue and Profit Drivers. This article covers how to increase the frequency and conversion of presentations to sales for your business.

Buyer skepticism is at an all-time high. You have to use all possible tools to improve your credibility and remove the risk from your customers to do business with you. The following are just some of the ideas to consider.

· Offer A Guarantee “If you can’t guarantee what you’re selling, stop selling it.” Don’t be concerned about the cost of offering a guarantee. You probably already offer a guarantee… you just don’t state it. The increased sales you get because you offer a guarantee will offset any returns you may have.

· Try-It-Before-You-Buy Offers (Sampling) Let’s assume that there are prospects who want and need what you’re offering. How can they be sure that your product or service as really as good as you say it is? The only way for them to them to know it is to start using it.

· Using Scripts Your entire staff should be trained to use specific scripts when they greet customers calling your number or entering the store. They should be scripted, but not ‘canned”. build in a reasonable and unrehearsed cadence and pace to your “conversation”. I would emphasize that it should be a conversation and not a “soliloquy”.

· Free Offers It costs 6 to 8 times more to sell a new prospect, and it’s 16 times easier to sell someone who already knows you and is working with you. Free offers help break the ice and make it risk-free for new prospects to become your customers.

· Sequential Mailings 50% of salespeople give up after just one contact, 80% after the third, and 90% after the fourth contact with a prospective customer. If you go past 8 contacts, you’re probably the only person to go that far. Focus on nurturing your prospects and building relationships while they get to know you. When they are ready to buy, you have a 90% chance of being called.

· Testimonials One of the best ways to melt the ice with the prospective clients is to provide testimonials from your happy customers who are already doing business with you. Anything that comes from a third party is a lot more credible. Still, a lot of businesses do a lousy job collecting the testimonials from their clientèle.

· Awards And Citations Did you product receive any awards that you can mention? Was it mentioned in an article? Just like with testimonials, what others say about you is many times more effective than what you say about yourself.