I present to your attention a free translation of an article I liked - "The Dark Side of Freelance Writing: When Clients Don't Pay".

We often talk about the benefits of freelancing, praising its flexibility and comfort. But there is one component that, in my opinion, is not covered enough - I call it « dark side freelance", and it includes scammers and defaulters. One of the biggest rules I've learned over the years of freelancing is the fact that so many freelancers, after being scammed, are embarrassed to talk about it and not ready to admit it happened at all. Although, in my opinion, there is nothing to be ashamed of. The more we discuss situations like this, the more we can develop to protect against them.

Clients do not pay for various reasons. Sometimes this was not even their intention, but there were problems with the financing of the project; sometimes they expect the freelancer to not sue them, considering it a waste of time; and sometimes they absolutely shamelessly want to get the work done absolutely free. True, it also happens that a client can simply forget to transfer the payment - and you should give him a chance to correct the situation, not immediately suspecting all mortal sins. At least for the first time.

If your customer missed a payment, first check the terms of the contract. Nothing irritates a client more than a contractor who starts demanding payment ahead of time and before the work is completed. For example, if according to the terms of the agreement, payment should be received 15-20 days after the delivery of work, and you start reminding about payment the very next day, the client is unlikely to be delighted with your manner of doing business.

Wait for the end of the agreed period and:

• kindly remind yourself. Don't start demanding payment by sending invoices or late notices. Give the client another week or ten days.
• call. After a reasonable period of time - call the client. Most likely, by the tone of his voice and manner of speaking, you can determine the reason for the delay. If you have to call several times or the client constantly does not have time to talk with you - it is easy to guess that he simply postponed the payment ... at least for a while. If he apologizes and promises to transfer money in the coming days, be sure to specify when exactly. You must let the client know that you remember everything and are in control.
• call again. Now is the time to start getting angry. If the client did not send you a payment, as planned and agreed, pick him up. Finger it every one or two days or once a week - whichever is more convenient for you. You have done your job, it has been accepted and should be paid.
• write a letter. Let your client know that you will not give up and are determined to look for other ways to influence. When sending a letter, put in a copy direct management, a representative of the top management of the company and the chief accountant. In addition, when sending a letter, be sure to indicate “notify of delivery” and “notify of read”.

If the customer does not pay and continues to ignore you, you have several ways:

• terminate any relationship with this client and the performance of any other work for him. If he did not pay you for previous orders, then the chances of receiving payment for the next ones tend to zero. Ask yourself whether it is worth continuing to work for such a customer or delaying work at least until the payment for the previous order has been made.
• offer a payment or installment plan. If your client does not have enough funds at the moment and you have a normal relationship with him, offer payment in installments. It is logical to assume that a payment of $50 per week for a month would be preferable to a one-time payment of the entire amount of $200.
• go over his head. If your client is not at the top of the company, find someone else to discuss the situation with, such as contacts CEO or a member of the board responsible for this area. They may not even know that you are having problems.
• threaten legal action. Many clients expect you to not have the heart, time, money, or inclination to seek legal redress. And, most ironically, they are right. Most freelancers, when having problems with payment, rarely choose to take legal action as a means of resolving the problem, believing that there is no point in fighting for payment if the amount is less than $3,000, and legal costs can be higher. However, do not forget the fact that these costs will be paid by the losing side. Yes, problem solving judicial order does require quite a lot of effort, but it also immediately indicates the fact that you are not someone who can be simply brushed aside.
• tell about it. Let your client know that you will definitely disseminate information about his business principles in all online communities, forums and exchanges you visit.

Never forget the correctness of the old adage - "every work must be paid." If you don't get paid, you can wave your hand and say “come on, it’s only $500” or you can say “I spent my time and effort on this person, which should be paid”. What to say is up to you.

Don't worry about burning bridges- customers who do not pay and do not care about good relations, and therefore for you this should be the last thing to worry about.

In addition, if you were not paid, but you put the brakes on this situation, you are only let the client know that this approach is absolutely normal. Consequently, you not only did not receive payment, but also framed your colleagues in the workshop, who will face the same customer tomorrow.

And even more - you begin to earn a reputation for yourself as a weakling and a simpleton with your own work. I know what I'm talking about, because at one time I worked for those who initially count on the simpleton. And believe me, they are still in business.

