Their fund raising method, which worked amazingly well, was to hand a traveler a rose, then ask for a donation. The simple act of accepting the rose created a powerful emotional obligation to help them. The best way to avoid giving them money proved to be avoiding them all together. They started dressing like normal people to offset this defensive action.

Regarding your marketing program, you can put the influence of reciprocity to work in many ways, not the least of which is to send business to your prospective customers. This is the power behind networking groups. They do favors for each other.

Another method, the one that you are currently being subjected to, is providing useful information to your prospects. That approach is known as education based marketing and it has been used quite effectively in every industry. Based on the poor marketing techniques of most contractors, a well executed education based marketing system is almost guaranteed to make you stand out.

Commitment to Consistency
Pay close attention to this one. It may transform your approach in every future negotiation and argument you are involved in. This trigger taps our need to be consistent to our word.

Once we state a position, we will adjust our actions and our opinions to backup our position, no matter how much new information arrives proving our original position was horribly flawed.