I will need services including real estate to continue growing my business. Many of them I don't need now, nor can I invest in them yet. That's why I want you to keep in touch so I won't forget you! "Timing is everything." I agree. Trying to persuade a prospective customer that he needs your product before he needs your product will annoy him. A careful sense of timing - to each individual customer - is critical when planning a direct selling message or making a call. You may say, "yeah, but how can you possibly live inside every potential client's world and know when the time is right?" Here's the paradox: It's all the time! Here's why...Junk goes in the trash but value is kept. Clearly identify your target audience so you know they have a need for your service. Develop your database of names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Furthermore, connect with as many as possible on LinkedIn and Facebook. Follow them on Twitter. Then get to work being a genius to all your prospects. Why is Apple the most successful company in the world right now? Because they are genius at what they do and how they communicate it. You need to get busy demonstrating your genius to all those prospects in your database. Be a collector and generator of valuable content - expertise and ideas that make people say "Hmm... or WOW! Yes, it's hard but you can do it and cream your competitors. Every week different people tell me the same thing: "I get so much junk email and delete it but I always save and read your newsletter." The Chuck Sink Link generates more quality leads than any other sales or marketing activity I've ever practiced in 25 years. Think about the emails you opt-in to and the supplier companies you follow. Some marketers know how to put value in front of their audience on a regular basis so they are top-of-mind at all times for their products & services. When the time is right for their prospect to buy, guess who gets the call? Stay in touch with your clients and prospects in a way that continually fortifies the relationship you started with them. Put yourself in their shoes. You already are in their shoes! You know the awesome companies with whom you do business and hope to do business. Act like those companies. Chuck Sink is president of Chuck Sink Link, Hopkinton, N.H.