What do you do if the client doesn't pay?

Neil Rackham is a well-known business expert and developer of the popular SPIN sales technique. SPIN Selling is based on a study by his company Huthwaite, which covered 25,000 transactions conducted over a period of 12 years in 23 countries. The task of the study was to compare the principles by which sales of various groups of goods (expensive and inexpensive) are carried out. The results were quite surprising - the techniques and skills that work well for selling low-value items (small sales) are not only inapplicable to high-value items (or large sales), but often interfere with them. Based on the results of the study, the company developed the SPIN methodology, the essence of which is to establish trusting relationships with customers by asking the right questions. With the permission of SmartReading, we publish a summary ("compressed" version) of this publication.

smartreading is a project of the co-founder of one of the leading Russian publishing houses of business literature "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" Mikhail Ivanov and his partners. SmartReading publishes so-called summaries - texts that summarize the key ideas of bestsellers in the non-fiction genre. Thus, people who for some reason cannot quickly read full versions books, can get acquainted with their main ideas and theses. SmartReading uses a subscription business model in its work.

Spin sales: instead of a preface

Let me give you some friendly advice first: don't trust the words of high-class professionals. All our research experience proves that there is a huge difference between what successful salespeople say about their work and what they actually do. If you want to find out how experts make sales, watch them in action, and don't rely on their stories about these events.

What makes big sales different?

The concept of "big sales" can have several definitions. It can refer to sales to large customers, sales of high-value products, and just regular sales or sales in large volumes. These sales have a number of features in terms of the specific perception and behavior of the buyer (that is, his psychology).

Life Cycle Length. A major deal may require several meetings and many months of cooperation. And here there is an important difference from the point of view of psychology - when selling with multiple meetings, it is not the meetings themselves that are important, but the discussions and reflections of the potential client in the absence of the seller. With sales from one meeting, you can convince the client to make a decision on the spot, while he is still impressed by the presentation. On sale with multiple encounters, these persuasion technologies can seem unnecessarily aggressive and annoying.

Practice has shown that even with a successful script, half of the information that you want to convey to the client is forgotten within a week. In addition, the likelihood of a purchase drastically decreases over time, despite a good first impression.

Relationship duration. Large sales involve a long-term relationship with the buyer. This is partly because large deals usually require some post-sales support—meaning that the buyer and seller meet once or more after the actual sale is made (in smaller sales, the buyer may never meet the seller again).

Risk of making mistakes. In a small sale, buyers can afford to take more risks because they see the consequences of their mistakes as relatively harmless. It is quite another matter when it comes to a larger decision - for example, when buying a car. Big decisions are always public, and bad ones big decisions especially obvious to others. The more serious the decision, the more cautious the buyer. In addition to the fact that he needs to give a large amount, he is also afraid that he may make a public mistake.

Although the impact of risk on purchasing decisions has not yet been well studied, it can be said that emotional factors can play a key role in both small and large sales. At the same time, irrational factors can help or hinder a major deal (one head of a major retail network for a number of years refused to negotiate with one of the suppliers, because once Sales Representative this supplier accidentally parked in the executive's parking space).

Does this mean that when making a big deal, you should focus on the emotional aspect? Possibly, but be aware of the specifics. A major decision involves risks, so the buyer usually discusses it with others in the organization. And if you, as a seller, have a positive emotional impact on your interlocutor, it is not certain that he will be able to convey the necessary emotional mood to his colleagues during the final decision.

Therefore, if a purchase decision requires consultation, you should equip your interlocutor with rational business explanations that he can broadcast further.

It is important for you, as an entrepreneur seeking to realize a spin sale, to remember that during negotiations you can influence your interlocutor from an emotional point of view in order to win him over, but you also need to provide him with rational business explanations so that he can bring them into the acceptance process. final decision with colleagues.

Stages of meeting with a potential buyer

Almost every meeting about any sale goes through four distinct stages: initiation, exploration, demonstration of opportunities, and commitment. Let's look at each of them in turn and understand how they affect sales success.

Stage start of the meeting allows you to “melt the ice” before starting a conversation on the merits. Your manner of introducing yourself to the client and the way you start the conversation are extremely important here. According to some successful sellers, it is in the first two minutes of communication that the buyer forms the main impression on which the subsequent sale depends.

