The best way to set yourself up to "receive" sales/customers (which is much easier than going out to get them), is to set up a series of "layers of the onion".  That's our nickname that eases the path for prospects and yourself to get to know each other, with a series of gradually increasing steps of increased trust and commitment.

Instead of trying to force potential customers to get to know you or buy from you in just one or two ways, give them a bunch of alternatives, and let them decide what they feel comfortable with.

By having this tiered system, a prospect can engage right away at the level they feel comfortable with, and then can work their way up the trust & commitment ladder.

An example of onion layers for BlackBox Revenues (sales consulting):

Case Study

Another Example: www.visityourself.com

Ways Visit Yourself allows prospects to engage in a few ways.  Notice how the first three offer some simple ways to incrementally get to know the company, and then there's a huge leap of trust that's required...

1) Free website information

2) A "How To Meditate" section, which lets someone try it on their own

3) Submission forms for more information]

 [big leap in trust!]

4) A five-week series of 60 minute classes

Some ideas (and not all should be done) to smooth out the onion (going from low commitment to higher levels of mutual commitment):

(5min)      A free sample guided meditation that someone could download or play off the "How To Meditate" webpage

(30min)    A free teleconference guided meditation once or twice a month, that lets people try it at home

(hour)      A free/cheap 30min trial class (in person) once or twice a month, that lets people try it with others

(hour +$) A $___ 60min regular class (in person) every week, allowing people who have gone through the five week course to maintain their practice

($$)         The five-week course

($$$)        A full day class on a weekend (like http://spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=87&catid=2)

($$$$)      An executive weekend or multi-day retreat (again, only bothering to invite past graduates of the corporate classes.  People can practice meditation and meet other like-minded people from other companies)

The important thing to remember (going back to our 'more money, more fun, less stress' theme) is that for the higher-commitment projects, you don't need to go out and market them all over the place.  You're just offering more in-depth services to that part of your current client base that would be interested in them.

It's ok if only 5-10 people out of 1000 sign up for your first retreats...they're coming to you!  Do a great job and word will spread.  So you wouldn't necessarily start with an executive retreat, it might be something you build up to over a year.   Ask your clients - what else would they want from you?