My wife was disappointed when she returned from the side yard. Her face hung low and I knew she was pretty down. You see, I know the look. It is the same look that salespeople have when they miss a sales opportunity or lose a sale.

My wife, returned from the side yard with her empty bowl. She was expecting to collect some juicy, vine ripened, black berries. Unfortunately, her blackberries were either all dried out or they weren’t ripe. She had missed the critical harvest time to achieve the bounty she expected.

I have experienced the same loss in sales. If we are not there when a customer is ripe for our services or product, we lose a sale. We simply have to be around, checking the vines if we expect to collect our bounty when the prospect is ripe.

Solving the Vine Ripening Issue

A sales system that keeps track of the sales process is what is needed. When a customer tells us that they will be ready in a few weeks, months or in a few years, we need to be there. If we want a selling advantage, we should be checking back with them well before the suggested date they gave us. During this waiting time period, we should be communicating with them so they don’t forget about us. More often than not, their timing is off and they ripen earlier than they expected.

If my wife had been checking on her black berries more regularly, she would have enjoyed the taste she savored for. The same is true for salespeople.

A good customer relationship system will allow you to build reminder notices into it. It is a simple matter of exercising these options. They really don’t take that long to do. Every sales development program must have a system like this in place. The reality of business sales is that most prospects aren’t ready to buy, when we are ready to sell.

If we want to be there when the time is ripe, we must follow a system. Too many salespeople expect their memories or good luck to favor them. The only salespeople lucky enough to say, they are lucky, are the ones with a sales system. Their secret is a system that reminds them to keep going back to see the vines. Follow a system, systems work.Steve Martinez is the Founder of Selling Magic. He is transforming companies with his "EASY" formula of automating the selling process. Subscribe to his ezine and his 30 days of selling lessons to Increase sales with the best practices of selling and improving customer relationships at http://www.sellingmagic.com

by Steve Martinez, Selling Magic Mastermind and Sales Process Automation Guru http://www.SellingMagic.com/.