Stage research essential for large sales. Each sale involves obtaining a certain amount of information through the questions you ask. It is at this stage that you collect data about buyers, their business and needs.

Stage demonstrations Opportunity suggests that during the meeting you will show the customer something of value (demonstrate the product, show it in action, or describe its potential benefits). In any case, at this stage you need to convince the buyer that you have something to offer him. It is important to remember that in large sales at this stage, methods suitable for small ones do not always work.

Stage obtaining obligations in small sales involves the conclusion of a contract of sale or the completion of a transaction. In large sales, there may be other commitments prior to receiving an order, such as agreeing to test your product, providing access to higher-level executives for a presentation. In essence, it is a set of steps (progress) leading to a deal. This is where the classic closing techniques most often turn out to be ineffective.

How to determine the success of small and large sales

To understand whether your meeting was successful, you need to define an objective measure of success. Simple selling involves either making a deal or accepting an order, or not doing so.

In large sales, both getting an order and outright rejection occur much less frequently. In addition to them, other scenarios are possible:

• Progress(an event that promotes the sale forward in the direction of obtaining an order).
• Postponement(the sale is not cancelled, but the buyer does not agree to move the sale forward).

As mentioned above, in the case of large sales, obtaining a commitment from a potential buyer (rather than an agreement to purchase) can be considered a success - the willingness to test the product, bring you to new level communication, etc. In any case, progress means a certain action that moves the sale forward.

It is extremely important to describe in advance how the success of a particular meeting will be expressed. It is human nature to adjust (and subconsciously) the goals of the meeting to the already known result.

Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, analyze the events that took place during it. In order to understand whether you are good at setting goals or analyzing results, you can do a simple exercise.

• Think back to your last 10 client meetings.
• Based on your own feelings, evaluate each of them in terms of success.
• Ask yourself what specific action that moves the sale forward has been agreed with the buyer.

How to turn delay into progress

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Will this meeting end with the buyer agreeing to a clear action to move the sale forward?
• If not, how can the objectives of the meeting be reformulated to move forward?
• Can I access new contacts? Is it possible to arrange a demonstration or provide additional data?
• If that's not possible, is it worth holding the meeting at all?

How to ask questions in a meeting

Take a voice recorder with you and record an excerpt from your meeting.

Analyze the record. Check the box every 20 seconds to indicate who is talking - the buyer or you. If you're talking more than a buyer, then you need to work on your questioning skills more.

Then analyze what exactly you are saying. Check the boxes every 20 seconds to indicate whether you are providing information to the buyer or requesting information from him. If you present information more often, you should again work on the skill of asking questions.

Stage of research and importance of questions

As mentioned above, the research phase is extremely important for large sales. To conduct good research, you need to be able to ask the right questions. Questions get the customer to talk, control their attention and reveal their needs, and convince consumers more than any explanation.

If you want a successful sales meeting, ask more questions

According to our study, more questions were asked in meetings that ended in success than in meetings that ended in a delay or rejection. At the same time, it is important to note that the number of questions was not much higher - what was more important was that the correct, more powerful questions were asked.

Traditionally, it is considered that questions are divided into two types - open and closed. For closed ones, you can give a one-word answer - “yes” or “no”. Open-ended questions require a detailed answer, such as "Why is this important to you?".

It is also believed that open-ended questions have a number of advantages. So, they make the buyer talk and often help to reveal unexpected information. However, there is currently no scientific research depending on the success of the meeting on the use of open or closed questions. Moreover, statistics show that in practice, 60% of closed questions are given a detailed answer, and 10% open questions- monosyllabic.

As a result, the study formulated new goal with regard to questions - to what extent they allow you to discover and reveal the needs of the buyer.

Buyers' needs for large sales

First, let's look at what the term "need" means. Needs are divided into two types: explicit and latent. Latent needs are the buyer's presentation of problems, difficulties, and grievances. Example - "We are not satisfied with the current speed of the process."

Explicit needs are specific statements by the buyer about the need or desire for a purchase. In other words, explicit needs suggest that you are aware of the problem and the current state of affairs is inconvenient for you. Example: "We need a more powerful system."

