Build strong relationships with prospects and understand their thought process

Make yourself familiar with your prospects.
Spread the word about your business as much as you can, as familiarity breeds business. Take advantage of the Recency Effect and follow up powerfully.

Forget looking like the superior choice; make yourself an excellent choice. Eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice, reduce fear in trying your service by offering a trial period or test project.

Identify your anchors as people get ‘anchored’ to first impressions.
Ask yourself:
 - What anchors have the prospect already attached to you? 
 - How can you overcome them? 
 - What first impression do you make? 
 - What’s the first thing you say? How does that position your service?

Make a strong first and last impression.
Each impression you make will (temporarily at least) be your last, so make it strong.

Highlight your differences from similar service providers.
The more similar the services, the more important the differences. With meaningful differences difficult to find, prospects look for seemingly trivial differences: décor of reception, style of a business card, brochure content, etc. Accentuate the trivial.

Don’t hide your weaknesses; admit them.
Telling the truth will make you look honest and trustworthy—a key to selling a service.