There was an old legendary HN comment around the following concept:
"All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So just make more friends"
If you are confident of your services, just make more friends. Talk to people more. If it is too salesly already, you lost the conversation. Instead try and learn about their lives. I sometimes even open up with "No agenda to sell, genuinely curious"
Note: If anyone finds the link to the comment, please drop it here to credit the author.
Thats old as time. The more basic form of it is: "Don't worry about selling, just make a friend"
Could it be https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23285438
I found too many sources in Google, one from 1997, but I can't find the origin of it.