Mediocre salespeople are less likely to notice hidden needs. In the field of small sales, the ability to identify hidden needs can directly increase the chances of success. However, this is not the case in the area of ​​large needs. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the main thing is not the ability to identify a need, but the ability to correctly respond to it with the help of the solution the client needs.

Two factors influence the decision to purchase - the severity of the problem and the cost of the solution. The relationship between the size of the need and the price of the solution can be described through the equation of value: “If the size of the problem is equal to the price of the solution, then the purchase is possible. If the problem is small and the price is high, the purchase will not take place.”

Accordingly, in the area of ​​large sales an important factor will assist the buyer in making the need explicit. He needs to understand what the consequences of maintaining the current state of affairs will be, in which case your price may be less important factor in making a decision.

In large sales, the number of hidden needs—or the buyer's problems you've identified—by itself doesn't have much of an impact on the outcome of the meeting. However, hidden needs are Starting point, the raw material used by successful salespeople as part of a needs development strategy. In a major sale, it's not the number of hidden needs that are identified, but how you act on those needs once they've been identified.

Useful Techniques

1. Choose five clients with whom you are in an early stage of the sales cycle and who have met with you to get some agreed-upon specific action that can move the sale forward.

2. For each client: list hidden needs (customer problems, difficulties or dissatisfaction); list the explicit needs (needs, wants, or intentions) expressed by the customer. The number of hidden needs will certainly exceed the number of explicit ones.

3. Choose five other clients. This time, look at the meetings that ended in postponement, the ones where you didn't agree on some action to move the meeting forward. For each client: list hidden needs; list explicit needs.

4. Compare the number of latent needs in meetings that ended in a promotion with the number of latent needs in meetings that ended in a delay. If their number is about equal or greater in meetings that ended in a delay, you can conclude that hidden needs do not affect the effectiveness of the meeting. In other words, don't treat hidden needs as buying signals.

If latent needs are prominent in meetings that ended in promotions, then you can treat them as buy signals in your market and use their number as an indication of the success of the meeting.

Using questions
to identify hidden needs

Let's introduce a new classification of questions.

• Revealing- designed to detect problems or hidden needs of the buyer.
• Educational- designed to develop the identified hidden needs to the level of explicit ones.

Discovery questions are more closely related to the success of small sales. And no wonder - after all, the success of small sales is much more dependent on the ability to identify hidden needs. Revealing questions can be divided into two subgroups:

situational- request information about the situation of a particular buyer. “What equipment do you currently use?”, “How long has this division been operating?” Usually such questions do not have a positive impact on success. Inexperienced salespeople ask these questions more often than experienced ones. Too often asked situational questions can cause boredom in the interlocutor.


Distressed- Explore existing shortcomings and difficulties. “Are you satisfied with the equipment you have?”, “Do you have problems with reliability old technology? Experienced salespeople ask more problematic questions. However, in the area of ​​large sales, they also do not have a big impact on the effectiveness of meetings.

Effective meetings usually begin with situational questions that provide background information. However, you should not ask too many questions of this type, so as not to annoy the buyer. You should move to problematic issues that are more effective for sales.

SPIN strategy

So, because of the differences between small and large sales, it is possible for them to develop different patterns of questions to improve the effectiveness of negotiations.

For small sales, the scheme looks like this:

1. Situational questions (clarification of general information), allowing you to ask ...
2. Problematic issues (difficulties / dissatisfaction) to identify ...
3. Hidden needs (that can be solved with the help of the product), and the proposal of a solution by…
4. Offering solutions and opportunities (to meet latent needs).

1. situational questions.
2. Problem questions.
3. hidden needs.
4. Questions that reinforce the importance of the problem.
5. Questions that focus on the desirability or value of a solution.
6. Identification of explicit needs (need, desire).
7. Solutions and opportunities.

In this diagram, there the new kind questions that reinforce the importance of the problem. It was agreed that questions that exacerbate the severity of the problem should be referred to as extracting. There were also questions focusing on the desirability or value of the solution - they were called guides. Thus, a scheme of work was formed, called SPIN(situational, problematic, extracting, guiding).

Examples of extraction questions are: “How did this affect the outcome?”, “Will this proposed expansion slow down?” and so on. Extraction questions shape the buyer's perception of value and are strongly associated with the success of large sales, despite the fact that they are more difficult to ask than problem or situational ones.

