The other day I got a nasty call from one of my students I was training to be a home based marketing consultant.

He was angry because I taught him it was easy and fast to get clients. That if he did things the right way, clients would all but fall into his lap.

But for him, that just wasn't the case.

And so I called him back and asked him what he was doing. He said he was doing telemarketing and direct mail, but the people he was talking with just won't believe the things he was saying he could do for them.

Luckily for him, this was no big deal and getting him back on track was easy.

Here's what I told him:

First of all, if people don't believe the things that you can do for them, then something's wrong in the presentation. That's where you'd want to take a look at what's happening in your direct mail and your telemarketing that's preventing you from getting the appointments.

And one big problem was that I think it's a mistake to even do the direct mail anyway, or try to sell anything over the phone. Both are a colossal waste of your time, because it's hard for them to believe something that just comes to them in the mail or over the phone.

Instead, all you have to do is stop trying to sell anything but the appointment -- in either mail or phone. Make it an objective to get an appointment so that you can determine if they're a qualified prospect or not first.

This is not as much about you selling them anything as it is you qualifying whether or not you should even work with them in the first place.

You see, there are more of them (i.e. small businesses who need and want marketing help) than there are of you (i.e. marketing consultants). You get to choose them first. Then they get to choose you.

So the key is to get the appointment, see if they qualify (do they need, want or have the money for your services?) and then tell them how you can help them. At that point you sell. Before that you are qualifying.

You can sidestep the entire "belief" element just by doing things in that order. That way you make money and build your home business rapidly -- with qualified customers who know and understand what you are doing for them -- instead of slowly trying to "sell" everyone something.