Derivative questions increase the size of the problem in the client's eyes. As a rule, such questions work best with people who make decisions - it is important for them that the seller understands the significance of the problem.

Guiding questions include: “Is it important for you to solve this problem?”, “Why do you find this solution so useful?” and so on. Guiding questions are just as closely related to the success of large sales. Their importance lies in the fact that they increase the degree of acceptability of your proposed solution in the eyes of the interlocutor. Guiding questions are most effective when working with so-called agents of influence, who will then introduce your product to the person directly making the decision.

The SPIN model focuses on sales performance. The sequence of questions in it focuses directly on the psychological aspect of the buying process. As we know, customer needs are progressively transformed from implicit to explicit. The SPIN model provides the seller with a road map, its questions guide the meeting through the stages of development of needs to their end point. The more Explicit Needs you get, the more likely the meeting will be successful.

Successful sellers start the meeting with situational questions - to get general information. But they clearly observe the measure, since situational issues in in large numbers may annoy or annoy the customer.

Salespeople then quickly move on to problematic questions, which bring to light problems, difficulties, and dissatisfaction. By asking problematic questions, they find out the hidden needs of the buyer.

In small sales, solutions can be offered at this stage, but for large sales to succeed, probing questions are needed to make the latent need larger and more pressing.

When the buyer agrees that the problem is serious enough to justify action, successful salespeople ask guiding questions that encourage the buyer to focus on solutions and describe the benefits that result from implementing the proposed solution.

Of course, you don't have to ask questions in that order. If the customer, for example, begins the meeting by talking about their explicit need, you can immediately move on to guiding questions.

X features or benefits?

Features are facts, information or data about your products or services. Characteristics are low-powered statements that only marginally help sales. Characteristics include the following: "It costs 1500 rubles" or "Delivery within five weeks."

As for the benefits, they can be divided into two types.

First type shows how the products or services can be used and can help the customer. Benefits of the first type (advantages) have a direct impact on the success of small sales, but very little impact on the success of large transactions. Examples of benefits: "More economical", "Our machine is quieter than the competitor's machine", "Auto feed saves you time".

Second type shows how a product or service satisfies an explicit need expressed by the customer. Benefits of the second type (benefits) significantly affect the success of sales of any size. “You need urgent delivery - we can offer goods from stock”, “This will provide the fast speed that you need.”

Be careful with new products. Most sellers of new products overwhelm the buyer with too many features and benefits. Don't be like them. Instead, ask yourself, “What problems does it solve?”

Benefits, as we've all been taught, are ineffective in large sales and are more likely to generate a negative response from the buyer. You can offer a benefit only for the need identified by the buyer, therefore, if we only know hidden needs, we talk about the features and benefits.

The effect of features and benefits on the buyer is uniform throughout the sales cycle, while the effect of benefits is variable. In large sales, those statements that show that you can satisfy explicit needs are effective.

How to prevent objections

Each type of action you take—talking about features, benefits, and benefits—evokes a different response from the buyer. Features lead to price concerns, benefits lead to objections, and benefits lead to support or approval.

Benefits tend to be objectionable because the vendor offers a solution before the need is formed. The buyer does not feel that fixing the problem is of sufficient value to justify such an expensive solution.

The SPIN model teaches the salesperson to ask questions in a way that generates value, and thereby prevent objections from arising. There is a very strong relationship between offering benefits and getting approval or support from buyers. It is the benefits that imply demonstrating how the seller can satisfy the explicit need expressed by the buyer.

The old objection-handling strategies that encouraged the salesperson to provide benefits are much less effective in large sales than the objection-avoidance strategies in which the salesperson first creates value using probing and guiding questions, and only then reveals his capabilities.

Getting commitments and ending the meeting

For obvious reasons, no area of ​​sales is as popular as "closing." In this book, closing refers to a type of behavior used by a salesperson that implies or induces commitment in such a way that the buyer's next utterance looks like an explicit acceptance or rejection of commitment. In other words, a closure is any action that pushes the buyer towards a decision or commitment.

The statistics showed that standard closing techniques did not justify themselves, and sellers with a craving for closing techniques closed fewer deals than their counterparts who were not prone to it. The classic alternative close is effective in small sales, but in the case of large sales, the closing technique unnecessarily puts pressure on the client, who is not ready to take on such a huge responsibility.

The effect of pressure is inversely related to the size of the solution. Successful sellers never put pressure on the buyer, forcing him to go beyond the available limits.

In small sales it usually makes sense to reduce the contact time of the seller with the buyer, while in large sales this time should be increased.

Big deals tend to be closed by experienced buyers who are experienced in sales, often with sales experience. With these buyers, closing techniques usually don't work. In the case of less experienced buyers, closing techniques tend to work, but buyers do not feel satisfied with the purchase, which reduces the chances of making a repeat transaction.

Closing is not a necessary evil. The complete absence of closures is as big a problem as their overuse.

Obtaining a commitment from the client is one of the conditions for the further successful promotion of the transaction. Experienced salespeople use four clear steps to get customer commitment:

• Pay attention to research and demonstration of opportunities.
• Make sure all key questions are covered.
• Summarize the benefits.
• Offer a commitment.

From theory to practice

Does not exist easy way turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills. However, there are four golden rules for acquiring skills.

Practice only one type of behavior at a time. Don't move on to the next one without mastering the first one. For example, first practice asking problematic questions, and then move on to mastering the extractive ones.


Practice the new behavior at least three times. Most likely, the application of the new method in practice will be accompanied by initial failures and awkwardness. Don't judge the effectiveness of a method until you've practiced it in at least three meetings.


Quantity more important than quality (it is better to sell at least somehow than to unsuccessfully try to sell "good"). Practicing new method, do not worry about the correctness of speech or the correct construction of phrases. Once you master a new method, these things will happen by themselves.


Practice in safe situations. New skills almost always cause awkwardness and inconvenience. Therefore, do not use really important meetings to practice skills.

In the course of the study, many discoveries were made, and not always their results can be used immediately, without additional development. However, there are some really simple and smart tips to help you improve your sales performance right away.

Focus on the research stage. Think not about what to tell the buyer, but about what to ask him.


Arrange the questions in the order of SPIN. Don't try to practice extracting and guiding questions right away (though they are effective). Start by asking more situational questions first. At the next stage, move on to problematic ones, and only then start working on extracting ones (which are much more difficult to set).


Analyze your product in terms of problem solving(rather than features or benefits).


Plan, implement and review. After each meeting, ask yourself the following questions: Did I achieve my goals? what could I have done differently if I had the opportunity to hold this meeting again? What have I learned that will help me to use in future meetings with this person? What have I learned new that can be applied elsewhere?

Success depends on understanding the smallest details. In 1801, William Blake wrote: “He who does good to his neighbor must do it in the smallest detail. Common Good is the lot of scoundrels, hypocrites and flatterers. For Art and Science can exist only in the form of carefully organized details. So, as a side note, let me urge you to focus on these minute details. Give real importance to the basic building blocks - the types of behavior you use during the sale.

We've looked at thousands of meetings under the microscope to pick out some of the details of the behaviors that make a big sale successful. Now you can apply the results and findings of our research to test, develop and improve the smallest details of your sales skills.

It would seem that the prospects are the most promising, but ... Even the most beautiful theory is very different from real life. When Derevitsky developed all this ten years ago, he began to test the theory in practice in his own sales and, of course, run in training. And it turned out that there are a small number of situations in which the six types of resistance described are not enough.

Remember the wonderful cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling"? There was such a phrase: “It will not be enough ...” And when six types of resistance became not enough for the author, he added a seventh.

Sometimes it happens that the client and I were born under different stars and we are simply not destined to agree ... The seventh type of client resistance had to be called like this: “Contact resistance”. These are situations where contact, its geography, time and the participants themselves turn out to be the main obstacle. And then I had to paint the techniques for countering the "seven" - the seventh type of resistance. But why am I not talking about this right away and why am I drawing a matrix with only six cells?

The fact is that I am very wary of the seventh type of resistance. I had a case at a training when, having heard about the "seven", one young man joyfully exclaimed:

– So this is what kills 90% of my sales!

But if 90% of your sales are killed by your inability to establish contacts correctly, then you, my dear, most likely chose the wrong profession. You'd better work in the school library and write out forms. Or a meat cutter in the market. But get out of sales!

So, I will also talk about the seventh type of client resistance and describe the techniques of resistance, but I ask all readers in advance: be careful with this type of resistance, you can’t justify too many of your failures!

Now we will talk a little about the questions… Recently, after the training, a female trainee asked me:

- Alexander Anatolyevich, can I ask you a question?

I agree:

Are you interested in money?

I immediately became nauseous and bitter. There was a premonition that I would now be offered a job in some network. Answered with a question:

– I don't know how to answer. To say that they are not interested would be a lie. To say that they are interested is to understand that you are already managing me. So what's the best way to answer?

Premonitions of me, the old man, did not disappoint: the girl began to talk enthusiastically about some kind of insurance.

What I'm about to tell you, I never told her. It seemed pointless to me: we spent the whole day talking about how important it is to feel the interlocutor, and the need to repeat what was said did not inspire me at all. It can be seen that the horse was not fed ...

If we have not put ourselves in the place of the interlocutor and have not felt his helplessness in front of the stupid question we have planned, then this question is better to avoid.

There is a large cohort of small dirty tricks who earn money by composing those “very smart” questions that should help someone stick their business into the life of everyone they meet. These bastards must be avoided. You need to run away from them, because the “smart questions” invented by them in no way take into account the interlocutor - his mood, inclinations, experience, his true and justified premonitions.

Without personalization, without a focus on a specific person, any questions are unnecessary and inappropriate.

You can understand the true meaning of the client's objection not only with the help of questions. They are far from the only alternative to formulaic and stereotyped answers. It is quite possible to respond not with a question, but with just one word “and”. That is, the objection of the client “No need, we already have it” can be answered like this:

- We already have. And before autumn it will not be needed ...

Aha! But I received valuable information about the upcoming autumn resuscitation of his consumer needs.

Just a professional break would do. But “pausing” is the hardest part. But questions are most easily and relatively naturally woven into the canvas of almost any business conversation.

And yet, why are questions not the strongest sales tool?

One of the leading international experts buying behavior- Philip Graves writes: "To ask a question is to bring its subject to the level of consciousness of the respondent."

“Bring to the level of consciousness” is the same as “receiving a lie in response.”

For this reason, smart questions are much worse than casual conversation in which the interlocutor reveals his positions. unconsciously. "Unconsciously" means "honestly."

That is why we learn at trainings not to “smartly” ask the client, but to chat with him kindly and cheerfully. This is our job...

Once upon a time in my training, booksellers behaved like investigators. The coach has never received more provocative and provocative questions in the "buy and sell" games. I had to digress and start modeling the client's well-being, which is hit by the merciless shots of our questions.

A banal “revenge” provoked a modeling session - I simply began to “shoot” the group members with my own questions. And they, quite recently still so curious, very soon howled:

- You put questions in such a way that you don’t want to answer them, but you don’t even want to hear them!

I had to remember all the questions of these micro fights and figure out why they were answered so evilly?

So dearly (with such emotions!) we paid for the discovery that we made, tired of debatable fencing. Here is the discovery: many questions must be preceded by a thoughtful prelude. (Remark of one impressionable listener: “Well, here you can’t agree without sex! ..” But we still found the differences between negotiation sparring and sex.)

The prelude to interrogative attacks in negotiations (that is, the addition of an impulsive answer in the form of questions to the objections received) is often a simple and simple legend about the question I am preparing, about its maturation, about the reasons that will now force me to ask the interlocutor about something. It turns out that just a few words can prevent a negative reaction even to completely shameless questions.

Concretizing too abstract phrases of a client who rejects an acquisition is an opportunity, despite resistance, to continue the conversation.

General vague objections such as "something is wrong with this" require a special approach. Despite a certain interest and a real need for a product or service, potential client resists closing the deal. It doesn’t happen that a real potential customer “just didn’t want to buy.” In this case, the question of why he does not buy becomes the only obstacle to completing the transaction. Perhaps the customer doesn't want to show his ignorance by raising objections, or he's afraid of being laughed at if he buys. The sales agent must try to identify such motives, uncover them and overcome them.

If the objection is too vague to be reduced to a single question, then the salesperson should ask as many questions as needed. And in this case, he can not only ask questions, but also answer them. He summarizes his idea of ​​the product, he himself puts forward specific objections, and then refutes them. Of course, he must be careful to limit his objections to those that the client may have and which the agent can deflect.

This is one of the most difficult and intractable problems: and sales staff, and high-ranking negotiators often try to “clearly tell” everything, but at the same time they do not allow the interlocutor to speak, do not ask questions, do not stimulate the opponent’s speech with their questions.

In the previous paragraph, we briefly described the problem, but there are many reasons for this trouble. That is why the problem is intractable: those who have to solve it too often do not condescend to analyze these causes.

Have you experienced in your practice that your client could not relax? For example, to completely relax the muscles of the arms, neck or legs, especially at the moment when you hold this part of the body in your hands?

You, as a massage therapist, at such moments feel that the client's muscles are tense, that he unconsciously resists your movements. However, the client at such moments most often does not feel anything, as a result of which it becomes even more difficult for him to relax. A professional massage therapist should be able to competently and effectively draw the client's attention to this problem and help him relax.

The point here is not at all in structural, pathological muscle tension. The muscles of each of us differ in elasticity, and the joints - in mobility. Now I'm talking about the client's ability to feel muscle tension and completely relax the muscles, consciously reduce their tone. This muscle contraction-based resistance to passive movement is regulated by the central nervous system with the help of motor neurons, and normally this resistance performs many physiologically important functions. For example, it helps to maintain posture, makes it possible to regulate the speed of movements, etc. This "background" muscle tone decreases during sleep, decreases significantly during general anesthesia, but increases greatly during exercise and stress. Research has shown that one of the main factors affecting our ability to relax muscles, to consciously reduce excessive tone, is proprioceptive sensitivity, or muscle feeling.

If you see that your client cannot relax, try the following:

Improving proprioception is the key to sustaining the effects of manual therapy.

Even a simple massage, touching the muscles improves proprioception, and coupled with the right questions, pauses and words from the therapist, the effect will be simply amazing! Habitual muscle tone declines slowly, but the improvement in proprioception, which is the undoubted result of competent work with the client, is a great start. You can speed up this process by offering the client a program of home exercises aimed at developing proprioception (the simplest example is muscle contraction and relaxation).

Chronic stress and other factors that excite the sympathetic nervous system can affect muscle tone in a variety of ways.

For example, the release of adrenaline directly causes skeletal muscle contraction (this effect is dose-dependent). Everyone knows that massage is great at combating stress while smoothing it out. Negative influence on the body.

Unconscious kinesthetic imitation (imitative actions in the form of a mirror-neural reaction) can also play a role.

The simplest example, for which one does not have to go far, is a “contagious” yawn. If the massage therapist is tense, the client will unconsciously notice this and it will be much more difficult for him to relax.

Physical and emotional discomfort is the number 1 cause of muscle hypertonicity.

Maybe your client needs a pillow? Or should you work slower? To be silent or still to occupy the client with conversations? You must be able to speak and listen, constantly maintain contact with the client in order to know what he likes and what he does not.

Some clients are unable to relax during the session due to pain and spasms.

This is especially true for working with previously damaged parts of the body, as well as with painful areas. Accurate and competent work will help to "reboot" the nervous system, which will lead to a decrease in the intensity of pain, a decrease in pathological sensitivity and the removal of spasm.

If pain occurs directly at the time of massage or manual therapy, you need to make sure that the cause of this pain is not in your actions.

Are you applying too much pressure, or are you working at an excessively fast pace? Sometimes you even have to choose other methods and techniques. If pain occurs due to factors beyond your control (for example, when working with damaged parts of the body), you can work with tissues located nearby - this will help reduce pain. However, this must be done gradually!

Finally, muscle hypertonicity can be a consequence of certain neurological diseases and disorders, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In almost all cases, the improvement in proprioception and increased mobility leads to a decrease in tone, even in the presence of such serious diseases.

Relaxation is not so easy. To relax a muscle, sometimes you need to go against long-term habits. It doesn't matter if relaxation is the goal of the session or just preparation for it - possession various techniques and approaches aimed at relaxing the muscles, will help to significantly increase the therapeutic effectiveness of the session, and make the massage itself much more comfortable for both you and your clients!